Magic Touch
Smultronstället"A little higher Jaebum-ah and you'll be even with Howon-ah, okay?" Lee Donghae, assistant coach of the soccer team, told the two soccer players who currently stood on ladders so they could pin up the banner they held. Said student immediately complied and when he'd reached the right height Donghae called for him to stop.
"That's great, you two! Let's move on to the next one, okay?" He asked, watching as they nodded their heads and pinned the banner before climbing down. Donghae motioned for them to follow him to the next area that was marked for a banner to be placed, dodging other students and teachers who were doing similar activities in the process.
Due to it being the week before their annual spirit week festival, which they held as a way to support the soccer team and their upcoming games, the school (both teachers and students alike) were in a frenzy to complete all necessary preparations for the events that would transpire the next week. All clubs had put their activities on hold in favor of setting up their respective booths as well as so the students could help out with their respective home room's booth.
Though the preparations could prove to be quite hectic, the week of fun that was up and coming would be more than worth it.
"Kim. Him. Chan! You're slacking off again!" Hyosung scolded the dance committee member who had, once again, been caught socializing instead of pinning up decorations like he was supposed to.
Himchan paused in talking to one of his classmates in favor of turning to their principal, his arms crossing. He pointed to Youngjae, who sat at a desk only a couple of feet away, writing in some books and whined, "If I'm slacking off, then so is he!"
Hyosung glanced at Youngjae and crossed her arms as well, "He's doing work that's too advanced for you."
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Himchan replied.
"It means you're too stupid for it." Youngjae replied easily, an almost bored tone in his voice.
Hyosung hid a small snort behind her hand, trying her best to give the junior a disapproving frown. "Youngjae-ah, that's not very... nice to say to your elder classmate..."
"Ah... sorry about that, noona." Youngjae apologized, bowing his head slightly to her and then turning his attention to Himchan once more. "It means you're too stupid for it, sunbae." He corrected himself, a sweet smile on his lips.
Himchan spluttered, pointing between the two of them in shock at their rude comments. "Yah! Noona, you started it - you can't just get onto him and then laugh!" Himchan continued to whine for a few minutes before he grabbed up his laminated letters and moved down the hall to post some more words up, all the while muttering up under his breath.
"I'm the principal - I can do whatever I want." Hyosung stated, not caring if the statement fell on deaf ears or not. She looked over at Youngjae, who was still snickering a little under his breath, and gave him a wink. "Keep up the good work with scheduling those booths, Youngjae-yah."
"I will, noona." Youngjae responded, offering the woman a smile and returning to his work. Truth be told, he would actually prefer to be walking around and posting up letters like Himchan but given that he trusted few people to finish this up he guessed he would stuck on it until the end.
"Watch out!"
Youngjae jumped at the shout, glancing up just in time to see a body crash into one of the tables, decorations spilling onto the floor in the process. He frowned worriedly as he watched the student, a sophomore whose name was Jongup if he remembered correctly, sit up from the boxes. His face was completely red with embarrassment but other than broken pride, he looked to be fine.
In a quick blur, there were three people at Jongup's side to help him up: Jaebum who had practically jumped down the step ladder to get to his brother, Daehyun who was about to prank one of the other soccer players while he was working and Junhong who had just walked down the hall to help with the streamers due to his height.
"Are you okay?" Junhong asked, surprised when Jongup grabbed Daehyun's hand instead of his or his brother's and stood up. Junhong eyed where he'd walked from, rubbing his shoulder absentmindedly and glared at the retreating student who had pushed him aside to get past him. 'Stupid jackass... I'll bet he pushed Jongup too...'
"Are you alright? What happened?" Daehyun questioned, tilting his head in concern.
"I wasn't paying attention to where I was going... but I'm alright." Jongup answered, cheeks flushing brightly with embarrassment from all of the attention being focused on him.
Jaebum gave his brother a dubious stare, "Are you sure? That looked like a pretty hard fall, Jonguppie." It wasn't that he thought the younger Moon was lying, but he hadn't missed the student who'd bumped into Junhong after leaving the area where his brother had 'fallen'. His brother had a penchant to be clumsy, but not that clumsy.
"I'm fine, hyung." Jongup answered, his tone edged with traces of annoyance. He really didn't want this to be such a big issue - it was embarrassing enough.
"Alright... if you say so..." Jaebum replied, feeling hurt that his concern was being brushed off but understanding at the same time because of how shy Jongup was. He patted his brother on the shoulder and left, but not before telling Daehyun and Junhong to keep an eye on Jongup.
Jongup looked at Daehyun and Junhong and gave them a smile, "You two can go back to what you were doing. I'm really okay."
Daehyun frowned and took Jongup's hand, dragging him along to where he'd been posting up flyers about buying raffle tickets. "Come on, I still have three more halls to do - help me with them?" He questioned, smiling at Jongup happily. This was a perfect chance for it to be just him and Jongup for a few minutes.
"Of course, hyung." Jongup smiled, cheeks a faint pink from the hand holding but he let the older teen continue to lead him nonetheless. The smile faded, however, when they came to a pause in front of the wall Daehyun had been working on. At least it was the one he thought he'd been working on, it was hard to tell because it was bare except for two posters.
"Um... hyung?" He pointed to the wall, "Shouldn't there be more posters on the walls?" He questioned, confusion in his eyes as he looked at Daehyun. He would've chalked it up to the other stopping in favor of helping him but Daehyun had been over here for a while before he'd fallen (gotten pushed).
Daehyun looked at the wall and grinned innocently. Too innocently. "Well you see, there was this great opportunity to prank a fellow soccer player, but then you fell and I wanted to come and check on you," He explained, shrugging nonchalantly.
"Also... since you're helping me, wanna help with something else?" He asked, leaning in close and showing the pocketful of plastic bugs he had. With a finger to his lips, he gently patted one of the posters already taped onto the wall, underneath it there was a lump. "When they take them down, they'll get a surprise - wanna help me with it?"
Jongup frowned slightly at the question, eyes on the mischievous grin Daehyun had on his lips. "But... Daehyun hyung... you—we could get into trouble." He said, knowing someone would remember who had put up the posters in the hallway. Someone like Yoo Youngjae - he remembered everything.
Still, even with the high possibility that they'd get into trouble, he couldn't deny that it sounded like a lot of fun too. He'd always wanted to prank someone even though he knew he wouldn't be very good at it.
Daehyun grinned brightly and shook his head, "Ah, even if we do, I'm sure the teachers won't care that much. It's just a harmless prank - definitely not as bad as a certain swimming pool thing that happened not long ago." At his words, he looked upwards and whistled innocently before turning a playful grin to Jongup again.
"Come on - we don't have to do all the posters - just a few. It's better that way... and maybe we can do something with all these little rubber snakes I have too, I know there's a certain someone who's terrified of them on the soccer team..." At this Daehyun leaned back some and looked straight at Shin Soohyun who was helping to move some tables out of storage.
Jongup followed the other's gaze to Soohyun, just vaguely remembering his brother mentioning one incident where the teen had refused to practice for a game after a snake had been found on the field. The idea of the older teen jumping around and squealing was already incredibly hilarious - there was no telling how it would be in real life.
"It... would be pretty funny..." Jongup agreed finally, offering the other boy a slight smile. He'd be lying if he said he didn't still have mixed feelings about the pranks, but Daehyun had said that they wouldn't be doing all of the posters and he was right that it wasn't as bad as the pool incident. At worst they'd be put on cleaning duty.
"Alright, I'll help you hyung." He nodded, now grinning.
Daehyun chuckled and nodded, "Great to have you on board them. We have to be discreet about the bugs - I'll show you." He glanced around and held a poster up at an angle, taping all but one side where he quickly slid in a plastic bug that was a bit flat. He then taped that side up, "Just like that - easy as pie..."
His stomach grumbled. "Ah, pie... I'm hungry."
"You're always hungry, hyung..." Jongup snickered softly at the older boy's mumble, hiding a small grin as he taped up a poster complete with the bug hidden behind it. Once that was done, he turned to get another poster only to pause when he saw Daehyun still pouting about the lack of food in his belly.
"If you want to get something you can, hyung. I'll be fine for a few minutes." He offered, smiling sweetly. His eyes brightened then, "Oh!" He gasped, digging into one of his jacket pockets and pulling something wrapped in a napkin out.
"I didn't feel like eating this at lunch so I was saving it, but you can have it if you want." He explained, unwrapping the object and revealing it to be a brownie, "It's not a pie, but hopefully it'll do..."
Daehyun's eyes fell onto the brownie, a small smile gracing his lips. He looked up at Jongup and tilted his head, "Really?" When Jongup nodded his head quite happily, Daehyun gently took the brownie from him and grinned brightly. He ate it slowly, savoring every last bite as though it was his last - he didn't care how dramatic it was.
Truth be told, Daehyun actually hated the brownies the school made, they were like cardboard, but today it was the sweetest brownie he'd ever eaten. A blush rose onto his cheeks after eating it and he quickly set back to work, thanking Jongup again.
"You don't have to keep thanking me, hyung. I'm just glad you like it." Jongup smiled at the older teen, a faint blush on his cheeks due to how appreciative Daehyun was for the brownie. He liked it though because it wasn't often he made someone so joyful because of such a small gesture. Seeing Daehyun like this... it made him feel accomplished and happy too.
"I can bring you a better snack tomorrow if you'd like?" He offered then, glancing from the plastic bug he had between his fingers and to Daehyun. He grinned, "I know the brownies aren't that good - even you have to admit that."
Daehyun looked at Jongup and laughed, his fingers running through his hair. "Ah, well, this one wasn't so bad - you must have a magic touch or something," He replied, the heat in his cheeks only growing. 'What a lame thing to say, Daehyun,' He scolded himself.
He coughed a bit awkwardly and smiled, "What kind of snack were you thinking of?"
Jongup hummed thoughtfully at the question, seemingly having ignored what the other had said even though he was still trying to process it in his mind. 'Magic... touch?' He thought, wondering if his hyung had lost his mind or something. He pushed the thought to the back of his mind though and shrugged his shoulders finally.
"I'm not sure yet. Do you like anything in particular? I wouldn't want to get something you didn't like..." He murmured, voice trailing off as his eyes took in the older boy's cheeks and how red they were.
"Hyung? Are you okay... your face is really red..." He questioned, leaning forward to get a better look at the redness because he didn't think someone's face was supposed to flush like that.
Daehyun quickly leaned away from Jongup, laughing a bit and nodding his head. "I'm fine! It's just getting a little hot in here - should we take a small break and get some fresh air?" He smiled brightly, "I'll let them know we're taking a small break okay?"
He quickly dashed off to let one of the teachers know, all the while fanning his face. 'Stupid cheeks betraying me...'
Jongup blinked slowly as he watched Daehyun all but run down the hallway, touching his cheeks absentmindedly. "It's not that hot..." He mumbled, running his fingers over his cheeks once more just to be sure. Nothing but a small trace of the warmth that was usually there could be found.
"Daehyun hyung is weird," Jongup decided then and there, laughing to himself as he turned to tape up a few more posters while he waited for the other boy. Even with how weird he was though, he was still fun to be around, that Jongup wouldn't deny.
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HAPPY NEW YEAR!
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