❧

“And then you do the Pythagorean theorem and figure out which side is-”

Buzz.

“No - seriously, leave it alone!”

“Baek, you know I can’t!”

“We haven’t even gone through the first page! Seriously Jongin, leave it alone, you can check it later.”

“Gee, since when did you become my goddamn mother?” Jongin asks sarcastically before reaching across the table and picking up his phone for the nth time in the last ten minutes. His face erupts into a smile when he unlocks his phone and his eyes scan over the words in front of him.

i’m doing good, you? since it’s ten thirty, lemme guess, you’re doing ur homework right?? ;P -s

Baekhyun rolls his eyes and runs a hand through his dyed red hair. He taps his foot against the leg of Jongin’s desk impatiently and lets out a big sigh. They’re in the middle of their weekly tutoring session - textbooks are scattered all around the table and Jongin’s partially completed homework sheets lay strewn across the table and floor. Baekhyun is extremely grateful that he’s getting paid a decent amount for helping Jongin with his Algebra every week because putting up with the latter’s hopeless antics every time he sits down with Jongin and attempts to help him study Algebra isn’t exactly enjoyable. Eyes scanning the textbook that’s currently laying open in front of them, he shakes his head when he realizes they haven’t even finished the first ten chapter questions. He watches as Jongin puts his pencil down and begins typing away on his phone, eyes glued to the screen. He inwardly exhales in relief when he sees Jongin make a move to put his phone down and is about to resume teaching when the latter speaks up.

“Should I add an emoticon or is that stupid?”

Baekhyun raises an eyebrow. “Sorry?”

“Look,” Jongin says, holding up his phone in front of Baekhyun’s face. The latter’s eyes quickly trail over the words ’wow you seem to be getting the hang of my life haha! and yeah i am, algebra’s super boring and confusing…what are you doing rn??’ on the screen before shrugging.

“I don’t know,” Baekhyun says in frustration, tapping his pen against the surface of the table. “Why on Earth would it be stupid? Doesn’t she send you emoticons with every text?”

Jongin nods. “Yeah, but like,” he opens the emoticon keyboard and proceeds to scroll through every single one. “Isn’t that weird? Like, she’s a girl so it makes sense. But I’m a guy so it’s a little different, don’t you think?”

Baekhyun blinks before shaking his head. “Not really. How do you know this person’s a girl anyway?”

“Are you kidding, Baek?” Jongin says in disbelief before selecting a winking-face emoticon and quickly deleting it. “What dude goes by the username ’hunhunpinkupinku94’? Hey, this one looks fitting enough. Okay, I’ll send it. Hopefully she doesn’t think I’m a louse.”

“Just saying. Anyway, can we please get back to the subject at hand?” Baekhyun asks with a bit of impatience lacing his words. “You seem to constantly forget that your exam is tomorrow.”

Jongin rolls his eyes, leaning back in his chair. “I have an elephant's memory, I’ll make it through the damn test as easy as pie and you know it.”

"I highly doubt that."

"Aren't you happy for me now that I'm finally getting off my and putting in real effort to find someone? Gee, you're the worst best friend ever."

"I am," Baekhyun says. "But I never thought it'd go this far. Not saying I'm not happy for you, because I am, and you know it. Now, Algebra, alright? We can discuss this later when we're finished."

"I have the memory of an elephant," Jongin says for the second time. "I'll be fine."

“We’ve been sitting here for over an hour and you haven’t even completed the first page, like I said,” Baekhyun groans, checking his watch. He’s off in a little more than half an hour. Thank goodness. “There’s so much material you haven’t learned yet. Don’t you care about getting a good grade?”

“Just because you’re a straight A student and I’m not,” Jongin starts, popping a piece of gum into his mouth, “Doesn’t mean you get a free pass to regard me as lazy.”

“That’s not what I’m saying, you nitwit,” Baekhyun groans and lightly slaps Jongin on the back of the head. “Also, that’s real funny coming from the one who constantly begs to copy my homework when we’re in Math class.”

“I have better things to do, that’s all,” Jongin says in a casual tone before grabbing his pencil and turning his attention back to his notebook. “Where were we?”

“You’re supposed to be doing these questions about the Pythagorean theorem,” Baekhyun says, pointing to said questions in the book. “One through fifteen. Go.”

Jongin skims through the wave of questions laid out below him. “…Have…,” he murmurs under his breath, “…have we even learned this?”

“Of course we have! I’ve been trying to explain it to you for the past twenty minutes!” Baekhyun exclaims. “Use your elephant memory and try to remember how to do it!”

“I meant in class,” Jongin huffs. “Have we gone through any of this at all?”

Baekhyun throws his hands in the air. “It’s all the teacher’s been talking about this month! Haven’t you been listening?”

“I have selective hearing, it’s not my fault,” Jongin almost hollers. “I’ve been doing other things, I mean, I’ve been picking up some stuff here and there, just not the…well…”

“- the important things,” Baekhyun concludes for him. “You’ve been picking up some stuff here and there, just not the things required to pass the exam. Got it.”

“Damn straight A students,” Jongin mumbles under his breath before proceeding to draw a triangle. “Feisty little s.”

“…at least use a ruler,” Baekhyun remarks in a flat tone. “And you’re supposed to mark the hypotenuse as c².”

“How are you so good at this” Jongin groans and puts his head on the desk. “I give up. I can’t even draw a proper goddamn triangle, how do you expect me to pass the exam?”

“I actually study, unlike some people I know,” Baekhyun mutters under his breath so Jongin won’t hear and nearly cries in frustration when the latter’s phone buzzes three times in a row. “And I’m guessing you’re gonna check that?”

“Of course I am, how’d you know? You’re so smart Baekkie,” Jongin says in an all too high-pitched voice before reaching over and grabbing his phone. Baekhyun just stares at him in unamusement and disbelief, hands coming up to rub at his eyes with a sigh. This really isn’t working. 

“You were so nice and focused when we first started out last week,” Baekhyun says, closing the textbook and putting away his pen and placing it in his pencil case since he figures trying to get Jongin to do any more work at the moment is practically useless. “Seriously, it’s all because of her, isn’t it? You lovesick dumbo.”

Jongin mutters something incoherent while typing on his phone, face frozen in a smile that’s far too bright for Baekhyun’s liking. “Yeah, I guess.”

“When’d you two even start talking? Was it two weeks ago?”

“Yeah, I think. She send me a message two weeks ago on Friday and we just kinda hit it off. She’s super funny, Baek, you should see her Doraemon plushie collection, she’s got like fifty of them! Oh, and-”

“I know all about her gigantic freaking Doraemon plushie collection,” Baekhyun cuts him off. “You’ve told me a hundred times already. When did you-”

“Look, Baekhyun, she just sent me this!” Jongin exclaims and shoves his phone in front of Baekhyun, practically smacking him in the face with it. “Isn’t she adorable?”

“It’s just a picture of her holding a cup” Baekhyun says, staring at the picture. A hand holding a (rather large) cup of what he assumes is bubble tea. Generic. “It’s kinda cute though. I take it she likes bubble tea?”

“I haven’t told you? She loves bubble tea,” Jongin squeals. “She sends me pictures every time she visits her favorite bubble tea shop, she gets a different flavor each time but her favorite is strawberry and chocolate. Jesus, I’d love to try it someday.”

Baekhyun nods in understanding, shoving his own textbook in his backpack. “Do you two talk every day?”

“From morning ‘til night,” Jongin nods with a small smile. “Seriously, we can discuss just about anything, really. One time we even discussed Ms. Hewick’s awful fashion taste for four and a half hours straight, it was hilarious, wanna see?”

“Ms. Hewick?” Baekhyun blinks. “You mean our History teacher? And no thanks, I’m good. By the way, has she ever sent you a picture of herself? Like, of her face and all?”

Jongin frowns and then pouts. “Nope, not even one photo, even though I’ve sent her a ton of pictures of myself. Maybe she’s just camera shy.” His eyes lighten up. “I love shy girls so that’s good in a sense!”

“Okay, I know I've said this to you before but it didn’t seem like you thought through your answer when I first asked,” Baekhyun says, still looking at the picture. “But are you sure it’s a girl? I mean, look at that hand, it’s practically as big as the freaking mug - it really doesn’t look like a girl’s hand to me, at all.”

“Shut up Baek, I’ve already told you she’s a girl,” Jongin says with a roll of his eyes. “Look at the heart stickers she added. And the caption! Do you really think a dude would send this along with a ’i’m here again jonginnie! i got vanilla today, it tasted good but not better than the strawberry :’( 333’ caption? Forget it, Baek, she’s a woman and that’s that.”

“Has she ever told you or stated anywhere that she’s a girl?”

“No.”

“If she hasn’t sent you a photo of herself or written that she’s a girl anywhere, how can you be so certain?”

“I just am, okay!”

Baekhyun chuckles before putting his hands up in defense. “Okay, okay. Whatever you say.” He averts his gaze and looks out the window. “It’s getting dark out, mind if I stay the night?”

“Huh? Oh yeah, sure,” Jongin says absentmindedly, eyes glued on his screen. “You know where the extra pillows and blankets are.”

“Yup, the weather forecast says it’s gonna rain tonight” Baekhyun says while scrolling through the Weather app on his iPhone. “Thanks Jongin, you’re a lifesaver.” He puts his phone in his back pocket before turning to Jongin with a curious expression on his face. “Hey.”

Jongin looks up. “Hm?”

“This is really random but,” Baekhyun starts, eyeing Jongin intentely. “What if you found out this girl is actually a dude? Not a creepy old man or anything, but you know…a guy. What would you do?”

“Uh.” Jongin blinks, raising a questioning eyebrow. “I…don’t know. Probably stop chatting, what do I know. Why do you ask?”

“I dunno, you just seem so…confident when you really have no idea. But hey,” Baekhyun puts his hands up in defense again when he sees Jongin’s less-than-amused look. “Don’t take my word for it, do your thing with…her. I’m gonna fetch the extra bed, I’ll be back in a second.” He stands up and cracks his knuckles before twisting his torso around and doing the same thing to his back. He’s about to turn around and walk out of the room when Jongin speaks up.

“Hey, I just asked her what she looks like and she sounds super attractive,” he says, eyes twinkling. “Wanna hear?”

Baekhyun exhales. “Do I have a choice?”

“Nope. Anyway, she’s tall; really tall, actually, she has blonde hair that’s apparently always parted in the middle, has a thin face and really nice eyebrows. Doesn’t she just sound amazing?”

“That…I’m not really getting a specific image in my head” Baekhyun says slowly. He suddenly furrows his eyebrows. “Hold on, you said tall? Really tall? Like, how tall?”

Jongin shrugs. “I can ask her.” He quickly types out a message and sends it. Baekhyun is surprised when the reply comes less than three seconds later.

“She’s 6”," Jongin says. "Do girls even grow that tall?“

Baekhyun nearly topples over. "Six foot?! That’s really tall; Christ - that’s even taller than you! Seriously Jongin, I’m telling you, this is a gu-”

“It’s only like, a one inch difference!” Jongin exclaims, ignoring Baekhyun’s disbelieving stare. “Although I’m not really that into taller girls but her personality is super adorable so I don’t really care.”

“Alright, suit yourself” Baekhyun says before heading out of the room in search of the extra bed he knows Jongin keeps tucked away somewhere in the basement.

Jongin exhales when the room goes quiet and spins around on his chair, hissing in pain when he accidentally bangs his shin against a table leg. Cursing, he picks up his phone and opens the app he’s sure he’s clicked on a billion times these past two weeks. His eyes land upon the ’2 new messages’ icon in the top right corner of his screen and he instinctively smiles, clicking on it and opening up the conversation for the nth time that evening.

hunhunpinkupinku94: hey why’d you take so long to reply?? :’((

jonginheartsmonggu: sorry, my best friend’s fetching my spare bed atm so now there’ll be no interruptions~

hunhunpinkupinku94: that’s good!! i just finished my tea :3 it’s so windy here, my hair’s blowing everywhere and getting super messy :'c

jonginheartsmonggu: oh is your hair long?

hunhunpinkupinku94: sorta, yeah :3

jonginheartsmonggu: then why don’t you tie it back?? 

hunhunpinkupinku94: we don’t usually do that, do we?? :'3 hehe

Jongin raises a curious eyebrow. The image of long, blonde hair blowing in the wind pops into his mind and his lips curl upwards into a small smile. He thinks about it for God knows how long and nearly jumps out of his chair when the sounds of Baekhyun throwing the pillows and blankets onto the floor snap him out of his semi trance.

“God damn you,” Jongin curses, spinning around in his chair and giving Baekhyun his best evil eye in hopes of making the latter feel guilty. It doesn’t work.

“Sorry,” Baekhyun says unapologetically, dragging the bed behind him and placing it in the middle of Jongin’s room. “You were pretty far out. What were you thinking about anyway? Jesus, this room’s dusty as hell. If your parents paid me extra I could tutor you in basic house cleaning as well.”

“Shut up. And it’s nothing,” Jongin says before proceeding to shove his worksheets aside with the full intention of not doing them. He’s too tired to care about Algebra at the moment. “She just described her hair, nothing serious.”

“Elaborate.”

“You're suddenly interested? I thought you couldn’t care less.”

“Just say!”

Jongin stands up and stretches before rubbing at his tired eyes. “She said she has 'sorta’ long hair. Not sure what that’s supposed to mean, but yeah. I asked her why she doesn’t just tie it back since she complained about it blowing around in the wind and she just said…something I couldn’t understand. Anyway.”

Baekhyun blinks. “Whatever you say, you lovestruck birdbrain. Holy hell am I tired.” He pulls his shirt over his head and proceeds to lay down on the bed, the springs creaking underneath him. “You should really upgrade this for when you have guests over, how would they react when they find out you’re letting them sleep in a bed that’s on the brink of falling the apart?” He pokes at a spring that’s emerging from a tear in the sheets and winces when it scratches the tip of his finger. His face falters when he looks up and sees the contemplative look etched in Jongin’s features. “What’s the matter?”

“She said she wants to meet up,” Jongin says quietly, not taking his eyes off the screen. His fingers are hovering just above the keyboard and there’s a worried glint in his eyes. “I…I’m not…I don’t know, really. Should I say yes?”

“Well, it’s not like you’ve been showing signs of disinterest lately,” Baekhyun snickers, laying down on the pillow and getting comfortable. “Seeing as you talk every single day for hours on end and seem to be genuinely interested in each other’s lives. I say yes. I mean, why not? You have literally nothing to lose.”

Jongin sighs. “You’re making it seem like a goddamn blind date.”

“Well, it is, isn’t it? Didn’t you meet her on a dating app?”

“Not really, I mean, some people who meet on here do end up getting together in real life but I don’t know if that’s what I want,” Jongin says sheepishly. “I mean…I don’t know if I’m ready, you know?”

“I get you, I get you. I’m just saying, go out there and try, the worst that could happen is that you end up not liking each other as much after seeing and getting to know each other in real life. So what? Just delete her and start chatting with someone else. And I don’t see why she wouldn’t like you, you’re pretty cool, except for the fact that you at Math, of course.”

Jongin rolls his eyes. “Thanks, . But I guess I’ll give it a shot, if I end up finding her attractive hopefully something’ll happen.”

“It’s about time you found a date” Baekhyun says, pulling the covers over his head. “When was the last time you had a girlfriend anyway?”

“Uh, she dumped me three months ago.”

“You don't even remember her goddamn name, even more reason to get out there and hit it off with this new girl of yours” Baekhyun hums. “From what I’ve heard she seems like a pretty cute person, if she wasn’t your girlfriend I’d totally ask her out.”

“Okay, first of all, she isn’t my goddamn girlfriend” Jongin groans while crawling into his own bed. “And second, why do you even give a in the first place, you’re gay.”

“I’ve fallen in love with her personality, let’s just put it that way” Baekhyun says with a small laugh. “When’re your parents coming home anyway? My pay.”

“Tomorrow afternoon, don’t worry,” Jongin replies while holding the phone out in front of him and making different faces. “You’ll get your damn pay.”

“Great, since you know damn good and well I deserve it.” 

Baekhyun is on the verge of sleep when the sound of a camera shutter clicking shut jolts him awake and he sits up and rubs his eyes. “Let me guess, your nightly all-too-corny good night selfie for the one and only?”

Jongin smiles slightly. “Yeah. A peace sign and a few star and moon stickers is alright, right? Girls love cute- stickers.”

“I’m sure she’ll appreciate anything you send her. Now go the hell to sleep, it’s almost midnight and the exam is tomorrow at eight. I know you couldn’t care less but I do so try to keep it down until morning, alright?” Baekhyun covers himself with the blanket again and rolls over.

Jongin hums something in reply and smiles when the words ’i look forward to seeing you, hopefully it’ll be soon <3 good night, and don’t be awakened by the rain storm tonight ;( :3 i’ll think of you!’ light up his screen. He types out a quick ’me too, you as well~’ before turning his phone off and crawling under the covers, suddenly feeling an undescribable feeling settle in his heart.

He falls asleep that night to the thoughts of long blonde hair, strawberry flavored bubble tea and beautiful looking eyebrows.

❧