comparisons
comparisons|
When Joonmyun found out who his roommate was, he was ecstatic. But, seeing as this was Joonmyun, he could've been roomed in an underground dungeon with a carnivorous buffalo, ready to feast on his skin after rolling on Joonmyun's body and crushing his bones, and Joonmyun still would've smiled that smile that made it look like his face was framed by a thousand singing angels, complete with a "Hallelujah" chorus and the sun peeking out of the clouds. When Sehun found out he would be roommates with said leader (who was rumored to have been created by the deities out of sunshine and rainbows and unicorns and everything good and magical in the world), he was less than ecstatic. He did not like the idea of waking up to Mr. Sunshine with the glaringly bright thousand-kilowatt smile and the sound of twittering birds singing along to his voice every single morning, no, he liked his sleep, thank you very much, and he'd rather wake up on his own time to a dimly lit room without the birds singing along to Joonmyun White. (He silently prayed the elder didn't have seven dwarves locked away somewhere, brought out only in the earliest hours of the day to join the chorus of the birds and woodland animals.) "This is going to be great!" Joonmyun had chirped. I swear to God that Sehun, though he denies it, totally twitched and rolled his eyes at the same time the moment Joonmyun hyung spoke up in that perpetually-happy tone of his. I could already tell life at this dorm was going to be fan-ing-tastic. - Jongin (Kai), the unsympathetic friend. "So, which bed do you want? I don't mind either one! You could take the one on the wall if that's how you roll, Luhan told me once that you don't like waking up to bright lights, which eliminates the bed next to the window as one of your choices, so, maybe--" "Yeah, okay, hyung," Sehun cut him off, trying (but not succeeding) to hide his exasperation. They'd been here for a little less than thirty seconds and already he was sick of rooming with the elder. He had tried, several times, to get the others to switch with him. Baekhyun refused to room with anyone but Chanyeol and vice versa. Jongin outright laughed in his face, and said no. Kyungsoo looked confused. (This was most likely his normal face, though.) Jongin told him, during one of their "maknaes have sad lives" conversations, that maybe it was good for him to room with the oldest. Maybe Joonmyun's sunshine would be able to counter Sehun's sulkiness. (He also thanked Sehun for being born after him. He soon learned that Sehun could throw a pretty good punch.) "--and then I decided it would be a huge loss on my part if I didn't get the yellow ones, so I--" He was still talking. Sehun wondered if it'd be too late to physically threaten Jongin to switch with him. Thankfully, he punched my arm. I can't risk the face, to be honest. (Though my arm was bruised for a pretty long time.) - Jongin (Kai), the vain victim. Sehun would be the second to admit that he was a bit of a brat. (Jongin would be the first, obviously.) He liked getting what he wanted and monopolized the fact that he was the youngest. He and Tao had a pretty good relationship, solely because of this. Sehun could get LuHan to buy him bubble tea at least thrice a day every day. LuHan was pretty easy on this front; he loved playing the doting older brother. They both knew the fans would love it when they debuted, so they planned to play on it as much as possible, and Sehun was particularly fierce about this, mostly because it meant more bubble tea for him. (Some of the seniors told him about how when any of your likes were revealed, the fans took it to heart and sendt you truckloads of the stuff until you couldn't bare the sight of it. Sehun told them, quite cheerfully, that he would never get sick of bubble tea. All of them had rolled their eyes and said, "That's what they all say.") Today, though, Luhan was nowhere to be found, and Sehun was having withdrawal symptoms. He needed to get himself a glass of bubble tea. He was desperate enough to even check his wallet to see if he had any money to buy it himself. He didn't. Sehun decided death would be easier. Smartest decision he had ever made, to be honest. - Jongin (Kai), the . Joonmyun arrived a few hours after Sehun had decided to commit honorable suicide. Sehun was in bed, wrapped up in his sheets, trying to figure out how exactly he would do this, when the leader entered. Upon seeing Sehun, shivering under the sheets in the dark, face gaunt and eyes dulled, all alone in the dark, Joonmyun almost died of worry. Sehun wished it was him instead. Sehun was always a bit on the selfish (and overly-dramatic) side. - LuHan, the amused best friend. Sehun was sitting across a smiling (of course) Joonmyun in the tea store on the corner of their block. Sehun tried to repress the sigh of pleasure threatening to escape his lips at his first sip of his favorite drink. (He failed, of course.) Joonmyun's smile grew even brighter, and Sehun wondered why he didn't bring his shades. "LuHan wasn't lying, I guess!" Joonmyun said, his laugh mingling in with his words. "Mm.. What do you mean?" Sehun had asked, his lips still wrapped around the straw to his drink, trying not to let the tea dribble from his mouth. Joonmyun chuckled. (He never not laughed at anything.) "He said you really loved bubble tea! And that, that--" He stopped abruptly. "Yea?" Sehun urged him to continue, still half-slurping his drink. "Nothing," Joonmyun said, a confused look on his face, his eyebrows knit together, as if going through an internal war. "He just said you like bubble tea a lot." Sehun shrugged and gurgled a "yeah," still up every bit of his drink. Sehun slurped up the last of his drink, and Joonmyun, slipping back into his smiley self, bought him another. "You know," Sehun said, again, slurping down his drink at a rapid pace, "You're not so bad, hyung!" Sehun missed the blush staining the older boy's cheeks, and the earth-shattering smile that had come with it. (Joonmyun bought him four more drinks. Sehun decided he didn't mind how bright his smile was.) What he didn't know, though, was that there was someone willing to accomodate that selfishness of his. - LuHan, the friend that obviously knows something. Rooming with Joonmyun had become easier after that. Sehun wasn't as much of a prissy (like that one time he made Joonmyun pick up his clothes, and that time he passed on cooking-and-cleaning duties to Joonmyun, despite the fact that Sehun was the one that lost during the game night), and he hung out in his room more than he did Jongin's now, and he even rejected some invitations from LuHan to head out, choosing to stay in his own room instead. Joonmyun had become easier for him to handle. He didn't talk as much, but he still talked a lot. Sehun learned how to tune it out, at first, and then he learned how to actually listen. He learned that their leader was a pretty funny guy, with a lot of funny stories, and he was strong about his beliefs, and he was a great leader. Sehun learned how to appreciate how much he cared and to crave that bit of caring just a little bit. And then Sehun got really annoying, prattling on and on and on about Joonmyun hyung and his stories. - Jongin (Kai), the expasperated friend. "Then Joonmyun hyung told me that the other trainees just walked out, I mean, seriously, they just walked out, and--" "Shut up," Jongin said, the seventh time in this conversation alone, and the forty-seventh time throughout the entire day. Sehun had tunnel hearing. "I mean, can you believe that they just up and walked, like, come on--" Jongin turned the other way. Sehun continued on, unaware that his audience had left. (When he finally did figure out that Jongin was gone, he was childishly angry and decided to tell Joonmyun about it as soon as he got home.) He was pretty happy when Sehun started opening up to him, to be honest! He told me all about it! - Chanyeol, the other happy guy. Joonmyun was crying. The man made out of sunshine and rainbows and unicorns and everything good in the world was crying. The man made out of sunshine and rainbows and unicorns and everything good in the world was crying, and Sehun had just arrived, excited after a good day of practicing and hanging out with LuHan, and Sehun was dying to tell Joonmyun about that new movie he caught, and ask him if maybe he wanted to see it with him, but he was crying, Joonmyun was crying and Sehun was unsure of what to do. Joonmyun looked up from his place on the floor, back against his bed, and tried to smile. "Hey," he tried to say happily, voice breaking a bit towards the ending. "I didn't realized you'd be back this early, I--" Then Sehun was across the room, his arms around the older boy. He saw the paper Joonmyun had clutched tightly in his hand. He saw the envelope on the floor, his home address written on the outside. He understood. They all missed their families, but they could usually work through it: until the letters came, and calls were made, and the hurt just came backfull force. So, Sehun held him. He held him like he wanted to be held when he missed home, and he held him like he held every light in the world. Joonmyun relaxed into his touch and sobbed into his shoulder. Sehun caressed his hair slowly, gently held him tighter. (He ignored the faint pain in his chest.) It got pretty pathetic after that. - Jongin, the caring friend. "Why are you sulking?" "I'm not sulking." Pout. "You're sulking." "I'm not." Pout. Sehun was not sulking. (Pout.) He was confused. He was unsure. He was happy, yes, but he was confused as to whether that was appropriate, and if it was, what it entailed. Three nights ago he had come home to a sobbing roommate, and held him through his tears. Three nights ago, said sobbing roommate leaned over and pressed a kiss onto his unsuspecting lips, leaned back only so slightly, and murmured a quiet "thank you" against the very same lips. Three nights ago, said roommate left and didn't come back, leaving a confused Sehun to wonder why Jongin was sleeping in the bed next to the window, right where the sun always used to shine. Jongin was talking, saying something about how he was sulking again. Pout. When Joonmyun talked, he liked to listen. Jongin was annoying. He missed his roommate. ... Huh? - Kyungsoo, the confused other roommate. Sehun was this close to tearing his hair out. Jongin was unbearable, and he ing missed his roommate, and he wanted to ask what that kiss meant, and whatever it did mean, can they please do it a little bit (a lot) more, and hi I think I love you. Sehun was still trying to decide over that last bit. Did he? He couldn't deny the throbbing in his chest whenever he and Joonmyun hung out. He couldn't deny the little fluttery feeling in his stomach he had gotten whenever they'd gone out together. (Although, that might've been from the excessive amounts of bubble tea the elder bought him.) Nowadays, though, he couldn't even bring himself to drink his bubble tea. Joonmyun hadn't talked to him for more than a week, except for the occasional "Good work today" and even then, then elder would not look into his eyes. (The most adorable shade of red seemed to bloom on his face, though, and Sehun's chest tightened at that.) He missed talking to him, he missed hanging out with him, he missed seeing his smile. (Also, he was incredibly sick of Jongin.) They were getting really sad. So, Chanyeol and I decided to intervene! - Baekhyun, the scheming friend (with good intentions). "Chanyeol, Baekhyun, what are you doing?" Joonmyun asked, trying to hide the fact that he was shaking, that he was scared. (They were locked in the pratice room. They were locked in the pratice room. Sehun was locked in the pratice room, with Joonmyun.) "We're helping," Baekhyun had said matter-of-factly. "Helping?" Joonmyun choked slightly. "Helping with what?" "Your problem," Chanyeol stated in the same tone Baekhyun had used. "It's getting pitiful." "What problem? We don't--" "Okay," Sehun's voice broke out from the other end of the room. "You may not have a problem, but I think I do." "What?" Joonmyun croaked, still avoiding Sehun's eyes. "Why have you been avoiding me?" "I'm not--" "You switched rooms with Jongin, you haven't said anything to me other than 'good work today' since that day, since we kissed." Joonmyun flinched at this. "Well--" "No," Sehun looked up, tried to stare directly into the light to stop the tears from falling. "I may not have been the best roommate to you at first, but I thought we were fine? I started to like you, and I thought that maybe you liked me too, and then you kissed me, and I was happy, and then you left me with Jongin of all people, and I'm not sure what to do, but it's like... It's really cheesy, but it feels like someone blocked out the sun, and I'm not sure how to survive. So, okay, maybe you don't have a problem, but I do. What am I supposed to do?" He had sounded hysterical by the end of his speech. "Sehun..." "What?" Sehun demanded. "What am I supposed to do?" "Look at me?" Sehun looked up. He saw the reflection of two boys in the mirrors they used to monitor their movements, standing face to face, one with confusion knit between his eyebrows, and one with a smile, a radiant smile, a smile brighter than the sun, greeting him, marred only by the apparent wetness on the face of this source of light. It was a pretty great idea. One of my best, I think. - Baekhyun, the too-proud friend. (I was the one who told them about the issue. Though, it did make Sehun cuter, so I can't complain. - Jongin (Kai), the pouting brat.) Everyone's saying, "awww," and Jongin looks slightly disgusted (but amused). "Okay, so, that was Sehun, and he's the youngest one in the group, and Sehun tells us that his lucky charm is notactually an object, but it's a person, Suho himself. Because, Suho and Sehun are roommates, I guess he has a special attachment to him, moreso than the other members, although, every member is special to him, and you have to keep in mind that, again, like I said, that Sehun is the youngest one in the group, and Suho is the leader, so it's almost like a big brother relationship." Sehun can’t even bring himself to compare Joonmyun's smile to sunshine, at the moment, because it seems at least a hundred times brighter, and a thousand times more beautiful. Sunshine should be compared to him, to be honest. - Sehun, the brat that fell in love. |
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