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Jongin woke up to his mother’s soft calling and the shake of his body. Whining slightly, the 17-year-old boy mumbled, “10 minutes…” which his mother shook her head disapprovingly, “You don’t want to be late for school and keep him waiting, right?” With that, Jongin immediately got up and ran to the bathroom to get ready, his mother chuckling behind as she picked up the laundry basket from Jongin’s room.

Being a guy, he had managed to get ready in a span of 7 minutes, unlike his 2 elder sisters who had always hogged the bathroom for almost 2 hours. Thankfully, his 2 elder sisters were now in college, one studying abroad in London whereas another one in a further part of Seoul. Jongin smoothen out all the non-existence wrinkles on his bright yellow uniform, and combed his hair with his fingers for any tangled strands. He’s quite a clean-freak, actually. That’s the result of living in a house filled with women.

The sun-kissed boy quickly sat on the dining table for breakfast, which was the usual rice with a few side dishes – fried egg, stir-fried vegetables and fried anchovies. He waved goodbye to his father who was wearing his shoes at the door, preparing himself for work, and wolfed down his breakfast. After emptying his bowl of rice, he gulped down a class of orange juice before kissing his mother goodbye. He wore his shoes and grabbed his bag, smiling widely as he left his house, excited to meet his best friend.

His best friend only lived 5 minutes away from him, in a different apartment building. Though, it was quite obvious that his best friend’s apartment building was a little rundown from age, and it’s quite dangerous at night because of the dirty dark alleys with many illegal activities happening at night. Jongin often sees police cars patrolling the area.

“Jongin-ah!!” a shout was heard from a very familiar voice.

Jongin looked up and smiled widely, his teeth showing. There he was, his best friend, at the 5th floor waving frantically from his bedroom door. Jongin waved back just as frantically, before breaking into a sprint to the elevator, excited to meet his best friend even though they had meet last week before the weekend started.

“Auntie, I’m here!” Jongin opened the gate of the apartment, since it was unlocked and the door was opened.

His best friend’s mother was like Jongin’s second mother in his life. It’s been 2 years, but Jongin was already very familiar with his best friend’s house, just like its own.

“Ah, Jongin-ah! Have you had breakfast?” the 40-year-old mother was wiping her wet hands on the apron she was wearing, coming from the kitchen to greet the slightly tanned boy.

“Yup I did!” Jongin bowed as a greeting before smiling at his second mother and made his way to his best friend’s room.

And there he was, his best friend, sitting on his bed smiling ever so widely at Jongin’s arrival. It’s been 2 years since they met, but Jongin was still amazed at how effortlessly good-looking his best friend was. His dark brown hair falling nicely above his droopy but bright eyes, skin so fair and pale, high cheekbones with a slight flush when the younger was happy.

Oh Sehun, was just perfect.

“Sehun-ah! Your chauffeur is here!” Jongin joked, giving Sehun a hug.

“Took you long enough! I bet you woke up late again today, am I right?” Sehun narrowed his eyes at the sun-kissed male, pointing an accusing finger and Jongin jutted his lower lip out in mock guilt.

“Hey! I just couldn’t miss SNSD’s music video release last night ok!” Jongin stuck his tongue out and the both of them ended up laughing.

“Let’s go now! Don’t want to be late for school do we?” Jongin handed his school bag to Sehun.

Sehun wore Jongin’s bag over his, so technically he was wearing two bags. Jongin knelt down on the floor, his back facing Sehun. Sehun then wrapped his arms around Jongin’s neck and the tanned male carried him effortlessly, hands holding onto Sehun’s weak legs.

“Auntie, we’re going off now!”

“See you later, Mom!”

Sehun’s mother quickly left the kitchen before kissing both Jongin and Sehun on the forehead and wished them a safe journey.

This is Jongin and Sehun’s daily life routine.

Sehun was diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy - a group of diseases that cause progressive weakness and loss of muscle mass. He has been suffering from this disease since he was 10 years old, but he was 14 when he lost the ability to walk.

The two first met 2 years ago, when Sehun was 14 and Jongin 15. The both of them were studying in the same middle school, but weren’t friends at that point of time. Jongin had knew who Sehun was though, the fair-skinned boy was quite a popular kid. Sehun was smart, and talks well with people with good looks to boot, it was not surprising that Sehun was well-liked, not to mention he was sort of the ulzzang of the school, even their rival school knows who Oh Sehun was.

However, in 8th grade, Sehun had stopped coming to school for 2 months and when he came back to school, he was on a wheelchair. Everyone was surprised, the oh-so-perfect ulzzang Oh Sehun was now disabled, and suddenly nobody wanted to talk to Sehun anymore. Sometimes Jongin does see Sehun in the cafeteria alone, struggling to get his own food and ate by himself at the corner of the cafeteria with whispers surrounding him. However, at the time, Jongin didn’t really care to the downfall of Oh Sehun.

It was not until one day, Jongin had left the school late due to dance practice. He was about to leave the school premises when he heard noises coming from the back of the school. Since it was almost 7 in the evening and the school was really quiet at this timing, it wasn’t hard to miss the sound of a crash, shouting and crying. Furrowing his brows, Jongin tightened his grip on the strap of his bag, and walked slowly towards the back of the school.

Jongin had his phone ready, in case it was a robbery, or worse – an assassin sent from god-knows-where to kill their principal. Anything is possible. He hid behind the bricked wall and his eyes widened at the sight. A group of boys, which Jongin recognised as the bullies of their school, was beating Sehun to pulp. 2 of them were destroying Sehun’s wheelchair with a metal bat.

Jongin wasn’t a fighter, no he wasn’t, but he is smart, ranking 3rd in the whole school in his grade. He placed his phone on his ear before emerging from his hide out place.

“Hello police? There’s a group of boys bullying a disabled student. Yes, they’re—" and Jongin continued rambling out loud, making sure the boys heard him and out of fear, the boys ran away. Sighing in relieved, Jongin quickly approached the injured boy.

“Hey, are you ok?” Jongin asked, but Sehun had ignored his existence.

“No no no!” Sehun began crying, crawling towards his wheelchair, fat tears streaming down his bruised face, “No! My wheelchair!”

Sehun’s wheelchair was technically couldn’t be used anymore. The tyres was torn and badly damaged, the sides and brakes were broken.

“Y-You can always buy a new one?” Jongin stated hesitantly.

“You don’t understand!” Sehun screamed, hugging his broken wheelchair, “My mother bought this for me… She saved months of her salary to buy this! This costs a bomb! She even worked on her off days to get extra pay…”

It was that day when Jongin learnt the oh-so-perfect ulzzang Oh Sehun wasn’t perfect at all. He was human too. It wasn’t like in the dramas in which the popular guy in school was also the richest kid in school. This is real life; this is the reality.

Jongin ended up carrying the crying boy home. Their walk was a silent one, with Sehun’s sniffles the only sound throughout the evening. When they reached Sehun’s house, his mother was at a state of shock to see Sehun’s condition. Sehun burst out crying again, apologising endlessly. Sehun’s mother had urged Jongin to put Sehun down on the couch, and she had hugged Sehun tightly in her embrace, whispering comforting words.

After Sehun had fallen asleep on the couch due to exhaustion, Sehun’s mother had bowed to him endlessly, thanking Jongin for his kindness. The kind mother wanted to reward Jongin with money but Jongin heavily declined, knowing that Sehun’s family wasn’t well-off to start with, and kindness shouldn’t be paid. Sehun’s mother insisted Jongin to bring back her home-made muffins instead, which Jongin hesitantly accepted.

The next day, Jongin came to school 2 hours earlier to carry the broken wheelchair and left it in front of Sehun’s house. Though it was broken, he thinks it’s inappropriate to throw it away, knowing how much it has meant to Sehun. However, Sehun didn’t come to school for the next 3 days.

After school, Jongin decided to pay Sehun a visit. He had rang the bell quite a few times, and he was about to leave guessing no one was at the house when the door finally opened, revealing Sehun sitting on an office chair with a stick on his hand. (which Jongin had guessed the fair-skinned boy was using it to move himself on the office chair).

“Hi…” Jongin greeted awkwardly.

“Hello…” Sehun greeted back, which came off as a mumble instead.

“Why have you not been to school? Are you still injured?” Jongin questioned.

Sehun deadpanned, “I have no wheelchair. How the hell do I move around?”

“Oh.” Jongin almost slapped himself. How could he be stupid?

“Anyways,” Jongin tried to recover himself as he took his bag and took out some notes and worksheets from his bag, “You’re in the same class as Jung Krystal, right? I’ve asked your homeroom teacher for any homeworks and notes that you’ve missed.”

Finally, Sehun showed an emotion. His eyes widened in surprised, and Jongin could see a sparkle in those eyes.

“T-Thank you!” Sehun took the notes and worksheets from Jongin’s hold, flipping through them.

“Um yeah… So see you soon?” Jongin gave an awkward smile, turning to leave.

“Wait!” Sehun called out.

Stopping on his tracks, Jongin hesitantly turned around to face the younger boy.

“Really… Thank you f-for everything…” Sehun his lips in nervousness, “For the wheelchair too! I’m glad you didn’t throw it away.”

Jongin internally sighed in relieved, glad he made the right choice.

“No problem.”

The next few days, Jongin did the same thing. Collect notes and worksheets and then went to Sehun’s house after school. It became a habit, and the both of them eventually exchanged numbers. They would talk to each other at night, when Jongin reached home, showered, had dinner and did his school work. He would then lay on his bed before texting or calling the younger.

“Have you finished your homework?” Sehun asked.

“Mhm, just did. What are you doing right now?” Jongin turned off the lights of his room before lying down on his bed, turning on the speaker of his phone, as if Sehun was talking just next to him.

“I just finished reading a book. I’m so bored.” Sehun sighs.

“Hey Sehun, do you miss school?” Jongin asked hesitantly.

It took a few seconds for Sehun to answer.

“Sort of. It’ll be easier for me to study in school of course.”

“I have an idea. For you to come to school again, I mean.”

“Really!?” Sehun sounded very excited, that Jongin became kinda nervous of his idea.

“Yeah, but you have to trust me.”

“Ok… So what’s your idea?”

“Not telling you~ Just be ready for school tomorrow!”

“Ugh, fine…” Jongin could almost see the pout on Sehun’s face.

“See you tomorrow then! Goodnight!”

“Goodnight.”

As promised, Jongin came to Sehun’s house in the morning. Sehun’s mother has left for work early, much to Jongin’s relief because he was afraid what Sehun’s mother would thought of his idea to get Sehun to go to school again.

“Ok, so what’s your idea? I don’t see you bring anything…” Sehun furrowed his brows, curious.

Jongin chuckled, “Trust me Sehun-ah. Now relax.”

Jongin was wearing a sling bag then, placing the bag at the front. He knelt down on the floor.

“What… are you doing?” Sehun arched a brow.

“Get on me.” Jongin urged.

“WHAT!?” Sehun shrieked, “NO!”

“Yes!”

“No!”

“Yes!”

“No! Jongin, are you crazy!? You’ll hurt your back or something!” Sehun frowned.

“I’m a healthy teenage boy, Sehun-ah. Didn’t I tell you to trust me last night? Plus, the school’s only 10 minutes away!”

“Still! People will give you looks! If you haven’t notice, people hate me now Jongin! You’ll lose your friends!”

“If my friends leave me just because I’m helping another fellow friend, that means they aren’t my real friends then. As long as we got each other, I think we’re fine, Sehun-ah.” Jongin calmly stated.

Sehun his lips, thinking of what Jongin said. Suddenly, he was reminded of his supposedly friends. When he was absent from school, none of them had bothered to text or call asking if he was ok or what was wrong with him. When he finally came back to school with a wheelchair, suddenly all his friends turned their backs on him and began talking ty things about him. Saying how he deserve to be at this state, telling everybody he had the rights to be disabled.

“Ok.” Sehun whispered out, “But let’s just try for this one day.”

A happy grin plastered on Jongin’s face. He urged the fair-skinned boy to hop on him again, and Sehun did, wrapping his arms around Jongin’s neck. Jongin then hold onto Sehun’s legs as he stood up.

And that was how Jongin and Sehun had gotten closer. After that day, Jongin insisted to carry Sehun to school even though the younger protested, not wanting to burden the tanned male but Jongin wouldn’t take any excuse and it had become like a normal thing between them.

Even though they were the same age, Jongin was studying a year higher than Sehun since he was born in January, therefore Jongin had entered high school before Sehun. Jongin had still carried Sehun to his school before going to his own school and picked Sehun up after he was done. Fortunately, Sehun eventually went to the same high school as Jongin after the younger himself graduated from middle school.

Back to the present, the two high school kids was animatedly talking to each other as they make their way to school. They were used to the stares they’ve gotten from passer-bys, some of the strangers even knew Jongin and Sehun by now, smiling at the sight of the two best friends whenever they saw them on the streets.

“But Yoona noona is prettier!” Sehun whined, his head on Jongin’s shoulder, facing the elder with a pout.

“Yuri is ier to me.” Jongin stuck his tongue out in defiance.

The two continued bickering like children until they reached school. Sehun immediately stops talking, as he hid his face on Jongin’s warm back. He still hasn’t got used to the judgemental stares of his school mates. He hates it. He feels so insecure, like a dirt in this earth.

“See you during lunch!” Jongin ruffled Sehun’s hair after dropping the younger in his class on his desk.

Sehun nodded, smiling lightly as he watches Jongin leaves by his side. Sighing, he took out his books and pencil case on his desk, ready for class.

“What is he, a prince? Why does Jongin sunbae has to carry him around like a dog?” Sehun bites his lips as he tries to ignore the comment made by a classmate.

“Come on Jinah, don’t be so mean. He’s disabled, right? Probably his brain is disabled too.” another snicker.

Sehun furrowed his brows. The last time he checked, he was topping the class since the last examination, and they still dared to make fun of his disabilities when they couldn’t surpass him in academics? Sighing again, Sehun shook his head. He took the earpiece from his bag and played some music on his phone. He had learned that talking back won’t make any difference, might as well ignore them completely.

Since he started high school, Sehun doesn’t really have friends besides Jongin. There are a few classmates who was nice enough to smile or greet him hello and goodbye, but never close enough to actually know when their birthdays are and whatnot. He understands since it might be awkward for some to befriend people with a disability, but Sehun’s pretty sure more than half of the population of the school dislikes him because of… Jongin.

Puberty hits Jongin like a truck and it seems high school is Jongin’s turning point. The tanned boy was becoming more masculine, his features more distinct and he was over with the voice breaking and acne phase. He grew a few centimetres taller too, Sehun noticed. He had gained quite a few admirers and guys who wants to be his friend. Jongin had always been smart since middle school and that didn’t change in high school, ranking 2nd or 3rd on tests and examinations in his grade. He was also excelling on his co-curriculum activity, dancing, and was the vice president of the dance club.

Jongin was moving forward and Sehun sometimes feels like he’s holding Jongin back, and he’s probably not the only one who thinks of this.

Recess came and since Jongin wanted to eat in the cafeteria today, Sehun had told his mother not to cook any lunch for them today. Usually, the two boys would eat in Sehun’s classroom, with Sehun’s mother nicely packed lunch for both Sehun and Jongin each. Sometimes, they do eat at the cafeteria though, like today. Jongin came after the bell rang, signing it was finally lunch time, and piggy backs Sehun to the cafeteria. They found an empty table situated in the middle of the cafeteria and Jongin drops Sehun there before going to grab the food.

“Is Jongin a slave or something? Carrying that kid everywhere.” Sehun hears one of Jongin’s classmate comments.

“Wow what a burden, imagine carrying a boy everyday to and fro. Not to mention, he’s 10 times heavier than a baby.”

Sehun bit his lips, his bangs covering his face so no one would not see the tears in his eyes. He hears footsteps approaching from behind, and quickly wiped his unshed tears with the sleeve of his uniform, knowing it was Jongin.

“Sehun-ah! Today’s lunch is your favourite! Bulgogi and banana milk~”

“Is it? Thank you Jongin!” Sehun forced out a smile.

After walking through and fro across the cafeteria like getting the utensils and napkins, Jongin finally settled down and the two began eating. As they ate, some schoolmates had stopped by and greeted Jongin, giving him a high-five or a bro handshake. Sehun only awkwardly smiled whenever that happens, even though none of them really bothered to greet Sehun.

“Jongin, you’re quite popular.” Sehun quietly states taking a bite of his bulgogi.

“Am I?”

“Yes, you are Mr Popular.” And I should stop weighing you down.

“Hey, Sehun.”

“Hm?” Sehun looks up and raised his brow slightly when Jongin was playing with his food, which was slightly off since Jongin is always hungry.

“D-Do you w-want to… Er… Do you want…” now Sehun definitely is not used seeing Jongin so unconfident and… shy? The tanned boy wasn’t making any eye contact with him, eyes shaking and looking everywhere but Sehun.

“Do I want what Jongin?” Sehun raised his perfectly arched brow, very curious to what Jongin wanted to say and since when the mighty confident Mr Popular Kim Jongin is a stuttering mess?

Jongin cleared his throat, seemingly has calm down, and he looked up, finally making eye contact with Sehun and the younger was slightly taken aback at the determination firing in Jongin’s brown orbs.

“Do you want to watch a movie with me this Saturday?”

Sehun blinked once. Twice. Thrice.

They had been friends for 2 years, and Sehun realised he hadn’t really gone out with Jongin before, apart from the short after school trips where Jongin brings him to the nearby supermarket to get snacks.

“Ok.” Sehun simply answers.

“Really!?” Jongin gaped, as if he had expected Sehun to say no.

“Why not? I mean, friends hang out with each other, right?” the fair-skinned boy stated as a matter-of-factly as he shoved a spoonful of rice in his mouth.

“Yeah… Friends…” Sehun didn’t noticed the crestfallen look on Jongin, busy eating his lunch.

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A/N:

I decided to make this into 2 shots instead, since it was getting pretty long;; I'll try to post the second part asap!

In the meantime, what do you think of the first part? Comments are appreciated! ^^