❧

Sehun hasn’t messaged him in three days.

Jongin suddenly shakes his head in astonishment. Why does he even care? He doesn’t. With a huff, he turns his attention back to his assignment sheet and attempts to do the first problem. He sees Baekhyun sitting next to him in the corner of his eye scribbling away on his paper. Things have been a little bit awkward between them since the discussion of Jongin’s nightmare a couple of days ago - Jongin still doesn’t understand how he could have done that and to this day he has absolutely zero recollection of that ever happening (he’s pretty thankful for that, though). He grabs his pencil even tighter when he suddenly thinks of the way his phone used to buzz in his back pocket every minute. Nowadays it barely buzzes at all. He obviously has other things to do, Jongin thinks to himself, what on Earth do I care?

“Kim Jongin!”

Did he watch that movie he was gonna watch last week? 

“Kim Jongin!”

How many Rolex watches and cars does he own? Is he filthy rich?

“Jongin, this is the third time I’m calling on  you! Pay attention!” Jongin’s head snaps up and he stares wide-eyed at his teacher. She’s standing right in front of his desk with a black marker in her hand and looking less than happy.

“S-sorry,” Jongin stammers, squirming in his chair when he hears soft giggles emitting from every student in the room. “Where were we?”

“We’re in History and I’m asking you a question,” she says impatiently while tapping the top part of the marker against his desk. “What happened in Italy in 365 A.D?”

Jongin’s mind goes blank. Italy? Something snaps in his mind. Sehun likes Italy. More specifically, Sehun likes pizza. Italian pizza.

“Jongin, pay attention! Have you not read the material?”

“Uh, I have,” Jongin says, scratching the back of his head. “I don’t know what happened in Ita-”

“The earthquake near Crete,” Baekhyun pipes up from his position next to Jongin, right hand in the air, “a magnitude of eight, affecting a large portion of the Eastern Meditteranean.”

Jongin breathes out a huge sigh of relief (and humiliation). He has to give it to Baekhyun though; the latter has saved Jongin from awfully embarrassing situations that most likely would’ve had horrifying outcomes if it wasn’t for Baekhyun’s lightning quick verbal reflexes on more than one occasion. The teacher mumbles a low ’correct’ before turning on her heel (making sure to shoot Jongin an ’I’m-watching-you’ stare) and walking back to the front of the classroom.

Turning his head slightly to the right, he gives Baekhyun a small nod as if to say thanks, the latter nodding back subtly before focusing on his assignment with a knowing smile on his face. Jongin doesn’t see it, though.

~~~

“Tell me, what got you so far out?”

Jongin looks up from his hamburger. “Huh?”

“She called your name thrice at full volume and you still wouldn’t snap out of it,” Baekhyun shakes his in disbelief before taking a huge bite out of his own burger. Oil dribbles down his chin and he swears under his breath before reaching across the table and swiping Jongin’s napkin. “What were you thinking of?”

“Nothing in particular,” Jongin says casually - almost too casually for Baekhyun not to get suspicious - before biting down on his own burger. “You’re getting me a new one,” he says between chews.

Baekhyun wrinkles his nose in disgust. “One, I don’t believe that for a second. And two, chew with your goddamn mouth closed, you pig.”

“You’re one to talk.”

“No seriously, what got you so distracted?” Baekhyun asks, leaning in. He already knows the answer but chooses to ask Jongin anyway, just to see if the latter has it in him to come clean. For a second he swears he sees something flash in Jongin’s eyes but it vanishes as quick as it came.

Jongin shrugs and grits his teeth when he sees Baekhyun’s disbelieving look. “If I had a dollar for every time you looked at me that way,” Jongin says while taking a sip of his milk, “I’d own the damn bank.”

“You were thinking of Sehun,” Baekhyun says as a matter-of-factly, in an extremely neutral tone. “That’s why the teacher had to call on you three times to get your attention.”

“I wasn’t!” Jongin exclaims but the second word becomes muffled when he proceeds to stuff the remainder of his burger into his mouth. Swallowing, he looks Baekhyun dead in the eye. The latter doesn’t miss the way Jongin’s gaze trembles slightly, but he doesn’t comment on it. “I wasn’t thinking of him.”

Baekhyun rips open a packet of salt and pours the entire contents all over his fries. Jongin nearly retches. How is that even remotely appetizing? “Sure, Mr. Head-over-heels-for-Sehun, whatever you say.”

“I’m curious,” Jongin suddenly says after downing the rest of his milk, “what is it with you and this twisted- idea of yours that I’m constantly thinking of him 24/7, every chance I get? I always zone out during History, you know that.”

Tutting, Baekhyun grabs a handful of fries and stuffs them into his mouth all at once and Jongin looks away in disgust. “That’s true, but, how often do you get distracted to the point that it takes the teacher three loud- calls right in your ear in order for you to wake the up?”

Jongin turns his face away because Baekhyun’s annoying voice is doing nothing to soothe the headache that’s beginning to creep up on him, again. He opts to scan the few students sitting in the cafeteria, anything to not hear his best friend speak. One girl is sitting with her skirt practically stuffed in her underwear and Jongin nearly cringes. Why do girls dress like that? A guy with a tacky looking baseball cap sits across from her, gesturing with his hands while he talks to her. She looks less than interested. Jongin sighs before averting his gaze a little to the left and -

“Jesus, Jongin, be careful!” he hears Baekhyun screech and before he knows it, he’s being pounded on the back several times and he coughs (way too many times) up the milk that happened to travel down the wrong pipe before shoving Baekhyun away with his left hand.

“I thought you were dying,” Baekhyun says as he sits down. “First you zone out during class and now you zone out while drinking as well? What’s gotten into you, seriously.”

Jongin thumps his chest with a closed fist a couple of times before rolling his eyes. “If you say it’s because of him, I’m gonna kick you so hard you won’t live to see tomorrow.”

“Anyway,” Baekhyun says, seemingly unfazed by Jongin’s threat. “Let’s change the subject. Remember last month how I told you I wanted to travel to that fancy- bookstore halfway across the city? Well, I actually went there yesterday since my Dad kept encouraging me to since they have ‘the best books’ and all, isn’t that awesome? Anyway, it took hella long to get there and I almost missed my train, but man, was it worth it! I bought two new Fantasy books as well as a miniature sculpture of a dog on its hind legs from that anime I like so much. Okay so here’s the thing,” he says, gesturing with his hands, “when I was in the midst of paying I’m pretty sure the guy behind the counter checked me out - no wait, I’m a hundred percent certain he checked me out, like his eyes trailed down my torso and everything. He was like, super tall and had this amazing haircut and he had such a boyfriend-like fashion style, you know, a scarf and a fuzzy sweater and all. He didn’t say anything though which kinda made me sad, but he gave me a small smirk and a wink when he gave me my bag and reciept, I almost died - no wait, I’m pretty sure I actually died. I died and came back to life.” He stops to take a breath. “If the bookstore hadn’t been so darn full I easily would’ve stayed back and hung around and chatted with him. It’s such a shame I didn’t. Hey, next time, you know what I should do? I should go there and pretend to be lost just so I get to talk to him as he helps me out, doesn’t that sound like the greatest plan of all time, Jongin? Jongin?,” he trails off, eyebrows furrowing. “Jongin.” When Jongin doesn’t reply, Baekhyun looks up and nearly cries when he sees Jongin resting his head on his hand while turned to the left, gaze looking somewhat dreamy. He follows Jongin’s gaze and fights the urge to whack Jongin upside the head. “Jongin, snap out of it!”

Jongin whips his head around to look at Baekhyun. “Sorry, what?”

Baekhyun nearly facepalms. “You missed my long- story and I don’t feel like repeating myself. Anyway,” he rolls his eyes, “what do you think I am? Some sort of idiot?”

Jongin stares at Baekhyun like he’s grown a second head. “What are you talking about? I was listening.”

“Oh yeah?,” Baekhyun raises an eyebrow, crossing his arms over his chest. “Then what did I say?”

“Uh-,” Jongin starts and quietly trails off. “You went to the amusement park with-”

Baekhyun slams a hand down on the table. “No, you’re wrong,” he growls in irritation. “Stop trying to play it off, it’s not working.”

“The hell are you talking about?”

“Please,” Baekhyun scoffs, “you think I’m dumb enough not to notice you ogling another student across the cafeteria? Not only that, but who happens to look exactly like Sehun?" he gestures to the left towards said student and huffs in annoyance.  "At least now I know why you started choking; for a second there I thought you were suffering a seizure. Just come the clean and admit it already 'cause this is starting to get tiring.”

Jongin raises an accusing eyebrow. “Admit what?”

“You really are dense,” Baekhyun mumbles under his breath before running a hand through his hair, promptly ruining his neatly styled middle parting. “Your everlasting love for him. Obviously.”

“For whom?”

“Sehun!” Baekhyun yells at the top of his lungs, right leg flying up and kicking Jongin smack in the middle of the shin. The sound of Baekhyun’s fist slamming down on the table a second time masks Jongin’s cry of pain as he grabs his leg and rubs it.

“Seriously," Baekhyun continues, "stop being so ing delusional, it’s annoying to see, to say the least. Anyway, back to what I was saying earlier, about that hot bookstore dude, I actually purchased two books, wanna see them? I brought them!”

Jongin hums something in reply and Baekhyun sees it as his cue to reach into his bag and pull out two thick silver books, dropping them on the surface of the table with a loud thud, dust flying everywhere. He points to the first one. “This one’s the most recent one in the series, I’ve only read three pages of it but I’m already hooked! And this one,” he says, pointing to the other one, “is the second one, I’m so excited to finally read it! I got it for twenty percent off which is honestly really cool given that they're imported from America and all.” He looks up at Jongin with a wide smile. “Which one is your favor- oh, for ’s sake Jongin, cut it the hell out!” he exclaims with a harsh slap on Jongin’s arm.

Jongin snaps his head around to stare at Baekhyun. “What now?”

“This is honestly getting really irritating,” Baekhyun says, genuine hurt in his voice. “Why do you keep suppressing your feelings like this? You keep gawking at that dude over there - who, by the way, looks absolutely terrified so quit staring at him already - knowing damn good and well it’s because he looks like Sehun, at least in the hair and face shape!"

“And the body,” Jongin blurts out and nearly slaps a hand over his mouth. He really needs to learn to keep his mouth shut.

Baekhyun’s frown only deepens. “That’s exactly what I mean. By the way, has he messaged you lately?”

“Not in three days.”

“For real?” Baekhyun asks, astonished. “So? How does that make you feel? Are you bothered that he hasn’t contacted you in 72 hours?”

“Why would I be bothered?” Jongin tries but quickly lets out a sigh when he realizes Baekhyun isn’t having any of this. Not anymore. “Okay, a little. I guess.”

“Then why don’t you message him?!” Baekhyun exclaims under his breath, shoving his tray to the side and leaning closer to Jongin’s face. Jongin leans away. He doesn't like that serious look on Baekhyun's face. It doesn't suit him. At all.

“I don’t know; I mean, I’m assuming he doesn’t care about me as much since we met? I mean, he’d message me more often if I really meant something to him, right?”

Baekhyun slaps a hand on his forehead. “Idiot, he’s probably waiting for you to message him, since he’s usually the one messaging first anyway. Oh, what the - he's always the one messaging first. Twenty four frickin' seven.” 

Jongin curses when he realizes Baekhyun is right. “I mean...since I’m not interested I shouldn’t message him since it’ll only get his hopes up, don’t you think?”

“Jongin,” Baekhyun starts, leaning in close - way too close, “listen to me. It’s obvious that he likes you and wants to get to know you better. I can tell you like him as well, pull your head outta your goddamn , will you? Living in denial isn’t good for anyone, especially someone like you.” He suddenly stops and looks Jongin square in the eye. “You know what pains me more than having to sit here and listen to you yammer about how much you don’t care and don’t want to contact him? Listening to all that and then watch as you proceed to zone out and ogle the out of his lookalike. You’re not fooling anyone, my friend.”

“But he hasn’t said a peep since he sent me that selfie!” Jongin exclaims, throwing both hands in the air in frustration.

Baekhyun growls in irritation. “Which is precisely why I’m telling you to pick up your goddamn phone and message him already.”

“I’ll think about it. I still don’t know, I don’t wanna something up and end up regretting my entire existence. Your hair's all messed up, by the way,” Jongin says before standing up and picking up his tray. Baekhyun follows suit with a frustrated expression on his face, shoving his books back into his bag and following Jongin out of the cafeteria.

❧