Jongin felt something stabbing him in the ribs, but he didn’t actually care because he was exhausted and he knew it was probably just Kyungsoo trying to wake him up for some schedule that he didn’t recall but regardless he didn’t want to go to. After all, his bed seemed extremely uncomfortable today for some reason, and that didn’t help his tiredness or lack of desire to wake up ever.


“Kim Jongin.”


“Just ten more minutes, hyung,” he mumbled in response.


There was a murmur of laughter and Jongin furrowed his eyebrows because what, did the entire band come in to wake him up this morning? The jab in his side got more persistent and he groaned, eventually giving in and lifting his head away from his pillow (which felt suspiciously hard and cold) and glaring over at the source of his abdominal pain.


As it turned out, it was Sehun, not Kyungsoo. He should have guessed, really, since that kid was literally and figuratively a pain in his side on a regular basis, and Kyungsoo would normally be less violent about it and gently tap his shoulder or something adorable and motherly like that. He glared at the younger boy, swatting at the pencil he was using to stab him and sending it flying across the linoleum floor.


The first warning that went off in his head that something was clearly not right was the fact that their dorm room definitely had varying shades of blue commercial carpet.  He blinked the sleep out of his watering eyes and wiped the drool off of the corner of his mouth with the tan sleeve of is uniform cautiously, and froze because why the hell was he wearing a uniform in his bedroom when he graduated like a year ago.


“If you’re done snoring, Kim Jongin, please come up and answer the question on the board,” a stern voice said, and Jongin, now wide awake and fully aware of the fact that he was in a high school classroom, slowly turned his head toward the teacher.


“Uh,” was his most logical response because seriously he had no idea what was going on. “I’m just a little confused because I graduated like, last year, and uh, I don’t really know what I’m doing here.” Sehun snorted beside him, and he turned to shoot him a glare. He was surprised to see that Sehun actually had black hair for the first time in a while, as opposed to pink or green or blonde or gray or a disgusting mixture of all aforementioned.


The teacher looked unimpressed. “Stop making excuses and come up here before I refer you for sleeping in class,” she demanded. Jongin looked at Sehun one more time for help, but he seemed to be avoiding eye contact. Probably since everyone was staring at Jongin like he had two heads and Sehun refused association to spare himself the second-hand embarrassment. Jongin let out a deep sigh and stood up.


He approached the board and eyed the problem wearily because it was something that Jongin remembered was called a logarithm and he hadn’t even looked at one of those since his freshman year. And even then, he probably hadn’t known how to do it.


What was going on, anyway? Why was he back in high school? Why was he in a room full of teenage girls without any of them trying to molest him or get his autograph? He went over the possibilities in his head since he might as well make it look like he was thinking even though he had no intention of solving the problem in front of him.


He was probably dreaming. Actually, the last thing that he remembered was lying in a sweaty pile on the practice room floor next to Yixing after dancing for three or four hours straight, and he wouldn’t be surprised if he had fallen asleep there. It didn’t really feel like he was dreaming though, and usually his dreams didn’t make any sense. The fact that there were no members of After School or mythological creatures present was suspicious.


“Kim Jongin, are you just going to stand there for the rest of the class period?” the teacher asked, and Jongin ground his teeth together because he would be sort of insulted that she was going so out of her way to embarrass him if he wasn’t too busy being confused. “What is the answer?”


He strongly considered writing kiss my  on the chalkboard out of spite, but coincidentally, the bell rang at that moment. He felt a tug on his arm as Sehun grabbed him and managed to drag him bodily out of the unwelcoming classroom.


“You’re lucky, I was having fun watching you make an idiot out of yourself,” Sehun said, sighing somewhat regretfully as they made their way down the student-packed hallways. He stood on his tip-toes and peered over the crowd, as if he were looking for someone. “Ugh, he said he’d try to come today…” Jongin raised an inquisitive eyebrow.


“Who?” he asked, although in hindsight a better question might have been ‘why the hell are we back in high school when we’re supposed to be international pop stars.’ Sehun brushed him off.


“It’s Thursday!” a voice said from behind them, and suddenly Jongin was caught off guard by someone throwing their arm around his neck. Sehun seemed to be having the same dilemma from the other side of the body that had forced itself between them. “You know what the means, right kids? You get to buy me ddokboki!” Sehun scowled and shoved the arm off of him, but Jongin was too busy staring speculatively at the tall form of Huang Zitao. Well, that crossed time travel off of his list of possible explanations for why the hell he was back in high school, since last time he’d checked Zitao didn’t even live in the same country as them when they were fourteen.


“We don’t have to buy you , Zitao,” Sehun said with a dramatic eye roll. “Why don’t you bring your own damn lunch money once and a while?” Zitao laughed, patting Sehun’s neatly-groomed head.


“You still have so much to learn, Sehunnie,” he said sympathetically, and Sehun stared at him without a trace of amusement. “All I have to do is act cute, and I can get any upperclassman to buy anything I want. It’s the benefits of having a face like mine.”


Well, nothing was making sense, but at least no one’s personality seemed to have changed. Jongin rolled his eyes.


The three of them found a seat at one of the many long lunch tables, and Zitao immediately launched into a conversation about how he was so glad that he wasn’t a freshman anymore and how much life was going to for Jongin and Sehun (because, as Jongin had assumed earlier, they were in fact freshmen). Sehun kept sending Jongin pained looks of annoyance toward the oldest boy, but Jongin didn’t reciprocate due to the fact that he wasn’t really paying attention.


“What’s wrong with you?” Sehun asked, cutting Zitao off, much to his annoyance. Jongin blinked.


“Hm?”


“Yeah, you’re being weird, you didn’t even say hi to me,” Zitao pouted, resting his head on his palm and sending Jongin a frown. “I’m trying to give you useful life advice and you won’t even pay attention.” Jongin pursed his lips and shrugged.


“Uh…” he said, scratching the back of his head as he thought about how to word his question. “Shouldn't we be practicing? For EXO's comeback?” Sehun and Zitao stared at him with matching puzzled expressions.


“What’s an EXO?” Sehun asked around a mouthful of ddokboki. Jongin didn’t have time to answer, though, because at that moment a blur of blonde hair came rushing up behind Sehun, throwing it’s lanky arms around his neck and burying it’s face in his shoulder. Sehun’s expression immediately shifted into a smile that made Jongin slightly uncomfortable because Sehun really didn’t smile ever unless it had to do with…


“Luhan-hyung!” Sehun said in a disgustingly cheery tone. Zitao snorted.


“Why the hell do they keep letting you in this school?” he asked, frowning as Luhan shoved him out of his seat next to Sehun and relocating himself next to Jongin. “I think you’re in denial about the fact that you graduated.” Luhan pouted in response, lacing his fingers with Sehun’s.


“I don’t get to see Sehunnie enough. Plus, I have nothing better to do,” he said with a frown. “And to answer your question, they let me in because I was a stellar student in my years here and all of the teachers love me. This school is privileged to have me back.”


“Whatever. Get a real job and stop dating kids four years younger than you,” Zitao said with a scowl. “It’s not even legal at this point, I hope you know that.” Luhan ignored him, and instead turned toward Jongin.


“Jongin-ah, are you alright? You haven’t said anything,” the oldest boy asked, prodding Jongin with his designer shoes under the table. Jongin’s eyes were glued distractedly to Luhan and Sehun’s interconnected fingers.


“You two, are you…” he glanced between Luhan and Sehun, his eyes wide. “Are you guys dating?” Luhan and Sehun exchanged a glace.


“Are you feeling alright?” Sehun asked, because Jongin must have looked legitimately perplexed and a bit horrified. “Luhan and I have been dating for over a year, idiot, don’t play dumb.”


Okay, what. Jongin suddenly hoped that he wasn’t dreaming, because if he was having dreams that his bandmates were gay for each other than those fangirls that were weirdly obsessed with their intergroup relationships were definitely getting to him. This was really starting to seem like one of those fanfictions that he would read occasionally because okay honestly some of them had really good plots and if you wouldn’t want to read at least a few fanfictions starring yourself than you're a liar and everyone knows it.


He added trapped in a fanfic to his mental list of possible explanations for why the hell he was back in high school, because really, anything was logical at this point.


“Luhan, will you buy me some ddokboki?” Zitao asked once everyone had stopped questioning Jongin’s mental health. He grabbed Luhan’s arm and stuck out his lower lip in an adorable way that made Jongin suddenly want to punch something. “I’m out of lunch money and I’m reaaaally hungry.”


“Ew, don’t use that aegyo crap on me,” Luhan said, tugging his arm away in disgust. Zitao scowled. “Go find Wufan, he’s the only one that actually thinks your cute.”


“Lots of people think I’m cute!” Zitao argued, before his face lit up in realization and he hopped out of his blue plastic cafeteria seat. “Wait, Wufan is here too? Isn’t he supposed to be in Canada?”


“His spring break starts this week, so he flew in early,” Luhan confirmed, stealing Sehun’s chocolate milk and swirling the straw around. Zitao sped off so quickly that Jongin had to blink to readjust his eyes. Luhan rolled his eyes and attached his overly-moisturized lips to the straw, glancing over at Sehun questioningly once he was done drinking. “Where are Baekhyun and Chanyeol?”


“The juniors are on a class trip,” Sehun explained with a shrug, and he pulled the straw from Luhan’s mouth into his own in a way Jongin thought was supposed to be enticing and he really wanted to throw up. “Where were they going again? Gyeongbokgung?” It took Jongin a moment to notice that Sehun was talking to him, and he just stared back blankly.


“How should I know?” he asked irritably. “In case you’ve forgotten, I’m really confused about everything that’s going on so don’t ask me things.” Sehun groaned and Luhan leaned over to place the back of his hand on Jongin’s forehead. His hand felt really soft and his fingernails were perfectly manicured and Jongin internally wondered if Luhan had always lacked manliness altogether or if that was just another thing wrong with this entire situation.


“Well, you don’t have a fever but I still think you should go to the nurse,” Luhan suggested, but Jongin just brushed him off. “I think you hit your head or something.”


Jongin would have come up with some sort of retort, but they were suddenly interrupted by a blur of brown hair rushing toward them and slamming it’s hands on the lunch table. Jongin blinked up at the figure, raising an eyebrow at a very frantic-looking Yixing.


“Ajkdgkjkds?” was what he said as far as Jongin could tell, because he was speaking Chinese and very rapidly so and it was obvious that the question was aimed at Luhan anyway. Luhan, however, only looked extremely confused and alarmed, staring at Jongin and Sehun as if looking for help that they obviously couldn’t provide.


“What did he say?” Sehun asked Luhan, though Jongin didn’t know why he didn’t just ask Yixing since he was standing right next to him. Luhan blinked.


“Uhh,” Luhan said awkwardly.


“I asked where the rest of the members were,” Yixing clarified worriedly, and Jongin was glad he did because he was somewhat worried that this was an ultimate universe where Yixing couldn’t speak Korean. Sehun stared at him with his usual condescending narrow-eye open-mouthed look.


“Members?” Sehun asked dryly. He raised an eyebrow. “Are we a k-pop group? What are you talking about?”


Jongin actually started listening to the conversation for the first time, and his head immediately shot up from where is was resting on the palm of his hand and he glanced over to meet Yixing’s wide-eyed gaze. Yixing looked even more nervous than before, and Jongin knew exactly why because they seemed to have a similar problem.


“…Yes?” Yixing said, desperate with confusion, and Jongin didn’t wait for anyone to say anything else before he stood up, grabbed Yixing’s elbow, and dragged him to an empty table at the other side of the cafeteria. Yixing stared at him, bringing up his thumb nail to bite it distractedly. “What’s going on?”


“I wish I knew!” Jongin replied, throwing his hands up in the air dramatically but really he was mostly relieved that he wasn’t the only one this was happening to. Then again, the fact that Yixing was aware of the weirdness of their situation eliminated the possibility of it being a dream. Well, damn. “No one else knows about EXO or anything, they think it’s completely normal that we’re in high school.” Yixing nodded.


“Right, I saw Junmyeon earlier and I asked him about the group and he had no idea what I was talking about,” he said, continuing to bite his nail as he looked around the cafeteria curiously. “I thought maybe we were doing another school photoshoot or something, but…” He trailed off, and Jongin groaned loudly.


“It’s like we’re in an alternate universe,” he said, because he was still going over possibilities in his head, especially since they were dwindling. “Like those AU fanfictions, you know.” Yixing paused, taking his thumbnail out of his mouth and raising a judgmental eyebrow toward Jongin.


“…Fanfiction?” he asked, tilting his head to the side as if he were genuinely curious. “You read fanfiction?” Jongin suddenly blushed self-consciously because he had forgotten for a moment that reading fanfiction about yourself was probably frowned upon in most cases. He sat out and puffed out his chest defensively.


“Well, I mean, sometimes. Whatever.” He had meant to sound confident but that was not at all what happened. Yixing just shrugged, though, and seemed to be considering what he had said.


“Hm,” he said, and he seemed like he was going to say something else, but suddenly the shrill sound of a bell filled the cafeteria and chairs scraped as students began to get up and leave. Yixing and Jongin, however, stayed rooted to the spot and kind of stared at each other in mutual ‘what the hell do we do now’.


“I guess we should go to class?” Yixing suggested, and Jongin immediately cringed away from the thought.


“Ugh, no way, I freaking hate high school,” he whined irritably, and Yixing just laughed at him.


“High school is fun, though!” he said with a sickening sparkle to his eye and Jongin was perplexed that anyone could actually be excited about going back to high school. “I sort of miss it.” Jongin sneered.


“You sound old when you say that. You haven’t been in school for what, like four years?” he pointed out in spite. “Well I finally escaped this place last year, excuse me for not being too thrilled about coming back.” Yixing smirked at him like he was mentally making fun of his complaining.


“What’s wrong with high school? Were you bullied?” There it was again, him asking awkward questions with genuine curiosity. Jongin just shrugged him off.


“I was in training to be a k-pop star. Of course I was,” he said, standing up with a sigh and rubbing the back of his neck. “Well I’m just gonna leave. I’ll find you later and we can talk I guess.” Yixing stared at him in a calculating way that made Jongin nervous, before just nodding and standing up. He craned his neck over the crowd, as if looking for something, and then smiled and ran off once he found it. Jongin watched as the older boy approached Junmyeon, and the two of them followed the crowd out of the cafeteria. He sighed, taking off his uniform blazer and slinging it over his shoulder before discretely making his way toward the exit.


He had his hand on the door when he realized that, even if he did leave, he would have absolutely nowhere to go. He changed his mind, jogging out into the hallway and up the nearest staircase he could find. He took them all the way up until he reached the roof, sneering because in any normal school he’d ever been to, students didn’t just have free access to the roof whenever they wanted. It was littered with cigarette butts. Jongin rolled his eyes.


He was seriously beginning to think that he might actually be in a fanfiction.


--


“You know, some of these fanfictions aren’t that bad.”


Jongin sighed as Yixing continued to have his nose glued to his smartphone, as it had been for the last hour or so. Apparently, Jongin’s comments had convinced him to do research involving high school AU fanfiction, and he’d spent most of the night reading them.


“We’re pretty much always split into social groups,” he said as if he were explaining a very important scientific hypothesis. “Like, some of us are ‘popular’ and some of us aren’t. You’re almost always in the popular group.” Jongin rolled his eyes.
                                                                                                                                     
“What about you?” he asked, opening the packet of the bun he’d bought from the vending machine. Yixing shrugged.


“Depends on the story,” he said. “I guess we’ll see.”


“Just because that’s how it is in a bunch of fanfiction doesn’t mean that’s actually what’s gonna happen,” Jongin pointed out logically, breaking off a piece of his bun and wordlessly handing it to Yixing. “I don’t actually think we’re in a high school AU, I was just listing off possibilities.” He conveniently failed to mention the fact that it was pretty much the only possibility he was considering at this point, but whatever.


“We’ll see,” Yixing said again.


“Kim Jongin, why the hell weren’t you at the bus stop?” an annoyingly familiar voice said, and Jongin looked up through his bangs to see an irritated-looking Sehun approaching him. Jongin almost laughed when he saw that his hair was dyed blonde today. The natural color was good while it lasted.


“I came in early,” he replied with a grin, and Sehun glanced from him to Yixing in slight confusion before grabbing him and pulling him off of the bench he was sitting on. He barely had time to say goodbye to Yixing before he was dragged into the school.


“Why do you keep talking to Zhang Yixing?” Sehun asked, smacking him on the forearm. Well wasn’t he just full of questions lately.


“Why not?” he asked, because really, he didn’t see why that wasn’t okay. Sehun sighed so hard it blew up his freshly-bleached bangs.


“It’s just, you don’t usually talk to his crowd,” he said, and Jongin groaned internally because he’d  been hoping that maybe Yixing was wrong and maybe his entire life hadn’t been thrown into one giant cliché, but apparently it was a fruitless hope.


“I don’t know what you mean,” Jongin said calmly, shoving his hands into his uniform pockets and shrugging. “Yixing is cool.” Sehun just sighed and waved him off.


“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” he said, reverting back to his usual dull and unconcerned tone. “Anyway, did you finish the math homework?” Jongin paused at the question, suddenly realizing his surroundings.


“Oh, uh, no,” he said, scratching at the back of his neck and looking around the crowded hallways. “I’m not even going to class.” Sehun stared at him with an unamused expression, and Jongin gave it right back as he waited for him to reply. Eventually, Sehun rolled his eyes and blew at his hair again.


“What, you’re cutting? You never cut class,” he said, poking Jongin in the ribs and sticking his lip out in a slight pout. “Don’t make me go alone, you know I at math. Without your notes, I’ll fail.” Jongin breathed hard out of his nose and shrugged once again.


“God forbid you take your own notes,” he said a bit exasperatedly, even though he never really recalled having class with Sehun at all and had nothing to be annoyed about. “Anyway,  I’m not cutting class, think of it more as dropping out of school.” He had a sense of relief as he said this, a weight lifting off of his shoulders similar to the one that lifted after graduation.


Sehun actually gaped at him, and Jongin would be lying to say he wasn’t amused by the dramatic expression by the usually expressionless boy. “You are not dropping out of school, you idiot,” he said, hitting Jongin lightly on the back of the head. Jongin was going to reply that yeah, he sure as hell was, when suddenly an obnoxiously familiar voice called Sehun’s name from down the hallway.


“Good morning friends!” Zitao said as he grabbed Sehun into a headlock and rubbed his knuckles against the blonde hair. Sehun pushed him off with a scowl and Jongin snorted. “Oh, hey Jongin, Kyungsoo and I were headed to phys-ed, so walk there with us.” He grabbed Jongin’s arm and shot a farewell to Sehun, dragging him through the halls before he could begin to protest.


“I’m not going to class,” Jongin mumbled once again, trying to wrench himself out of Zitao’s surprisingly firm grasp. He glanced out of the corner of his eye and noticed for the first time that Do Kyungsoo was walking silently on the other side of Zitao, holding his books tightly to his chest.


Jongin felt his breath hitch and his heart rate begin to speed up, and he figured he must have very suddenly come down with a fever or something because his face was getting warm. He made eye contact with the older boy, and Kyungsoo quickly tore his gaze away. Jongin swallowed.


“Hi, Kyungsoo-hyung,” he said quietly after a moment, and Kyungsoo looked up in shock, as if he couldn’t believe Jongin was addressing him.


He looked like he wanted to respond, but he didn’t have a chance to before Zitao pushed the two of them into the locker rooms, and they proceeded to change into their gym uniforms. Well, Jongin didn’t because he didn’t even want to be in that stupid school in the first place and was finding joy in any type of rebellion he could accomplish.


This included downright refusal to participate, which eventually got him kicked out of the gym and into the hallway. He considered leaving the school like he had originally intended to, but he really didn’t have anywhere to go, and he would be lying if he said he wasn’t curious about the rest of the members. After all, who said he and Yixing were the only ones that were aware that they were trapped in an alternate universe? He still had yet to see at least half of them, after all.


He trudged down the empty hallways, glancing through classroom windows in search of Yixing. He had never meant for them to get separated, and he felt really uncomfortable all of the sudden without having him by his side. It was comforting to have someone else that understood that everything was really really wrong here.


He had never really been friends with Yixing. Of course, they had spent a lot of time together practicing dance because frankly, that was their job, but the age difference was a huge factor in why it was hard for them to get close. Another was the language barrier, but it was mostly because they didn’t really have anything in common. Jongin was reserved where Yixing was outgoing, proud where Yixing was far too humble. Yixing was funny and open and friendly and Jongin would trade all socialization in the world to just dance alone in the practice rooms. They were brought together by dance, but not that close together.


Now however, Yixing was suddenly his best friend, because together they could think of way to get back to their lives. He knew it.


He made his way to the senior classrooms, and it didn’t take him long to find Yixing’s mop of brown hair in one of the English classes. Jongin almost laughed at how interested the older boy seemed to be in the lesson, perplexed that anyone could actually enjoy school like that. He backed away from the classroom and sat at a vacant desk across the hall, placing his forehead against the cool surface as he waited for the bell to ring.


“You didn’t strike me as the type to sleep in school.” Jongin jerked out of his seat, glancing frantically around at the now-crowded hallways. It took him a minute to realize that he had in fact fallen asleep waiting for Yixing, and another minute to scoff at the statement, since he’d fallen asleep twice in the past two days. He glanced up to see Yixing smiling down at him. “Then again, in most fics you’re an incompetent student, so I’m not that surprised. People really seem to think that you’re stupid.” Yixing chuckled, and Jongin couldn’t help but crack a small grin in return.


“You need to stop reading fanfics,” he said, shaking his head and rubbing at his sleep-crusted eyes. Yixing held out a hand, helping him out of the desk.


“It’s for research purposes only,” he reassured, slinging his backpack over his shoulder and pushing through the packed hallway, Jongin tagging along behind him. “Lunch time!” And Jongin’s mood brightened for the first time all day because he was kind of curious to see how this would turn out. Especially the social groups Yixing had insisted were going to come into play.


They had barely entered the cafeteria when the short form of Kim Junmyeon approached them, grabbing Yixing by the arm and pulling him toward the lunch line. Yixing looked slightly confused, and sent Jongin a slightly flustered wave goodbye before disappearing. Jongin sighed, heading toward the table he’d sat at the day before. Luhan wasn’t there, but Baekhyun and Chanyeol were.


“Jongin-ah! Oh, it’s been so long!” Baekhyun said dramatically, getting up and practically throwing himself on top of Jongin and wrapping his arms around him. “You didn’t miss me too much, right? Sehunnie told me cried all day yesterday.” Chanyeol snorted with laughter, his face crinkling up and one of his eyes twitching. Jongin rolled his eyes.


“Maybe tears of joy,” he said dryly, though he really was excited to see Baekhyun and Chanyeol. “How was your trip?” Chanyeol and Baekhyun exchanged a glance.


“Well, Baekhyun dared me to strip and go swimming in the canal and I almost got arrested,” Chanyeol said, pouting only slightly before his face lit up again. “But it was really fun! We got free keychains.” Baekhyun nodded happily in agreement.


“It was so quiet yesterday,” Sehun said regretfully, poking at his lunch tray. “I could get used to you two going on class trips.” Baekhyun and Chanyeol just continued to grin and giggle in response. Sehun turned to Jongin in the hopes of sharing an understanding glance, but he was distracted. “Hey, what’s up with you?”


Jongin stared curiously at the table Yixing was sitting at; Junmyeon, Jongdae, Kyungsoo, and Zitao with him. He furrowed his eyebrows, considering going over to sit with them. But then wouldn’t breaking away from the norm and going to sit with them be expected? He sighed, making an internal note to break every possible cliché. This wasn’t a fanfiction, after all.


“Guys, let’s go sit over there,” Jongin suggested, pointed to Yixing’s table. Sehun’s gaze followed his finger, and he snorted unattractively when he saw where it was aimed.


“Are you into Zhang Yixing or something?” he asked crudely. Jongin rolled his eyes.


“I don’t like guys like that,” he said, and he just stared in confusion as the three other boys burst into laughter, like they had a joke that he wasn’t in on. He frowned. “Anyway, let’s just go. Zitao’s over there, and he’s our friend, right?”


“That’s because Zitao’s weird,” Sehun pointed out. Jongin couldn’t disagree.


“Hey, that Jongdae guy is in our grade, he’s kind of cool,” Chanyeol said. “I wouldn’t mind going over there.” Baekhyun nodded in agreement, and Sehun sighed dramatically.


“Alright, fine,” he said irritably, grabbing his lunch tray off of the table and heading toward the other side of the cafeteria. Jongin followed victoriously.


Jongin couldn’t help but grin at the way Yixing’s face lit up when he approached their table. “Hi,” he said. “Can we sit here?” Yixing nodded rapidly, and everyone else just looked extremely confused.


“Wow,” Zitao said, grinning annoyingly from beside Junmyeon. “Did you guys miss me that badly? You know I would have come back to sit with you tomorrow, you didn’t have to come infiltrate my other table.”


“Oh shut up,” Sehun said irritably, pulling a chair up next to Zitao and slapping him upside the head. Baekhyun and Chanyeol made themselves comfortable on either side of Jongdae, and Jongin found himself sandwiched in between Kyungsoo and Yixing.


“Sorry, Kyungsoo-hyung,” Jongin said as he squeezed uncomfortably close to him. Kyungsoo turned to look at him with those big eyes, and Jongin felt his heart sped up once again as he suddenly felt really nervous.


“Why do you keep calling me ‘hyung’?” he asked, and Jongin actually blushed. “We haven’t even really ever talked before.” Jongin laughed anxiously, swallowing to try to moisten his suddenly very dry mouth.


“Um, I’m sorry, should I not?” he asked. Kyungsoo suddenly grinned, his eyes scrunching up and his pretty teeth showing. Jongin warmed up again and he really needed to see the nurse or something.


“No, that’s alright,” he said brightly, pulling his lower lip into his mouth and biting down on it adorably. Jongin forced a smile back.


“Are you okay? Your face is really red,” Yixing said in concern. Jongin looked down at his lunch tray so that his bangs covered his face.


“I’m fine,” Jongin said, coughing awkwardly. Yixing stared at him, before shrugging it off.


“Alright, anyway, I wanted to tell you something,” Yixing said, lowering his voice and huddling closer to Jongin. “I’m staying over at Junmyeon’s tonight, and I think you should ask Sehun if you can stay with him. We can’t keep sleeping on the roof…” Jongin pursed his lips. That was something he’d been thinking about, because while he was sure he and Yixing had parents and houses somewhere or other, they had no idea who or where they were. He was sure they were probably concerned, but that was literally the least of his worries. He nodded.


“Alright,” he said, stirring around his seaweed soup aimlessly. “By the way, do we have any sort of plan?” Yixing looked puzzled.


“Plan?”


“Yeah. You know, to get out of here and go back to our real lives.” Yixing stared at him for a moment before jumping slightly, as if he just came to the realization that they weren’t actually in high school. He made an “ahh” sound, and tapped his chin with the end of his chopsticks.


“Oh, right,” he said, letting out a long breath. “I… I don’t know. This isn't exactly a situation I ever thought I'd be in. I’ll think about it tonight, okay?” Jongin just nodded and sighed, ducking back into his food and ignoring the idle chatter around him.


The bell rang and Sehun dragged Jongin out of the cafeteria and toward their next class, much to his protest. “They’re not as weird as I thought they’d be,” Sehun admitted as he stole a last glance toward Yixing, Junmyeon, Jongdae and Kyungsoo. He smirked annoyingly and looked around before nudging Jongin in the ribs with his boney elbow. “That kid with the big eyes was totally into you. He wouldn’t stop shooting you looks the entire period.” Jongin scoffed, even though he felt his chest tighten uncomfortably.


“Why do you assume he’s… into that?” he asked, because as much as the fangirls protested otherwise there was no way that Kyungsoo didn’t like girls. Sehun gave him that dumb open-mouthed look and Jongin kind of wanted to hit him.


“You mean how do I know he’s gay?” Sehun replied with a “pfft”. “Zitao told me. It’s not like it’s anything surprising, all of us roll that way.” Jongin’s eyebrows immediately went up to his hair line, and he almost tripped over his own feet.


“Uhh,” he said, slightly perplexed by the direction the conversation was going. “What do you mean ‘all of us’?” If Sehun rolled his eyes any more Jongin was convinced that they would get stuck up there.


“You know. Chanyeol, Me, Luhan, Zitao, all of Zitao’s other friends we sat with today,” he said, counting off on his fingers and blissfully unaware that Jongin was becoming more and more confused and horrified by the second. “Oh, Luhan’s friends Kris and Minseok are, too. Baekhyun is no matter how much he tries to deny it. And, you know. You.”


Jongin literally felt like Sehun had just blown away a massive chunk of his brain cells, because he was unable to come up with any sort of coherent response. “Uh… I. What,” he said, blinking rapidly and trying to sort out his thoughts. He pressed his palms to his temples and groaned. “Are you telling me that in the homophobic community that is South Korea, twelve people that are associated with each other in some way or another all happen to be gay.” Sehun seemed to take that into consideration, and Jongin was too preoccupied to notice that he had ended up in math class despite his earlier protest.


“Now that I think about it, that is a little ironic,” he replied thoughtfully, sitting down and pulling Jongin into the desk beside him.  Jongin was going to protest against that “a little”, but his brain had officially fizzled out and died as he slumped in his seat and stared blankly at the chalk board.


He really needed to get the hell back to the real world.


--


Jongin fell asleep during class again the next day, and this time he had to stay in during lunch to clap erasers and clean the chalkboard and other average classroom chores. Because of that, he didn’t see Yixing again until that day after school.


“Jongin-ah!” he heard the shout before he saw the blur rushing toward him, and before he knew it he was being pounced on and hugged so hard that he nearly fell over onto the hard concrete. He glanced over at Sehun, Baekhyun, and Chanyeol, all of whom seemed as confused as he was about the fact that he suddenly had an armful of Yixing.


“Uh, hyung,” he mumbled embarrassedly, trying to pry the older boy off. “I’m sorry I wasn’t at lunch, but it’s not like I died…” In response to that, Yixing suddenly let out a loud sob, and Jongin’s eyes widened in alarm. “Are you crying?!”


“Has your breathing been regular? You don’t smoke, do you?” Yixing asked frantically, letting go of him and holding his face in between his palms. “Have you been feeling sick at all?” Jongin backed away, trying to create some distance between himself and the frantic boy in front of him.


“Uh, no, I’m fine…”


“What about Kyungsoo? Where’s Kyungsoo?!” Yixing asked, looking around the crowd of students leaving the building. Jongin groaned, putting a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to calm him down.


“What’s going on?” he asked steadily. Yixing took several deep breaths.


“Listen,” he said urgently. “If we don’t get out of here soon, either you or Kyungsoo is going to die of some sort of terminal illness.” Jongin blinked.


“Why would you say that?” he inquired.


“Because it happens all the time in fanfics!”


Jongin could feel his face fall into a look of utter exasperation and disappointment. “Hyung,” he said judgmentally. Yixing shook him off.


“You have no idea what I’ve read, Kim Jongin, you couldn’t possibly understand,” he said, warning him against replying negatively.


“I told you to stop reading fanfics.”


“You’re not taking this seriously!”


“Uh, Jongin,” Sehun interrupted awkwardly. He pointed over his shoulder with his thumb. “We’re going to see Luhan, are you coming or what.”


Jongin rolled his eyes at Yixing and grabbed his arm. “Come with us, and stop saying dumb things,” he instructed, and Yixing deflated in defeat. The five of them were about to set off, when suddenly a girl with long brown hair come running over to them.


“Baekhyunnie!” she said, clinging onto Baekhyun’s arm and smiling brightly. “You’re still walking me home today, right?” Baekhyun blinked at her, before cracking a very forced-looking smile.


“Oh. Yeah. Of course,” he said, glancing at Sehun apologetically. “Sorry guys, I’ll come some other time.” The girl tugged him in the opposite direction, and left both Yixing and Jongin staring at them with their mouths wide open.


“Was that…”


“Taeyeon?” Yixing finished with his eyebrows pressed together in confusion. “Like from SNSD?” Sehun sighed.


“Well I don’t know what an SNSD is, but that’s Taeyeon alright,” he said with an eyeroll. Chanyeol was glaring hard at the two that had just walked away, and Sehun had to tug on his arm to bring his attention away from them. “She’s Baekhyun’s ‘girlfriend’. And by girlfriend, I mean his attempt at pretending he doesn’t like .” Jongin looked horrified, but Yixing just nodded in understanding.


“Ah,” he said calmly. “Right. A random SNSD member thrown into the story to get in the way of a relationship and cause drama. That’s normal.” Both Sehun and Jongin just stared at him perplexedly, but he ignored them and seemed to become lost in his own thoughts.


They walked until they approached what seemed to be a downtown area with a lot of small shops and vendors. “Where exactly are we going?” Jongin asked.


“To the coffee shop Luhan works at,” Sehun clarified, and Yixing sent him a deadpan stare that Jongin understood because even he knew how cliché that was.  They turned a few more corners before they ended up outside of one of those cute little coffee shops that were warm and cozy and had a wooden sign that flapped in the wind.


“Sehunnie!” they heard not even seconds after they walked in, and Luhan jumped into Sehun’s arms despite the hot coffee pot in his hands. “You came to see me!”


“We came too,” Chanyeol said, showing disgust at their displays of affection, but neither Sehun or Luhan paid attention to him.


“Of course, I missed you,” Sehun said, pouting cutely and Jongin actually thought he might throw up if he watched this any longer, so he grabbed Yixing by the wrist and tugged him toward the front counter.


“Can I help you?” the clerk asked, turning around and revealing himself to be none other than Kim Minseok.  Jongin and Yixing both straightened up in surprised.


“Oh, Minseok-hyung,” Jongin said, smiling at him. “You work here too?” Minseok nodded, using the rag in his had to wipe down the counter in front of him.


“Yeah, Luhan got me hired since I was short on cash,” he said. He glanced at them suspiciously. “You’re more of his high school friends, right? Please at least tell me you’re not freshmen like his boyfriend.”


Jongin just rubbed the back of his neck and grinned guiltily, while Yixing straightened up and proudly proclaimed “I’m a senior!” Minseok sighed and mumbled something about creepy guys needing more friends that aren’t high schoolers.


The two of them ordered their drinks before turning back to look for a table in the small shop. It was pretty busy, but even so, Yixing seemed to spot someone in particular because he was suddenly sprinting toward a table near the back before Jongin could even consider following him. He sighed.


When he approached them, he found Yixing desperately clinging on to a surprised looking Kyungsoo, his face buried in the younger boy’s neck. Jongin raised an eyebrow when he and Kyungsoo made eye contact, and Kyungsoo looked just as confused as him.


“Uh, Yixing-hyung?” he squeaked out, prying Yixing away from him and raising an eyebrow. “What’s up?” Yixing sniffled.


“Nothing,” he said, quickly wiping at his eyes. “Just glad to see you alive and well, is all.” Jongin groaned and Kyungsoo let out a very confused smile in reply.


“Um, thank you,” he said. He moved his textbooks out of the way, clearing more space on the table. “You guys can sit down, if you want. I’m pretty sick of studying, anyway.”


Yixing immediately accepted the invitation, but Jongin hesitated. He wasn’t really comfortable with the weird feeling he kept getting around Kyungsoo and he had the sudden urge to run as fast as he could. However, he swallowed down the tightness in his chest and sat in the wooden seat across from him, looking down at his coffee nervously.


“Are you okay, Jongin-ah? You look sick,” Kyungsoo said, tilting his head and looking at him with concern and it was so cute that Jongin wanted to drown himself in his coffee. He sighed.


“So I’ve been told,” he said bitterly, avoiding eye contact as much as possible.


Sehun eventually separated himself from Luhan, and he and Chanyeol approached their table and pulled up two more chairs. He glanced between Kyungsoo and Jongin, a grin spreading across his face, before he winked suggestively toward Jongin. Jongin kind of wanted to die.


“Alright you guys, I’m having a party next Friday,” Chanyeol said, clapping his hands together and delivering the news like it was a public service announcement. “You can all come. Bring friends if you want. Alcohol will be provided.”


“Where are you gonna get alcohol?” Sehun asked suspiciously, and Chanyeol smiled wide enough to show off his five thousand teeth.


“None of your business, Sehunnie,” he sing-songed, leaning back and folding his hands behind his head. “Just enjoy it and try not to pass out in a closet like last time. Do you know how hard it was to find you the next morning?” Sehun stuck his tongue out at him childishly, and Jongin and Chanyeol simultaneously rolled their eyes.


They all got up to leave once they were finished with their coffee and Sehun had almost gotten Luhan fired from his excessive distractions. Jongin hung back when he saw that Kyungsoo wasn’t making any move to follow. “Are you coming?” he asked softly, and Kyungsoo smiled up at him and his eyes squinted into crescents and Jongin suddenly couldn’t breathe.


“I should probably study some more,” he said, his face dropping only slightly. Jongin just nodded, looking down at his shoes and trying to hide his ever-present blush.


“Right,” he said. “Uh, were you gonna go to Chanyeol’s party, then?”


Kyungsoo seemed to consider it, pulling his lower lip into his mouth and chewing on it slightly. “I might,” he said with a shrug. “Do you want me to?” He really shouldn’t have asked that, because Jongin just blushed harder and sort of wanted to sink into the ground and disappear.


“Well, yeah,” he said, his voice getting smaller and smaller. “And I was wondering, if we were both going, if. Um. You wanted to go with me.” Kyungsoo’s face automatically brightened, and it made Jongin feel a little bit braver.


“Oh, okay! Sure, I would love to,” he  said, and he looked so excited and Jongin’s heart was racing so fast and he didn’t really know what had just happened but he knew he was happy about it. He laughed awkwardly.


“Alright, great. Well, uh, I’ll see you then,” he said, nodding fervently. He pause. “Well, I mean. I’ll probably see you before then. Like tomorrow at lunch I guess. Unless you don’t want us to keep sitting with you, if not that’s totally okay! Uh. I’m just gonna leave.” He nodded again, took a deep breath, and followed the others out the door at a brisk pace.


“You look like you just ran a marathon,” Yixing pointed out charmingly as he chewed on a cookie he’d bought inside. Jongin let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.


“I…” he said, staring wide-eyed at the ground in front of him. “I think I just asked Kyungsoo out on a date.”

--

“I’m not too surprised, honestly,” Yixing said casually as he lounged on Sehun’s couch. Jongin stood in front of the mirror, checking himself out repeatedly and taking steady breaths to calm himself. “I mean, think about it. Kaisoo is probably the biggest OTP out there, so the fact that you have a crush on him in this alternate universe is not exactly a shocker.” Jongin narrowed an eyebrow at him through the mirror.


“What the hell is an OTP?” he asked, grabbing some cologne off of Sehun’s desk and spraying it all over himself. Yixing sighed like he was exasperated at being asked such a simple question.


“One True Pairing. You know, like ships. Don’t act like you don’t know what Kaisoo is, you two basked in the fanservice,” he said, and Jongin just stuck his tongue out at him in the mirror in response.


It was true, though however often he pretended to be in love with Kyungsoo for the cameras, he’d never actually had any sort of romantic feelings for him. Yixing was probably right in saying it was just a side effect of being in this messed-up reality. Which was going to pose a lot of awkward problems when he had to face his bandmate again in the real world, but he would cross that bridge when he came to it.


That theory made him curious, however. “Hey, shouldn’t you have an awkward crush on another member too? Like Junmyeon or something?” he asked Yixing. He seemed to ponder this momentarily.


“Uhh, well, I don’t,” he concluded after a moment. He shrugged. “I’m one of the four members that isn’t a part of a major OTP, so I’m spared, I guess.” Jongin just sighed.


“You didn’t ask if you could bring people to my house,” Sehun immediately said as he walked into his room. He had to stay after school late for a remedial lesson. “Why don’t you go to your own. You’ve been sleeping here for over a week.”


“Yeah, I’m moving in,” Jongin said with a smug grin, and Sehun just rolled his eyes.


“Whatever,” he sighed. “You’re lucky my parents like you.”


Jongin would have made a snarky response, but he glanced over at the clock and saw that it was almost time to pick Kyungsoo up. He took a deep breath, smoothing his sideburns down nervously. “Alright, I’m off. Where are your keys, Sehun?”


Sehun sighed deeply, grabbing the shiny keys off of a hook next to his desk. “I can’t believe I’m letting you drive my car,” he said, shaking his head in disbelief as he tossed the keys toward Jongin. “I haven’t even driven it yet, and you don’t even have temps, let alone a license.” Jongin shrugged, extremely thankful that Sehun was enough of a spoiled brat to get a car for his fifteenth birthday.


“The trick is confidence,” he said with a lopsided grin. “If I act like I have a license, then people will believe I do. Nothing to worry about, Sehunnie, it’s not like I haven’t driven before.” After all he did have a driver’s license. At one point. In a different universe.


“You’re lucky I owe you for getting me through math class,” Sehun said dejectedly, and Jongin waved him off before leaving the bedroom and jogging down the stairs.


Kyungsoo’s house wasn’t far, and when he got there, Kyungsoo was already waiting on the front porch. He smiled when Jongin arrived, climbing into the Audi carefully. He shot Jongin a semi-nervous glance. “You don’t have your license, do you?” he asked. “Do you want me to drive?” Jongin shook his head rapidly. He was sick of being treated like a little kid, he was 20 years old, goddammit.


“I asked you out, so I should drive,” he asked, wincing slightly because dammit Jongin you asked out Do Kyungsoo and you’re going on a date holy this is so messed up. Kyungsoo just grinned uncertainly and gripped the leather seat a little harder than necessary.


Chanyeol’s place was packed with cars and people and Jongin was already regretting everything. He’d never liked parties, even when he was in high school. Not that he was ever invited to any.


“Jongin!” Chanyeol said happily after he opened the door for him. It was obvious that he’d already had a few to drink. “Come on in, pal, the party’s just getting started. There’s food over—” He pointed toward what appeared to be a snack table, but stopped mid-sentence when he caught sight of Baekhyun and Taeyeon making out unattractively right beside it. He grabbed a beer out of the hand of the nearest passerby and stumbled back into the living room without another word. Kyungsoo and Jongin exchanged a glance before shrugging it off.


They barely made it two feet into the party before he was attacked by a mass of well-styled black hair. “Oh, Kim Jongin, you beautiful human being,” he heard a familiar accented voice say, and his cheeks were suddenly being squeezed between sweaty palms. Alcohol-laced breath overwhelmed him as he came face-to-face with Huang Zitao. “You’ll never leave me and go to Canada, will you? Who would want to go to college there anyways…” He hiccupped, burying his face in Jongin’s shoulder. Jongin patted his back awkwardly.


“Uh, I’m not going to Canada, Zitao,” he reassured. Zitao sniffled into his neck, but he shot up when the sound of the doorbell rang through that house.


“Is that Wufan?” he asked, pushing Jongin roughly aside and drunkenly stumbling toward the front door. He turned to glance at Kyungsoo, who was holding a jello shot out to him. He blinked in surprised.


“Well, drink up,” Kyungsoo said with a straight face, waving the shot around so that Jongin would take it. Jongin hesitated only slightly before grabbing it and throwing it back. It’s not like he hadn’t had alcohol before, but he’d never really liked it. That much was obviously still true, he thought as it burned its way slowly down his esophagus. He had another, anyway.


Everything was sort of a blur after that. He remembered Baekhyun crying into his shoulder in the kitchen and mumbling a lot of drunken slurs about liking boys, he remembered Sehun proposing to Luhan with one of the plastic rings that came off of the cap of cheap liquor bottles, and he remembered stumbling into a dark bedroom mouth-to-mouth with Kyungsoo.


“Are you sure about this?” Kyungsoo asked in one of the rare breaths between their desperate kisses. Their teeth clashed roughly and it hurt but Jongin couldn’t fight the desire he had for Kyungsoo, whether it was fabricated by a fanfiction-based world or not. He nodded, and Kyungsoo let out a small sigh. “Good. I’ve wanted this for a really long time, Jongin-ah.”


And suddenly, everything stilled. Every hot, aching thing that had possessed Jongin up to that point disappeared, and he suddenly felt very, very sober. Because this wasn’t fair. He stopped moving, and Kyungsoo eventually noticed, breaking off the kiss slowly and staring at Jongin with a confused expression. “Is something wrong?” he asked quietly. Jongin closed his eyes and took a deep breath.


“Yeah,” he said. “I’m sorry, hyung, I… I can’t do this.” He tried not to look at the pained expression in Kyungsoo’s eyes, but he couldn’t help it. Kyungsoo let out a forced chuckle and looked down at his feet.


“Oh,” he mumbled quietly, and Jongin wanted to rip his hair out in frustration because he had no idea how to explain.


“It’s just…” he started anxiously. “I’m not… entirely sure that the feelings I have for you are real.” He winced because he knew that sounded bad, but really, there was no other way for him to put it. Kyungsoo blinked his overly-large eyes and took a shuddering breath.


“Oh,” he said again. He nodded. “Alright, I understand. I’m just… I’m gonna go home now.”


“Wait, hyung, I’ll drive you back—”


“I’ll walk.”


Jongin groaned, covering his face with his hands and scrubbing hard at his skin. “Wait, hyung. Please,” he pleaded, and Kyungsoo stopped in the doorway. “I can explain. Come back, please.” Kyungsoo hesitated, before slowly turning around. Jongin took a deep breath. “You’re gonna have to keep an open mind, alright?” Kyungsoo bit his lip. He nodded.


And Jongin launched into the tale of EXO and fanfiction and alternate universes, and he was increasingly aware of how much it sounded like a fairy tale with each word. Kyungsoo seemed completely entranced in the story though, staring at him thoughtfully throughout the entire thing. When Jongin was done, they were both quiet for some time, and Kyungsoo seemed to be thinking it through.


“Well that’s… interesting,” he finally said. He shook his head, as if trying to clear out his thoughts. “Okay, well, as weird as that whole thing was, I believe you. I don’t really know why you would go through all of the effort to make up something like that just to reject me, so I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt.” Jongin cracked a grin.


“Trust me, I don’t want to reject you by any means,” he said, placing a hand on Kyungsoo’s soft cheek. “But it wouldn’t be fair to you.” Kyungsoo smiled sadly and nodded.


“Right,” he said acceptingly. “I understand.” Jongin leaned forward, closing the distance between them and pressing their lips together for the last time.


There was a creak of floorboards beside them, and Jongin regrettably pulled away to glance toward the doorway. Yixing was standing there, a bottle of beer in his hand and a completely blank expression on his face. He and Jongin made eye contact for what seemed like over a minute, before he turned around and trudged back the way he came. Jongin sighed.


“I should follow him, he can’t hold his alcohol for ,” he said exasperatedly. He smiled softly at Kyungsoo. “Come find me whenever you want to go home, okay?” Kyungsoo nodded, forcing a smile. Jongin made himself tear away from Kyungsoo’s wide-eyed gaze before he chased Yixing down the hallway.


“Yixing-hyung!” he called, but Yixing didn’t stop, pushing through people to get down the stairs and heading out the front door. Jongin struggled to follow him, still slightly buzzed, but they were halfway through the front lawn when he got a hold of Yixing’s shoulder. “Hey, hyung, why are you running away from me?” Yixing turned to him, and Jongin quickly removed his hand because he was glaring. Jongin had never seen him look even remotely angry before.


“Don’t touch me,” he said, but it sounded more sad than angry, especially because his Korean was broken in his drunk state. Jongin blinked.


“Are you mad at me?” he asked, and Yixing closed his eyes and pushed the heel of his hands into them. When he pulled his hands away, his expression was back to being nonchalant.


“I’m… no, I’m not mad at you,” he said with a sigh. He clutched the bottle tighter in his hands. “It’s just not fair because even after I did all of this, it just brought you closer to Kyungsoo and further away from me. This is all my fault.” He hiccupped, and Jongin had to think really hard to figure out what he had said.


“Wait, Yixing-hyung,” he said carefully. “What did you do? What’s your fault?” Yixing laughed, and it turned into another hiccup.


“I’m not naïve,” he said quietly. “The only way you would ever like me would be if we were in one of those dumb fanfictions, right?”


Jongin was confused, and he couldn’t even begin to sort through his winding thoughts. He swallowed. “So you’re saying… this is what you wanted?” he asked. Yixing smiled sadly.


“Wishes don’t come true,” he said, and Jongin had never heard someone sound so disappointed. “Here we are, trapped in a fanfiction just like I asked for, but you still don’t like me. Life ing .” Jongin actually jumped, because he had never heard Yixing cuss in his life. He let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.


Everything clicked into place, and suddenly Jongin would have much rather not known anything.



--


“Have you been avoiding me?”


Jongin jumped, almost spilling the kimchi stew he had been pouring into his lunch tray. He cleared his throat and glanced sideways at Yixing, who had scooted into line beside him unnoticed. “Of course not, why?” he said, trying to act casual as he wordless ladled soup onto Yixing’s tray as well.


Yixing didn’t remember anything about the party, and Jongin didn’t know if that made him feel relieved or even more burdened. Now not only did Yixing like him, but he wasn’t even aware that Jongin knew. Maybe he had been avoiding him, a little bit. “Alright, well. I haven’t seen you for a while,” Yixing said, shrugging him off.


“Uh, yeah. I’ve been. Busy,” Jongin said, scrambling around his words. “Studying.”


Yixing’s expression was a visual representation of the word “bull”, and Jongin really didn’t have anything else to say because that was the most horrible excuse he’d ever come up with. Oh well. He quickly gathered up the rest of his food and power-walked back to the table as fast as he could without spilling the contents of his tray.


“Ah, Jongin-ah!” Kyungsoo said excitedly once he sat down. Jongin smiled slightly, glad that nothing was even remotely as awkward with Kyungsoo as they were with Yixing. “I wanted to talk to you. The school talent show is in a few weeks, and I think that we should do it.” Jongin raised an eyebrow.


“Uh,” he said dumbly. “We as in, you and me?” Kyungsoo shook his head, gesturing around the table rapidly.


“We as in all twelve of us!” he said, his face bright with excitement. “Think about it, you and Yixing already know a bunch of songs and dances, right? All you have to do is teach the rest of us, and it will be just like we’re in a k-pop group. I thought it would be fun.” Jongin hesitated, chewing slowly as he contemplated the idea.


“Sounds good to me,” he finally said with a shrug. “Good luck convincing everyone else, though.”


Kyungsoo had always been convincing, since people always liked him so much that they usually complied with what he asked. He had that kind of charm, and he utilized it, which is why by some miracle twelve boys in varying grades and life situations managed to find time to come together in the courtyard after school to form a temporary k-pop group.


“This is so stupid,” Sehun whined, but he quickly shut up at Luhan’s obvious excitement.


“I never got to do the talent show when I was in school,” he said happily, his blonde hair bouncing as he swayed from heel to toe. “I’m a pretty good singer, right Sehunnie?” Sehun nodded rapidly, and Baekhyun made a whip motion behind his back.


“Are we even gonna be allowed to do this with three kids who’ve already graduated?” Zitao asked, sitting cross-legged on the ground with his knees sticking up in an awkward meditative position. One of his hands was buried in a bag of dried fruit and the the other was picking up small rocks and flicking them at Luhan. Jongin glanced at Kyungsoo, because he wasn’t sure himself, but Kyungsoo seemed completely confident.


“It’s fine as long as we don’t actually compete to win,” he said with a nod, and Zitao’s mouth fell open disbelievingly.


“Then there isn’t even a point!” he said, throwing his hands up dramatically. Jongdae kicked him over.


They separated into groups, Yixing agreeing to teach them the song while Jongin showed them the dance.


“So. The song is called Wolf, we do dance moves to make us look like wolves, and we literally say ‘I’m a wolf’ in the lyrics,” Sehun concluded judgmentally. “This is so stupid. Did you make up this song?”


“Definitely not,” Jongin said with a nod. It wasn’t like it was his favorite song, either. “Don’t complain, maknae, just dance.”


“Maknae?” Sehun asked disbelievingly, rolling his eyes and sighing at the same time. “You are such a loser. Please get out of your k-pop fantasy.” Jongin just laughed.


It was the most fun he’d had since he’d woken up in this alternate reality. He really missed being an idol, honestly, and practicing Wolf again with the members like it was the first time helped fill the hole in his chest left by the possibility that he might never get back to the real world. And as much as they scoffed and complained (especially Sehun and Zitao), he could tell everyone else was having fun, too.


He almost forgot that he was living a giant cliché, and it never crossed his mind that for every good thing that happened, something bad had to happen as a result. That was how most stories went, and this wasn’t an exception.


“You guys can go on without me,” Jongin said after one of their practices, bending over and panting heavily as sweat dripped down his jaw. He could tell that he was getting rusty after not having performed the routine in so long, and he wanted to touch some things up before he left.


He was alone in the courtyard when he heard the footsteps approaching, and his immediate thought was that one of the members had come back for him. “I’ll be done in a bit,” he said to whoever it was, ignoring them as he shot back into the routine.


“Don’t stop on my account, ballerina.”


Jongin paused. He didn’t recognize the voice at all, and when he turned to look at the intruder he found that he didn’t recognize his face, either. He did, however, recognize his tone. He immediately stiffened defensively. “Do I know you?” he asked, and the stranger grinned in a way that made Jongin feel a foot smaller.


“I know you,” he said, approaching Jongin and causing him to take several steps back. “You’re the one who wants to be a k-pop star, right? The one who stays after school to dance and sing songs with his little friends?” Jongin sighed. He wasn’t gonna let this bother him. He wasn’t.


“That’s me,” he said, and his voice betrayed his lack of confidence. The stranger laughed.


“K-pop is so ing gay. You look like a little girl, dancing like that, don’t you know?” he asked, bringing his face even closer to Jongin’s and Jongin could feel his fists shaking with equal amounts of fear and rage.


“Leave me the hell alone,” he said darkly. He was so sick of this, he’d already endured four years of it. He’d suffered the constant harassment for four years, just because other people judged him for his dream. Well, he’d showed them that he was worth it, he’d become famous like he’d worked so hard for, but here he was back to square one. He was just so ing sick of it.


“Fine,” the other boy said, waving him off. “Go on and keep dancing around with eleven other boys and maybe you’ll make it big in the real world, you little .” Jongin could feel his resolve drop and he just wanted to curl up and hide.


“Jongin-ah.” The voice was quiet yet stern, and it was a familiar one. Jongin looked over the shoulder of the boy standing in front of him and saw Yixing watching them from several feet away, his hands clenched into fists. “Go wait for me by the front of the school.” Jongin blinked in shock.


“No,” he said, pushing past the bully in front of him and approaching Yixing. He grabbed his uniform sleeve. “Let’s go together. Ignore him, he’s only here to cause drama, right?” Jongin was hopeful that Yixing would let it go, but that didn't seem to be happening.


“I’ll be right there,” he said calmly, and Jongin sighed. He took a few steps back, before regrettably jogging toward the front of the school. He knew nothing he could say would make Yixing change his mind, and besides, he honestly just wanted to get as far away from that other boy as possible.


Yixing was true to his word, and came to find Jongin not even ten minutes later. Jongin took one look at him and his mouth dropped open, because Yixing’s eye was swelling rapidly and there was blood dripping from his nose.


“, Yixing…” he said, rushing over to him and placing the pads of his fingers delicately on the bruised skin. “I told you to leave it alone.” Yixing just grinned, the blood on his teeth making it look slightly horrifying.


“You should see the other guy,” he said, nudging Jongin playfully, but Jongin grimaced in response.


“I thought we were avoiding clichés,” he pointed out with a slight pout. “You beat up a bully for me, it doesn’t get much more typical than that. Why did you even have to go that far? You should have just ignored him.” Yixing laughed joyfully, slinging his arm over Jongin’s shoulder.


“Well, you told me you were bullied and high school, and I was really angry that you had to go through it again,” he admitted sheepishly. “Especially since this is all my fau—”


A momentary silence crossed over them, and Yixing seemed to be holding his breath. Jongin just sighed, grabbing the other boy’s hand silently.


“Hey, Yixing,” he said, avoiding eye contact awkwardly. “If by any chance, you uh… happen to have wished us into this fanfiction-based reality due to feelings you have for me that I was completely unaware and ignorant of… well, uh. That would be okay.” He heard Yixing’s breath stutter in surprise, and he closed his eyes and tried to will away the embarrassment. After a moment, Yixing gripped his hand tighter.


Sometimes he though as long as he had Yixing, it really would be okay.


--


“This is so embarrassing. I’m a grown man,” Wufan complained as he looked at the audience from behind the backstage curtain. Zitao patted him on the back sympathetically.


“I’ve gotta say I’m impressed, Jongin-ah,” Kyungsoo said, smiling at him brightly. “You turned ten normal teenagers back into a k-pop group. I think being an idol is definitely what you were born to do.” Jongin smiled weakly in response.


“Ah, yeah,” he said, his voice failing to hide his disappointment. “I think at this point, I probably won’t ever get to go back to that, though.” Kyungsoo pursed his lips and was quiet for a moment.


“Hey, there are entertainment companies here, too, you know,” he said after a moment. Jongin turned to him, realization spreading across his face. Kyungsoo’s face broke out into another eye-scrunching smile. “Everything’s gonna be okay, Jongin-ah, I promise. Isn’t it a cliché that the main character gets what he wants at the end?”


“Only if neither of you die first,” Yixing said from behind him, shaking his head in pity. Kyungsoo and Jongin just laughed.


It was their turn before they knew it, and Jongin was much more exhilarated than nervous. He could feel the familiar beat pulsing through his bones, gliding through the movements as easily as he always had. For a moment, he almost forgot that he was on a rickety stage in a high school auditorium, and if he closed his eyes, he was back on the stages of music programs, dancing to the tune of fanchants and moving smoothly through the harsh limelight.


He made eye contact with Yixing, and his face was glowing with the same joy that Jongin felt. He smiled brightly. He never wanted the song to end.


But of course, it had to. And there on the old wooden stage, with his hands and knees on the ground as he crouched into the ‘cave’ for Sehun to slide through, he looked on at the twelve members with pride as the song came to a stop. And he just barely heard the applause before it began to drown out and he felt like he was underwater.


“Jongin-ah, are you gonna sleep all day? Kyungsoo’s making lunch.”


Jongin sat up in bed, his heart racing and beads of sweat sticking his bangs to his forehead. Junmyeon’s face was inches from his, and he jumped backwards. Junmyeon laughed. “Have a bad dream?” he asked, poking Jongin on the nose before grabbing his arm and pulling him out of bed.


It only took him a few moments to realize that he was in the dorm room he shared with Chanyeol and Kyungsoo. And it took him a few more to realize why that was weird.


“Junmyeon-hyung!” he said as they approached the living room. Junmyeon raised an eyebrow at him. “We’re in EXO, right?”


“Uh,” Junmyeon said judgmentally. “Last time I checked.”


Jongin let out a breath that he didn’t know he was holding. It was a dream. All of it had been a dream.


“Geez, who let you sleep so late,” Kyungsoo said, pushing a bowl of ramen into his hands. “I made ddokboki for everyone else, but since you decided to sleep all day, that’s all you get.” Jongin stared at him.


“Oh my god,” he said, unable to keep the elation out of his voice. “I’m not attracted to you at all.”


Kyungsoo looked equally confused and offended, and Baekhyun and Chanyeol cracked up from the couch. “Glad to see the fans are wrong about you two, then,” Baekhyun yelled obnoxiously. Kyungsoo just rolled his eyes and stormed back into the kitchen. Jongin could have started singing with joy, but he resisted the urge by stuffing his face with something that wasn’t cafeteria food.


“You’re not even the last one awake. I think Yixing died in there,” Luhan said from the kitchen table. Jongin’s mouth went dry. Right, Yixing.


So that part was a dream, too.


“What happened to your face?” Zitao, who was standing closest to the hallway, suddenly exclaimed. Jongin turned to see Yixing stumbling into the room. He looked around frantically as if he were searching for something, and when he made eye contact with Jongin, his swollen black eye was extremely noticeable. Jongin’s eyes widened as Yixing ran to him, meeting him halfway in front of the TV.


“Your eye…” Jongin said softly, reaching up to touch it. “Did… did all of that really happen?” Yixing pursed his lips, and it seemed as if he tried to find something to say but in the end he just ended up nodding. Jongin let out a small laugh of disbelief.


“Look, Jongin,” Yixing started. “I’m so sorr—”


But he wasn’t able to finish his sentence before Jongin had his hands wrapped in his short hair and was kissing him obscenely, in the middle of the living room, in front of all of their members. When they broke apart, Yixing was staring at him in a sort of dazed confusion, which almost immediately melded into penetrating happiness. He buried his face into Jongin’s chest, wrapping his arms around his waist and squeezing tightly.


The room was silent for a long time.


“Well that was all very nice, but can you stop blocking the TV?” Sehun said, adding in a few eye rolls for good measure. Jongin and Yixing grinned, and Sehun just shook his head and sighed dramatically. “What the hell do you think this is, a fanfiction?”