School, dreams and jealousy

(ctto)

Jongin and Lu Han have settled with the Park for almost a month now. They are currently sharing a bedroom despite Chanyeol letting them pick a single room for themselves. Lu Han insisted in staying with Jongin because according to him, he cannot sleep comfortably without his Nini. Baekhyun and Chanyeol let them be because they know that the two boys very much depend on each other. While Chanyeol spends most of the time with Jongin in attending their little vegetable garden behind the shop and cleaning the restaurant after work hours, Baekhyun finds enjoyment in spoiling Lu Han with clothes, toys and food. They often shop together after work, strolling in the mall and letting Lu Han buy what he wants. It’s like a mother and son bonding.

One evening, while the family enjoys a festive dinner, Baekhyun opens up the topic about school. “I was wondering if the two of you attended school while you were in the orphanage. Chanyeol and I are planning to send you to middle school this spring.”

“We studied at the orphanage. The old lady hires a teacher so all of us, boys from 5 to 15, can study what they call the general education,” explains Jongin.

“We learned how to spell and to do Math which I find really boring,” Lu Han adds with an adorable frown on his face. “The teacher taught us about planets and people who are important in the world.”

“Oh. Is that all?” Baekhyun inquires further and the two boys immediately nodded. The former exchanges glance with Chanyeol. “You can learn a lot of things in school. Not that we are forcing you to go if you don’t want to. We just thought you will need proper education to achieve your dreams, which reminds me. I haven’t asked you what the two of you want to be when you grow up.”

Lu Han puts down his chopsticks and speaks eagerly, “Oh oh oh! I want to be a singer. When I was younger, I always sing for Nini and he loves it.”

Chanyeol ruffles his hair, “That’s a great dream. I wonder if Lulu can sing for us sometimes.”

Lu Han nods at this.

“What about you, Jonginnie? What is it you want to be someday?” asks Baekhyun.

“I want to own a restaurant because I love to cook,” says the boy with a shy smile on his face. “Lu Han loves to eat so I thought I can cook for him all the time.”

“Aw. That’s nice and sweet.”

“And one more thing,” Jongin continues. He glances at Lu Han who is anticipating his words while Baekhyun and Chanyeol wait patiently. “I actually want to be a good husband to Lulu someday.”

A spurt of water comes out of Chanyeol’s mouth after hearing the young boy’s confession. He looks at Baekhyun who is laughing inwardly at his reaction. It’s not that Chanyeol doesn’t know about Jongin’s admiration towards Lu Han.He is aware that the two are fond of each other He just doesn’t expect the older boy to talk about marriage all of a sudden. Besides, they are too young to think about getting in a serious relationship with each other. Chanyeol is genuinely taken aback by Jongin’s honesty.

Meanwhile, Lu Han is blushing hard at Jongin’s words. He is happy to hear his Nini talk about getting married to him. “I want to marry you, too, Nini”

“That might happen a little later, boys,” Baekhyun remarks.”Marriage is no joke. You shouldn’t be playing with that idea if you’re not sure what’s bound to happen after being tied with another person for the rest of your life. You’re young and have a lot of things to learn and experience. Besides, we were talking about school. Why did we end up with the marriage talk? You will give Yeollie a heart attack if we keep talking about this thing.”

“Sorry,” Jongin and Lu Han mutter.

Baekhyun shakes his head and taps Jongin’s shoulder, “It’s okay. I am happy that you are opening up to us. It’s good to know about your dreams and as your guardians, Chanyeol and I will do our best to help you in achieving them.”

“Which means you have to study first before the two of you can think about marriage,” Chanyeol adds, earning a “yes” from Jongin and Lu Han.

-

Eventually, Jongin and Lu Han go to school. Despite his age, Jongin persuaded Baekhyun to be put in the same class as Lu Han. He is supposed to be in high school but because he doesn’t want to be separated from the younger boy, Baekhyun permitted him to go with Lu Han.

In the first day of school, Lu Han introduces himself cheerfully. Many students like his bubbly personality. He tells everyone that he, together with his Nini, is under the care of the Park’s who own a family restaurant. Curious about the boy called Nini, who also looks a lot older than the rest of the class, they start asking questions. Jongin explains to them that they came from the orphanage until they decided to escape one night. The older boy is quite afraid of the reactions of the other students for they may bully him, most especially Lu Han, if they found out about their situation. Unexpectedly, their classmates see no bad about it. Instead, they want to learn more about the two. Everything is going well until someone stands in front of Jongin’s desk and stares at him intently. Lu Han wonders why the boy wearing thick glasses and has a chubby cheeks like him, looks at his Nini so seriously.

“My name is Kyungsoo. You're name is Jongin, right?” says the boy. He looks like a baby but his voice sounds so mature.

Jongin nods.

The boy with thick glasses then shifts his eyes on Lu Han. “You said he is your Nini. Why?”

Lu Han frowns but explains nonetheless, “I call him Nini because it suits him. Why’d you ask?”

“Because it’s weird and impolite,” Kyungsoo says. “You should call him hyung because he is older.”

Lu Han glances at Jongin, telling him to explain.

“He calls me Nini because I like it. I don’t want to be called Hyung. Besides, I call him Lulu so it’s a nickname for each other.”

Kyungsoo stares at them for a moment before he nods, “Okay. I was just wondering. I am the class president just so you know. Because it’s your nickname, I will call you Nini, too. And you,” he points at Lu Han. “Will be called Lulu.”

The boy turns his back against them and proceeds to his chair.

“Don’t mind Kyungsoo. He is just a weird fellow,” a boy named Chen whispers to Jongin after he introduced himself.

“He sounded angry,” Kai remarks. “I thought he was mad at me.”

“He wasn’t mad. Kyungsoo throws things when he’s mad,” Chen explains. “He may be our class president but he acts more like a stranger than a leader. He has his good points but most of the time, we just don’t get him.”

Jongin nods, “I see.”

Lu Han is uneasy on his seat and Jongin doesn’t miss to notice. “What’s wrong, Lulu?”

Lu Han pouts miserably and complains, “Why does he have to call you Nini? I don’t like how he says it. I should be the only one calling you that. He is not even friendly to us.”

Jongin blinks a couple of times before he understood what’s going on. “Don’t be like that, Lu. We should be friendly no matter what. He is the class president so we should respect him.”

“I don’t want to,” Lu Han huffs.

Chen observes the two silently.

“Lu, listen to me. We don’t want trouble. This is the first time we are attending school so we should be a little tolerant to other students. Maybe we just misunderstood Kyungsoo,” Jongin says. “I don’t want you to get into bad terms with Kyungsoo just because he calls me Nini.”

“Still-“

“Lu Han.” Jongin’s voice is now serious and full of maturity. Lu Han feels his body sinking in fear. He ducks his head and keeps quiet. Jongin doesn’t get mad at him that easily. He never once scolded Lu Han, though he reminds him of a lot of things on a daily basis. Jongin sounded like he’s really annoyed and Lu Han’s eyes instantly swell up with tears. He clutches tightly on his knees to prevent himself from bawling in class. Jongin notices him and quickly holds his hand. “I’m sorry, Lu. I don’t mean to talk to you like that. I was just worried that you might not enjoy going to school if on the first day, you already made an enemy with the class president. Nini doesn’t mean to hurt your feelings.”

Chen shifts his eyes from Jongin to Lu Han. He is sitting behind them and continues to eavesdrop.

Lu Han looks away and bites his bottom lip hardly.

“Lulu. I’m sorry. Please don’t look away.” Jongin makes Lu Han face him and cups his cheeks gently. “Nini is very sorry. I just want what’s best for you. You need to understand.”

“You’re not mad at me?” Lu Han mumbles, holding back his tears.

Jongin shakes his head to disagree, “No I’m not. I am worried, not mad.”

Lu Han nods weakly and wipes away the tears in his eyes. “Lulu is sorry, too. I just don’t like it when somebody takes Nini away from me.”

“No one is taking me away from you, Lu. No one can.”

This time, Chen leans back on his seat and lets the two deal with their thing on their own. It was enough to know that there is a lovely couple in their class on the first day of school.

-

Author's note: Because Nini is only for Lulu. :) (and OMG! I finished this within an hour. LOL)

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