He was just walking to the entrance of the school when Jongin tackled him from the side.

“What was that for?” Sehun complains, rubbing at his sore wounds.

“That was for yesterday,” Jongin says with a playful smirk, and Sehun suddenly is aware of the money he snuck back into the white button-up.

“What did I do yesterday? I don’t remember doing anything wrong,” he feigns ignorance. They’ve now continued walking towards the school doors, and Sehun hopes he can prolong this confrontation until he reaches the safety of his classroom.

Jongin arches his eyebrows and lets out a laugh. He brings his hand up to Sehun’s backpack strap and twists his fingers in it, making Sehun even more unsettled at the close contact. “I think you know what I’m talking about, Sehun. Don’t try to play dumb with me because I’m good at telling when people are lying.”

“I really don’t know what you’re talking about, though. All I did yesterday was eat and sleep in that shop,” he replies, trying to pick up the pace.

“See, I can tell that you’re lying right now.”

“Shut up,” he responds conclusively, trying to close himself off to further teasing.

As they wind up the flight of stairs, Sehun makes sure to dash a few steps ahead, all the more anxious to escape Jongin’s teasing. In despite of his attempts, Jongin is still dragging him down with his hand on his strap. “You’re awfully active this morning, Sehun,” he jokes with satisfaction. “Mind telling me the reason behind all the energy?”

“I’m energetic every day,” Sehun refutes, though Jongin still isn’t pleased with the vague response.

“Hey, just chill,” Jongin says at the top of the stairs, dragging him to the side to talk in peace. “I’m not mad at all.”

“You aren’t?”

“No. Actually I think that it was very nice of you to pay for me,” he says, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

Sehun blushes a little bit, seeing that he was caught. “Well, you don’t have to be so thankful. You were working hard yesterday, so it was just my instinct to be generous.”

“Sehun, I work in a gift shop on a mountain. Plus, yesterday was in the middle of the week, so there were maybe like ten customers there. Don’t act like I busted my working,” he remarks incredulously.

“Dealing with the public is a hard job, though,” the other acknowledges.

“Whatever you say,” Jongin laughs. “But you really don’t have to do that next time. I’ll be the one to pay for sure. Anyways it’s almost time to go, so you should probably get to class now. I’ll talk to you later.” Jongin waves goodbye to Sehun and walks in the opposite direction, just brushing against the other’s side.

Sehun begrudgingly pries himself away from looking back at the boy and heads into class. As he sits down in his seat, he’s greeted by another smiling Chanyeol, who’s sporting such an overbearing expression that it almost invites Sehun in to take the bait.

For some reason, he goes ahead and takes it.

“What do you want, Chanyeol,” he says in an exasperated breath.

“Nothing. I’m just sitting here and being happy,” he cheekily responds. “Where’s that daily Jongin dose before class? Were you two busy making out or something?”  

Sehun frowns at his friend, regretting even starting the conversation in the first place. “No, we were just talking outside of class,” he shoots back. “So lucky for you, you don’t have to pretend to be a smart student when you clearly never pick up a book.” There’s a hint of sullen attitude in his remark, but Chanyeol is aware that Sehun gets especially bratty when he’s flustered.

“Alright, Sehun. No need to be so verbally abusive, today,” he shrugs, and Sehun makes it a point to shove Chanyeol’s face away with the palm of his hand.

~~~

When Sehun receives another invitation to Namsan Tower via text, he has to suppress his excitement so that Chanyeol doesn’t judge him. “It’s just something funny I saw on Instagram,” he makes up as an excuse, and he goes to reply to Jongin that he will definitely be available for sure. There’s no thought given to his homework load, his family’s meal waiting at home, or his judgmental older brother. Sehun automatically accepts the invitation and goes along with whatever Jongin asks for.

This time, when they scale the mountain, Sehun is feeling in better shape as their altitude increases. The thinner, icy air is better welcomed into his lungs, and Sehun might have even bragged to Jongin a few times that he’s gotten more athletic already.

“You can’t possibly be an athlete after climbing these steps twice,” Jongin had said in disbelief, to which Sehun only rolled his eyes at the other. Jongin’s hand slid back up to grasp his arm, probably just to insist that Sehun should not have been getting so overconfident so soon.

The physical contact, to Sehun’s luck, was therefore maintained on this trip. He reveled in the feeling of the other’s touch, as their closeness made it feel like they were a couple on a sightseeing trip. Jongin’s hand even ventured downwards to clasp Sehun’s at one point, as he muttered something about Sehun being “too frail and cold.” Needless to say, he did not bother letting go until the two reached the top.

After Jongin and Sehun enter the gift shop and set their belongings down, Jongin perks up and pulls out his wallet. He pulls it open, finding a select number of bills to extract and closes the wallet back up. He aims a knowing grin at the other, and Sehun returns it with a judgmental stare, aware of what crap is going to spill out of the other’s mouth.

“I’ll head up to grab drinks this time. What would you like?” Jongin says with determination, as if nothing Sehun says can deter him.

The other boy exhales deeply, having the intuition that this was the reason for his second invitation. “Just get me anything,” he says cal