prompt: Jongin plays with the nerdy Krystal because of a bet, inadvertently falling for her but Krystal finds out the truth behind their relationship.

pairing: kaistal

it’s just a dream.

or maybe it’s not, but still, if there’s one thing krystal can’t believe would ever happen in a million years (even if she is to sacrifice her most favorite photo of him or chant weird words to get him to like her), it would be the jongin asking her out.

it’s just extremely impossible. krystal is a freak (according to the other students), a nerd who’s got nothing better to do than to stick her nose in those thick books. but what’s wrong with being a nerd? what if she merely preferred to be intelligent than to be stupid, or to be thoughtful than to be vapid? she just couldn’t understand.

and then there’s jongin—the prince charming of fairytales, the johnny depp of winona ryder, the dream of anyone

but it happened anyway.

on her birthday (Oct 24^th) at exactly 8:53 in the morning, the jongin asks her out with flowers in hand. “krystal, would you be my girlfriend?”

happy, she stammers a yes.

it feels similar to those fairytales she read when she was young, or those romance novels she bought from the bookstore every fridays. love is amazing, beautiful, and it comes in the form of kim jongin.

they hang out every after class is over. sometimes, jongin takes her to the park where they just basically talk about anything, or to the amusement park where they try all the rides courtesy of the guy, of course, or just by the open field where she waits at the bleachers and watches him practice.

things like that, despite how petty it is, matter to her most.

and maybe she’s beginning to fall a little.

one day, her friend suzy tells her to be careful because there’s a rumor going around that jongin’s a liar.

“he seems sincere to me,” krystal happily supplies, her eyes glowing.

suzy doesn’t understand why; jongin is gorgeous and he’s got really nice eyes, but what’s a pretty face if you haven’t got a nice heart?

“sometimes, you can’t explain what you see in a person,” krystal equips. “it’s just the way they take you to a place where no one else can.”

a month passes and the happiness easily fades away. suzy was right; jongin was, and still is, a liar.

the deal was to make her fall in love with him in less than two months, and then when she finally did, he would have to break her heart. she overhears him talking to his two friends, chanyeol and baekhyun, earlier when he thought she was gone.

how’s the deal coming? baekhyun sounds amused. people have been saying you spend an awful lot of time with her lately.

chanyeol laughs. you’re not falling for the nerd, are you? because that’s basically breaking our rules.

no worries; she’s unimportant to me. the deal is still on.

and just with that, the things fell apart more quickly than she could say his name.

“hey, i called you and left you messages. were you avoiding me?”

don’t even try looking at him, she reminds herself, or else you’ll change your mind. “busy.”

“are you sure? because suzy said-”

“jongin, let’s break up.”

she notices jongin becoming stiff, or at least, that’s what she saw. and it is then confirmed that for the entire month, jongin never really liked her. it has always been a wishful thinking, and there’s nothing more krystal could ever ask but to forget the pain.

“wait, wha-? what did you- did you just say ‘break up’?”

“yes.”

“but why?”

krystal stares at him, hard. “why not? jongin, you were about to break up with me anyway. the deal’s over. congratulations, i love you and now you can break my heart. i’m making the first move so it’s going to hurt less later.”

flabbergasted, jongin’s eyes widen. “how did you know about that?” he whispers guiltily. he doesn’t even have the heart to look her straight in the eye.

“doesn’t matter,” she mutters coldly. “aren’t you happy you won? why don’t you tell your friends about it now, how the great kim jongin has yet conquered another heart.”

“krystal, i can explain-”

she abruptly stands up. “you were supposed to be different,” she whispers, her voice breaking. tears well in her eyes. “i tried to convince everyone you were different, that you weren’t like the other guys who wanted to break hearts. but hey, it’s not the first time i’m wrong.

“it’s just- out of all the people who could have ripped me to shreds, why on earth did it have to be you?”

she leaves, and although she’s in pain, she almost wished jongin could have ran after her. but he doesn’t.

she realizes then that she loved her most when he loved her least. and she wishes she didn’t.