Chapter 4 - Progression

Word count: 2,015

Sometimes even people can illuminate ligh; just like a star.

“WAKE UP KIM JONGIN!”

Jongin bolted upright, clutching his blanket as his eyes adjusted to the light. There was a blurry figure standing by his bed, and it took another moment before he could clearly see Baekhyun’s exasperated face.

“What are you doing in my apartment?” He asked. His tongue felt heavy; Jongin grimaced. Did he swallow a corpse last night?

“This is my apartment, stupid,” Baekhyun rolled his eyes. “You fell asleep after the party?”

“Oh,” Jongin took another look around and realized he was in Baekhyun’s living room, sleeping on the couch. His back protested when he tried to stretch and he recoiled from the sharp shooting pain down his spine. “Your couch isn’t very comfortable.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t sleep like you’re a pretzel.”

“Morning, Jongin!” Chanyeol said as he walked into the living room, his hair still damp from a shower. There was a towel hanging low on his hips and a toothbrush hanging out of his mouth. “Good sleep?”

“Is he ever not…” Jongin waved a hand in his giant friend’s direction and hoped Baekhyun got the meaning.

“Cheery?” Baekhyun suggested. Then his face fell, “No. But that’s okay because he isn’t allowed talk to me before my first cup of coffee and I don’t bother him about his tone deaf singing in the shower.”

“You love my singing,” Chanyeol winked.

Jongin gagged. “It’s too early.”

“Here, this is a new toothbrush,” Baekhyun ruffled his hair. “Take a shower here and change at your place. Towels are under the sink.”

“Yeah, I know,” Jongin grinned. “Thanks, Baek.”

-

Jongin took the stairs two steps at a time, barging into his apartment to grab the rest of his stuff. He was going to be late for work, but he didn’t think Joonmyun would mind…too much. It was a weekday anyways. They were never busy this early on a Monday.

He grabbed his books for his classes later, stuffed an extra outfit into his bookbag (because he didn’t want to be a walking billboard for EXOPLANET CAFÉ). Jongin mentally checked things off his list as he got them: wallet, cellphone, house key, andchanged into his work shirt and pants; with one last look around his apartment, Jongin dashed out. He contemplated taking the stairs but thought better of it.

He jabbed the button on the elevator and waited, tapping his foot. Finally the door opened as Jongin tried to adjust the strap on his bookbag.

“Wait!”

Jongin pushed the button to keep the door open as Lucy hurried inside, grinning at him.

“Thanks,” She said, huffing a little. “Good morning. You’re up early.”

“So are you,” Jongin commented. “What are you doing here?”

“I live on your floor, didn’t Baekhyun tell you?”

“No, I don’t think he said so.”

The elevator stopped at the eighth floor as Baekhyun got in, “Hi Lucy! Jongin. What’re you still doing here?”

“I had to grab my books,” He sighed. “It’s okay if I’m a little late though.”

“I’m going to show Lucy around today,” Baekhyun announced with a big grin. “We are going to register her for classes, too. Oh by the way, she’s enrolled at the same university as you.”

“You?” Jongin asked incredulously. “Baekhyun, you always get lost.”

Lucy looked uneasy at that statement.

“I do not!” Baekhyun crossed his arms. Then he turned to Lucy to whisper, “He’s a pathological liar.”

She laughed, “My life is in your hands today, Baekhyun. Thank you again for doing this.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Baekhyun rocked back on his heels, “I’m mostly free anyways.”

“You mean jobless,” Jongin supplied.

The elevator stopped and Baekhyun pushed Jongin out, “Go away. You’re ruining my day.”

“I guess I’ll see you later?” Jongin turned to Lucy. “Nice seeing you again.”

“Bye, Jongin.”

He grinned. He liked the way she says his name as if she was testing it out on her tongue. Her hair was pulled back into a pony tail today; loose strands fell softly around her face. Jongin decided he liked this look better as he ran to the bus stop.

-

Work was uneventful except for when Kris threatened to dock his pay if he was late again ("No, we're not," Joonmyun had patted Jongin's shoulder after Kris had walked away). When his shift was over, Jongin changed into his jeans and pulled on a hoodie over his wife beater in the backroom. He left his work clothes on the shelves to be picked up later.

“Ready?” He asked Sehun as he grabbed his bookbag from the floor.

EXOPLANET was close to their university; one of the reasons why Jongin applied for that job in the first place. It made his life easier to balance out.

“Where did you rush off to yesterday?” Sehun threw an apple at him as they made their way out of the café.

“Chanyeol and Baekhyun had a party.”

“And they didn’t invite me?” Sehun pouted.

“It was sort of a small thing to welcome our neighbor. You don’t live in our complex.”

Sehun still didn’t look like he appreciated being left out which made Jongin chuckled. Only Sehun could go from his stoic princely look to a pouting brat so effortlessly.

“Yeah we had lots of food and everything,” Jongin teased. “Kyungsoo made some of his best dishes, you missed out.”

That earned him a slap upside the head but Jongin thought it was worth it to see the sullen look on Sehun’s face when his friend stomped away.

-

“Jongin?”

He stopped twirling the pen mid-spin to look up, “Are you stalking me?”

Lucy gaped, then grinned, “Yes, I memorized your schedule from Baekhyun.”

“And you live on my floor. Sketchy.”

“You’ve figured me out,” She faked a dramatic gasp. “I moved all the way from Australia to stalk a person I didn’t even know; because I’m just crazy like that.”

Jongin chuckled, “Well, you could have fallen for me at the party and decided to stalk me.”

“Wow,” Lucy whistled. “I’m impressed.”

“By what?”

“How does such a large ego fit into such a small head,” She mused before walking away to sit behind him. “Better to stalk you with, m’dear,” Lucy stage whispered; Jongin tried for a straight face as their professor called on the class for their attention.

Throughout the lecture, Jongin resisted the urge to turn around. In his irrational mind, he wondered if she really was looking at him. The professor droned on and on whilst a headache built at the base of his skull. Maybe he should take that paid-vacation Kris had offered; maybe he should make sure to eat more regularly like Baekhyun had said (many times); Jongin scoffed, a lot of maybe’s and good advice but he wasn’t the type to listen.

When the professor signaled for the end of class, Jongin breathed out a sigh of relief. He was about to pass out.

“You okay?” Lucy asked, frowning. “You look all…woozy.”

“Just hungry,” Jongin grinned.

“Is this your way of asking me to out to lunch?”

“Uh.”

“I’m just kidding,” She laughed when he couldn’t get past the single syllable. “I have class right after this anyways.”

Jongin tried to squash down the sudden flare of disappointment, scowling slightly because he didn’t know where it came from.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” She asked again.

“Yeah. Sorry.” He replied curtly. “Erm. See ya later?”

“Okay?” She gave him an unsure smile and one last wave at the door before leaving the lecture hall.

-

Jongin met Sehun for lunch as per usual; but Sehun wasn’t really the company he wanted today – not that it justified why he wanted to have lunch with Lucy in the first place. They had just met and only had a few brief encounters. Lack of sleep was messing with his head.

He perked up a little when Tao joined them at the table because Tao’s presence would take some of Sehun’s attention away from him; Jongin wasn’t sure if Sehun could tell but he stopped listening to whatever the other boy was yapping about ten minutes ago.

“I…don’t get it?” Tao finally said in his accented Korean.

“What!” Sehun exclaimed. “Okay so it started like this…”

Jongin felt his life draining away as Sehun started retelling the story all over again.

-

“Hey so I heard Lucy is in one of your classes,” Baekhyun said later that night when Jongin came over for their weekly movies marathon.

“Uh yeah, Stars and Planets something something,” Chanyeol added around a mouthful of popcorn.

“Stars and Multi-planetary Systems,” Jongin corrected.

Kyungsoo looked up from his box of DVD’s, “She’s nice.”

“Yeah?” Jongin shrugged, “I kept running into her today though so it was a little awkward.”

“Maybe you’re meant to be,” Baekhyun wiggled his eyebrows.

“That’s the same thing you said to Lucy,” Chanyeol laughed.

Jongin grimaced, “You did not. Baekhyun – “

“She knows I was kidding, it’s okay,” Baekhyun quickly said. “Don’t worry.”

Kyungsoo held up his movie choice with a grin, “This one.”

“Not again!” Chanyeol whined. “I have that movie memorized by now.”

“It’s good!” Kyungsoo retorted. “Peter Pan is a classic.”

“Well, good for him but I don’t want to see it again. I might have to jump out of the window.”

Baekhyun grabbed Chanyeol’s shirt before he could get up, “I’ll go grab a new movie. Jongin, wanna come with?”

“No.”

“Scared you’ll run into Lucy again? Hey, wait – Jongin!”

“I am gonna skip out, I have exams to study for anyways,” Jongin called over his shoulder, wiping his hand on his shirt.

Someday he will have to pay for dumping that bowl of popcorn on Baekhyun’s head; but today he relished in the small victory.

-

Jongin fell asleep early for the first time in a long time that night. His dream sequence went from the usual: him at work; him dancing; him with his friends…to something slightly different. He was in a white room surrounded by wisps of smoke.

The air was a bit hazy as if his eyes were trying to focus under water. There was a figure in front of him, Jongin squinted; it was a girl. She was sitting in front of a canvas, right hand moving languidly across the white paper. He took a step further and realized she was painting something. A shadow. No. A silhouette. A figure with no face.

In whatever part of his brain that was still capable of rationality, he knew he had never seen her before. But his gut – no – something deeper inside of him recognized her. He was moving towards her as if he was being drawn. She disappeared before he got close enough; the room slowly melted away into nothingness; Jongin was outside, looking up.

There were millions of stars, galaxies worth of them glittering in the night sky. When he reached up, his hand passed through them as if they weren’t there; but he felt the singe of heat on his hand even if the stars weren’t solid enough to hold.Illusions, Jongin’s mind whispered: the girl, the painting, the room, the stars. But he had felt it, even if it was a dream, that instant gravitation - she was pulling him in.

When he woke up, Jongin couldn’t bring himself to get out of bed. Instead he replayed the dream over and over again in his head until it lost all meaning; until it became a monochromatic repetition – something bland, boring. Finally Jongin dismissed it as a crazy dream; rubbing sleep out of his eyes as he finally got out of bed and got ready for another day.

He was used to bland, Jongin thought as he pulled on his work clothes, because that was his life. It wasn’t a complaint, just something he had accepted. His life was routine and simple. And he liked it that way; nothing could ever go wrong with a simple routine. He knew what to expect, knew the next step.

He could leave the unpredictability, the volatile combustion the rare magnificence to the solar system. Even if space was uncharted territory now, Jongin knew that one day man would have seen enough, learnt enough, lived long enough for space to become simple and boring.