SUPPORTING CAST

Sehun loves when her teacher announces the class is working in partners — not because she likes working with people because she doesn’t but because it’s funny to watch when the girl who sits next to Jongin asks to be his partner. She’s not annoying or anything; she’s actually one of Sehun’s friends. But Jongin is such a loser that he can’t even chose a partner in class right.

“Are you going to work with Sehun today?” the girl, Kyungsoo, asks, flicking her pencil back and forth between her fingers.

“Nah, I don’t want him,” Sehun denies offhandedly. She slouches back in her chair and crosses her arms over her chest. Jongin turns around and glares at her and she blows him a kiss.

Best friends forever.

Looking at Kyungsoo with wide eyes, Jongin stammers. “Uh…”

Kyungsoo stops wiggling her pencil and shifts her attention to Sehun. “Do you want to work together?”

Sehun grins and waves her hand. “Come on over, babe.”

Kyungsoo, though amused, rolls her eyes as she gathers her notebook and turns her chair around to face Sehun’s desk.

Smile falling into a concerned grimace, Sehun shakes her head at Jongin. “You really have to get better at this talking to girls thing or I’m going to steal all your potential girlfriends.”

Kyungsoo lets out a sharp ‘ha’ and Jongin narrows his eyes at the two of them.

“That’s not fair and you know it,” he says, grabbing his square, pink eraser off his desk and throwing it at Sehun. It hits her just above her heart and she fakes a gasp.

Flipping open her notebook, Kyungsoo jerks to the side out of the way when Sehun throws it back. “He has a point,” she says. “You have to choose a girl who, one, isn’t gay and, two, would actually be interested in him.”

“Are there any?” Sehun quips, sharing a high five with Kyungsoo.

Jongin sighs exasperatedly and throws his hands up in the air.

Their teacher, Mr. Joo, clears his throat. “Is there any one without a partner?”

Sehun snickers when Jongin awkwardly raises his hand, the only person in the class.

“Oh, Jongin, why don’t you work with Kyungsoo and Sehun?”

The girls immediately erupt into giggles as Jongin nods with a fake smile before turning his chair around and sighing again.

“And we’ve come full circle,” Kyungsoo comments.

“It’s too early in the morning for this,” Jongin complains. He turns his chair around anyway, slapping his notebook down onto Sehun’s desk.

Sehun kicks his foot. “Bring your textbook too, loser. All three of us can’t share mine.”

Jongin stares at her with a dead look on his face as he leans back and blindly reaches for his textbook. He slides it onto the empty desk next to Sehun’s a little too hard and it almost slips right off until Sehun stops it with her hand.

“Wait, Jongin, you have something in your hair.” Sehun rises onto one knee in her chair and reaches over to sift her fingers through his hair.

Staring over her shoulder at nothing as he waits for her to finish, Jongin misses the way she looks for their teacher out of the corner of her eye. He’s too surprised to hold in his yelp when she smacks the side of his head, gaining the attention of a few of the other students and, most importantly, Mr. Joo.

“Is everything alright, Jongin?” the sociology teacher asks from where he’s helping another pair of students.

Sparing a quick glance at Sehun who is suddenly focused on the blank page of her notebook, still sitting awkwardly on her knee, Jongin fakes a smile. “Yeah, just bit my tongue.”

It’s believable enough and, after nodding his head in understanding, their teacher returns to helping the two boys on the other side of the classroom.

Kyungsoo snorts and then covers , stifling the rest of her laughter.

“Was that necessary?” Jongin frowns as Sehun swings her leg off her chair and sits back down.

Sehun shrugs. “It looked like a spider,” she says even though they both know there was nothing in his hair. “A spider that was mad you practically threw a book at sweet, precious me.”

“We should focus,” Kyungsoo redirects their attention, her voice still high-pitched with laughter.

It’s been five minutes and they haven’t even looked at the chapter or the questions they should be working on. Sehun and Jongin chime out sounds of agreement and open their textbooks to flip to the correct chapter.

They pick up a good rhythm of Kyungsoo reading off the questions and then all three of them skimming the fifteen page chapter for the answers, none of them actually caring to read the material in depth when they only have twenty five minutes to finish the assignment. It’s not a competition but that doesn’t stop them from boasting when they find the answer hidden between lines and lines of sociological theory or arguing over what even is the right answer.

“Are you stupid? That doesn’t even make sense?” Sehun hisses, scanning over the paragraph Jongin is pointing to before flipping to the end of the chapter where the questions are found. “Wait, does it?” She flips back to page she was just reading, chewing her bottom lip in confusion.

“It sounds right,” Kyungsoo says but she doesn’t sound confident either. “Do you guys wanna ask Mr. Joo?”

“Nah, just write it down,” Jongin and Sehun both say in response.

Kyungsoo does exactly that, jotting down what’s written in the textbook in short sentences. As she finishes, she looks up at Sehun who is tapping the end of her pencil against the side of the large book as she reads.

“I still don’t understand how in sync you guys are when Jongin can’t even give me a straight answer when I ask what time it is.” She shakes her head in disbelief.

Sehun laughs while Jongin splutters incomprehensibly. “It took a lot of patience and persistence on my part. Sometimes I feel bad because I practically bullied him into being my friend.”

“Really? You never told me that.” Jongin frowns.

Sehun shrugs. “But you’d never make it in this world without me to help you open up to girls other than Chanyeol so I really have nothing to be sorry about. Be thankful.”

Jongin rolls his eyes. “You can’t be nice to me for more than ten seconds, can you?”

Sehun smiles sweetly at him before turning to Kyungsoo. “You should hang with us sometime. I’ll teach you how to push all his buttons. He’ll communicate with you like an actual human being in no time.”

The two girls burst into giggles once more, hi-fiving over the desk.

Jongin hunches over his textbook. “I swear it’s too early in the morning for this.”

“God, what’s her problem?”

Chanyeol snorts and leans over to read the conversation on Baekhyun’s phone. She shakes her head at the spam of angry facebook stickers with no text. “What did you say?” She says with an exasperated sigh.

“Why are you saying it like I did something wrong?” He taps the stickers tab and scrolls through them before ultimately choosing the poop emoticon.

“No talking. You all should be watching the documentary,” their teacher calls out from the front of the classroom and the two of them turn their attention away from Baekhyun’s phone and pretend to watch the screen.

“Because you probably did do something wrong,” Chanyeol whispers, holding her hand out for the phone. Baekhyun passes it over with a huff. Hiding it beneath their shared desk, she scrolls up to the start of the conversation with Jongdae. As she skims through the exchange of messages, she shakes her head and clicks her tongue.

“Of course she’s mad at you. She told you she was nervous about the choir competition today and you sent her a Pitch Perfect gif of that one girl projectile vomiting. And then when she sent you ‘dot dot dot’, you sent her a thumbs up.” Chanyeol tosses the phone into Baekhyun’s lap and he fumbles to grab it before it falls.

“Jongdae knows she’s going to do great.”

“God, Baek, you’re like a little kid being mean to the girl he likes just to get her attention. Jongdae was probably hoping you would comfort her like a normal human being.”

“I thought she would appreciate it. She never gets mad any other time I send her something stupid.” Baekhyun frowns.

Chanyeol can tell from the way he keeps glancing at his phone that he’s thinking about where he went wrong. “It’s the national choir festival and she’s doing a solo. It’s not like she’s worried about a test she didn’t study for.”

“Chanyeol, Baekhyun, stop talking.”

The two of them look at their teacher who has her eyes narrowed at them. Baekhyun crosses his arms over his chest and leans back in his chair. Chanyeol peeks a glance at the clock on the wall in the back of the classroom. There’s twenty minutes left before the bell rings. With a sigh, she turns her full attention to the projector screen.

“I told her sorry but she hasn’t replied so she’s either busy or she’s ignoring me,” Baekhyun whines as they wait in the lunch line. It’s stupidly long, as usual, and it feels like they have been waiting for longer than just five minutes.

Taking his phone out of his hands, Chanyeol puts it in her own pocket, out of his reach. She ignores the look Baekhyun gives her and tells him to pass her a carton of milk. “She’s probably performing, don’t worry. She’s not going to break up with you over this.”

Baekhyun’s hands loosen around the carton and it slips from his grasp. He just barely saves it from falling to the ground, bumping into the boy standing in front of him. He mumbles out an apology when the boy turns to look at him with furrowed, annoyed brows. His eyes never leave the milk carton when he sighs out, “It’s not like there’s a relationship for her to break up.”

Chanyeol frowns, her face wrapped in confusion. “I thought you were going to ask her out over winter break after you sent me eighty texts panicking about what to say.”

For as adorable as Baekhyun fretting over if he should be nonchalant about it or if he should do it cheesily because ‘she’ll probs roast me to hell and back either way’, getting spammed with Baekhyun’s stream of consciousness as he decided the type of confession that would end in the least amount of ridicule from Jongdae for two days straight almost made Chanyeol block his number. She always willing to help her friends but even she has her limits.

“Yeah, well, I kind of…chickened out.” Baekhyun laughs awkwardly and rubs the back of his neck.

Chanyeol nudges him forward as the line moves. “Why?” Her voice flattens into an even tone, something she didn’t even know her vocal cords were capable of with how naturally full of life she is. Perhaps Jongin has been right these past couple of years. Maybe she is spending too much time with Sehun and the younger girl’s mannerisms are starting to rub off on her.

“I fear rejection?” he offers, the inflection hinting he thinks the answer is simple and he can’t understand why Chanyeol is even asking.

“But why?” Chanyeol’s voice returns to its usual pitch, slightly whiny with exasperation. Everyone knows Baekhyun and Jongdae are interested in each other and she tells him as much. “You two have basically been married for the past two years.”

“Jongdae dated Jaehwan last year.”

“And they broke up because of how much Jongdae talked about you and your stupid rivalry,” Chanyeol points out.

“I prefer to call it ‘healthy competition’.”

Chanyeol narrows her eyes.

The line moves forward again and with the progress comes Baekhyun’s turn to choose from the healthy (read: unfit for human consumption) lunch menu. He passes Chanyeol her milk as he watches the woman behind the counter drop a gloved handful of what may or may not actually be chicken nuggets onto a tray along with a spoon of mashed potatoes. He turns on the charm with a wide smile when she passes the tray to him.

“Did you do something with your hair, Mrs. Yoon? You look even more beautiful than yesterday.” Baekhyun winks and Mrs. Yoon, a stern 60-something that is probably planning to poison them all, only deepens her frown.

“You’re not getting extra potatoes, kid,” she says. There isn’t the slightest hint of a crack in her stony expression. Baekhyun responds with a strained laugh that gets ignored as Mrs. Yoon turns her attention to Chanyeol.

Chanyeol giggles when Baekhyun mutters under his breath about how the last thing he wants is extra of anything served at this godforsaken school. She opts for the second menu option, a cheese quesadilla, and the twinkling remnants of her laugh get caught in her thanks.

“Why are you so greasy?” Chanyeol shakes her head as they move on to the register to pay. “Mrs. Yoon probably hates you, by the way.”

Baekhyun jerks his head to the side, flipping his hair out of his face. “I always have to put a smile on around the plebeians. Keep up the image and all that.” He balances his tray on one hand as he fishes for his money with the other. “And it’s literally impossible to hate me. I’m me.”

Snorting, Chanyeol lightly pushes his shoulder. “You’re such a theatre nerd.”

“I take offense to that,” Baekhyun says as he hands over the small bill and waits for the young man behind the register to count out the change. Baekhyun gives him the same grin he gave Mrs. Yoon but this time he gets the slightest notion of a smile in return.

Chanyeol greets the man as she takes out the exact change for her lunch. She doesn’t recognize him — and she remembers most of the cafeteria staff — so he must be new. She doesn’t ask, only offering her thanks when he wishes her a nice day.

She catches up to Baekhyun at the condiments station. He pumps the ketchup dispenser and it spits a glob every five pumps.

“There’s never any ketchup in this thing,” he complains, trying a couple more times before giving up.

“You wanna sit together or is this goodbye?”

Baekhyun asks for a plastic fork that Chanyeol reaches over the counter to grab for him. He raises an eyebrow at her. “Is Sehun here today?”

“Yes.”

“Then, no,” he quickly answers. “I think she’s out to get me.”

She is, Chanyeol thinks. “Guess I’ll see you later, then.” She starts to walk away but then remembers the weight in her pocket. Pulling his phone out, she holds it out to him. “She likes you, Baek. I know you know that. Don’t get too nervous and psych yourself out, okay?”

Taking the phone, Baekhyun nods. “I know,” he sighs. “Thanks.”

spoiler alert: the next chapter (or the one after idk yet) will be very ing heavy as we approach peak feels

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