Chapter Text
“Oh, shit! I’m so sorry, let me get that for you—” Kyungsoo rolled his eyes when he heard Baekhyun apologizing profusely to someone behind him.
Why did he ever think they’d go through a day without some kind of unfortunate incident? Kyungsoo turned to look over his shoulder to see what sort of mess Baekhyun had gotten himself into.
Baekhyun was picking up an empty paper cup as he stood in a puddle of fizzy soda, a girl scowling at him while he apologized to her over and over again. Presumably, Baekhyun must’ve spilled her soda by accident when he brushed past her but it didn’t help his case very much; the girl looked upset at having her entire drink emptied to the ground by some bumbling fool.
“I’ll, um, get you another one,” Baekhyun stumbled over his words, putting the empty cup on the empty seat beside the girl delicately. She scoffed at him as she stood up, flipping her brown hair over her shoulder.
“Forget it,” she replied in disgust, walking away. Baekhyun stuttered after her, swinging his bag over his shoulder.
“W-wait, I didn’t mean it!” he called. Kyungsoo just tugged at his hand, trying not to sigh in exasperation. “She said forget it so forget it, Baek. Quick, before there aren’t any good seats left.” Baekhyun’s expression was forlorn as he let Kyungsoo lead him forth, murmuring excuse me’s and apologies while they inched past people in their seats.
They sat down upon reaching the two empty seats at the end of the entire row, and the first thing Baekhyun did was bury his face into his hands.
“Did you see her face, Kyungsoo? Did you? She was so pissed at me, Kyungsoo, and I don’t like it when people are pissed at me,” he moaned. Kyungsoo patted his shoulder none too kindly, having heard this too many times till he was numb to it.
“There, there,” he said half heartedly. Kyungsoo never wanted to come to watch the football game in the first place, let alone comfort Baekhyun over a spilt drink. He tapped Baekhyun’s bag. “Why don’t you just get your camera ready for when they start the game?” he suggested. The game was bound to start soon.
Baekhyun removed his face from his hands, lower lip jutting out and eyebrows furrowed together. “She’s pissed at me,” he whined.
“You came here to enjoy the game, not to get upset,” Kyungsoo said sharply. It was the only way he knew would snap Baekhyun out of it long enough to remember what he was doing in the first place and it worked like a charm. Baekhyun jolted and immediately unzipped his bag, taking out his camera. Kyungsoo shook his head slightly at him, leaning back into his seat.
Kyungsoo had been friends with Baekhyun since middle school and never really left him alone after that. It wasn’t as if he didn’t want to; Baekhyun was a mess back then, with braces and glasses perched upside down on his nose.
Nobody in their right mind wanted to be seen with him then, but Kyungsoo befriended him simply because he looked like someone just needed to help him out. Things had changed over the years, of course, and Kyungsoo had learned to depend on Baekhyun as a friend. He was loyal, funny when he was in the mood for jokes and the kindest person out there.
Sadly, it was why he took it very seriously if he thought people didn’t like him, especially now that they’d recently transferred to a new school for their senior year.
It was important in high school to be liked, or at least considered to be an alright person. Baekhyun couldn’t help his bad luck though, because he was constantly tripping over things, bumping into objects that other people would’ve easily avoided … Kyungsoo was fairly sure no one disliked them yet since they’d only been here for three days but people might’ve noticed Baekhyun was pretty clumsy at this point.
Nevertheless, they weren’t here to see how many people they could offend with Baekhyun’s two left feet. They were actually here in school on a lovely Saturday late afternoon—that could be spent watching Netflix all day, Kyungsoo noted sourly— to watch their school’s football team, Black Bears, play against Springfield’s White Tigers, a football team from a few towns over (Kyungsoo honestly thought their team would win simply because they had a better name).
But the game wasn’t the whole point. Kyungsoo didn’t give a rat’s ass about football. He was never into sports, but Baekhyun was. He wanted to watch their team play, or more specifically, a team member play on the field because “Oh my God, Kyungsoo, he’s so hot I can’t even breathe.”
Said football player was a six foot tall giant with ears sticking out from his head like Yoda. His name was Park Chanyeol, and he was the loudest guy in school, not to mention the football’s team’s quarterback and team captain.
With such qualities, it wasn’t hard for them to notice him at some point in school, and Baekhyun fell for him as hard as the time when he was reading a book while walking by the street and disappeared into a ditch.
Sure, Chanyeol was cute if you liked the sort of guy who looked like he could launch you into space with his throwing arm alone. Sure, Chanyeol was cute if you liked a booming voice and eyes far too large for his face. For reasons as such, everything about Chanyeol screamed ‘hot dude alert’ to Baekhyun. Kyungsoo, not-so-sadly, didn’t share the same sentiment and found him as attractive as one would find a wooden chair attractive.
And that was why Kyungsoo was here beside Baekhyun on the bleachers, squinting at the sun glaring right into his eyeballs while Baekhyun set up his camera.
He claimed that he ‘wanted pictures so I can admire Chanyeol from afar’ but Kyungsoo knew that was just an excuse to hopefully attract Chanyeol’s attention (Baekhyun was as clumsy as he was outrageously flirty with guys he liked).
Kyungsoo really didn’t mind coming along as a favor for Baekhyun, but still. There wasn’t much eye candy for him. The bleachers were pretty packed, yes, but they were packed with girls. Chicks with blonde hair, black hair, brown hair, fake tans, plastic noses and chins, short shorts… You name it, there was a girl here to fit the description.
He didn’t even get it; weren’t most guys into football and shit? There were less than ten guys among the crowd, and none of them were very appealing to look at.
Then there were the football players from the other town, but Kyungsoo wasn’t into jocks. It was already turning out to be a very crap evening and the game had yet to start. “You’re buying me dinner,” Kyungsoo grumbled, folding his arms.
Baekhyun looked up at him from his camera. “Why? What did I do?” he asked, eyes wide.
“Nothing. You just failed to mention that the game was gonna be full of girls,” Kyungsoo sighed, picking at a spot on his jeans. He’d even dressed up a little bit too, wore his best checkered shirt over a white tee. It was partly his fault for thinking that there’d be some hot guys to look at in the first place but one could always hope.
“I think they’re mostly here for the White Tigers’ captain. I overheard some girls saying he’s pretty hot,” Baekhyun informed him.
“Hot like Chanyeol or hot like Ryan Gosling?” Kyungsoo asked.
“Neither,” Baekhyun replied, testing out the long lens on his camera. “I’ve seen a picture of him. He’s not on that level but y’know,” Baekhyun shrugged. No hope there then. Kyungsoo got his phone out, fingers poised and ready to scroll through his Facebook timeline till the end of the game.
Five minutes later, still with no eye candy in sight, the football coach appeared in the centre of the field and spoke into the microphone. “Thank you, everyone who came to watch the game today…” he began, addressing the crowd stiffly.
Kyungsoo hardly heard any of it, reading an article on how to save your phone if you ever got it wet while Baekhyun made some final adjustments to the exposure on his camera as the sun sank into the distance, casting everything in an orange light.
The coach droned on for a bit, long enough that Kyungsoo finished the article and managed to screenshot a few parts for future reference before he heard the coach say, “Let’s meet the teams, hm?”
Suddenly, it was as if someone had turned a switch. The crowd practically exploded and all the girls stood up screaming, blocking Kyungsoo’s view of everything.
“Ohmygod ohmygod, Kyungsoo, look at the team captain,” Baekhyun said, elbowing Kyungsoo in the rib excitedly. He stood up to snap some pictures over the heads of excited teenage girls while Kyungsoo sat still, puzzled.
Didn’t Baekhyun just say he was hot but not that hot? And how was he supposed to check him out when all he could see were butt cheeks, thighs and hair extensions?
The crowd took centuries before they calmed down and took their seats. Amid the screams of “Jongin, marry me!”, “I LOVE YOU, JONGIN!” and a bizarre shriek of “Chanyeol, eat me!” Kyungsoo thought he heard the players roar and yell in reply, but he couldn’t be too sure. His ears were ringing when the girls in front of him finally sat down, sipping at their soda drinks after the mini screaming session. He saw nothing, while the girls had apparently seen everything.
Baekhyun plopped into his seat next to Kyungsoo, going through the pictures he’d taken quickly. “I got some great pictures of Chanyeol, Kyungsoo, you wouldn’t believe how good they look,” Baekhyun gushed.
Kyungsoo tried to get a look at the players then, but they all had their helmets on already, chest bumping and doing elaborate high fives one another. He recognized Chanyeol from his height and the red jersey he was wearing, but apart from him Kyungsoo couldn’t see anyone who could be Jongin, presumably the team captain. There wasn’t anyone particularly buff and tall from the opposing team; Kyungsoo really didn’t understand what the girls went all out screaming for.
Maybe he’s really pretty, Kyungsoo figured. Well, there was always that one hot guy on a football team.
He’s probably not all that good looking, Kyungsoo thought. Girls were very dramatic when it came to boys after all.
With the crowd pumped and the teams ready to murder each other, they got their positions on the field. Kyungsoo’s Facebook timeline was taking a little longer to load than usual, so he stared at the field blankly, waiting for something to distract him till his timeline would refresh once more.
“What’s happening now?” Kyungsoo whispered to Baekhyun.
“They’re flipping a coin now to see who’s the defense and offense,” Baekhyun whispered back. Their team captain said something Kyungsoo couldn’t quite hear to the referee.
“Ah,” Kyungsoo said, not understanding those terms at all. Baekhyun glanced at his expression and continued, “Offense is the team that gets the ball first, and the other team is called defense. You’ll understand later,” Baekhyun reassured him.
Kyungsoo didn’t want to understand, but it seemed like the universe wanted him to because his phone took the opportunity right then to black out. He frowned at it, tapping the screen in disbelief. Baekhyun saw him frown and peered at his phone curiously. “Low battery?” he asked.
Kyungsoo shook his head. “It was at 80% up till a second ago,” he protested, hitting his phone against his palm.
Meanwhile, a deathly silence had fallen over the crowd as their team captain looked over his shoulder and nodded to the members of his team. He then said something once more rather confidently and the referee spoke into the microphone. “Home team will be on defense,” he said, a stern expression on his face.
“Huh?” Kyungsoo lifted both eyebrows in question at Baekhyun.
“The other team will be the one with the ball,” Baekhyun explained, “so that means when our team crashes into them, they’re supposed to hold onto the ball long enough so they can reach the other end of the field.”
Kyungsoo listened, almost desperate not to understand what he was saying. But without his phone as entertainment, there was really nothing he could do till the end of the game. Baekhyun had told him the game would probably take up to two hours and it was unlikely that he’d let Kyungsoo walk off in the middle of the game.
He looked down at his phone, pressing the on/off button multiple times in an attempt to resuscitate it.
Baekhyun laughed and rattled his arm with his hands, “Oh, quit looking at your phone, Kyungsoo, watch the game with me! It’ll be fun, I promise,” he said.
“I don’t want to watch football,” Kyungsoo replied mournfully.
“Then at least sit with me and yell when everyone yells. I’ll get you dinner and ice-cream too, just don’t block me out,” Baekhyun whined, rattling his arm a little harder.
“Why? You already dragged me all the way here to see someone I don’t care for and now you want me to cheer when I don’t even know what’s going on?” Kyungsoo asked, voice rising in volume. He didn’t have a clue how football worked at all. Baekhyun didn’t seem to mind though. He just hugged Kyungsoo’s arm to his chest and smiled sweetly at him.
His smile got creepy as fuck soon enough. “Get off, Chanyeol’s staring at you,” Kyungsoo lied, trying to shake Baekhyun off. Baekhyun flung his arm away quickly and touched his hair self consciously, glancing at the field. As if Chanyeol would be staring at someone in the crowd with eleven guys about to run him down.
Giving up with a heavy sigh, Kyungsoo stuffed his phone into his pocket. The game was about to start soon, and he might as well let his phone sit for a while till he could try it again later. Baekhyun beamed happily at him.
“Trust me, after a while you’ll get the game and—”
The football suddenly flew up in the air, and the crowd went wild once more. Kyungsoo had never seen someone kick a ball so hard, nor seen a ball fly so far across the field like a comet. The members on the other side of the field immediately went into motion, both Black Bears and White Tigers alike, arms reached up to the sky to catch the ball.
The ball began to descend almost in slow motion and Kyungsoo couldn’t help a sense of horror for the ball as he watched it drop into the hands of someone from the home team. Imagine flying so high up, only to drop down seconds later like a stone…
Then everything started to move quickly, as if time had caught up with the motions.
The ball disappeared among a flurry of black and white jerseys; even from where Kyungsoo sat, he could hear the guys yelling at one another all at once while trying to get the ball.
He wasn’t sure if it was to confuse whoever was holding the ball, or if they were trying to form an impromptu plan as they tried to take each other out of the game. There was a lot of elbowing, grunts, and crashes before someone finally emerged from the barge of jerseys and helmets.
That someone was wearing a white jersey, to the dismay of the Black Bears. However, the crowd seemed to be fine with it and started to cheer, “Kim Jongin! Kim Jongin! Kim Jongin!” as he outran and side swiped every red jersey in his way.
Oh. So he was Jongin.
He ran with the ball tucked under his arm across the field faster than Kyungsoo ever imagined a human could run. He made it look effortless to run like that, as if running was as easy as breathing. Kyungsoo wondered how long it took to build his endurance till it was at that level. He couldn’t even run half a mile without losing his breath.
When the player crossed some invisible boundary, the crowd’s cheers intensified into screams. Cheerleaders Kyungsoo didn’t notice before started bopping and jumping around by the side of the field, kicking up their legs and waving their pom-poms in perfect synchronization. Clearly, they had practiced because they’d somehow expected this would happen.
The tanned, white jersey player flung the ball to the ground, slowing down to a stop. The referee blew his whistle and everyone in the bleachers stood up, including Baekhyun and Kyungsoo.
It was instinctual to do so; everyone just seemed to know that this dude, with legs that could outrun Usain Bolt, had won and didn’t need a referee’s approval for it.
Kyungsoo found himself clapping a little less enthusiastically than the girls around him, but still clapping nonetheless.
It was obvious to Kyungsoo that Jongin was a great player now, and he had to admit he was more than just a little curious as to how he looked under the helmet. Did he have the looks of a classic Asian man, chiseled cheekbones and sharp eyes? Or was he plainer looking, but still someone worth the attention?
“Did you fucking see that, Kyungsoo?” Baekhyun asked in a loud voice.
“Yes, I did, I was there when it happened,” Kyungsoo replied at once. Baekhyun had snapped a series of pictures of it and briefly went through the entire reel while the girls surrounding them hugged each other. Now, Kyungsoo didn’t have much knowledge on football but he knew damn well that it was only the first leg of the game. Either every girl in the bleachers was being dramatic or Jongin was a bigger hotshot than Kyungsoo expected.
“So what happens now?” Kyungsoo asked.
“They’ll play the next round after the referee confirms it’s a goal. Did you see how Jongin just ran across the field like he was Jesus walking on water?”
“Yes, yes, yes,” Kyungsoo said a little snappily. And it was on the very tip of his tongue, a confession that he was well and truly curious to see who was beneath that helmet. He didn’t say anything though. Baekhyun would’ve been far too smug if he told him so.
-
Kyungsoo wasn’t having much luck with Jongin’s face.
It had been two hours—two fucking hours, he groused in his head— just as Baekhyun said, since Kyungsoo sat his ass down on the bleachers here, craning his neck to watch Jongin run from one end of the field to another. The sun had already set in the horizon, little stars dotted the sky, and the moon made its nightly appearance, a ghostly apparition in the sky. Not once in all that time did the fucker take off his helmet.
Not once.
Jongin didn’t take off his helmet like the rest of his teammates when their score topped the home team by six points thanks to a touchdown. Jongin also didn’t take it off when someone from the home team bumped into him intentionally mid-run with a snarl, and he certainly didn’t take the fucking helmet off during half time.
Maybe it’s glued on his head, Kyungsoo figured.
Maybe it was all a sick joke. Maybe Jongin had no face like Slenderman and the entire school was in on the prank, and once Jongin took off his helmet Kyungsoo’s soul would be taken away, all just because he was being a good friend to Baekhyun.
He sighed heavily when someone from the home team scored a goal.
Please God, just end this game so he’ll take the damned helmet off his head, Kyungsoo prayed silently. At this point any team could win; he was hardly bothered by the reputation of his school’s football team. Not like he was a jock and needed to defend his territory or something.
Jongin’s head (and helmet, of course) drooped forward when the referee yelled out their points. His team was falling behind the home team by about two points now. He looked frustrated from his body language, perhaps a little angry that his team wasn’t doing as well as he hoped.
Well, Kyungsoo knew a thing or two about frustration too. If one of the teams didn’t win within the next ten minutes, he was walking home whether Baekhyun liked it or not. Kyungsoo could wait, but his stomach couldn’t and Baekhyun certainly wasn’t edible.
He checked his watch. Six forty-five.
At five to seven, he’d leave. The guys on the field were starting to look tired too. This friendly match was starting to turn into a competition fuelled by male ego and the primal need to win.
Just when all hope seemed to have faded away and Kyungsoo’s stomach gave an embarrassing growl, the boys on the field started moving. Baekhyun squinted at them carefully, his brain probably going through all the strategies and moves they looked like they were going to use. Kyungsoo chewed on his nail, bored.
“I think someone’s gonna try for a field goal,” Baekhyun said softly.
“Yeah, I think so too,” Kyungsoo replied immediately. As if he knew how a goal was scored, much less a field goal. Baekhyun did a double take and squinted at him.
“Do you know what a field goal is?” he asked.
“God, of course I don’t know what’s a field goal! Jesus Christ, Baekhyun—”
Kyungsoo was about to unleash his wrath of hunger upon Baekhyun, but a girl from the front shushed him up. He settled back into his seat grumpily with a martyred sigh, folding his legs. Baekhyun was already over it, eyes glazed over as he watched the boys play on the field.
Kyungsoo didn’t know what he was seeing, but he certainly wished he could. It would beat sitting on the bleachers like some clichéd, lovesick boy waiting for the hot guy’s face to appear—
The crowd suddenly leaned forward, the tension in the air going up a notch or two.
Kyungsoo wasn’t going to fall for it; everyone kept doing that every few minutes or so. He pursed his lips, chewing the inside of his mouth while one by one, people started cheering incoherently. People are so dramatic these days, Kyungsoo thought. Cheering about this and that when it isn’t really anything and all.
Then the football suddenly rose into the air, flew towards the goal posts and plopped on the other side.
Literally everyone started screaming; even Baekhyun beside him almost flung his camera at somebody. Of course, they couldn’t scream while sitting down now could they, the inconsiderate imbeciles. Kyungsoo just sat there, staring at a spot on his checkered shirt blankly. He couldn’t see the field, he couldn’t hear anything other than screams and he didn’t feel up for a celebration.
Kyungsoo got up from his seat, suddenly feeling over and done with everything. He never liked big crowds, especially not crowds that keep yelling and standing up all the time. He’d been there two fucking hours; if it wasn’t his destiny to see Jongin’s face or whatever, he was over it.
He began to walk away, climbing a few steps up to reach the exit. Kyungsoo heard Baekhyun calling his name, but he didn’t turn around till he felt an arm tug at his hand.
“What?” Kyungsoo moaned. Baekhyun was bright eyed, blinking up at him questioningly.
“Why are you leaving? No one leaves right after a team wins the game,” he laughed.
Kyungsoo shrugged, looking at the field. The cheerleaders were hopping around Jongin’s team like there was no tomorrow, chests thrust outwards and hair tossed back confidently. Most of them were removing their helmets, but Kyungsoo just wasn’t in the mood to look out for Jongin anymore.
What was he hoping for anyway? Even if he saw Jongin without a helmet on, so what? It wasn’t as if Jongin would notice him. Kyungsoo was just another face on the bleachers.
“I think I’ll just head home first, Baekhyun. Good luck with Chanyeol if you’re gonna go down there to flirt with him,” Kyungsoo said to him.
Baekhyun tightened his grip on his arm.
“H-hey. If you wanna leave, I’ll go with you. Bros before hoes right?” he smiled. Kyungsoo curled his mouth into a semblance of a smile in reply; Baekhyun always knew what to say.
“The game’s over anyway, and no one’s really gonna miss us,” Baekhyun said, climbing up the steps towards the exit. Kyungsoo agreed, following after him.
There was only one exit so when Baekhyun swung the door open, Kyungsoo was sure someone would see them leaving. They weren’t around here long enough to be noticed though, and their presence wouldn’t be missed by anyone, really.
Maybe Chanyeol would notice that there wasn’t a particular boy screaming at him in excitement, but that was about it.
“Wanna go for ice-cream?” Baekhyun asked. Kyungsoo nodded. It’d be nice to have something nice and sweet to end the day before they went home.
-
“What flavor are you having?” Baekhyun asked, standing with a delicate finger on his chin. Kyungsoo’s stance mimicked Baekhyun’s, the pose of one who was bewildered by the fourteen ice-cream flavors laid out before him.
“I really don’t know,” Kyungsoo replied honestly. There was chocolate chip mint, vanilla, rum and raisins, yogurt, bubblegum… Ooh, the possibilities were endless. Lucky for the both of them, they were Moe’s Ice Cream Parlour’s only customers and they were free to take their time in choosing.
Baekhyun gave a curt nod. “Well, I don’t know about you but I think I’m gonna go for matcha green tea. That green tea be lookin’ real green if you know what I mean,” Baekhyun said, tapping at it on the glass.
The girl behind the counter smiled blandly and began to scoop some out for Baekhyun while Kyungsoo remained indecisive beside him. To force Baekhyun to go out of budget and get a double scoop, or to have mercy upon his wallet and get a single scoop? Very, very tricky.
“I think I’ll have… strawberry,” Kyungsoo declared after a long minute of deliberation between berry mix and classic strawberry. “A single scoop,” he added, since Baekhyun was kind enough to leave the game even though it was a clear opportunity to flirt all night with Chanyeol. Lord only knew where they’d be out around town to celebrate with Jongin’s team.
Kyungsoo said as much to Baekhyun while the girl scooped out his strawberry ice cream, and to his surprise Baekhyun replied, “Oh, the guys aren’t actually all that wild.”
Football players, not wild? That was like saying lions were… housecats.
“I hear Jongin’s kind of strict with the guys and Chanyeol agrees with the way he thinks too. Says it keeps the guys straight and steady or something like that, so they’re probably just gonna hang out at school. Nothing big,” Baekhyun shrugged, paying for the ice cream. Kyungsoo took their two cups quickly in case Baekhyun got any funny ideas and made a beeline towards a booth.
The parlour was built to look like the kind of ice-cream shops from the eighties, with shiny floors and walls and red leather booths. It felt like they were characters in an Archie comic book as they sat down, licking tentatively at their tiny plastic spoons.
Strawberry ice-cream never tasted so good after a long football game. Kyungsoo had to take a moment to savor the creamy, sweet and sour goodness of good ol’ strawberry in his mouth before he could concentrate on what Baekhyun was saying.
“… come here, y’know. At least that’s what I see from their photos online,” Baekhyun said, stabbing at his ice cream before he licked at it with his tongue.
“Who comes here?” Kyungsoo asked.
“Chanyeol. And the guys. They come over to Moe’s sometimes to have ice-cream. Maybe they might walk in with Jongin and his team, who knows?” Baekhyun smiled wickedly.
“You realize I still haven’t seen his oh-so-hot face yet, right? Even if he walked in I wouldn’t know it was him,” Kyungsoo scoffed.
Baekhyun quirked an eyebrow at him. “Trust me, Kyungsoo, you’d know. I can’t put my finger on it, really, he’s… charismatic, in a way. I mean, he has to be because he’s the team leader and all but it’s more than that. Maybe it’s his eyes, he has really expressive eyes. Kind of like you,” Baekhyun teased.
Oh yes, the expressive eyes joke. Kyungsoo always shooed everyone off with his astigmatism; he truly couldn’t help squinting at people sometimes. There were times when he squinted at people simply because he was judging them, but most times it was because he couldn’t see them. Baekhyun always said that his habit of squinting/glaring at people was the reason why he didn’t have a boyfriend, but Kyungsoo didn’t think so (Baekhyun wasn’t a dependable source of love advice anyhow).
He just wasn’t the sort of guy you’d notice right away, and he knew that. Kyungsoo didn’t mind. It meant he could sleep in class without the teacher realizing it and he could get away with most things, just with a mumbled sorry.
“Ha-ha, you funny,” Kyungsoo sneered half-heartedly. Baekhyun was lucky Kyungsoo wasn’t in a roasting mood.
They chatted meaninglessly in soft voices, their ice cream slowly disappearing into smears at the bottom of their paper cups. A mother came in and left with her kid, trying to soothe his tears with an apple flavored ice cream. Apart from that, the place was deserted. Kyungsoo was having a hard time believing that Chanyeol ever came by this place.
Just seems so quiet, Kyungsoo thought. Not the kind of place jocks would stop by. They were just sitting down now, enjoying the cool air before they’d head home in a bit.
Baekhyun’s phone suddenly buzzed mid conversation and he tapped furiously at it. Kyungsoo just looked around while Baekhyun was preoccupied, admiring the décor.
He suddenly gasped loudly, covering his mouth with his hand. Kyungsoo blinked at him. “What’s wrong? You forget to get groceries for your mom?” he asked.
“NO. Oh my God, Kyungsoo!” Baekhyun said rather loudly. Even the girl behind the ice cream counter gave them the look.
“What’s up?” Kyungsoo replied.
“Chanyeol is on the way here! Look, he just updated his Instagram,” Baekhyun shoved his phone at Kyungsoo’s nose. ‘Headin’ to Moe’s for that lickity-lick ice-cream with the boyz,’ Kyungsoo read the caption below a blurred picture of black and white jerseys. It took all of his human strength not to scoff at the lame caption and bad picture.
“So?” Kyungsoo said, handing the phone back to Baekhyun, “you want me to leave so you can have your time with him?”
Baekhyun bit his lip nervously. “I dunno, do you think you should leave? But it’d be awkward and weird to sit here alone, what if they change their mind and I’m sitting here all night—”
“I’ll sit here a little longer with you then sneak away once they arrive. How’s about that?” Kyungsoo asked. Baekhyun usually needed a little warming up before he could get his freak on. Kyungsoo was more than happy to be his best friend’s wingman, so long as he wasn’t around towards the end. Teenagers were very frisky after all.
“Y-you’d do that for me? For real? Oh, it’d be so nice to have a chat with Chanyeol,” Baekhyun said, hands fluttering around like a butterfly.
Kyungsoo nodded easily. He didn’t have anything better to do at home, so why not? He watched Baekhyun touch his hair then held up his phone to mess up his hair a little. Baekhyun tried out a few smiles, asking Kyungsoo if he looked better when he smiled properly or if he looked better with just one corner of his mouth lifted slightly.
“Er, does it matter? I don’t think Chanyeol would notice if you smiled widely or smiled slightly at him…” Kyungsoo trailed off.
“No but, if I’m smiling widely like this when he’s talking about something serious then he’ll think I’m joking around when I’m not, so maybe I should smile like this instead… But I don’t know, I don’t look all that good when I’m smiling slightly.”
Baekhyun went on and on about how to smile and why he should smile a certain way in different situations. Kyungsoo nodded patiently at all of it, not because he agreed to them but because Baekhyun needed to get all the chatter out of his system; he was always nervous before anything big happened.
Kyungsoo was used to it and therefore, was hardly surprised when the bell at the door jangled and Baekhyun could smile without his left eye twitching.
“Oh, what a coincidence! Hey, guys,” Baekhyun called.
What sounded like a hundred people entered the tiny shop and filled it up in no time; Kyungsoo tried not to look at anyone till it became clear that he had to look up at some point.
He glanced around at the people around the booth. Chanyeol was nowhere in sight just yet, but his friends were here. Some of them recognized Baekhyun and came to say hi, ignoring Kyungsoo completely. Others were making their orders at the counter while the rest squeezed into the red booths, a few girls among the crowd. Kyungsoo couldn’t have felt more out of place at that moment.
For the second time in an hour, Kyungsoo wanted to run away from the situation. It was just truly uncomfortable for him to be among the ‘in-crowd’, sitting in a booth mere inches away from all the cool kids in school with their pumped up kicks. He didn’t belong there.
A hand abruptly appeared out of the corner of Kyungsoo’s eye. It tapped the edge of the table and a voice somewhere over him said, “Hey, Baekhyun. You’re Chanyeol’s friend, right?”
Kyungsoo didn’t know why, but he froze.
Maybe the stranger talking above him was a little too close for comfort. It also could have been because the scent coming off of him was somewhat humble; Kyungsoo always expected jocks to smell like cologne with an underlying sour note of sweat. Whoever the dude was smelled like home, bright sunlight and liquid detergent, the sort that no one would ever hate.
And, it could’ve been the look on Baekhyun’s face when he met the gaze of the sweet smelling stranger. He was taken aback, immensely so, and Baekhyun was only ever surprised when someone he had a crush on was talking to him.
Kyungsoo knew right away it wasn’t Chanyeol; he wasn’t so tan, and he didn’t have such a mellow note to his voice. He felt the guy peer over the booth and say, “And who’s your friend here? I saw you guys leaving the game early.”
Baekhyun cleared his throat, trying not to seem like a fool. He stuttered a reply that Kyungsoo didn’t understand and was sure the guy didn’t get it too (probably because jocks didn’t speak loser). Kyungsoo didn’t look up, couldn’t look up, wasn’t sure if he wanted to anyway because holy shit, the only tanned guy on the football team was Jongin and if this arm was attached to Kim Jongin—
He looked up, just for a very brief moment. Dark brown eyes looked right back at him steadily. A pair of soft looking lips fell open slightly to say something to him. Kyungsoo didn’t catch it in time (he’d be terrible at football).
Of course it was Jongin. No one else could have eyes like those. They just seemed to see into Kyungsoo, but only as deep as Kyungsoo allowed him, and was as open as they were somewhat closed off. Kyungsoo could hardly think of anything else.
Was he good looking? Hell yes, indeed. Was a helmet attached to his head? What a bloody pleasant surprise, no. Instead of a helmet, he had lovely, lovely pink hair. Kyungsoo had never seen a guy who was so secure in his masculinity that he thought he could pull off pink hair. It does look nice, a little voice in Kyungsoo’s head said. He was much inclined to agree. How did he manage to keep it and his spot on the football team though? It had to be against the rules.
Then he noticed something. Shit, was he saying something to Kyungsoo that he was supposed to answer? Fucking hell, yes he fucking was—
“W-what?” he mumbled. Kyungsoo usually preferred to appear intellectual and quiet before strangers, but his mouth obviously decided he should appear as a blushing, bumbling fool before Jongin.
“I said, I’ve never seen anyone leave a game early before. Are you new in town?” Jongin repeated himself.
He didn’t sound irritated. In fact, Kyungsoo thought he sounded amused. But that couldn’t be right; there was nothing amusing about looking down at a nobody like Kyungsoo. Unless that was his kind of thing.
“Yeah,” Kyungsoo replied numbly.
Jongin smirked briefly. A real, proper smirk that came naturally (unlike Baekhyun’s practiced slight smirk/flirty smile). “I thought so,” he replied.
God, he was hitting all the right spots and he’d barely even said more than a handful of words. And that hair. Jongin ran a hand through it as if he knew Kyungsoo was thinking about doing that too, as if he knew Kyungsoo was just dying to know what it’d be like to be able to touch those fine, pink strands—
“Is this seat taken?” he asked, gesturing at the empty spot in the booth beside Baekhyun.
“No,” Baekhyun replied immediately, scooting towards Kyungsoo’s end of the booth to make space. Jongin slid into the booth easily, catching the eye of someone he knew in the crowd. He smiled, and waved hello.
Inside, Kyungsoo was sputtering in protest because who the hell did Jongin think he was, just joining them like it was nothing? Didn’t he have his cooler, much fitter friends to hang out with? What the hell was Jongin thinking, sitting with possibly the most unpopular kids in school at the moment? Did he have absolutely no regard for the status quo?
Also, what the fuck was Baekhyun doing? Wasn’t he going to invite Chanyeol to sit with him? Kyungsoo couldn’t help but sent him a questioning glare when Jongin was engaged in conversation with someone else.
Baekhyun shrugged his shoulders slightly as if to say, “What was I supposed to do?”
Kyungsoo pursed his lips. Being one of the unpopular kids sucked sometimes, like now. It would be a damned sin to deny Jongin his seat.
It would also be extremely awkward for him to slip away now. What could he say to Jongin who was bound to ask why he was leaving? ‘Sorry, I don’t hang out with jocks’?
Just then, Chanyeol came in, booming caveman voice and all.
Baekhyun sat up at once, spine straight as a flag pole as he simpered and giggled at Chanyeol. Such a prat and a fool, Kyungsoo thought. And also a crappy friend; now Kyungsoo had no one to talk to.
So he sat there while Baekhyun and Jongin were chatting casually with everyone else around the booth. If there was an award for Most Awkward Person of the Year, Kyungsoo would come out on top. He dug out his phone. Maybe it would work now, in his hour of need.
He was glaring at it, trying to will it to life when Jongin’s voice suddenly directed towards his direction. “Hey um… I don’t think I caught your name. I’m Jongin. You are?”
Kyungsoo glanced up. “U-um, what?” he widened his eyes. Jongin’s hand was outstretched over the table, his gaze fixed upon Kyungsoo. Good manners overtook his power of speech, and he shook Jongin’s hand like some kind of corporate businessman before he realized he hadn’t answered his question.
“I-I’m—I’m Do Kyungsoo. Just Kyungsoo, actually. No one calls me um… Do Kyungsoo,” he mumbled, releasing Jongin’s hand before he shook it forever and ever.
“Kyungsoo,” Jongin said with a small smile.
Good Lord, don’t do this to me, Kyungsoo prayed in the back of his head. Jongin leaned forward on the table. Kyungsoo noticed he was dressed effortlessly in a simple long sleeved tee, probably had paired it with jeans and sneakers under the table. He made the long sleeved tee look like it was designer, though intellectually Kyungsoo knew that it was probably just from Uniqlo or something.
“Kyungsoo, huh… tell me, Kyungsoo, do you like football?” Jongin asked.
He blinked at the question. Was he supposed to be honest or lie and say he loved football to death? Kyungsoo glanced at Baekhyun on his left for a little help but he was too busy with Chanyeol to care that Kyungsoo in the middle of an interrogation with Jongin.
“U-um,” he opened his mouth to reply, but nothing came out.
“Be honest,” Jongin coaxed him, tilting his head to the right. He looked like a predatory animal and a curious boy all at once. Kyungsoo didn’t how he did it.
“Well, I don’t… No,” Kyungsoo shook his head slowly. Better to say no and insult him than to be called out on a lie later. What if Jongin decided to ask him if he was on offense or defense today? No, no, no, not football questions that Kyungsoo couldn’t answer.
He’d rather be unpopular forever than to face that. Kyungsoo risked a glimpse at Jongin’s expression to see what his reaction was. Surprisingly, Jongin didn’t look insulted.
“I imagine it was probably boring or confusing for you to watch the game then. Was that why you left so quickly?” Jongin asked.
“N-no, no! No, it wasn’t boring at all, I just,” Kyungsoo scrambled for an excuse that was valid and yet not completely lame, “I-I don’t usually watch any of the games so— Um, you played really well just now. I wasn’t bored at all,” Kyungsoo said, and then smiled awkwardly to make it seem legit.
Even a monkey wouldn’t have fallen for that lie, Kyungsoo knew. He waited for Jongin to make some snarky comment or ask him another tricky question, but instead Jongin’s eyes scrunched up into a smile.
“Really? You think so?”
Well, this was an easy question. “Y-yeah. I mean, I don’t know anything about football but you were good. To me, anyway, I don’t— I don’t know…” Kyungsoo trailed off into silence.
Jongin listened till the end of his babble and gave a very shy and grateful smile. It made him look like he was just six, except for the pink hair. God, Kyungsoo wanted to touch it.
“Hey guys, make some space for me,” Chanyeol ambled over to the booth in his letterman jacket. Thank God for Chanyeol, because Jongin had to get up so he could sit with Baekhyun. Kyungsoo immediately saw an opportunity to leave when Jongin remained standing and said, “I’m gonna join the line and get some ice cream. You want any?”
He said that while looking at Kyungsoo, to which he shook his head. “I already had some.”
Chanyeol asked for a double scoop of matcha green tea (clearly meant for Baekhyun already), and Jongin went off, squeezing past a few people.
The minute he was out of sight, Kyungsoo shook Baekhyun’s arm hard to distract him from Chanyeol and whispered, “I’m leaving now. Do you think you can get Chanyeol to walk you home?”
Baekhyun grabbed at him like he thought Kyungsoo was going to run out of the store. “You can’t leave, everyone’s here—”
“I don’t feel comfortable being here with so many people around, Baekhyun, you know me,” Kyungsoo frowned. They were friends long enough for Baekhyun to know that Kyungsoo tended to avoid large crowds.
Baekhyun made a noise of protest in his throat then looked between Kyungsoo and Chanyeol. Kyungsoo hated making him choose because he knew it was ingrained in Baekhyun’s bones to be loyal till the end but just this time, Kyungsoo didn’t mind if he chose Chanyeol over him.
“Stay,” he squeezed Baekhyun’s hand. “I know what it means to you. Text me when you get home,” Kyungsoo tried to smile at him.
Baekhyun wasn’t convinced, frowning as Kyungsoo started to wiggle out of the booth. “Are you sure you wanna go? You’ll have to walk home alone…”
“You’re leaving? Bye then, take care,” Chanyeol said to Kyungsoo. It was an empty gesture but Kyungsoo just shrugged in reply and nodded at Baekhyun.
“I’ll be fine. See you tomorrow, okay?” he said.
Then Kyungsoo inched towards the door before Baekhyun could say anymore. Each second he wasted was a second closer to Jongin noticing his absence, and Kyungsoo wanted to be long gone before he realized Kyungsoo wasn’t there.
It was just too awkward for Kyungsoo to sit down in there, pretending he was friends with everyone. He barely managed to push past a few members of the home team to get to the door, avoiding eye contact with all of them. Kyungsoo was painfully tiny compared to their bulging, hulking muscles and ripped bodies.
Pushing the glass door open, Kyungsoo inhaled fresh air into his lungs.
A couple walked past him as he shoved his hands into his pockets, looking down the street. Only a few cars were still on the road, streetlights lining the sidewalks.
Kyungsoo decided to cross the road just to get away from Moe’s first. His place was only twenty minutes away from where he was; if he walked fast enough, he would probably have time for a little Netflix.
He waited for a car to drive past before he started to cross the road, looking from left to right. Kyungsoo was halfway across before he heard a familiar jangle and someone called out his name.
“Kyungsoo!”
He nearly tripped over his own feet. Kyungsoo turned around, half expecting it to be Baekhyun.
Instead, it was Jongin hurrying over, gesturing at him to get over to the other side of the road. On autopilot, Kyungsoo quickened his steps and made it safely to the other side of the road, a little puzzled that Jongin was here with him rather than inside Moe’s with everyone else.
“You’re leaving already?” Jongin said, looking down at him. He looked absolutely fantastic in jeans, just as Kyungsoo predicted. His long legs were that much longer up close than on the field and if Kyungsoo were to stand closer to him he was sure he’d probably only measure up to his knee.
“Yeah. Um, did you need something?” Kyungsoo replied.
“Huh? What? No, I don’t,” Jongin replied, just as puzzled. Kyungsoo frowned. Then why was Jongin here?
“I… was wondering if I could walk you home. Your friend, Baekhyun, looked like he was busy with Chanyeol, and it’s not safe to walk alone at night,” Jongin said, ruffling his pink hair briefly. Perhaps it was an unconscious habit of his, to touch his beautiful hair.
“I uh, don’t need anyone to walk me home, thanks,” Kyungsoo almost laughed. He’d been walking to places since he was ten, and that worked out just fine.
Jongin looked embarrassed at his response. “No, I don’t mean you need someone to walk you home. I’m sure you’ll do just fine against any dangers of the night, I just… I just wanted to make sure you get home safe.”
Kyungsoo wasn’t sure if Jongin was his dad or fellow teenager at that point, but he appreciated the thought.
“Don’t you want to be with your friends? They’ll miss you once they realize you’re gone,” Kyungsoo pointed at Moe’s. It looked like it was going to explode with people soon, with all the boys standing flush against the window.
“They’d understand,” Jongin said dismissively.
So much for getting away from him. Kyungsoo wasn’t exactly unhappy that Jongin was offering to walk him home, but then again, they weren’t friends or even acquaintances. They’d barely met less than ten minutes ago. Plus he didn’t have much experience with people walking him home.
“You sure you want to? My place is kinda far away,” Kyungsoo tried again.
Jongin smiled. “I don’t mind. Unless you’re trying to get rid of me?”
Kyungsoo tried very hard not to blush at that. “No, I’m not trying to get rid of you, it’s just that—” He shut himself up. Kyungsoo didn’t trust his mouth anymore.
He pointed down the street awkwardly and promptly began walking, head bowed. Jongin followed from behind.
Why am I acting like such a fool? Kyungsoo asked himself as he walked. It was just A WALK. Nothing else. Completely innocent.
It was just Jongin being nice, that’s all. Kyungsoo was willing to bet that he walked his girlfriends home after every date with the same excuse: ‘I just want to make sure you get home safe.’
Well, who did he think Kyungsoo was, some chit swooning over him? Kyungsoo was about to say something scathing over his shoulder to Jongin but stopped short when he noticed he was walking at least two feet away from him, pacing his footsteps so he wouldn’t come up beside Kyungsoo.
Huh, so he’s keeping his distance, Kyungsoo thought, facing forward once more.
Good. Wasn’t like they were on a fucking date or something. Would be totally inappropriate to walk side-by-side. His chest stung a little with some kind of emotion that Kyungsoo didn’t want to name, but he pushed it all down. There was nothing to feel about this.
-
If there was a Guinness World Record for most awkward walk home ever, this would be it. During the entire twenty minutes it took to walk from Moe’s to Kyungsoo’s home in the suburbs, they never spoke a word to one another.
Kyungsoo hated to admit it, but he thought it was probably his fault. He hated being the Most Awkward Person of the Year and that he didn’t know what he should say the entire time. He thought about asking Jongin to walk beside him so it wouldn’t be as uneasy as it was, but then it’d seem like he was into Jongin (he was not) and besides, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to be seen in that light.
I should’ve tried harder to make him leave me alone, Kyungsoo cursed himself. It would definitely save him from the experience of having to stop at the porch and turn around to face Jongin, taking a deep breath to thank him.
“This is my stop,” Kyungsoo started to say, pointing a thumb over his shoulder at his parents’ place. It wasn’t much, just a three room terrace house with a very small lawn. Kyungsoo knew Jongin’s town was much bigger and the neighborhoods there had nicer looking homes; frankly, he was embarrassed Jongin had to see his home.
“Thank you for uh, walking me home. It was… really nice of you to do this,” Kyungsoo bit his lip, staring at Jongin’s shoes. They looked scuffed and worn out.
“I don’t mind,” Jongin said. It sounded like he was smiling. “Nice place. Looks really neat,” he remarked. Kyungsoo looked at his lawn; he’d mowed it just two days ago and his mother had been pruning the roses, so the bushes looked like plain old bushes. Neat indeed.
“Ah yeah, I guess so. T-thanks,” Kyungsoo shrugged. He took a step back from Jongin, looking at his forehead to seem like he was making eye contact.
“I-I’ll head in now. Thank you again, for walking me back. Stay safe, hm?” he said, then berated himself for that particular comment. ‘Stay safe’? What, so he was Jongin’s grandfather now?
Jongin hesitated, reaching out a hand.
Kyungsoo stopped too, suddenly anxious. Did he want something from him again? Oh Lord, maybe he wanted a drink or coffee, where were his fucking manners—
“Look, I’m really sorry about… about back there. I didn’t mean to be so direct with you. It was rude and I feel like I should apologize,” Jongin said, his words coming out in a rush as if he needed to get it off his chest. Kyungsoo didn’t have a clue what he was talking about.
“Beg pardon?” he said politely. For once, he sounded like a normal person.
Jongin looked shifty and nervous all of a sudden. “About football. It’s just,” he sighed loudly in frustration, raking both hands through his hair till they all stood up on end.
Under the orange streetlight, Kyungsoo noticed Jongin had shaven the underside of his pink hair. It was maybe black, he couldn’t really tell, but he did think Jongin was one of the prettiest boys he’d ever seen.
So human and yet alien before Kyungsoo… he was like someone from another galaxy light years away (with a really great hair stylist).
“It’s alright,” Kyungsoo said, just to put Jongin out of his misery. He didn’t think Jongin was forward at all; by all accounts, he was much more socially adept than Kyungsoo could ever hope to be. There was nothing for him to be upset about over Kyungsoo; he was just a nobody, after all. And they’d never see each other again after this, probably.
“…There’s also something I wanted to ask you about,” Jongin said, linking his hands together behind his neck.
“Oh. What is it?” Kyungsoo asked. Suddenly, it clicked. Kyungsoo just knew what this was about. Jongin was going to ask Kyungsoo if Baekhyun was single and he’d walked him home to show him he was a good guy and needed to get away from Moe’s for privacy.
Well, sorry to let you down, bro, but he’s into Chanyeol, Kyungsoo said in his head.
Jongin looked into the distance, eyebrows furrowed together as if he was thinking very hard about his next few words. “Will you um— I don’t know, because I’ve never seen you around before and I won’t be here till another month but I wanted to ask anyway… W-will you be going to the next game?”
“He’s into Chanyeol,” Kyungsoo answered immediately.
Jongin frowned. “Huh?”
“Baekhyun,” Kyungsoo gestured with his hands, “Baekhyun’s into Chanyeol. But he’ll probably be at the next game too, if Chanyeol will be there. That’s what you wanted to ask, didn’t you?” Kyungsoo looked at Jongin.
He blinked a few times, expression confused. “Who said anything about Baekhyun?” Jongin asked.
Aha, the old I-don’t-know-what-you’re-talking-about trick. Kyungsoo waved a dismissive hand at him. “I know you’re talking about Baekhyun, Jongin, it’s alright. He’ll be at the next game for sure. I can make sure he’s there if you want,” Kyungsoo offered.
Baekhyun would die if he found out a jock was interested in him. That and he’d drag Kyungsoo to every game from now on. Brilliant, absolutely fucking brilliant, Kyungsoo thought. He had just accidentally won himself a nomination in Best Friend of the Year category.
Jongin started to shake his head slowly, laughing at the same time. “I’m not asking if Baekhyun will be at the next game, Kyungsoo. I wanna know if you will be at the next game.”
Kyungsoo stopped. No… No way would Jongin want to know if Kyungsoo was at the next game. Why the fuck would he want to know?
“I um. I don’t know, if we’re being honest here, Jongin. I don’t know how football works,” Kyungsoo answered, rubbing the back of his neck. Wasn’t this about Baekhyun? Maybe he was trying to feel out to see if Baekhyun would be there for sure.
“Ah. You’re really not interested in football, are you?” Jongin asked, smirking once again.
Kyungsoo doubted he knew he was even doing it, but fuck, his stomach was doing weird, backward flops inside him when he accidentally met Jongin’s gaze.
“I guess I’m not,” Kyungsoo replied softly. Everything was starting to feel like an out-of-body experience. He felt compelled to add, “I’m sorry if that’s somehow insulting to you,” though he didn’t think Jongin was ever insulted by anything.
Jongin shook his head. “It isn’t insulting at all. I’ve just— I’ve never met anyone in this area who wasn’t interested in football. Like you,” Jongin did the thing with his shoulder, lifting it and dropping it nonchalantly. It was a cool half shrug, something only kids like him could ever do.
“Oh,” Kyungsoo said eloquently.
Then he laughed nervously, looking around the neighborhood to see if there was anything that could get him out of this situation. Anything would be useful, a spade to hit himself over the head with, a stray rabid dog, his mom…
“I’m keeping you for too long. I think you should go in now, before your parents worry,” Jongin spoke up.
“I. Yes. I should totally go in now so you can get back to Moe’s. Yeah. You um, you’re free to go now. No one’s gonna kidnap me while I walk in,” Kyungsoo said, laughing a little hysterically.
Shut up, shut up, Kyungsoo, shut up, he told himself.
Jongin actually laughed along, scrunching his nose up like a rabbit. “You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you, Kyungsoo?” he said, toeing the ground with his sneakers.
Kyungsoo didn’t know what to say at that so he laughed again, tripping over the step leading to his front door. He felt for the door knob without looking away from Jongin, grabbing it and twisting hard.
“I’m heading in. Stay— No, I mean, be careful, yeah?” Kyungsoo corrected himself. Wasn’t gonna fall into that grandparent trap again.
Jongin waved at him as he inched backwards into the house. “See you around,” he called. Kyungsoo bit his tongue, waving back instead of making another dumb comment. It felt like something wasn’t right, leaving Jongin to walk back to Moe’s alone. Then again, Kyungsoo wasn’t sure he was ready to face another conversation with him.
When he shut the door, he leaned against it heavily, sighing in relief. Thank God he’d never see him again.