A/N: I know that Jinki and Jjong should look young in this fic (because, hey, high school), but I can’t help but imagine Jinki like this

And Jonghyun like this

Just humor me, please. >.>

Except, you know… attending high school… and in the same grade… with no uniform but still like the schools in Korea where you stay in one classroom all day… yeah. v.v;;;

On different note, Happy Belated Birthday Jonghyun! Saranghae~ <3

~~

His name is Lee Jinki, otherwise known as resident nerd of Seoul International High School graduating class of 2013, getting better grades than you could ever dream of receiving. Normally people would leave him alone like his first three years in high school because he really did nothing wrong, but at the end of last year someone caught him kissing a male senior after school and his reputation took a turn for the worse.

It did not help that no one really knew anything about him except that he was smart and gay, which did not bode well with anyone, hence the graffiti reading ‘’ on his locker door and the crestfallen yet somewhat detached look on his face as he ignored the incriminating text and opened the combination lock to get to his belongings. He was lucky that no one figured out his combination yet, or else he would suffer hell in his education on top of the scarring high school experience.

The honest truth was that Lee Jinki is a really captivating guy with a really charming smile once you got to know him, as some people secretly already knew, but it was too late to change the minds of his tormenters and that was that. Such were the laws of high school and not one person stepped up to change anything because at the end of the day, Lee Jinki was still Lee Jinki and he still kissed a guy at the end of last year and he was still gay.

Jinki made his way past the aggressors in the hallway who shouldered him as he walked by, and finally reached his classroom. He sat down in the very front row, right next to the teacher’s desk, and stared straight ahead at the board as he waited for the first class of the day to begin—calculus. He ignored the disgusted stares directed at him, the spitballs pelting the back of his head, and the crude murmurs attacking his innocence like he had to do every day since school started up again three months ago, opting instead to listen to the music blasting through the ear buds plugged into his ears until class began and the attacks died down in the wake of their homeroom teacher, followed later by the math teacher.

So the conclusion remained that Lee Jinki was an unfortunate soul who now suffered a bad reputation simply because of his uality, and you would think that he was very depressed and miserable due to it, but Lee Jinki was a tough guy and he did not give two s what people thought about him—he would be out of high school in less than a year and off to bigger, better things. Yeah, there were obstacles in his way right now, but nothing that would stop him from getting that scholarship to America where he would go to college and make something of himself in the medical field like he planned to do.

Right now he felt like a big fish in a small pond but things would change because Lee Jinki dreamed big and no one questioned Lee Jinki when he dreamed big—but that was mainly because no one except his teachers knew about his ambitions, which was fine by him; the less people who knew, the less publicity the scholarship would get, and that worked out for him just fine.

Now as Jinki sat in the front of class, there was someone with an equally if not somewhat more forgiving bad reputation who lay fast asleep at his desk all the way in the back of Calculus AB.

His name is Kim Jonghyun, otherwise known as the resident misunderstood bad boy of Seoul International High School graduating class of 2013, stealing your girlfriends’ hearts with his impeccable voice and guitar playing in the school’s courtyard since the moment he moved here a few weeks ago.

Obviously, this did not go over well with many of the guys at Seoul International, and more often than not Jonghyun would find his things missing, whether it was from his locker or his desk because Kim Jonghyun was not as fortunate as Lee Jinki to get bullies who did not know how to figure out combination locks.

The real reason Kim Jonghyun transferred to Seoul International was because he had been kicked out of his previous school for punching some guy’s front teeth out as said guy had insulted Kim Jonghyun’s friend, and no one, I repeat no one insulted Kim Jonghyun’s friends except for Kim Jonghyun and maybe his other friends, but that was another story for another day.

Push came to shove and his mother forced him to transfer a good distance from home to Seoul International where he lived with his dad in the city to rehabilitate, whatever that meant. Jonghyun came from a small high school out in the country where there were only one hundred students in his grade, so it was different for him to suddenly be surrounded by over one thousand of his peers daily in the hallways, no longer the center of attention like he used to be—little did Jonghyun know, he was still the center of attention, but that did not stop him from feeling like a small fish in a big pond.

The fact that Jonghyun punched some guy’s front teeth out got around fast, and when he showed up on his first day, quiet and reserved because there were too many people it intimidated him, he was dubbed ‘misunderstood bad boy’ and girls started falling for him left and right. The whole thing escalated that same day at lunch, when Jonghyun skipped his meal and went to the courtyard to practice guitar because he was in a garage band back at home and he did not want his playing skills to get rusty, and he sang to himself because he felt kind of lonely, but no one really knew that. Instead, hundreds of ears listened to him sing and the school was in an uproar ever since.

Jonghyun woke up when the bell rang to signal lunch, and he blinked open his eyes blearily, ignorant to the way the females stared at him with fan-girl eyes and males glared at him like their lives depended on it. He would have noticed if he cared more, but he did not, and he remained blissfully unaware of the world like he has been since he first got here. He just wanted to graduate and go back home to his garage band because Kim Jonghyun just knew they were going to make it big, and when Kim Jonghyun knew something was going to happen, no one questioned him.

Everything changed one day when Lee Jinki could not find his lunch in his backpack for the life of him, and to his horror he realized that someone stole the lunch his mother so lovingly made for him early that morning. There was no way he was going to go to the cafeteria where he would be subject to booing or perhaps projectile food, and the courtyard was out of question because then he would probably just get terrorized outside where no teachers would stop a group of guys from beating him to pulp; Jinki could hold his own one-on-one, but when it got to unfair fights with more than two people, Lee Jinki was as good as dead.

So Lee Jinki decided to trek up the stairs to the school’s roof, where it was near freezing because the elevation made it windier and colder than it was down in the courtyard, but at least he was safe and no one in their right mind would come up here unless they planned to freeze to death. Jinki did not plan such a death, but he wanted to go somewhere less suffocating than a classroom and this was the next best thing. Luckily he had his fluffy jacket keeping him warm and scarf wrapped around his neck twice. He sat against the railing, ear buds plugged into his iPod, cold hands stuffed into his pockets, and red button nose buried into his warm scarf, closing his eyes as he swayed his head to the music.

If there was one thing and one thing only that could make Lee Jinki happy, that would be music; listening to it saved him from so much grief during his eighteen years of life, keeping him looking towards the future when he felt like he could go no further. So it was moments like these where Jinki would unconsciously start singing to himself, and being as alone as he was on this desolate rooftop, he felt no self-consciousness.

Right then Lee Jinki decided that he quite liked it up here by himself; he might just make it a habit.

What he did not know was that a certain Kim Jonghyun was also freezing his off sitting on the other side of the roof, obscured from Jinki’s vision by the large roof access door stationed between them. Jonghyun, despite being known by many as a notorious bad-, was quite shy and instead he let his heart race wildly in his chest as he listened to the mystery person sing, unsure if he should make his presence known because clearly the other guy had no clue he was also here. However, Jonghyun had no desire to make the unknown singer stop like he knew he would when interrupted; Jonghyun himself had a great voice, vibrant and moving, but never before had he heard a voice as soulful and penetrating as the person on the other side of the access door.

So instead he closed his eyes and listened to the soothing notes, breathing in slowly to get the full effect of the phenomenal sound, ears straining to listen past the roaring of the wind. He itched to sing along, to join in and harmonize their voices, and what a beautiful sound they could make together if given the chance; this was just another thing that Kim Jonghyun knew and should never be questioned.

Alas, he never did build up the guts to join because when he finally made his mind to sing along, the untimely bell rang, signaling five minutes to get back to class. Jonghyun got up with a sigh, waiting for the mystery singer to make his way down the steps before following him because Jonghyun felt like he failed the other person somehow by not being brave and subsequently felt embarrassed in the face of his cowardice.

Back in class Jonghyun kept his ears open in case he heard that voice again, but what he did not know was that the owner of the lovely voice, Lee Jinki, tried his best to not exist during class and in the hallways, so accordingly not a word escaped past those pouty pink lips the rest of the day.

The next day it was just Jonghyun’s luck that when the lunch bell rang, instead of racing straight to the roof in order to hide before the mystery singer showed up as he originally planned, the teacher called him to the teachers’ office. He stood in front of his math teacher’s cubicle with his head hung low in utter disappointment, not listening to a single word the teacher spoke to him about his dangerously low grade in calculus; instead his head filled with thoughts of missing out on that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity yesterday all because he was being a coward. Where did that ‘bad boy,’ self-righteous, upfront Kim Jonghyun from when he punched that one guy’s teeth out go the other day when he needed him?

Just as he anticipated, when he finally made it to the top of the steps and looked through the large window in the door ten minutes into lunch, the mystery singer was nowhere to be seen. Who knew if the owner of that incredible voice would ever come back? It had only been by pure chance that Jonghyun had even gone to the roof yesterday—perhaps it had been same with the stranger?

So, with a mourning sigh, Kim Jonghyun opened the door and made his way to the railing, looking through the chicken wire net to see the courtyard where students moved about. He sung to himself the song the mystery singer sang; it was an old song that not many people knew, but it was a beautiful song that made his heart swell.

“You can’t, you can’t, don’t leave like this.
Please just one more time, one more time, hold me in your arms again.

The next time I close my eyes to meet you,
Hold me as I stay still in that spot.”

It was then by pure chance when Kim Jonghyun suddenly turned around to go back down the stairs, he instead he came face to face with Lee Jinki.

Resident misunderstood bad boy, meet resident gay nerd.

Jinki’s eyes were wide in disbelief, although not as wide as Jonghyun’s; he had seen this Lee Jinki in hallways, had read his name as the second one on the rank list of their graduating class, but knew absolutely nothing about him.

“You heard me yesterday?” Jinki asks in that lovely voice of his and Jonghyun’s breath is taken away because God could not have given this perfect specimen of a man Lee Jinki a better voice to go along with that endearingly sweet face, those small crescent-shaped brown eyes obscured behind a pair of large-framed glasses, his fat pink lips that parted slightly to reveal bunny, buck-teeth, with cheeks and nose tinged bright pink because of how damn cold it was on the roof.

Jinki was too busy processing that someone known throughout the school for his amazing voice had actually heard him sing, and now utterly embarrassed he felt the back of his neck getting hot and prickly despite the freezing cold, cheeks coloring deep red.

He could not help but feel slightly jealous of this Kim Jonghyun fellow; he was a good-looking guy, whose handsome face made up for his lack in height, a small blemish that no one seemed to notice. He had warm eyes and an even warmer smile, which was the main reason why so many girls swooned over his every move; not that Lee Jinki wanted to get girls—that much was obvious—but it must have been a nice thing to be, attractive.

Jinki did not know he was just as eye-catching as Jonghyun, just with different features that made him so, but who really knew how beautiful they were without letting insecurities cloud their vision?

“You are beautiful,” Jonghyun blurted out, because he could not let this chance slip by again, even if his voice was barely above a whisper, and he blushed when he realized that he had said the wrong words. “I-I mean, your voice. Your voice is beautiful.”

Jinki just stared back, eyes seemingly getting wider. His pulse quickened, butterflies fluttering in his stomach at the compliment. “I am?” he murmured back in response, and then he blushed darker when Jonghyun changed his statement, disappointment flickering slightly in his eyes. “I-It is? Thank you.”

Jonghyun wanted to fix his blunder, because the last thing he wanted was for Lee Jinki to get the wrong idea, but at the same time he wanted to say exactly what he felt at that moment. “Not that you aren’t. Beautiful, I mean. Because you are.”

The two boys stood awkwardly in front of each, each blushing, hoping the other would mistake that the redness in their faces was the result of the harsh wind blasting against their faces and chapping their lips.

“I, uh, would like to hear you sing again, if that’s okay,” Jonghyun finally spoke up.

Flustered, Jinki shook his head. “I get embarrassed,” the taller admitted, but Jonghyun only smiled back.

“You shouldn’t be—your voice blew me away yesterday.” Once out of his mouth, the words sounded sappy to Jonghyun and he wished he could take them back, changing them instead to sound less like a pick-up line because that was exactly what it sounded like to him.

But when Jinki grinned in reply, crescent eyes practically disappearing behind the apples of his cheeks, suddenly all the awkwardness of the whole confrontation was worth it so long as Kim Jonghyun would get to be friends with this Lee Jinki.

As the days passed by, Jonghyun did eventually get Jinki to sing for him, reveling in the elder man’s cute flush as he sang out the words. He joined in this time, and it really was just as phenomenal as he thought it would be; Jonghyun was always right, but this he already knew.

Jinki never got that scholarship to America because the first in the class won it instead, however Jinki did not feel as bad about it as he thought he should be because he had gotten used to Jonghyun always being around, and maybe leaving to America for a few years would break this divine friendship that started flowering stunningly in the months following their first meeting.

Graduation night their friendship came to fruition when Jonghyun kissed a surprised Jinki in front of the whole school and no one said anything because Jonghyun had been in and out of detention most of the year for beating up Jinki’s bullies, most of whom were missing their front teeth. Jonghyun found it more of an accomplishment than anything, and he did not get into too much trouble because after all he was defending his friend—well, boyfriend now. He did get in trouble for the kiss however, spending the day after graduation in the principal’s office with Jinki to serve out this last detention sentence.

Jinki was still mad at him for that little show, but he got over it eventually, enough that when he made friends at the hospital where he worked many years later, he laughed about how the lead singer of the band Shine confessed his undying love for him at the end of graduation night by kissing him for all eyes to see.

It was amazing to both men that, after all the bad things high school had been for them, the only details either could remember were those precious moments that they froze together on the rooftop and just sang until their lungs gave out.

~~

A/N: Although the ending is inconspicuous (you can decide for yourselves if you want them to end up together or not) like this, my personal hope was that they are still together after high school. Call me a romantic, I don’t care—I’m a er for a fairytale ending okay. ;w;

So I tried out yet another new writing style (I’m all about trying new styles these days lol xD).
What did you guys think? Please let me know in the comments! I really appreciate your feedback! ^^

And again, Happy Birthday Jjongie!
You make me irrationally angry with your perfection~
(Yes, it is still April 8^th where I live, heehee :3)

Oh yeah, the song lyrics are from JongYu’s duet “Please, Don’t Go.”
It’s really such a beautiful song~ (and their voices are just asdfghjkl)