Chapter Text
Jisung sighed for the tenth time today. It seemed like the world was set out to torture him mentally and physically as of late. He had been staring at the same question for hours now, the library's chilly air-conditioning directly above his head. "for fuck's sake, couldn't I just copy it off you, Kim Seungmin?" He batted his eyelash at the man working diligently on the same work. The only difference, was that he was 90% done with the stupid thing.
"No. You have a whole weekend to do this, yet you purposefully chose to do it the night before school. Blame your own incompetence." Said man ignored his whines in favour of completing it. Truth be told, he has spent the weekend binge-watching 'Dungeon Meshi'. But in his defense, he had put off watching the show for such a long time already! Plus, the question sheet only had 20 questions on it. He never expected that it would be so taxing on his cute, squirrel brain.
He huffed, muttering under his breath about some kind of bestfriend Seungmin was.
After, 3 hours of working they finally decided to stop before his brain melted from overuse. "AGHHH THAT WAS TORTURE!!!!" he yelled out, completely forgetting where they are before a 'SHUT UP!' was heard nearby. Sheepishly smiling to the person before leaning his head down toward the table's cool surface. "Ms. Choi is gonna kill me tomorrow...3 hours of this, and I'm only on question 13"
Seungmin chuckled at his antics, putting away all of his stuff since he's already done with everything. "Cheer up Hannie, at least you're only seven questions away from being done. I'll even help you with the one you're stuck on. " He offered. The brown haired man gasped, looking at him with stars in his eyes. "Minnie, I knew you loved me!" Another resounding 'Shhh!' was heard. They apologized in quiet voices before looking towards each other and giggled. "Come on, let's get out of here before we get kicked out. "
On the way out, they stopped at a nearby vending machine. Han was choosing his drinkbwhen Seungmin finally remembered something at the mention of their homeroom teacher's name "Oh yeah—I suggest you finish the rest tonight because Ms. Choi wanted to meet you tomorrow morning,"
He quirked up an eyebrow at that, crouching down to take the warm chocolate drink and holding it between his palms, It's warmth soothed his chilled fingers. "Just me?" He pulled the tab back taking a sip of the drink. Seungmin shook his head, a finger hovering above the machine surface as he pondered on his choice. Settling on a milk tea, he pushed the button and snagged the can from the dispenser. "And Hyunjin too, but I already told him last Friday. "
Han was glad he already swallowed drink, the mere mention of that name caused him to cough out profusely. Seungmin rolled his eyes at the guy over-dramatic reaction "Ugh why him?! Man...I just knew tomorrow was going to be a shitty day if his annoying face was the first thing I see."
"Don't ask me, I'm just the class monitor." Jisung made a pained face at that. "Forget that. Why did you just tell me now?" Seungmin shrugged, looking completely unbothered as he answered. "I forgot."
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He opened the sliding door to the teacher's office, eyes already landing on Ms. Choi's table. Two individuals were talking, it seemed. And one of them unfortunately, was Hwang fucking Hyunjin. Han supressed the urge to just bolt away and blame everything on Seungmin if he were to be asked for not appearing, but he was not a heartless person, and so with heavy steps he slowly approached the both of them. Ms. Choi was sitting on her soft plush chair and looking up to the taller boy when she noticed Han's presence.
"Ah, it's good that both of you are finally here!" She smiled softly, The edge of her eyes wrinkled as she did so. Han greeted her politely, ignoring the presence on his right. Ms. Choi sifted through the paper on her lap before pulling out a colourful flyer, handing it over to them. On it printed 'END OF YEAR PARTY' in big bold lettering, complete with informations such as the date, guest list, budgeting, etc. Han wordlessly skimmed over the paper.
"You remember that every year our school will host a year-end party for its 3rd-year student, right?" They nodded agreeing. "I can't ask the student council president and vice president to help me with it since the 3rd-years are busy preparing for final exam, and all the other members already have their hands full. That only leave me with Hyunjin as he's also a member of the student council. I felt bad if you have to do it alone, so I figured you could work together with Han over here since he's pretty dependable. "
Hearing it he gaped. It's not like he detested to do the job, quite on the opposite actually! He actually loved to participate in this event since managing the event meant that he would have more chance on interacting with students from the third year. Some of his friends was from that year and he could ask them for help. Plus, handling it would give him an excuse to talk to his crush. It was not the job that was the problem, but rather the guy he was supposed to work with. He was about to protest when the guy beat him to it.
"Well, I don't mind Ms. Choi, but could I choose my own partner? " Hyunjin said with faux nonchalance.
"Yeah Teach, I could work with anyone else but him. " Han scoffed at his words. Who does he think he is? He should be honored that he could be working with the Han Jisung! Well for once, he could agree with the guy.
Ms. Choi raised her eyebrow at that. "What's wrong with the partner I assigned you right now?" She leaned back into her chair, arms crossed around her midsection. Jisung bit his cheek, willing himself not to say something snarky, but it seems like Hyunjin did not have the same thought as him.
"Well, I don't want to be rude, but I don't think he could do anything without tripping himself. He almost broke his own bones during culture festival because he thought it would be a great idea to hang the banner using a broken stool. I wouldn't want him to hurt himself Ms. Choi." Anyone passing by could've thought that he was praising him with the way he planted that pretty smile on his face. But the brief side-eye he gave Jisung sure did say otherwise.
Oh, so he want's to go that way?
"Oh ho ho? So the great Hwang thinks that he could do this better than me?" "I don't think so, I know so" "Well, newsflash you son of a—!" "ENOUGH!"
at the sound of Ms. Choi reprimand, Jisung blinked. Suddenly aware of how close their faces were. He hadn't noticed that in the heat of the moment, his fist was already clutching the taller boy's uniform. Both of them awkwardly distancing themselves, his arm fumbling at the end of his untucked uniform instead.
Ms. choi rubbed at her temple, already feeling an incoming headache. "If you want to fight then do it outside of school ground! Honestly... I don't know what came over you guys!" Han already felt bad at her for his sudden outburst. Dealing with Hyunjin has always made him feel like a short fuse, but still, that was no reason to be disrespectful in front of a teacher.
"I don't know what happened between you but you will work for this together, and that's final! Now get back to your class." She said with finality and chased them out of the office. The both of them stood outside, processing the event that just unfolded. Han was the first to snap out of it and bumped Hyunjin's shoulder with so much malice as he stomped back to their classroom. This will not work out!
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"Oh come off it Sungie! it's not the end of the world if you work together with him." Seungmin said bored, sipping on a chocolate milk. All of them sat on the school rooftop as recess rolled around. Han munched slowly on his bread, sprawled on the ground as he stared at the cloudy sky dejectedly.
"You don't get it, how am I suppose to work with a guy whose sole purpose of living is to piss me off? I swear, sometime he just go out of his way just to see me suffer, man..." He turned on his side to look at the brown haired guy leaning against the rooftop fence. Cold wind caressed his cheek and Jisung curled up, pulling around his cardigan tightly.
"Well cheer up Sungie, at least you can find an excuse to talk to Minho hyung now instead of stalking at him from afar like a loser. " Jeongin poked his cheek with indifference. Sticking his tongue out at Jisung when the guy sat up to squawked at him.
"I didn't stalk him!" The first year rolled his eyes, his empty lunchbox now discarded to the side.
"You literally follow all his socials with a second account that you use purely to stalk people, sung. " He said pointedly. Jisung tried to sputtered out a response but failure in doing so caused him to turn to seungmin for help. "Minnie help me over here!" He clawed at the boy pants in desperation, but seungmin simply kicked him off softly and laughed. Jisung huffed as he leaned back down on the cold ground. So much for friendship.
"So, how are you gonna handle this?" The youngest asked, leaning on the fence beside seungmin with his fingers busy scrolling on his phone. Jisung shrugged. Truth be told, he could never imagine himself working with that pompous, self entitled prick without wanting to wring his neck.
He turned to his side, drawing random things with his finger on the cold cement floor. It's not like they never got along. During their first year, Hyunjin and he actually got along really well with each other. They can even joke around and play with one another, shocking! But sometime after Christmas break, the boy suddenly acted as if he didn't know who Jisung are. Ignoring him, finding faults in everything he does and always picking fight with him. It got to a point where they both went to detention with black eyes and a busted lips after brawling during PE.
He never knew what could be the reason behind the strange behaviour and never bothered to find out. After all, why should he care when the guy pushed him away first? Jisung softly huffed, his brows furrowing in distaste. Frankly, it hurt him to have one of his closest friends push him away without any clear explanation.
"Sung?" before he could ponder more, Seungmin voice called out to him successfully breaking his train of thought. The school bell ringing as sign that the recess time was ending. Seungmin held his hand out and Jisung accepted it with a small 'thanks'. Well what done was done, he supposed he could put it on the back burner for now.
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"Hey, are you free after school?" Jisung was in the middle of putting his workbook in his bag, when a hand smacked harshly on his table. Jisung looked up to the offending hand, glaring at it's equally offending owner.
"No." He replied, stuffing his books faster and standing up. Seungmin glanced warily at the two before settling to wait by the door. Jisung made a move to follow his friend, only to have his path blocked. He scowled at the guy in annoyance. Hyunjin's tall height forcing Jisung to crane his neck upward. He scoffed, moving aside to get away from him, but it seems like Hyunjin was set to be a thorn on his side as he followed suit.
"What the fuck do you want, Hwang?!" He snapped, spitting his name with venom. It has been a long day and all Jisung wanted to do was lie down in his fluffy bed and binge read some manga, so why the hell is he being bothered by this prick?!
Hyunjin deadpanned him. "Is your brain only good as fly feed, Han? We were supposed to work together for the end year party." He rolled his eyes. Jisung can feel steam coming out of his ears at that.
"Well smartypants, I thought you wanted to change partners? Go harass someone else. I have many more important things to do than deal with you." He stepped aside to pass the guy, and was stopped again when his shoulder was pushed back. The sudden impact causing him to sit back on his seat. Hyunjin leaned down, caging the smaller boy between his arms, thus giving Jisung no chance to escape.
"Listen here, I am no more elated about this turn of event than you are. But Ms. Choi assigned you to this disaster with me. So for once in your life, could you let go of your big ass ego and just cooperate? I don't fucking care if we hated each other. We will make this work whether you liked it or not." He pushed a finger to Jisung's chest, stressing every word. Honestly, Jisung wanted nothing more than to bust his fist in that guy's perfectly sculpted face, but before he could do Seungmin's voice cut him off.
"Don't mind him Hyunjin, he'd be thrilled to help," Han shot him a betrayed look, mouth gaping in shock. "I'll go home first sungie." With that he walked away, leaving the two alone in the empty classroom. Han turned his gaze upward, Hyunjin's smiling face sending chills down his spine. Jisung gripped his bag strap tightly. A heavy atmosphere enveloped them as they stared into each other other eyes. Jisung, sick and tired of it all, was the first one to break it.
He huffed through his nose, willing himself to calm down instead. "First of all, get out of my face. Your breath seriously stinks, man" It doesn't, but Jisung felt obligated to say that anyway. Hyunjin backed himself and crossing his hands in front of his chest, rolling his eyes at the pathetic attempt to piss him off.
"Look Hwang, we can't see eye to eye on everything we do and for whatever unknown reason you hate me. I don't see how this could work man... Isn't it better if you just meet up with Teach tomorrow and exchange me with someone else? I'm sure she won't mind at all. If you want, I could even meet her myself and tell her I have family problems or something." He tried to reason with the man, averting his gaze, unable to handle the heat of Hyunjin's stare. Unconsciously, he picks on the skin around his fingers.
Hyunjin let out a long, ragged sigh. Dropping his head, he sank down to squat against the floor, running a hand through his hair in frustation.
"It's not that easy Han..." He mumbled exasperatedly.
"Fine, lets do it this way instead. If you help me with this one thing, I'll do anything you want once the event end. Does that work for you?" At that, Jisung felt his interest being piqued. A favor from Hyunjin?
"Anything?" He parroted, looking curiously at the man on the ground in front of him.
"Within reason of course. You can't ask me to parade around town naked. But other than that I'll do it." Jisung clicked his tounge. He's not that crazy, yet. He hummed, pondering on the offer. There's so many things he could ask the guy to do for him, but is it really worth trading his peaceful days?
After a while he clapped his hands, coming to a conclusion.
"Sure. Let's discuss it more at somewhere else, shall we?"
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