chapter two

stranger in bed

Kyungsoo was usually a dead sleeper. But this time he found himself reluctantly fluttering his eyes open at 5 am in the morning because of one thing he treasured most every time he sleeps; space.

He thought he was dreaming of a realistically romantic scene; lying down with his other half, her arms wrapped around his waist. ‘I’m not-‘ he heard a murmur rise in the dark silence. Kyungsoo snapped his eyes open. It was a man’s voice no doubt. He tried to recollect where he was. It was midnight, a Thursday. He had gone back to his room after English class, washed and played on his phone before going back to sleep.

He was in his room, on his bed. Whoever it is who was lying next to him (and so dangerously close too) was holding onto him rather tightly. He felt his space get warm, but surprisingly he did not feel less comfortable. Perhaps it was too cold it did not make much of a difference. Still he felt suffocated; his space had gotten tighter and he could not move. Is this Chanyeol? He would be alright if it was. Or Baekhyun. The mumbling didn’t sound as deep as Chanyeol’s voice.

‘I’ll be back soon-‘ the mumbling continued. Kyungsoo rolled his eyes, sighing. Kyungsoo stretched his only free hand under his pillow and pulled out his phone. He the screen and aimed it carefully at the mysterious person. Finding his face, he tried to trace the identity. He tightened his brows.

Who the is this?

His tiredness got the better of him and he brushed it off, putting his phone back. He slowly tried to push off his arms off his waist, and he shifted further away, towards the wall, and he tried to get a few more hours of sleep before class.

Kyungsoo woke up again, this time at 7am with barely any memory of what happened a few hours ago. So when he got up and noticed the presence of another being he became a little startled. Only then did he recall properly; yet still he was rather taken aback to find that the person was not anyone he thought it could be. Kyungsoo stared at the boy for a long while. He didn’t look like he stirred at all. Kyungsoo didn’t examine him too intently; he saw messed up blonde bed hair and a skinny figure, and that was it.

Nothing about the boy seemed familiar to him, not even his smell.

Kyungsoo carefully got off the bed. He found Chanyeol’s bed empty, and wondered whether he had slept in class again or rather deliberately not come back to the dorm at all. Shrugging it off, Kyungsoo grabbed his towel and went into the bathroom to wash.

*

Jongin woke up feeling extremely drowsy.

The afternoon light that glistened through the window was nothing of a motivation for him to rise; more like an interruption to his deep slumber. He stayed static on the bed, breathing heavily. After what seemed like several minutes, Jongin moved his eyes, reaching for his phone which he had not bothered to take out of the pockets of his pants.

It was 11.56.

‘Lunchtime,’ Jongin muttered under his breath. He browsed through his contacts list, dialling a number and put it on speaker before placing it next to his head.

‘Hey,’ Chanyeol’s deep voice almost startled Jongin. ‘Where the are you?’

‘In your room, dickhead.’ Jongin’s voice was raspy and exhausted. ‘I slept with you remember?’

There was a pause from the other side of the line. ‘I wasn’t in my room last night,’ he said. Jongin jerked his head up, turning off the speaker mode and picking up the phone next to his ear. He looked around, confirming his whereabouts. He was in Chanyeol’s room. The abstract canvas painting depicting symbols of music hanging above Chanyeol’s bed confirmed Jongin’s thoughts. He recognized the dark brown cover and pillows neat on Chanyeol’s bed placed perpendicularly to the bed Jongin was on. He thought it was weird that Chanyeol was sleeping on the empty uninhabited bed next to his, but did not question it.

‘So who was I-‘ Jongin scratched the back of his head. ‘Baekhyun?’

‘Why would Baekhyun be in my room if I wasn’t there?’ Chanyeol said in a rather obvious tone. Jongin rolled his eyes. Come to think of it, Jongin only realized the new bed cover he was sitting on. It was not the standardized school bed covers that Jongin used to sleep on if he ever passed out in Chanyeol’s room. ‘You probably slept on my roommate’s bed,’ Chanyeol said.

‘You have a roommate? Since when?’ he raised his voice a little too high.

‘Is that jealousy I sense?’

Chanyeol was right. The desk beside the bed was organized with stationeries, books and the small whiteboard above the desk was scribbled with lists of what seemed to Jongin as list of assignments. ‘,’ Jongin cursed to himself, pulling his hair back.

‘Why?’

‘You didn’t tell me!’

‘Well it wasn’t a big deal. Besides, you didn’t have your phone on for days.’ Chanyeol argued. Jongin did not respond. He could not blame Chanyeol. He did ignore his phone and everyone else. Soojung had left numerous missed calls, as did Sehun. Jongin dropped his head onto the bed, whining. ‘Get over it. Come on, let’s get lunch.’

‘I haven’t washed yet,’

‘Since when did you give a ?’ Chanyeol snorted with a laugh. ‘I’ll be in class. Get here quick, yeah?’ he hung up. Jongin lied back down again, pulling his t-shirt to his nose. He still smelled of his cologne. No wonder I don’t care, he thought to himself. He grunted before getting up properly and stumbling into Chanyeol’s bathroom to wash his face. The coldness of the water shook him awake and he could feel his eyes open wide.

He checked himself in the mirror. He might still smell good but he wanted to look like it too. Jongin took off his leather jacket and before he exited Chanyeol’s room, took one of his snapbacks from his drawers and put it on. He could not care less if the acne on his forehead showed. It was better than showing bed hair.

He met up with Chanyeol in his classroom, not surprised to see Baekhyun with him. ‘You washed?’ Chanyeol looked amazed.

‘ no,’ Jongin squinted his eyes warily. Baekhyun laughed besides Chanyeol.

‘I would hug you because I missed you but I’ll not-‘ he smiled.

‘Tsk,’ Jongin fixed his snapback. ‘Can we get food? I’m hungry,’

‘Yeah, let’s go. I haven’t showed you my roommate,’

‘Can we not?’ Jongin complained, a look of displeasure on his face.

‘What are you so worked up on?’ Baekhyun glanced at Jongin, who had a blush of embarrassment on his cheeks. ‘Did something happen?’

‘Jesus Christ, Jongin. You haven’t even met him yet,’ Chanyeol taunted him deliberately.

‘Not to mention he’s straight,’

‘,’ Jongin curled his fists. Chanyeol’s eyes widened and he exchanged excited looks with Baekhyun.

‘What happened?’ Baekhyun stopped in front of Jongin, who avoided him and walked on further.

‘Did you get laid?’

‘No,’ Jongin said simply.

‘Kiss?’

‘No,’

‘Flirt with him?’

‘No!’ Jongin snapped, earning some stares from other students. He rolled his eyes. ‘I thought he was you, or Baekhyun, or Sehun. I mean, it could be Sehun right?’ his voice sounded vainly hopeful, although the three of them knew Sehun was never the type to crash at other people’s places unless they gathered there to get high or drunk. ‘Sehun…was in your room?’ he turned to Baekhyun, Sehun’s roommate.

‘Yeah, where else would he be?’

‘But you guys-‘

‘What? You thought we were eating each other out?’

‘What else would you guys be doing?’ Jonging sounded too confident. Chanyeol stared at Baekhyun and vice versa.

‘Come on,’ Chanyeol pulled Jongin by the arm and led him to the cafeteria.

Jongin could see them almost immediately. Of course he did; they had been sitting at the same table for months. It was strategic. Somehow the table, although sitting at a rather obvious place, at the far corner to the left, it sat under the shade, avoiding the light that would beam through the tall windows that surrounded the huge dining hall. It gave off an aura of a restricted area, although everyone sitting there looked normal enough.

Sehun, Rei, Soojung-

He counted. There was an extra person. He’s sitting with us already? Chanyeol pushed him further. Surrendering, Jongin took deep breaths. He could see Sehun waving their way and the others rose their heads to look at them. , Jongin could not help it but curse when he saw the unfamiliar face looking in their direction too.

‘You’re alive?’ Sehun snickered, looking from his bowl of black bean noodles. Jongin rolled his eyes. Rei, who, of course, sat beside Sehun merely shot him a warm smile. Jongin was not as close to Rei as he was to Sehun, after all she had only been with them for around seven months. After Kyungsoo, Rei was the second newest member, but the youngest among them all.

Jongin noticed Chanyeol’s new roommate looking at him while the rest mocked him for his disappearance, but he acted like he was not there. It was easier than acting like he acknowledged his existence; especially after what happened last night. Chanyeol dragged him over to the canteen counter to get food, and for a brief while, Jongin earned two minutes to figure out how else to interact with this new boy. Should I apologize for last night? He kept debating, but before he could figure out the answer he was sitting next to Soojung, sitting directly in front of him.

‘Did you get wasted?’ Soojung asked.

‘Why?’ Jongin’s eyes widened, lifting his arm up so that he could take a sniff at his shirt. ‘Do I stink?’

Soojung giggled. ‘No . You smell like you poured the entire bottle of perfume all over yourself,’

Jongin could feel the heat rising to his cheeks as he caught the new boy sneaking in a smile at Soojung’s light-hearted joke.

‘You just look a little tired, that’s all.’ Rei explained.

‘Yeah, are you okay?’ Baekhyun’s concern was genuine, as was the rest. Jongin nodded.

‘Where have you been?’ Soojung asked.

‘Stashing cash, what else?’ Jongin stretched his neck.

‘People are asking,’ she stated casually, without a tone of warning in her voice. It was as if neither of them could care less if the school was looking for Jongin. ‘Yang’s looking forward to you flunking her Trigonometry quiz next week,’

Kai snorted, almost a little too confidently. ‘As if,’ he said.

‘You’re coming right?’ Chanyeol had his arm on Jongin’s chair. ‘This Friday?’

‘Where to?’

‘You know where,’

Jongin swallowed his food, glancing at Kyungsoo with the corner of his eyes. ‘Sure thing,’ he was surprised he asked about it in front of him.

‘He’s coming along too,’ Chanyeol added while Jongin was chugging down a carton of milk. He almost choked, but thanks to his quick control he remained calm. Rei clasped her lips, looking away as if she had noticed how close he was to embarrassing himself, but her misleading arrogant expression followed after and she cleared . ‘I forgot-‘ Chanyeol cursed himself. ‘Kyungsoo, Kim Jongin-‘ he pointed at Jongin. ‘Jongin, Do Kyungsoo.’

Kyungsoo put out his hand and Jongin wiped his hands on his t-shirt before taking it, afraid that the sweat would rub off on him. ‘Pleasure,’ he had a pair of sincere, raw eyes. Eyes that looked like they belonged to a small child; round and very black.

‘Y-Yeah,’ Jongin went back to staring at his bowl and eating. When they dispersed to go back to class, Jongin had gone back to his dorm room so that he could wash up and just relax for a while before attending night classes.

‘You look distracted,’ Soojung caught him blankly flicking through the pages of his English literature book. She sat down. The peace of night had come, and they were waiting for their English teacher to appear. Jongin sighed, sliding the book on his table.

‘Who is that guy?’ there was an expression on his face that looked as if he was more than just bothered about this new roommate of Chanyeol.

‘Kyungsoo?’

‘Whatever his name is,’ he looked away, slouching in his chair. ‘How long has he been here?’

‘A week?’ Soojung counted. ‘I don’t know that much about him. But I guess, Chanyeol doesn’t see him as a threat.’

‘Nobody’s a threat the first time you meet them.’ Jongin merely replied.

‘Chanyeol gets away with everything, doesn’t he?’ Soojung crossed her arms, shrugging coolly. Jongin did not respond. She was right, hopefully. ‘So where were you?’

‘Work,’

‘What work?’ Soojung raised an eyebrow at him.

‘The same one as always,’ he stood up, stretching his limbs.

‘You said you quit,’ she said after a confused pause.

‘I did,’ Jongin answered while heading towards the door.

‘Then?’

‘Same work, different boss.’ He smiled before he disappeared into the corridor. Soojung stared at him in dismay for several seconds. Same work? She cursed herself, not sure whether she was angry with Jongin or not, though it was more like the latter. But it certainly distracted her, even if a little.

Jongin headed to the vending machine just outside the cafeteria, his dry throat craving for strawberry milk. He had spent all his days away from school drinking nothing but expensive wine and plain water. It felt good to merge into his normal just-a-school-boy-trying-to-get-through-life identity. As he drank his milk, standing in front of the machine, he thought he would get a drink for Soojung as well.

‘No, I don’t.’ he heard someone approach his area. It was Chanyeol. He was pacing around a few metres away from him, looking rather disoriented. He had a phone strapped to his ear. Jongin walked over to him, who had already noticed his presence.

‘Please, Channie?’ a woman’s voice pleaded from the other side of the line. Chanyeol  shuddered hard at that name.

‘Look, why can’t you talk to him?’

‘Well, I-‘ his mother stuttered. ‘-you know how he is,’

‘I don’t know. We haven’t seen each other in years, just in case you forgot.’

‘I’m sorry,’ her voice quietened. ‘I thought you’d still be talking to him.’

Chanyeol raised his eyebrows. He knew neither of his parents bothered trying to talk to his older brother. They never did. Now he was in Shanghai, out of their reach, out of their hair, happy living in solitude and expanding his career day and night.

‘I miss him,’ there was sadness in her voice. Funnily, the sadder it got, the angrier it made Chanyeol.  ‘That’s all,’

His fists unknowingly curled. There was a bit inside him that wanted to scream “Words are empty” because if there was anything he learned witnessing his family tear apart, it was that. ‘I gotta go, I have class.’ He merely replied instead and hung up before his mother could wish him a goodnight, or worse, ask him to try talk to his brother.

Chanyeol massaged his forehead.

‘Hey,’ Jongin appeared, offering him a canned coffee. Chanyeol let out a flustered laugh, taking the can from him.

‘Thanks,’ he said. ‘You heard that, huh?’

‘Don’t worry. I don’t understand a thing at all,’ he smiled almost too innocently. Chanyeol was conflicted between feeling sorry for Jongin and grateful for his understanding. Secretly, he envied that Jongin never did have to put up with family conflicts like this. After all, the only family he has ever known in the span of 18 years has only been his little sister.