a/n WE HAVE A SPECIAL GUEST TODAY SO PLEASE WELCOME HER WARMLY (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧*:・ﾟ✧

                “Hey man.”

                “WAHH!” Jongin spasms in his chair and practically rips his headphones off his head. “Dude, what the ,” he growls, when he sees Sehun grinning like the Cheshire cat behind him.

                “Where is everyone?” Sehun asks, looking around the eerily empty room.

                “Kris and Tao were fighting over who had the most balls so they went down to the Meeting Place to play the game. Everyone else followed cause they were placing bets.”

                “…The game?”

                “You know, the one where you stand in a crowded area and see who can yell ‘’ the loudest.”

                “Oh, that game. I didn’t realize it was called the game.”

                “Me neither, until about twenty minutes ago.”

                “So what’re you doing at Yixing’s computer?” Sehun asks, since Jongin was sitting at Yixing’s space instead of his usual beanbag chair.

                “Nothing.”

                “Really? Looked like you were listening to music to me.”

                “Yeah, that’s what I was doing.”

                “What were you listening to?” Sehun grins.

                “Nothing,” Jongin replies with eyes firmly glued to the computer monitor.

                Sehun laughs. “I can hear the music through the headphones, . You’re listening to that demo piece with Kyungsoo’s singing in it. On repeat, I might add.”

                “Shut up, okay? He has a good voice,” Jongin mumbles, cursing himself for getting caught.

                “Not gonna argue with you there. Yixing should consider fledging it into a full song. People would probably pay to hear that.”

                “I feel weird asking him though. It’s kind of a random request.”

                “Then talk it over with Kris and make him force Yixing into it.”

                “But then I’ll have Kris on my case, and I don’t think that’s ever going to count as the better situation.”

                Sehun sighs. “You think way too much.”

                “And apparently you don’t think enough.”

                Sehun whacks the side of Jongin’s head with his paperback.

—∞—

                Jongin jogs across the terrace to get to the Bladen Wing, checking his watch every five seconds. Kyungsoo texted him earlier to say that he had gotten out of his last lecture early and offered to join him for lunch, a kind of once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that Jongin is not about to waste.

                As much as Jongin would've liked to keep convincing himself that his feelings for Kyungsoo are either fleeting or non-existent, self-denial is a lot harder to achieve after Sehun’s mini-confrontation. He noticed, as the days wore on, that the thought of seeing Kyungsoo on campus are the moments he anticipates the most. It doesn’t matter that Kyungsoo has a busy schedule and is only able to see him for small increments at a time; as long as Jongin has the opportunity to say hello to him every day, to be able to make him smile and laugh at something Jongin said, then it doesn’t matter if he can’t see him for very long. 

                But at the same time, those very same impulses made his hands clammy with nervousness. Jongin's never been attracted to a guy before; hell, he's never been attracted to anyone this much, period. The things that used to come so easily to him before—the playful smirk, the bold brushes of hands and shoulders, the proud walk emanating with arrogance and uality—all of those things suddenly became so foreign to him the second he took one look into those huge, ever-curious brown eyes. Suddenly getting what he wanted isn’t so easy anymore. Suddenly it isn’t just a matter of want.

                So the plan today is simple. He’ll walk over, say hello, and then casually sling his arm around Kyungsoo’s shoulders. No big deal. They’ve known each other for weeks now, so there shouldn’t be any problem here, right? Totally natural.

                This is what Jongin keeps telling himself as he walks down the underground tunnel connecting the Bladen Wing to the humanities building, and as soon as he turns the corner he spots Kyungsoo standing in front of the entrance to the Market Place (which was really just a fancy name for the cafeteria). Kyungsoo hasn’t spotted him yet, and is busy scrolling through his phone, bag slung over one shoulder and a textbook tucked under the other arm.

                Jongin takes a deep breath to slow his heart rate and begins walking over, waiting until he's drawn close enough before opening his mouth to call out—

                “Kyungsoo!”

                The name freezes itself to Jongin’s tongue as he looks down to see a girl running towards Kyungsoo from the opposite end of the hall, with a smile stretching from ear to ear. Kyungsoo looks up at the voice and instantly mirrors the enthusiasm in her face, wide eyes slipping into crescent moons as he opens his arms with overwhelming familiarity to receive the girl. She pounces on him with enough force that Kyungsoo staggers backwards a bit, and they squeeze each other seconds too long before grasping hold of each other’s hands and squealing in excitement.

                Jongin turns on his heel and quickly walks away in the opposite direction.

—∞—

                “A girl?” Baekhyun whispers, as he, Luhan and Sehun watch a dejected-looking Jongin flipping through a textbook half-heartedly. “Why the hell did you pick a girl for? Now you’ve just made it look like Kyungsoo’s straight. Hell, for all we know he could be, I’ve never actually asked him about it, have you? Jongin’s not gonna make a move now that he thinks he won’t get the response he needs.”

                “Listen, I know what I’m doing. I’ve met this girl before. Trust me, this is going to work,” Luhan insists.

                “So, what? Jongin just ditched Kyungsoo after seeing the two of them together? Wouldn’t Kyungsoo have started wondering where Jongin had gone?”

                “Apparently, he texted Kyungsoo to say that he had to write a paper he forgot about last-minute and to head to the clubroom without him,” Sehun says.

                “The clubroom? But they’re still not here yet.”

                “Exactly.”

                “Ouch,” Baekhyun winces. “That’s gotta sting.”

                “Guys, what’s going on?” Minseok asks, rolling his chair over. “I don’t understand what’s happening here.”

                “Too bad. You weren’t there during the group planning, so you get to figure it out on your own,” Luhan says dismissively. “That goes for you too.” He stares pointedly at Tao, who’s sitting at his desk and giving the lot of them the evil eye.

                “C’mon! Even Baekhyun and Chanyeol are in on it! I thought we were bros,” Tao whines.

                “Like I said. You. Weren’t. There.”

                There’s a knock on the door at that moment, and it opens up to reveal Kyungsoo with said girl attached to his side. “Hey everyone,” he says, looking excited.

                “Hey. Who’s the girl?” Tao asks, raising an eyebrow.

                “This is my friend Jinri. She stopped by to visit me today since she doesn’t have any classes,” Kyungsoo explains, as the girl smiles brightly and waves. She had long, thick brown hair, clear skin and a cute face, and an eye smile to match Kyungsoo’s.

                “Hi Luhan,” she says, spotting Luhan in his tight-knit circle with the others. “Long time no see.”

                “Hey. You’re welcome to come in, I think we still have a few copies of the waiver left for you to sign.”

                “…We have waivers? What for?” Sehun asks.

                “Let’s just say that the clubroom has seen its share of incidents in its time.”

                “And the award for best housewarming statement goes to—”

                “Piss off Tao.”

                Kyungsoo leads Jinri inside and starts introducing her to everyone one by one, and Sehun watches as Jongin sits completely still and glances up woefully every few seconds when Kyungsoo’s back is turned to him. He had to agree with Baekhyun on this one—Kyungsoo and this girl looked pretty chummy already, and at this point Jongin looked as if he would never speak another word to Kyungsoo again—but apparently Luhan knew the girl, and was pretty confident about the turnout. All he could do now was sit back and watch how things unfold.

                “This is one of the new recruits, Jongin,” Kyungsoo says, motioning towards Jongin now, and Jongin stands up stiffly and plasters a polite smile over his face.

                “Nice to meet you,” Jongin says, shaking Jinri’s hand.

                “That should be my line. So you’re the famous Jongin I keep hearing about,” Jinri says casually.

                Kyungsoo’s eyes widen a bit and he turns to her in shock, shoving her arm. “Dude—”

                Sehun looks up in surprise.

                Jongin pauses. “Kyungsoo talks about me?” he asks, and everyone with the exception of Kyungsoo and Jinri immediately face-palm simultaneously.

                “Yeah, I’ve heard you’re a huge fan of his cooking. He appreciates having such enthusiastic eaters,” Jinri says, looking around the room (thereby completely oblivious to the way Kyungsoo relaxes at the immediate damage control). “I can imagine he probably gets a lot of that here.”

                “Oh,” Jongin says, deflating a bit. “So you guys are pretty good friends, huh?”

                “Yeah, we’ve pretty much grown up together. She was my neighbour for a bit when we were kids too,” Kyungsoo says.

                “And you always insisted that we walk to school together in the mornings,” Jinri laughs. “Oh my god, do you remember that Pororo lunchbox? You were still using that thing in like the third grade.”

                Kyungsoo flushes and shoves her arm again. “Would you stop telling all the embarrassing childhood stories first thing?”

                “Sorry, sweetie, you’re just too much fun to tease,” Jinri says, patting Kyungsoo’s cheek affectionately, and Jongin immediately drops his gaze to scuff at the ground with his shoe.

                “Did you want coffee or anything? There’s some in the pot,” Baekhyun offers, pointing to the coffee table.

                “There’s always coffee in the pot,” Tao adds, rolling his eyes. “I’m shocked Joonmyun hasn’t confiscated this stuff yet. All this caffeine can’t be helping all of our crackpot conversations.”

                “Not that Joonmyun’s ever around to actually act like the mom he is.”

                “Point taken.”

                “Thanks, but I just finished one, so I’m good,” Jinri says.

                “Well, I’ve got class in ten minutes,” Kyungsoo says, checking his phone. “I’m not sure how exciting the principals of climatology’s going to sound to you, so if you want you can hang out in the clubroom until I’m done?”

                “That’s okay, I’ll come with you. Maybe I’ll learn something interesting while I’m there,” Jinri says, hooking an arm with Kyungsoo’s.

                “Alright, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. I’ll see you guys later,” Kyungsoo says, waving as he leads Jinri out of the room.

                “Bye, guys!” Jinri calls out as they disappear down the hall.

                “She’s cute,” Minseok comments, as soon as they’re out of hearing range. “Where does she study again?”

                “I think she’s studying journalism at Ryerson,” Luhan says, tilting his head to one side as tried to remember.

                Something slaps against the ground loudly, and everyone turns to see that Jongin has dropped his textbook, staring at Luhan with his mouth hanging open in disbelief.

                “What?” Luhan asks, frowning.

                Jongin shakes his head. “Nothing. Absolutely nothing.” He picks his textbook up and promptly storms out of the room.

                “, he looked kinda angry just now,” Minseok says worriedly.

                “Relax, gentlemen. Everything will work itself out,” Luhan says smoothly. “The truth shall set them free.”

—∞—

                Sehun limps into the room, hunched over painfully as he shoves Yixing’s chair towards Luhan’s desk and wincing as he crashes into the seat. “Hey,” he says.

                Luhan looks up. “You look like . What the hell happened?”

                “The tryouts for Muggle Quidditch were today.”

                “…Did you just say Muggle Quidditch?”

                “Yeah.”

                “As in the game on broomsticks from Harry Potter?”

                “Yeah, but the Muggle version.”

                “Yeah, yeah, I got that. So how does it work?”

                “They use a volleyball for the Quaffle and dodge balls for the Bludgers. It’s like soccer, dodge ball and rugby rolled up into one game.”

                “No more Muggle Quidditch!” Kris snaps from his desk, pointing at Sehun with his pencil. “You’re the face of this group, we can’t have it getting bruised up from being tackled to the ground. And start eating some more, you’re so skinny I keep thinking you’re gonna break in half if someone accidentally bumps into you.”

                “Okay, okay, fine. I didn’t make it anyway,” Sehun sighs.

                “What position were you trying to get?” Luhan asks.

                “The Snitch.”

                “…You’re kidding.”

                “Nope. Basically I had to tie a sock with a tennis ball in it to my shorts and run away from the Seekers.”

                “That’s so jokes,” Luhan snickers.

                “So how is he?” Sehun asks.

                He didn’t have to specify a name for Luhan to know who he was talking about. Luhan glances at over Sehun’s shoulder at Jongin, who was staring a little too hard at his cellphone from his beanbag chair.

                “Still sulking.”

                “Is that Jinri girl still here?”

                “Yeah, her house is pretty far from here so Kyungsoo let her camp out the night. Should still be around for a couple of hours before she needs to get to her night classes.”

                “So how exactly was that supposed to change anything?”

                “What’s changing?”

                Luhan flinches back at the sudden breathing down his neck, and turns to frown at Jongdae. “You know, doing like that dangerously borders on being creepy.”

                “I missed all the action, what happened?” Jongdae asks.

                “Everything’s going as planned so far.”

                “Is it?” Sehun asks in surprise, just as a familiar voice begins to echo in the hallway, laughing as it approached the clubroom and mingled with the rapid-fire chatter of an accompanying soprano.

                Luhan perks up at the sound before a crafty grin forms on his face. “That’s them,” he says cheerfully, almost verging on an announcement, and Jongin looks up and stares at the doorway as Kyungsoo and Jinri walk inside.

                “But it tastes so good,” Jinri’s protesting. “And it makes for good cake decorations, I really don’t understand how you can’t—”

                “There are other white sugar-infested confections, okay, all of which I’d take in a heartbeat over white chocolate. I don’t think I’ll ever get over the fact that white chocolate isn’t actually made of chocolate.”

                “Wait, white chocolate isn’t really chocolate?” Sehun jumps in, looking horrified. “What have I been eating—”

                Luhan punches Sehun hard enough in the gut for the wind to get knocked out of the taller boy in one swift groan and subsequently ignores the way Sehun bends over in his seat, clutching his stomach and swearing under his breath, in favour of batting his eyelashes up at Kyungsoo and Jinri to feign innocence.

                “Hello again,” Jinri grins at Luhan, before glancing over at Jongdae and Chanyeol. “I don’t think I’ve met you guys yet. My name’s Jinri.”

                “Sup,” Jongdae and Chanyeol nod in unison.

                “So, what did you guys end up doing yesterday?” Luhan asks sweetly.

                “We just had dinner and did some catching up,” Kyungsoo says, grabbing Joonmyun’s empty chair and motioning Jinri to sit in it—something which did not escape Jongin’s notice, who was sitting in his beanbag with a scowl and trying to act uninterested, if the way he kept jerking his gaze back to his phone was any indication.

                “Did you cook anything special?” Luhan prompts.

                Sehun, half-recovered from the blow to his stomach, looks over at Luhan in confusion. “What do you think you’re—”

                “His cooking’s been improving,” Luhan cuts him off loudly, shoving a hand into Sehun’s face and pushing it aside.

                “Yeah, I told him as much yesterday. That chocolate cake was -worthy,” Jinri sighs blissfully, and nobody else takes notice but Kris quickly grabs a post-it note and scribbles Method #44: Kyungsoo’s chocolate cake on it in chicken scratch.

                Jongin’s eye twitches at Jinri’s choice of words, and Luhan inwardly smirks. “So I imagine there weren’t any leftovers then?” he asks.

                Jinri, bless her soul, completely misses the suggestive tone to Luhan’s voice and answers, “Most definitely not.”

                “Aw, what?” Chanyeol turns around in his seat then, looking disappointed. “Damn. That cake sounded pretty inviting too.”

                “Haha, no,” Jongdae looks over at Chanyeol with a tight smile, “I’m sorry, but I’m pretty sure I made it clear that any indications about the imaginative things you and Baekhyun do with food were to be left outside of the clubroom.”

                “I wasn’t going to use it for—”

                “Don’t you lie to me, Park Chanyeol.”

                “But I really wasn’t—”

                “If Kyungsoo baked it, you probably were.”

                Sehun leans in towards Luhan, now that the others were distracted. “Dude, you’re just making thing worse,” he hisses in a low voice. “Jongin looks like he’s going to implode any second now.”

                “Exactly. Now go help with that,” Luhan shoves on Sehun’s arm.

                “Wait, what?”

                “Trust me. Just follow my lead and go with it.”

                “But—”

                “I SAID GO,” Luhan shoves Sehun out of his chair, and Sehun kind of flails for half a second before he tumbles painfully to the ground.

                “OW! Hey man, not cool, I just told you I’m still bruising!”

                Kyungsoo looks over, momentarily torn away from Chanyeol and Jongdae’s argument over a supposed incident regarding a jar of marshmallow fluff. “Hey, are you okay?” he asks worriedly, moving as if to help Sehun up.

                Luhan was about to intervene because of course he’s fine, Sehun’s totally fine, why wouldn’t he be fine, and maybe kick Sehun towards the beanbags while he’s at it, but Jongin, out of nowhere, beats him to it by shooting up from his chair and racing to Sehun before Kyungsoo could reach him.

                “Yep, he’s fine,” Jongin insists, looping two arms underneath Sehun’s armpits and half-pulling him upright, albeit not very effectively. “He’s just a little sore, he can handle it.”

                “You sure?” Kyungsoo asks, even as Sehun squirms in Jongin’s grip because he’s still not really on his feet and Jongin’s just kind of holding him there.

                “Yeah, yeah, everything’s cool, don’t mind us,” Jongin says, and then he’s dragging Sehun away towards the beanbag chairs while Luhan swoops in to catch Kyungsoo’s attention again.

                “Easy, easy, take it easy—!” Sehun flails again as Jongin drops him like a stone onto one of the chairs. “Wow. Thanks a lot, .”

                “Don’t mention it,” Jongin replies moodily, taking the seat opposite from him and resuming his scowling.

                Sehun shifts to get into a more comfortable position in his chair. “What’s wrong? Upset cause Kyungsoo’s childhood sweetheart’s hanging around?”

                “Shut up,” Jongin growls, grabbing his bag and pretending to look for something inside of it.

                “Chill, bro, I’m just kidding, they’re not sweethearts,” Sehun looks back towards the others. “Not yet, anyway.”

                Jongin looks over at him. “What do you mean, not yet?”

                And at that moment Luhan glances at Sehun and flashes him a quick thumbs-up, and Sehun’s mouth falls open because ohhhhh, now he gets it.

                “Oh, um,” Sehun clears his throat, wracking his brain, “well, you know, she seems pretty nice and stuff. Yeah, nice. And pretty. Don’t you think she’s pretty?”

                “Is she?” Jongin says darkly, looking at Jinri like there was nothing else that he wanted more in that moment than to have fair skin and long brown hair. “I didn’t really notice.”

                “Well, she is,” Sehun says pointedly. “And they’re childhood buddies. Like, she’s literally the girl next door. And she’s got a sense of humour, at least enough to tease Kyungsoo, anyway.”

                Jongin falls silent.

                “They seem to get along,” Sehun continues, struggling a bit, but Luhan’s looking at him again and motions to keep it up. “Uh, a lot. I mean, you know, they seem to really enjoy each other’s company.”

                Luhan motions towards him more impatiently, and Kyungsoo catches the movement out of the corner of his eye and makes as if to glance over at what Luhan’s looking at, but Luhan grabs hold of his face and spins it back in Jinri’s direction.

                Jongin looks back at Sehun, except now his expression was completely void of all his previous slow-boiling anger, and is replaced instead by a heavy look of uncertainty. “You think so?” he asks, in a tone that almost borders on fear.

               “Yeah, I do. And you know, it’s probably only a matter of time before a certain someone else,” Sehun strongly emphasizes, “takes notice of that, and starts thinking that maybe spending even more time with her would probably just be a good idea. Except with a certain added context to it—”

               And when Jongin finally, finally, shoots up from his seat for the second time that day, Sehun heaves a sigh and falls back, exhausted.

               “Kyungsoo!” Jongin nearly yells, so that everyone stops and looks over at him at the same time, and the sudden attention causes Jongin shrinks back a bit, immediately embarrassed.

               “Uh, sorry, um—can I talk to you for a minute?” Jongin asks, in a more controlled tone.

               “Sure,” Kyungsoo replies, looking slightly taken aback as he follows Jongin out of the clubroom, and Jongin is careful to lead them as far as possible from the clubroom and the remainder of the voices inside, who were slowly resuming their earlier shouting match.

               “So, what’s up?” Kyungsoo asks once they’ve stopped, leaning against the wall.

               . Jongin had pulled him out of there on a whim, simply wanting to place some immediate distance between them and Jinri, but he hadn’t actually thought of a decent excuse for doing so. Now that he had Kyungsoo alone, though, he might as well make use of the situation. All he knew was that Sehun’s words were scaring the out of him, and he needed to clear this up, now.

               “Um,” Jongin wipes his sweaty palms on his jeans awkwardly, “you and Jinri…are you guys, like, exclusive or anything?”

               Kyungsoo blinks. “What?”

               “I mean, do you like her?” Jongin tries again, trying not to spit the words out.

               There’s a short pause, and Jongin almost has heart failure on the spot—almost—but then Kyungsoo’s laughing, so hard that he clutches his stomach with one hand. “Oh my god, no,” he gasps, wiping tears that are starting to form in his eyes. “No, definitely not. She’d be a nightmare to date. Besides, we’ve known each other for too long. It’d be like dating a sister.”

               The rush of relief that surges through Jongin is so inexplicably euphoric that he very nearly grows light-headed on the spot, and without realizing it he ends up beaming down at Kyungsoo, letting out a breath that he hadn’t realized he been holding until he felt the lack of strain in his chest.

                It’s short-lived, though, because Kyungsoo finally manages to calm down enough to say, “Why do you ask?”

                Crap. “O-Oh, um, it’s just that…I’ve…” Jongin’s brain struggles for a good excuse, “I, uh…I know this guy…” –wait— “…who might be interested in you?”

                Wow, Jongin. Really, excellent work, just fantastic.

                “Really?” Kyungsoo says, looking genuinely surprised, as if the notion of someone being interested in him was completely unheard of.

                “Uh, yeah, and I just wanted to check if you were available. For him,” Jongin says quickly. “I was checking for him.”

                Shut up shut up you are digging your own grave right now—

                “Oh, okay. Wow. Do I get to meet this person?” Kyungsoo asks, eyes gleaming a bit with anticipation.

                .

                “Ah, not yet. He’s a little shy,” and Jongin has to fist his hands into his pants to keep from punching himself in the face. “A secret admirer, I guess you could say. He’s still, um…working up the nerve.”

                 Someone please stop me I’ll take anything I’ll even take a soccer ball to the groin from Luhan just someone stop me Jesus H Christ—

                Jongin doesn’t know whether he should rejoice or throw himself out the window when he sees Kyungsoo blushing a bit at the words. “Cute,” he comments, and Jongin dies a little on the inside. “Well, um, I don’t really know what to say, except that he might want to make a move before somebody else does? Wouldn’t want to risk waiting too long and missing the opportunity,” Kyungsoo says, grinning a bit. “Oh, but don’t tell him you said anything to me, I promise I’ll keep quiet.”

                “Oh, yeah, sure,” Jongin says, but he’s babbling a little bit because Kyungsoo’s words are still ringing in his head.

                He might want to make a move before somebody else does.

                “Well, now that that’s cleared up for you, I should probably go make sure that Jinri’s still intact and that the others haven’t dealt her too much psychological damage…”

                “Wait!” Jongin bursts out, stopping Kyungsoo. “I…uh…I was trying to recreate your kimchi spaghetti the other day but, um, things got kind of messy,” Jongin says sheepishly, “and I was wondering if…I mean…would it be okay if you taught me how to make it sometime?”

                “Really?” Kyungsoo laughs, eyes twinkling. “I’m glad you liked it so much, although if you want it that badly I can just make you some more,” he offers.

                The tips of Jongin’s ears turn pink. “I’d really like that, too, but I’d still appreciate the cooking class, if that’s okay with you.”

                “Sure, sounds like fun,” Kyungsoo nods. “I’ll text you to let you know when I’m free.”

                “Cool,” Jongin grins back dopily, but once Kyungsoo’s turned around and he starts following him back to the clubroom his lips pull into a slight frown because, according to Jongin, Kyungsoo now had a secret admirer that wasn’t him.

                Great. Now what the am I supposed to do?

Yes that's right today's guest was f(x)'s Sulli WAHHHHHHH

Yeah cause apparently her name means "the truth" in English so that was why Luhan made the pun about the truth setting them free GET IT

I am a sad, sad excuse of fanfic author

Plus I have legit seen this gif 3746295 million times and did not realize it was her until recently wow someone please punch me in the face

So since things are at a relatively calm point in the wait for EXO's comeback right now (at least, as of May 20th 2013 at 10:37am EST) I decided to indulge you guys on the thing that is the seventh chapter of this weird- fic. Watch like a teaser video or something come out ten minutes from now I swear to god

In other news this chapter came out wayyyy longer than I thought it would. And also completely different from what I'd originally planned but I think I like this better anyway.

You guyses comments are the bestest I LOVE YOU SO MUCH 

LET US HUG EACH OTHER AND CRY OVER TEASER PHOTOS AS WE AWAIT THE COMEBACK