Jongin hurries towards the cafeteria. For some reason, school has been particularly draining today. Although deep down he must admit that some of the slouch on his back can be attributed towards the fact that he has not seen the apple of his eye today. Not once. It’s true that Jongin’s english class, which is the only class he attends together with the cute classmate, isn’t until later on the day, but normally he would have seen Kyungsoo at least a couple of times by now. At his locker in the morning, in the halls between the morning periods, near his class waiting for the door to open. Especially because Jongin is always trying to catch a glimpse of him, but not today. Not even a mere glimpse of his reddish hair. Jongin is still feeling a little sleepy because Kyungsoo’s morning greeting hasn’t woken him up as per usual. He might need to accept the fact that Kyungsoo may not be at school today. 

He then starts to wonder what it was that has made his crush miss school. Family matters? A random family trip overseas? Did someone pass away? Or maybe he was sick. Was it a mere cold? or something more serious that landed him on a bed in a hospital somewhere? More importantly, when is he coming back to school? Jongin doesn’t really like the idea of going to school when Kyungsoo is not attending.

He sighs as he reaches the cafeteria and sees his friends on one table. It perks his interest a little when he sees them getting excited over something. It’s quite a normal sight really, but whatever it was might just help him get through the grey day. Especially if it’s food related. Jongin is always interested in food.

As he nears the table he sees an onslaught of chocolate on the table, and even though it reminds him of the wonderful cupcakes from yesterday and Kyungsoo, it makes him smile at the prospect of decent dessert.

“Did valentine’s come early this year without me knowing or something?”, he asks while simultaneously dropping himself and his belongings onto a seat.

“Better”, Baekhyun replies with a twinkle in his eyes.

“Oh?”

“Jongdae was giving away free food!!”, Chanyeol answers him with his usual amount of hyperness.

“I didn’t realise you guys have that much interest in Jongdae’s cooking”, he says in amusement as he watches everyone digs in to the delicious looking treats.

Even Joonmyeon seems to be in complete glee about his portion of brownies. Jongin never sees him get excited for anything other than his accounting class or the classmates he has deemed ‘cuter than anything in this world’. Jongin feels sorry for those people. He didn’t even know Joonmyeon has ever been in the same room as Jongdae.

“Actually, most of us don’t.”, Baekhyun says, still looking incredibly amused. As if anticipating for a bucket of water to fall on Jongin’s head any minute now. 

Jongin looks up just in case. Nothing was there. The ceiling of the cafeteria is much too high for Baekhyun to set anything on to it. So he waits for Baekhyun to continue instead.

Instead, it was Sehun who granted his wish, speaking up as he plops himself down on the last seat on the table and carefully putting down his own container of brownies.

“So you all got Kyungsoo’s brownies as well?”

Did Jongin hear that right?

“Nuh, I got his muffins!!”, Chanyeol exclaims, mouth full of food.

Joonmyeon sighs as he takes a bite.

“And to think I was so jealous that Jongin got those cupcakes yesterday”, he says contently.

Baekhyun is too busy eating to talk, but Jongin doesn’t miss the quirk on his mouth.

“Sweet.”, Sehun says with a flat tone with uncharacteristic enthusiasm on his expression,”Thank you for the food”, he says aloud before digging in.

Jongin stops gaping long enough to get a sentence out of his mouth.

“Wait, I thought you said Jongdae gave you those?”, he asks incredulously.

For some reason his brain refuses to believe the fact that these are Kyungsoo’s brownies, even when it’s really not that hard to connect together. Jongdae is Kyungsoo’s best friend and he is giving out his brownies for some reason.

"Well, yeah, but it was Kyungsoo who made them", Baekhyun replies.

"He was so cute when I thanked him in class. He had this blush on his face and he looks all embarrassed because they were burnt or something", Joonmyeon smiles creepily at the memory.

Jongin frowns at him.

"Wait, they were burnt?", Chanyeol asks, already mourning at the loss of his muffins.

"Apparently. Thats why Jongdae was giving them out. Kyungsoo didn't want his brother to eat it or something"

"If these are bad for Kyungsoo I can only imagine how amazing his good muffins are", Joonmyeon sighs again.

Wait a second.

"Kyungsoo's at school??"

"Why wouldn't he be? And why do you sound so surprised, you don't even have classes with him!", Joonmyeon scoffs.

"I have english with him", Jongin defends himself, "Well, I'm going to have english with him... But I'd normally see him by now!"

At least it solved his grey day. Kyungsoo will be in class! Even his normal boring lunch tastes better already! He was far too happy to care about Junmyeon rolling his eyes at him.

"Jongin, let me have a piece of that", Sehun demanded.

Jongin passes the piece of chicken he pointed at and promptly reaches for a piece of brownie he has been watching everyone eat as a barter. Sehun slaps his hand away before he can reach it without stopping from eating.

"Hey! What gives? You have a lot of those!", Jongin frowns.

"No.", is all Sehun could reply in between chewing.

Instead, he pushes his own lunchbox towards Jongin to signal him to get anything else from it.

"But I just want one of those. You have plenty!", Jongin whines, still trying to reach for the brownie container.

"Hey guy- Ooooooh, brownies! Thanks Sehun!", Tao says in one go before grabbing a piece for himself and putting the whole thing in his mouth in.

Sehun didn't even bat a lash, and he has plenty of those to bat.

Jongin blanches at the injustice.

"Wha- Hey! Hyung, Sehun’s being unfair again!”, Jongin tattles, but Junmyeon was still too distracted with his food.

“Sehun-ah! Can I have a piece?!”

Minseok, a senior, was yelling from a couple of tables over, having heard news of the brownies via Tao. Sehun picks a smallish piece and stretches his arm over the next table for Minseok to grab.

“Lemme have just ooone”, Jongin reaches.

Sehun simply moves the box a little further from his reach.

“May I?”, Luhan came to ask.

Sehun stops his chewing to frown a little since his brownie stock is being depleted piece by piece.

“You can pick the smallest one for me”, Luhan bargains.

Sehun still doesn’t look too happy, but he relents and gave Luhan half of a piece. Luhan pouts at the small piece but accepts it anyway, carrying it off carefully back to his own table.

“Sehuuuun”, Jongin whines, “Pleaseeee, give me that half piece at least”

Sehun’s mouth is still too full to talk, so he shakes his head once more.

“Oh, come on! What have I ever done to you man?”, Jongin falls back into his chair to grumble.

Sehun’s mouth is finally empty long enough for him to speak.

“Nothing. Kyungsoo said no”

Hold up. What?

“Kyungsoo?”

“Oh yeah, Jongdae said Kyungsoo told him you can’t have any”, Chanyeol says as if he had forgotten the fact.

Dang, he could’ve gotten some from Chanyeol.

But more importantly, why would Kyungsoo not let him have any? Come to think of it, he saw Jongdae twice this morning, and there was no mention of chocolate desserts, but now everyone he knows has a box each except for him?

“You must’ve messed up something yesterday to make him hate you this much”, Baekhyun spoke up, doing poorly to hide his snickering behind his arm.

“Nooooooooo, Kyungsoo can’t hate me!”, Jongin wails, slouching to the table.

"He seemed perfectly fine yesterday....", he told the table.

The beings around the table with actual ears are opting to stay blissed out in Kyungsoo's perfect food instead of caring. Jongin pouts as he leans his head onto his hand.

"I swear Kyungsoo isn't the type to randomly hate people for no reason...", he mumbles alone.

He bolts up a mere second later, slamming his palms dramatically on to the table.

“I’m gonna go talk to him”

Sehun watches as his friend runs off to who-knows-where and rolls his eyes. 

“I know, right?” Junmyeon agrees.

------

Jongin didn't have to look very hard. He found Kyungsoo in the locker area, looking as if he had just came out of his class, even though they have been dismissed for lunch for 15 minutes already. Most students would have found their way to food within the first 5 seconds. 

"Kyungsoo!", he calls out as he nears him.

Kyungsoo seems to flinch and takes a step closer to his locker, looking like he would very much like to hide himself inside it.

"H-ello", Kyungsoo greets him without looking 

So maybe I did make him hate me?

"Kyungsoo, do you hate me?", Jongin asks. He didn't think Kyungsoo would appreciate if he wastes his time with preamble before getting to the point.

Kyungsoo startles and for the first time in the day looks at Jongin in the eyes piercingly.

Oh gosh, he really does hate me. Dammit, Baekhyun was right.
But maybe he doesn’t, its just the way he looks at people
who would look at people like they would kill them in their sleep?
Stop making fun of him! He has cute eyes
Yes he does….

The entire half second felt like an eternity to Jongin, but Kyungsoo finally answers.

“Ofcourse not!”, he says louder than Jongin has expected and it makes him very very relieved.

“Oh thank god! I was hoping you don’t”, he exhaled with a smile, “I mean… I thought I said something to you yesterday, and you-”

“I wouldn’t hate you. Of all people, you’re one of the last I would hate! I mean really, you are a really nice person Jongin, even though I don’t talk to you much, I see you with other people and you’re very friendly and kind, even to me! so, no matter what happens in the future, I probably won’t ever hate you… I can’t!!”

The way Kyungsoo says it makes him really happy. 

He thinks this highly of me…?
Oh no… I’m blushing… in front of Kyungsoo… Nooooooooo

“And… What you said yesterday… At the very end….”

Jongin looks up because he remembers exactly what he said yesterday, he sees Kyungsoo averting his eyes, and he knew they were thinking of the same thing.

“Oh that!”, he laughs it off lightly, “It-”

“I’m sorry!” Kyungsoo said, head bowed, face coloured the reddest Jongin has ever seen.

Jongin forgets to breathe for a moment.

Because how can someone make his heart flutter and tear it to bits at the same time without even knowing it? Also, how is he going to hold himself back from crying and violently hugging his extremely cute crush who is making him want to cry? Jongin feels his head hurt a little.

"It's alright", he says aloud.

It really is. Really.
Kyungsoo doesn't really know him that well right now after all.
As long as they can be friends, Jongin can probably still flaunt his charming ways, and eventually Kyungsoo will fall for him. Probably. Maybe.
So yes, it's still alright.

"No it's not", Kyungsoo says, sounding muffled since he is trying to speak and hide his face from Jongin at the same time.

"I'm a horrible person, I'm really sorry"

It's funny how even in the situation where Kyungsoo is breaking his heart, all Jongin wants to do is comfort him. For rejecting Jongin. Where is the logic? Is this what people mean when they say love has no space for a mind?

He wants to jump, and he isn't sure if it is to reach Kyungsoo or launch himself to a wall. His breath is caught, but he isn't sure if he can recover and breathe because he thinks his ribcages might have constricted without his will and he doesn't know if he can get them to move again.

Jongin stops himself from moving towards Kyungsoo, because if he actually gets to it he will probably start crying. He can already feels his eyes watering, and he isn't sure if it is caused by the tightness in his chest or Kyungsoo, but they may as well be the same reason.

"Kyungsoo, really. It's o-"

"You must think I'm just making excuses, because what kind of a normal person doesn't understand 'going out' but I really didn't, and I realised it late, and I'm extremely stupid, and you probably think I am an idiot but thats okay because I probably am and-"

Hold up.
That wasn't......?
It was....... ?

Jongin doesn't understand. The situation sounds a lot like he is getting turned down... But it doesn't sound like that is what Kyungsoo is saying. Jongin doesn't know if it was just wishful thinking, but he asks him anyway.

"Kyungsoo...", he says carefully, seeing his classmate tense.

He slowly prises Kyungsoo's hands off his face, taking a deep breath as he feels his own face redden at the sight of Kyungsoo.

"Could you... Say that to me again without covering your face? I.... I couldn't understand what you meant"

Kyungsoo bites his lip and looks embarrassed, but he takes a deep breath to prepare himself to talk again.

"I'm sorry I was stupid the other time and didn't answer you properly when you asked me out. I really didn't mean to brush you off like that, even if it was unintentional..."

When Kyungsoo didn't hear a reply, he looks up slowly, for fear of coming face to face with the look of anger on Jongin's face. However, all he can see expressed on his classmate was surprise, as if he hasn't yet processed what Kyungsoo has confessed.

"... Jongin?"

It seems to have triggered something in the boy, and he immediately slumps to a squat on the floor as he heard his name on Kyungsoo's lips.

"Jo-jongin??", Kyungsoo calls out in worry, crouching into the same position in front of him.

He sees Jongin's face is red again, quite like yesterday, although Jongin seems to be trying to hide it behind his hand. He is still not responding, so Kyungsoo thinks he should probably check if Jongin has suddenly contracted some sort of sickness, but he is afraid that Jongin may not like being touched by other people. Seconds passed as Jongin stayed silent and frozen, and Kyungsoo debates himself to feel his temperature or not. He worries as many more seconds pass and Jongin still doesn't move a muscle. After a few more seconds passed, he becomes worried enough to slowly reach out his hand towards Jongin's face to get a reaction if not his body temperature.

He startles when Jongin suddenly lets out a loud string of laughter. He looks around to see if there was anything funny going on that Jongin is laughing to, but they were the only ones there. He stares at his classmate in confusion, but all Jongin responded to that was to laugh even louder.

Kyungsoo still doesn't get it, but Jongin is laughing in his normal, carefree way, it makes him want to join in and laugh along. So he smiles, and settles himself more comfortably on the ground.

"You're weird, Jongin"

------

Jongin is embarrassed. 
Very embarrassed. 
Extremely embarrassed. 

There is no other way of putting it, he was an idiot. There are still unshed tears in his eyes, because he thought his very cute crush was turning him down. Pathetic idiot. He can feel himself turning red. Possibly lobster red. He is that embarrassed.

In his defense, Kyungsoo is a very fine specimen to crush on. He is cute and kind and just the right amount of quietly mysterious. Jongin never knew much of him, but he always seems to be lurking in the corner of his eyes, and whenever Jongin turns to see him, he would see Kyungsoo picking up someone's dropped papers, or tidying up the class, or returning someone else's forgotten books. He couldn't really help but admire him a little, and the more he looks at Kyungsoo, the more he sees his heart shaped smile and warm eyes and he admires him even more. 

He knows he isn't the only one desperately trying to reach Kyungsoo and he isn't sure how hard anyone else has it but Jongin just really really likes Kyungsoo. As if it isn't obvious enough by now.

He finds himself somehow in a squatting position, failing to hide his blush behind his hand, because really, the only thing he wants right now is to hide his sad self from the ethereal being that is Kyungsoo. It really amazes him how his crush is still here dealing with his uncool self. He is even looking worried for him now. His face is so adorable with that look on his face and... oh my god, HIS HAND IS ALMOST TOUCHING ME!

Jongin has never been good at controlling his reactions during stressful situations. Especially when he is feeling very conflicted extreme emotions. So when he finds himself in situations such as now, his mind goes blank and his instincts took over.

He bursts into laughter.

Really Jongin, laughing?
It's not even your cute laugh!
Screw you brain!
Can I get a new one here please? Thanks.

At the very least, all the knots in his chest has loosen up, but he really can't stop finding the hilarity of the situation to make himself stop. There goes all his chances with Kyungsoo.

"You're weird, Jongin"

His laughter was ringing on the walls, so he nearly missed Kyungsoo's quiet statement. He wouldn't have believed it if someone told him there was no malice in Kyungsoo's words if it wasn't for his smile. Jongin feels the warmth of the sun on his skin with that smile. He decides that this is his most favourite smile in the world.

It got him to stop laughing before he even noticed.

"I'm sorry", he says sincerely.

For being stupid.
For asking a dumb question.
For liking you this much.

This time, Kyungsoo's smile breaks into a chuckle that slips between his lips. It makes him think of spring, and flittering butterflies. It makes him think about the two of them, and it gets him to ask a question.

"Would you like to go on a date with me?"

"I really don't know you that well, Jongin", he replies with a blush and Jongin realises how much he really likes his straightforward side. 

"But I would love to", Kyungsoo shyly adds.

"Friday?"

"Friday."

---

A/n: hope you had fun reading this, please tell me if you spot any spelling or grammar mistakes or if you would like some of them brownies. Because I would.

Have a good day~