The loudest thing in Jongin's life is his class.

Honestly though, anything else is surrounded by silence.  When he gets home, it's there; when he goes to school and from school to home, everywhere – anywhere. Because that's the thing about silence: Once you accept it, it starts surrounding you, like a ghost following you, like a chronic sickness that haunts your life long, and there is no chance in going back. Because once you've accepted the silence, there is no possible way out, because every sound will be too loud, then.

(There is nothing Jongin hates more than loudness, and his class his loud. Conclusion: he hates his class. A lot. And he isn't really willing to give them a chance, at all.)

The loudest sound he can accept is the brewing sound of the coffee machine. It gives him calming chills, because the sound is predictable and constant. And the fragrance of coffee has always been pleasant in his life. (So did caffeine. One day, without him noticing, he realized that he was addicted to it.

Not like he didn't want to. It was a pleasant addiction.

It is a pleasant addiction.)

But Jongin does admit, he does like someone from his class. Liking as in, being physically attracted. That person is a quiet boy with big black eyebags named Kyungsoo. Jongin thinks he's fine, really. Because somehow – with no apparent reason – he thinks they're similar (having the same addiction of caffeine). But he somehow can't really approach him – maybe it's because of the silence that creeps around him, as well.

(Because it will be so so so loud afterwards. The rejection, his thumping heart that will break, the laughter of the classmates – it will be so loud, and Jongin likes the silence.

And he likes the situation they're in now. It's uncomplicated, tender and soft – and one-sided)

He sits down on his place (next to the window), and observes how utterly noisy the class is. Talking about the day before, or the last soccer match (or, God beware, League of Legends), things like those. His neighbor(s) isn't (aren't) like that, though. They are talking about literal nonsense. It goes from harassing to actual name-callings. And all of them with a big, wide smile (especially the taller one – not like the other isn't tall, he is, but the other one is just strikingly tall and lanky). Jongin recalls how the taller one is something like Yeol at the end (because they have two Yeols who are tall and have wide smiles), and the other is Myungsoo (his bank neighbor, who is usually quiet, but suddenly blooms up with the other Yeol). And they talk talk talk (and it gets on Jongin's nerves), but then, one day, the taller one (he has given up calling him Yeol, because it sounds weird) asks him, "you're… Jongin, right?"

"Hmm," he replies in agreement. Jongin dislikes his voice, that's why he usually tries talking as less as possible (maintain the silence as long as possible).

"The genius of our class," he adds. "Well, being a genius is still better than being an idiot, like I am."

"Don't say it like that!" Myungsoo snaps and punches the arm of his friend. "Or else you wouldn't have been with me here in this class."

"I know, right!" the taller says in a sarcastic, nagging voice, "I wouldn't have been with you in the class! I'd be so damn relieved!"

"Yah you !"

They end up laughing again, and Jongin forces himself to a smile. (He really needs the silence of coffee now.)

"What I'm trying to say is this," the taller says, his voice totally serious, "I know how you feel, being in a new class, going away from the familiar. Really, I do know it. So if there is something…" – his lips curve up to a smile – "then you can talk to me, it's fine."

Jongin forces himself to smile again.

"Thanks,…" (damn, now he really doesn't know his name), "…sunbae-nim."

"What sunbae-nim!" He laughs. "Sungyeol-hyung is just fine, really."

(Jongin just knew he had a Yeol at the end.)

He genuinely smiles, then (even if it's just a little smile, it still counts as one), "okay, hyung."

Myungsoo didn't say a word when Jongin stood up and went to the lockers, but he heard the comment loud and clearly afterwards.

"He really doesn't want to say your name, doesn't he?"

"If he doesn't want to, then let him be."

"Fine."

(That's why Jongin prefers silence: it never lets him down. It never deceives him. Because now, he feels deceived, even if probably more than two people talked behind his back.)

There is a call. Loudly, cruelly, the same standard tune every phone has. It feels weird, somehow, being interrupted just like that. (interrupting the silence just like that.) He takes a quick look at the phone and his heart makes a soft thump.

Do Kyungsoo.

God knows why he has his number (maybe from Facebook or other sites, nowadays social networks seem to know everything and everyone seems to post everything on them), but still, Jongin has this silent, nice feeling that blooms inside his chest. Something that can be usually achieved with caffeine.

He hesitates, and then presses the call away. (He likes to keep the silence going.

But the next moment, he feels unbelievably guilty.)

In class, Jongin doesn't want to look at the usual place he's looking (Kyungsoo's place), because he has pressed the call away (and gave away infinite possibilities). So he looks at Sungyeol-hyung, who silently reads a book. It makes Jongin wonder, can a usually talkative person even be silent? Jongin thinks about it the whole period (and gets scolded from the teacher, twice, which makes heads turn), and when there is the bell ringing for the break, he asks Sungyeol this question. At first, he looks a bit irritated, and laughs about it and Myungsoo joins in. (Maybe Jongin imagined this. Maybe. And maybe he is just imagining and interprets way too much into this – maybe it was just one moment before he got to talk again. But damn, he is so, so sure that he just didn't).

"But I gotta admit, it's an interesting question," Sungyeol says then, in a more serious manner. He takes out a sheet and starts doodling. Myungsoo watches him and smiles (towards him; he always smiles towards Sungyeol only).

"I thought about it all the time, you see," Jongin says (wow, why is he even so honest?) "I couldn't find an answer."

"Hmm. Well, when different minds come together, something beautiful might come out," Sungyeol says (and it's so unusual, that he says such things despite the image Jongin put up for him. Because Jongin is the type who likes to categorize persons, and he had categorized Sungyeol as the talkative man who can't keep still. Like an immature adolescent who says what he thinks. And the appearance only gives fire to the coal.)

"Right," Jongin says and nods. "Do you have an answer?"

Sungyeol shrugs (another unusual movement from him) and then the bell rings and the teacher is about to come and Sungyeol goes and pats Jongin (and presses a little note on his hand, he feels it, goddammit) and he nods and goes. When no one watches, Jongin unfolds the note.

Hurricanes aren't always loud, are they? And besides, I'm not an immature child.´

Actually, hurricanes were always loud and destructive, Jongin thinks. So he focuses on the second sentence.

And that is way, way more interesting.

I'm not an immature child.

Jongin reads it as: don't judge books by its title.

He really, really should learn to cherish this wisdom.

Even though Sungyeol acts like nothing ever happened, Jongin thinks they're closer now. Really, he can't tell it that exactly, because Sungyeol still talks with Myungsoo all the time, and makes fun of him all the time, and barely talks with Jongin except small talk (or maybe even tiny talk? It's not small, after all. It's always the same question : you fine, Jongin-ah?), but he still feels a closeness, tender and warm and nice (like silence.

And maybe, just maybe, not everybody on this planet is obnoxiously loud. Maybe there is an endearing loudness, somehow. Like the constant dripping of rain – loud yet endearingly loud, not obnoxiously loud.)

There is a call again. This time, Jongin picks up. (Because he doesn't want to feel bad, again. It's just because of that sole reason.)

"Jongin?" the beautiful voice that is Kyungsoo's asks.

"Yes? … sunbae-nim?" he asks.

"You can drop the honorifics. Only hyung is okay." Really, even if Jongin were blind, he'd still be in love with Kyungsoo. Because his voice is like honey getting into his soul, making its way through all his veins until his blood is thick and sugary (and will make his death. But Kyungsoo, Kyungsoo is worth the pain. Worth the death.)

"Fine…hyung." (The words just don't want to escape his mouth. At all. It's like his mouth is so, so much used to the silence, to saying nothing, that he wants to be silent forever.)

"Ah, Jongin, I wasn't there today-" (he wasn't?) "-and I'd like to know what kind of homeworks we had today."

"Uh…" he starts naming all homeworks they had today, it feels so automatic, because his mind is totally somewhere else. (he wasn't here today?)

"Ah. Thank you, Jongin!" Before Jongin can even form goodbye with his lips, the call ends.

And Jongin regrets it, once again. Simply because he fails in doing mundane small talks.

One day, Sungyeol and Myungsoo fight.

It's so different, so unexpected, that Jongin can't help but be surprised. (And it's s so, so loud. Louder than the brewing of coffee, louder than the silent dripping of the brown liquid, even louder than his class even.

It happens during the break, when everybody is already loud, and they call names rudely and loudly ("You son of a !" – "You ty bastard, you!") and Sungyeol hits with his lanky, tall body, and Myungsoo punches back, and it goes so fast that Jongin can't even say who leads and who doesn't, who is better and who isn't. They just fight. Yet Jongin is surprised, because he knows that they're best friends.

They fight and fight and fight, and everyone shouts, and some cheer for Sungyeol, and some for Myungsoo, and others whisper things like "weren't they friends before?" and yes, they were and it makes no sense to no one, and not in the least bit to Jongin. He watches them fight, and they don't even notice him (and it's fine, he supposes.

But what he doesn't seen, either – or whom he doesn't seem either – is Kyungsoo standing on the other side, watching them – or maybe him – too.)

And the bell rings and they still fight, and meanwhile everyone's going. And then, just like that, as if they just made sure that no one's there, they kiss. And it's just as angry as they fought just now. Angry fights, angry love, angryangryangry. And Jongin is still surprised.

"Are you sure you want to keep this relationship like that?" Sungyeol grunts, and his voice is so different from his usual, lightheartedly tone. "Act like we're best friends in school and all clingy once we get outta here? Not like I have a problem with friends with some perks," he says and sounded like he really had a problem with this.

"Look, Sungyeol-" Myungsoo, who was being pushed back on the locker, sounded quite pleadingly. "It's just-"

"That you have your friends, your popularity, right? That you have girls who can still swoon about you because apparently they can't when they find out that you love a boy, a handsome one as well-"

"No, for 's sake, I have no idea how you always get those ideas-"

They started quarreling again, but Jongin was still puzzled by how quiet the kiss was. Yes, angry, but somehow they still managed to be quiet at that time.

Maybe the sound of love is as tender as silence.

"Isn't it interesting?"Jongin's favourite voice muses. He doesn't turn around to face Kyungsoo; he knows it's him, and his voice is beautifully ethereal that he can't help but just listen. "The kiss was silent. But they're loud."

"I was thinking the same," he replies truthfully.

"I can't help but wonder, Jongin, if it that's the reason why you don't want to be in love," Kyungsoo says. "Because it's louder than silence. Love, that is. And everything that revolves around it."

Jongin doesn't reply; Kyungsoo counts it as yes (which is true)

"Well, to be honest, I was like that too, but then I met a person.

Jongin thinks he knows the answer.

"It's the person who refuses in looking at me."

Jongin chuckles, turns finally around and faces Kyungsoo, who smiles (it's so so so pretty, he thinks, and it suits to his big black eye bags a lot) and he softly replies, "Well, I think with the right person, the right time and the right place, every love becomes tender and pretty," with glancing to the quarrelling couple.

"Not like them?"

"Definitely not."

They got closer and closer and in the very end, their lips eventually reached out for a kiss.

(Love can't get prettier, Jongin decides.)

(It's been six months since they dated, and Jongin can't really remember the time where he hadn't had Kyungsoo.)

--

a/n:

no, not going to say a single thing. enjoy this as if it's raw meat hahahaha.

also, on a more important note,  I think I will take a break from AFF. But more on that later. All the best, heartsparks

p.s: and yes, this is what I call happily ever after.