Kyungsoo isn’t overly fond of school trips: they grate on his nerves, especially when they’re at boring locations. At the moment he, along with the rest of his class, are being dragged around an old, dark natural history museum by their teacher who is far too eager for this. This is time that would be far better spent working on his project.

Science- particularly physics- interests him far more than rotting bones and dolls that belonged to some kid from a war. He glares through the exhibits, not really taking anything in, thinking instead about the book about galaxy formations he has in his bag, which he’d been reading on the bus here but had to stop when they arrived. It had just been getting good too.

Ah, they’re moving again, he realises, taking a few quick steps to catch up and nearly walking into the girl in front of him. The room they’ve just entered is huge and bright, with a high ceiling and filled with statues of people. The sign above him says Ancient Egypt, and is decorated with one of those eye things he doesn’t know the name of and an ankh.

Rather than pay attention, he mentally recites a section from his presentation on astrophysics that’s coming up.

“When are we going to get to the interesting stuff?” An all too familiar voice asks the teacher. Jongin, the most annoying student in his class- disruptive and rude but still charming enough not to have been expelled yet. He’s even blonde, that makes him like a true delinquent, doesn’t it?

The guy is also Kyungsoo’s next door neighbour, and he plays really loud music at night sometimes, and it drives him crazy when he’s trying to study.

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes, of course he agrees with him, but since it’s coming from his mouth it’s annoying. The teacher’s face falls, and Kyungsoo feels a pang of guilt.

“This is the end of the guided tour, so I’m going to split you into pairs and I want you to go and find out as much as you can about the things in this room in particular. Ah-ah-ah! Before you go, I will put you into pairs. This counts as a lesson, alright? There will be a test on this stuff later!” She announces, and the ensemble groans, and prepares for a terrible afternoon spent copying down descriptions of things they find around the room. They aren’t even studying ancient egypt yet, why are they being forced into this?

“Sehun and Tao,” Mrs Hwang begins listing off all the pairs which she must have come up with beforehand. Sehun and Tao are Jongin’s best buddies, which leaves him alone. Kyungsoo smirks at his misfortune, humming a little tune to himself.

“Jongin and Kyungsoo,” the smile drops off his face and someone pushes him from behind. What the hell?

“Hey, Kyungsoo,” Jongin greets with his arrogant smirk, complete with a quirked eyebrow. Kyungsoo looks the other way.Everyone knows the two of them get along like a house on fire- usually because they set the house on fire themselves. This is crazy, Kyungsoo can’t work with him, there’s no way this is going to work. He’s just about to raise his concerns with the teacher but she silences him with a look, so he fumes and stares at the floor and not at Jongin’s legs, bare from the knee down.

How dare she? How dare she put him with this moron? He’s still ranting angrily in his mind when they’re dismissed, and the crowd disperses, mingling into the stone and glass case forest around them. Kyungsoo and Jongin remain still for a few seconds.

“Alright, here’s how this is going to work,” Kyungsoo folds his arms across his chest, “I am going to take down notes, and you are going to shut up. If you disturb me one time, I will not share any of my notes with you at all got that?”

“Sheesh, calm down. What, is it your time of the month?” His upper lip curls, “and who says I can’t take my own notes, I’m not incompetent.”

“Yeah, sure, keep telling yourself that. Preferably somewhere I can’t hear you. Follow me,” Kyungsoo instructs, stalking off to inspect a display of fertility deities.

He can feel it when Jongin moves in beside him, his presence is like a dark shadow that floats around just to torment people.

“So...You interested in fertility?”

“What kind of question is that?” Kyungsoo leans away from him, disgusted, as the tall athlete laughs at his prudish reaction. The shorter of the two scoffs and hunches over the display, using it to lean on as he diligently copies down things which seem like the might be important. Jongin finally shuts up and lets him work, and Kyungsoo finds that this stuff is more interesting that he’d first thought it to be- the Ancient Egyptian god of fertility is a dwarf in a lion outfit, who wouldn’t be interested?

As they slowly circle the room, Kyungsoo stares at a statue of a cow sceptically. It has a circle thing on its head and tall horns. He looks closer, reading the description. Hathor? He’s never heard of this one before, he muses, writing things down. Goddess of the sky, love, beauty, joy and a whole slew of things. Egyptian deities were kept pretty busy with all the stuff they had to look after, he thinks, and she was both Ra’s mother and daughter? Messed up.

“Wow. A cow. Looks like you, Kyungsoo,” Jongin elbows him in the side, and Kyungsoo’s patience wears thin.

“ off,” he hisses, side eying him and almost breaking his pencil with the amount of pressure he’s applying.

“Why are you so uptight? God, calm down.”

“How can I be calm with you around? You’re like the personification of annoying,” Kyungsoo complains, nostrils flaring,

“I think you mean funny. I’m funny, and you are as boring as hell so stop trying to the fun out of everything, I was just joking,” Jongin leans closer, using his height to his advantage and making Kyungsoo cringe away from him a little. Goddamn him and his sport-enhanced, muscular body.

“I’m just trying to get a good grade on this, leave me alone, will you?”

“You’re so desperate to act like the perfect student, it’s so annoying, just- have some fun, for once. Lighten up!”

“I can’t! Unlike some people, I have to actually work hard in order to get places!”

“Hey! I have to work hard, just because you think you’re smart doesn’t mean you’re superior!”

“I-” His counter-remark is cut off before he can even start it, the ground shaking beneath his feet and the artifacts shaking around him.

He shouts in alarm, grabbing onto the cow statue, even though they're not allowed to touch the things in here, for balance. Amulets and statuettes rattle in their cases and the building rumbles around them, and Kyungsoo cries out in fear.

Is it an earthquake? He watches Jongin stumble and fall over, hands scrabbling for some kind of purchase and, for once not minding their differences, reaches out to help him. Jongin grabs him with one hand, and the Hathor tribute with the other, frantic in his actions.

A couple of moments later, the quake dies down into just a tremble, then nothing. They quickly let go of the statue and look around to see if anyone was hurt, but no one even seems to have noticed. They look at each other, confused,

“You felt that, right?” Jongin asks, eyebrows pulled together,

“You mean the freaking earthquake? Yes, Jongin, I felt that.” Kyungsoo remarks. Jongin rolls his eyes,

“I just meant that no one else looks like they felt anything, look at them, they didn’t notice a thing.”

“Hmmm,” Kyungsoo frowns, looking around too. It’s true. They couldn’t have imagined it, could they? He blinks a few times- everyone is carrying on as if nothing happened at all, no running, shouting, not even relieved laughing. What is going on? Is it a joke?

“I guess…. I guess we should just. Go back to what we were doing.” Jongin says, tone making it sound like a question.

“...Yeah,” Kyungsoo agrees, slowly turning back to his notes, as if the rest of the people here will all start laughing at him the moment he’s not looking.

“Well that was weird,” Jongin comments. Kyungsoo rolls his eyes, still shaken but not willing to show any more weakness,

“Yeah, stop talking. I still need to take notes,”

“Fine, whatever, nerd,” Kyungsoo fights the urge to hit him, it would only come back to bite him in the .

-

Kyungsoo regrets staying up late last night to memorise the notes from the museum, his back aches and he has a bit of a headache as he wakes up to the sound of his alarm blaring. Groaning, he rubs his eyes, but he’s so out of it he misses his face.

He ruffles his hair, trying to wake himself up, and that’s when he notices that something is different. In that moment it’s like someone has poured a bucket of ice cold water over him. This isn’t his room. But that being said, it is slightly familiar.

He scans the room, a little smaller than his own, and vaguely smelling of sweat- that would be the sheets, it seems as though they haven’t been washed in a while- and cringes. Clothes all over the floor and beer cans on the desk, along with empty plates and coffee cups he doesn’t want to investigate.

This must be Jongin’s bedroom. But what is he doing here, and where is Jongin?

He swings his legs out of the bed and gapes- those aren’t his legs! His are pale and soft, these are tan and muscular from hours training for lacrosse. What the ? He looks at his hands, also darker than his, and bigger too. His stomach is flat and toned. Frantic, he races to the mirror and wants to scream at what he sees.

It’s not his face in the reflection but Jongin’s staring back at him!

Fingers fumbling, he opens the window that faces his own bedroom, where his own body is, and throws a plastic spoon which he found on the floor at it. When that elicits no response, Kyungsoo is just seconds away from tearing his- Jongin’s- hair out. What’s he going to do? He can’t go to school like this, he has an interview to practice for, a science project to perfect, and about three assignments to complete and he’s so behind on all of them!

A loud shriek from his bedroom tells him that Jongin probably just woke up, and is just as happy with this development as he is. He waits at the window for Jongin to show up and sure enough, there is his own face, looking as if it’s about to cry. Tears are an annoying natural reaction to stress, and he hates it, but by the looks of it, Jongin hates it more than he does.

“Kyungsoo!” He hisses, the name sounding bizarre coming from his own mouth, “what the have you done! Fix it!”

“What?! I didn’t do anything!” He snarls back, his deeper-than-usual voice shocking him.

“Aaahh!” Comes Jongin’s coherent reply, furiously wiping tears away from his face, “what the is this?! I can’t go to school in your nerd body!”

“You think I want to go to school in your body? Think again!”

“Why did this even happen? What did we do wrong?” Jongin sniffles, ruffling Kyungsoo’s hair and leaving it all sticking up in spikes. It looks awful, nothing like his usual slicked back hairdo.

“I don’t know. Go fix your- I mean my hair, it looks ridiculous. You have to get ready for school, the bus is going to be here in like, ten minutes.”

“Yeah and Tao will be coming with his car soon too. Why the hell do you go in so early?” Jongin complains, leaving the window to start getting dressed. Kyungsoo hopes he can actually dress himself, usually the idiot wears what looks like things he picked up from his bedroom floor at random, and looking around again he thinks that might truly be the case, but if he’s going to be wearing them on Kyungsoo’s body he has to take more care than that.

“Wear the blue jeans,” he calls out, stepping into a pair of shorts that he found in a pile next to the laundry basket. They weren’t actually inside the laundry basket, so he assumes they’re safe, but he isn’t going to risk sniffing it to make sure.

Once dressed, and after looking at himself in the mirror without any clothes on, just to see, Kyungsoo sneaked down the stairs and past the kitchen without alerting Jongin’s parents. That would be an awful thing to behold- Kyungsoo is not good at dealing with authority figures, ever, whereas Jongin is, and seems to be close with his parents- they would notice immediately if something was amiss. He hopes Jongin isn’t rude to his own parents.

Shoes on, he hides next to the hedge so he can ambush Jongin on his way out, hopefully then he can straighten out whatever mess he’s made on his body. He resists the urge to bite his fingernails, because honestly, even though he washed them he doesn’t know where they’ve been.

When he comes out a few minutes later, Kyungsoo wants to hurt him- he’s wearing the blue jeans he told him to wear, but that’s the only thing he’s done right.

“What have you done to my hair?” He all but shrieks,

“Relax.” Jongin runs a hand through his fringe smugly, “It looks better like this anyway.”

“No! It does not! Go fix it! Now!”

“Nope,” he says, popping the ‘p’ and smirking at him. He feels a flush of jealousy that Jongin seems to be able to pull off the y disheveled look whether he’s in his own body or not, and that stems from an innate confidence, which Kyungsoo lacks. He grits his teeth.

“Ok, forget that. We need to figure out why we’re like this, and how to change back, because I cannot be stuck like this. Your room is revolting-”

“Yeah and yours looks like no one is home,”

“Shut up! What happened yesterday or last night that was different?” He asks, rhetorically, because he doesn’t expect Jongin to have the answer. The athlete in his body looks at him like he’s stupid and he’d never realised just how disgusted he looked when he did that,

“The earthquake. I thought you were meant to be smart,”

“I am smart,” he mumbles, thinking back to when that happened. No one but them had noticed it, so maybe that was the cause of their unfortunate situation after all. What had they been doing when it happened? Looking at that cow statue, of one of the gods. Clearly he hadn’t memorised his notes as well as he thought he did- and Jongin was going to give him a terrible mark for this test anyway so it didn’t matter now. What was the name...Hathir? Huther? Hathor!

“That damn egyptian statue.” He breathes, on making the connection. When they had both touched it, the earthquake stopped, that Hathor must have something to do with this. It doesn’t matter that he hadn’t believed it existed, that was before he ended up like this.

“What?”

“That statue we were looking at before the earthquake. The cow one, Hathor, she did this to us. God knows why, but I bet it’s her fault.”

“You know you sound crazy right now, right?” Jongin informs him, and Kyungsoo raises and eyebrow,

“We are in each other’s bodies and you are telling me I’m crazy for blaming an ancient egyptian god? I think at this point we are past dismissing things because they sound insane.”

“Ok fine, but what the hell are we supposed to do about this?”

“Nothing, there’s nothing we can do today, but we could go back to the museum afterwards?” Kyungsoo wrings his hands nervously at the prospect of spending a whole day pretending to be Jongin, but there’s no other options. School is important, he can’t just skip a day. He has so much work to do, this is going to ruin him. Jongin sighs,

“Fine, but don’t do anything that might embarrass me. I have lacrosse practice this afternoon, don’t it up.”

“Lacrosse? I can’t do sport!” Kyungsoo panics, feeling like everything is piling on top of him all at once.

“Just do what the other guys do, you’ll be fine. You’re in my body so you’ll be able to handle it.” How he can sound so sure and blasé about this is beyond Kyungsoo but his attitude does relax him, just a little.

“Whatever. You have to take notes in all my classes, got that? I can’t miss out, there might be something important in the lessons, so pay attention. My timetable is in my bag,”

“Alright, whatever.” He dismisses him, looking around for something. Frustrated, Kyungsoo clenches his fists, then turns in the other direction and marches off to where he sees Jongin wait for his friends to pick him up each day, grumbling under his breath. Jongin shakes his head and goes the other direction to the bus stop, which is just a little way down the road.

The sound of loud music can only mean Sehun and Tao are close by, and sure enough, a moment later they screech around the corner, heads bobbing to the trashy music that everyone in the street can probably hear. Kyungsoo bites his lip and tries to reassure himself that he can do this.

-

Kyungsoo couldn’t, in fact, do this. He arrives to school late, and panicky, after arguing with Sehun and Tao. They had wanted to skip, and he told them that was irresponsible and everything went downhill from there. The teachers looked at him funny, and he’d never felt so disrespected in his life, until he remembered it was Jongin they were glaring at and not him.

Sitting through lunch with his gross friends was harrowing, and he felt like he needed to shower after one of them spat food in his face when talking to him.

All in all, he was 100% glad to get away from them and start walking to the museum. They’d agreed to meet there, rather than walk there together. That would cause unnecessary questions.

It’s quiet when he arrives, not many people around since school hours are over and anyone else would probably still be at work. Kyungsoo makes his way to the ancient egypt exhibit with his head ducked, not wanting to make eye contact with any of the security guards on the way in.

Jongin isn’t there, unsurprisingly. While he waits for the guy to show up, he sets himself worrying about his upcoming interview. His project is done, for the most part, he’s just really terrible at speaking to people, especially those in authority- peers are less of an issue.

Hopefully Jongin actually listened to him this morning and took notes for him, otherwise he might be screwed in some of the tests that are fast approaching them now. He gnaws his lip, arms crossed tightly over his chest and posture slightly hunched over as his mind goes around in circles.

“Kyungsoo,” hearing his own voice jolts him out of his state, and he looks over to himself looking untidy and messy. Eyebrows drawn together, he’s about to scold him for being late, but Jongin beats him to it.

“Calm down, I was held back by a teacher,”

“What?! Why?”

“Something to do with a project, I wasn’t really listening,” he says nonchalantly, and Kyungsoo’s heart sinks,

“Jongin, you have to remember, what did she say? It’s really important.”

“No more important than lacrosse practice.” Jongin frowns, “please tell me you didn’t that up. I need to be in the final,” he says, the same glimmer of passion creeping into his eyes that’s always there when he talks about lacrosse. Kyungsoo cringes. He hadn’t done well, having tripped over things and balking at the mere thought of catching the ball in the net. Luckily, Jongin’s body sort of knew what it was doing without Kyungsoo needing to control it, so he hadn’t completely failed. Only about 80% failure was a success in his book.

“I didn’t mess up too bad. Anyway, more importantly, Hathor,” he turns to face the cow sculpture, not really knowing what he’s doing. Does he expect a response? He’d feel like an idiot if he suddenly started talking to a stone cow. He sends Jongin a glance from the corner of his eye and decides to go for it, after all it’s not him talking to a rock, it’s Jongin.

“Hey, so, um. Hathor? Please can you put us back into our own bodies? We’re sorry-” He stops short to glare at Jongin snorting beside him. “You do it then, since you seem to know the right and wrong way to talk to a freaking ancient egyptian deity,”

“Calm down, I was just laughing.” Jongin rolls his eyes.

“Yeah. At me.”

“Calm. Down.” Jongin insists, leaning back as if to get away from Kyungsoo’s angry aura. He can’t help that he gets worked up easily, and Jongin being an is one of the main things that pisses him off.

“Stop laughing at me, then! We need to figure this out asap!”

“You think I don’t know that? So we both have important things coming up, stop acting like yours is the only one that matters.”

“I can’t not worry about this, I-” Kyungsoo’s retort is interrupted by the feeling that he’s falling, and he almost screams, but no sound comes from his mouth. Eyes rolling frantically around, searching for something to make sense of what was going on around him, he realises he seems to be floating in a vast nothingness, dotted with shining lights.

He blinks, still quelling the sensation of spiralling out of control, and Jongin in his body comes into view next to him, looking just as frightened as he does. He blinks again and suddenly a giant face looms before both of them, broad faced and dark skinned with a large headpiece balanced above her. If Kyungsoo remembered correctly, assuming this was Hathor, it should represent the sun, and it casts bright light over them, making Kyungsoo feel like he’s on stage.

Terrified, the urge to cling onto whatever was nearest overwhelms him, and he finds himself holding onto Jongin, not even caring that they were fighting not two seconds ago, and from the looks of it neither does Jongin.

“Children,” A deep, feminine voice comes from all around them, and the goddess’s lips don’t seem to match up with what she’s saying, “until you learn respect, and compassion for one another, I will not allow you to return to your own bodies. Let this experience be a lesson to you both.”

And just like that, as sudden as it came, the vision leaves them standing on the secure wooden floor of the museum and the artificial light blinds him, and leaves him wondering if that was just a dream- a sudden lapse in consciousness brought on by anger or something. Then Jongin forcibly extracts himself from his arms and it clicks that that just happened.

Looking around, no one else seems to have noticed anything out of the ordinary. Kyungsoo shakes his head to rid himself of some of the remaining haziness, and frowns.

“We have to what, in order to switch back?” He hisses, scandalised. “Respect? Compassion? I don’t want to have anything to do with you, let alone learn to love you or whatever,” Kyungsoo sneers, picking up his bag and starting to stalk out of the building.

“The feeling is mutual, nerd,” Jongin calls out behind from behind him.

-

Kyungsoo sits in the middle of Jongin’s bed, afraid to touch anything lest he get a disease from all the grossness surrounding him. How on earth does he live like this? Every day? And is that a bottle of urine? He shudders.

There’s no way he could come to love and respect this heathen.

Jongin’s parents are far too loud, and had greeted him boisterously on his way in, asking about lacrosse practice and what he wanted to eat for dinner. Kyungsoo had laughed awkwardly and made his escape as fast as he could, the shouts of ‘are you ok?’ following him up the stairs like claws. Even now, the TV was blaring through the floor, and that was probably the reason Jongin turned his music up so loud.

He casts a glance out of the window, but the blinds in his own room are down and he can’t see inside. He desperately hopes Jongin isn’t ruining it.

Kyungsoo falls asleep curled into a ball, and deciding that if he’s going to be stuck in this body for the foreseeable future, tomorrow he is going to wash the bedsheets because they stink.

-

Jongin looks around the nerd’s room in something akin to awe. It’s very...tidy, just what he would have expected from him. There are posters featuring planets and galaxies lining the walls, and glow in the dark star stickers all over the ceiling. If he hadn’t seen him reading all those science books, he’d be shocked at just how much of a nerd he is.

He’s afraid to touch anything, lest he break it. Everything in the house is like this, pristine and clean. Maybe they hire a maid or something because there’s no way they’re all natural neat-freaks. Even his wardrobe was full of pressed shirts and ties. At least he didn’t go cavorting around in those every day, Jongin thinks, grateful that he wouldn’t have to figure out how to tie a tie properly.

Kyungsoo’s parents were weird too, all they asked him about was how his presentation was coming along, no wonder Kyungsoo was so uptight about his work. They seemed to lay some pretty heavy expectations on the guy, but he could say the same about Kyungsoo himself. His parents just wanted him to succeed, it was Kyungsoo who wanted to succeed so much in such a difficult subject.

A stack of books lies on his desk, and there’s some on the floor too, by his bed. Clearly an avid reader. He flicks through some of the titles- most of them are textbooks and nonfiction, but there’s a few sci-fi stories lying around too. Nerd.

A knock on his door has him rushing to put everything back where he found it,

“Yes?” He calls out, waiting for the door to open. Kyungsoo’s mother comes in, holding a cup of something Jongin hopes is coffee. Alcohol would probably be too much to hope for in this house.

“You seemed a little upset earlier, so I thought you might like some tea,” she explains. Tea. She’s offering him tea. He does his very best not to grimace as he accepts it, and puts it on his desk. He waits until she’s gone to pour it out of the window, hoping to god that there isn’t a window directly below him, and wonders if Kyungsoo has a laptop or something. Anything to avoid reading boring science notes.

-

“Jongin!” A soft voice breaks through his sleep and makes his eyelashes flutter, “Jongin, wake up! You’re going to be late,” A hand shakes his shoulder as he’s brought into consciousness,

“‘M not... Jongin…”

“What silly dream are you having now, sweetie?” The voice asks, pinching his cheeks roughly. He swipes at the hands and rubs his eyes.

“Nn, what time is it?” The deepness of his voice shocks him for a moment, before he remembers why everything's different now, and that jolts him fully awake. He snatches his phone of the bedside table where it was precariously balanced on an empty beer can, checks the time, and quells the curse that was about to burst through his lips.

“Get out, get out,” he ushers Jongin’s amused mother out of his room and changes his clothes as fast as he can, trying not to think of the state of cleanliness of each garment.

He rushes outside with his shoes untied, and waits for Jongin to come out of his house. When he does, he wants to knock some sense into the other boy, as who in their right mind wears tatty jeans (why does he even have those?) combined with the nicest shirt he has? He’s not even wearing it right!

Rushing forward, he tries adjust his clothes until Jongin whaps his hands away. Kyungsoo shakes his head, having forgotten the main reason he accosted him,

“Whatever. I need you to talk to Mrs. Kwang today, about my science entry. It’s really important that I get a good review from her for that, or I won’t get into university, please, please don’t screw it up,”

“Oh god, leave me alone. Why did I have to get switched into the body of an over-achiever?” He holds his hands up to the sky.  

“Jongin,” Kyungsoo hisses in warning, “I have one chance at this, the least you could do s co-operate.”

“How about this: I’ll talk about your little science experiment, if you promise to go to practice and actually try. Got that?”

“Fine. Whatever. Just- read through my project synopsis and memorise what I wrote. Recite it word for word if you have to, it need to be perfect.” Kyungsoo stresses, rolling up the hem of one of Jongin’s ratty shirts anxiously. He hates having to beg, but he just can’t risk this going wrong.

“Dude.” Jongin’s sneer looks absurd on Kyungsoo’s face, “you have issues,”

“The book with all the relevant information should be in my schoolbag, unless you took it out. It’s the blue one, with the soft covering on it?” Jongin doesn’t meet his eyes for a moment, and Kyungsoo growls, “go and get it. Now,”

“Fine. Calm down, jeez.” Jongin rolls his eyes and stomps his way back to the front door, glaring at him before he shuts the door soundly. Kyungsoo imagines he can hear each angry step up the stairs to his room, but relaxes a little anyway. Waiting for the telltale sound of Sehun’s car radio, he ruminates. What has he gotten himself into? He wants to shift some of the blame onto his teacher, for pairing them up together- perhaps if they had been separate then none of this would have happened- but he knows it has nothing to do with her.

He sighs, Jongin’s large bag filled with all his lacrosse gear weighs down on him. Sehun comes careening around the corner, like always, and Jongin comes out of his house just before Kyungsoo gets into his usual seat, waving at him obnoxiously. Jongin flips him off, much to the shock of their neighbours, who think Kyungsoo is a polite young boy. Kyungsoo is going to have a hard time living that down when they switch back. If they ever do.

-

Lacrosse is impossible, he can barely breathe. The coach seems bemused at his sudden change of attitude, and annoyed at his ineptitude on the pitch. He can throw, just about, but receiving anything seems beyond his current capabilities. The only thing that’s keeping him on the field right now, instead of running off somewhere to hide, is that he is Jongin right now, not Kyungsoo.

He focuses harder, but he seems to overdo it, trying too hard to do well. Exhausted and sweating like a pig, when the coach blows the whistle and calls the end of practice, Kyungsoo simply collapses on the grass, panting and clutching his lacrosse stick to his chest. He can hear the rest of the team trooping back into the changing rooms, whooping and laughing and Kyungsoo does not want to move again. Ever.

“You dweeb,” his own voice startles him, “you need help,” Kyungsoo’s own face peers down at him, blocking out some of the dispersed sunlight, hidden behind the clouds.

“I don’t know how to play, so sue me,”

“Get up,” Jongin orders, putting Kyungsoo’s bag down with a thump. Kyungsoo closes his eyes for a moment, hoping he’s just kidding. There’s no way he means to give him a one on one tutorial right now? He’s too tired for this.

“I said get up,” he nudges him with his shoe. With a petulant groan and a disgruntled glare, he heaves himself to his feet, muscles complaining with each movement. Jongin puts his hands over Kyungsoo’s, the strangeness of their hands being switched up messing with his mind a little, and readjusts the position of his arms, stretching them out a little,

“I was watching the last half hour, and you need to work harder on your footwork, for sure. But more importantl is the catching- I’ll throw a few balls for you, and you catch them, got it?”

“Fine.” Kyungsoo sighs, “I don’t see why we can’t do this tomorrow, when you don’t have practice, but fine.” He lowers himself into a ready position and prepares to catch some flying balls.

“Lower, and spread your legs further apart, one foot in front of the other,” Jongin orders, before he even throws the first ball. The first shot hits him in the head, bouncing noisily off his helmet.

“You’re reacting to late, try and anticipate where it’s going to land,” Jongin rolls his eyes and comes closer to fix the buckle on his helmet, tightening it, then retreating back to a safer distance, and throwing again. Kyungsoo catches zero out of six,

“Catch with the front of the net, and roll it through, like this,” he demonstrates.

“Jongin, I’m tired, can’t we just do it tomorrow?”

“Hmph. Whatever. Since it’s my body, you’d think you’d have the reflexes still, but I guess your brain is just slow,”

“Piss off,” comes Kyungsoo’s intelligent reply, as he starts heading for the showers, glad he packed shampoo and soap in the sports bag he has to carry home.

How the heck does Jongin do this every other day? It’s debilitating. In his own body the only real exercise he gets is running for the bus in the mornings, sometimes.

The showers aren’t cold, and they aren’t hot either, but it’s warm enough for him to wash his hair. At least Jongin has the muscles to show for all this work, he thinks, looking down at the body he currently lives in. He is hot.

-

“What the heck is this stuff?” Jongin complains, waving Kyungsoo’s project book in his face, “I don’t understand, like, any of it!”

“It’s a bit above your range of understanding maybe, but it’s not that hard to comprehend,” Kyungsoo condescends to him, waiting for their respective rides the next morning. Kyungsoo feels a lot fresher this morning, cleaner, as he did some of the laundry and changed the sheets. He could actually breathe without gagging last night.

He still hasn’t touched the bottle of pee yet, though.

“Stop being such an arrogant nerd, if you want to get into this fancy university, then I need to understand what the heck these numbers and stuff mean.”

Sighing a truly put-upon sigh, Kyungsoo agrees.

“I’ll meet you at lunch in the library,”

“Oh, no. I am not allowing my body to go anywhere near the library- I have a reputation to uphold. We’ll meet at the field.”

“Ok, fine. Just be there.” Kyungsoo concedes, heading off to the curb now that he can hear Sehun’s loud music waking the entire neighbourhood up as he streaks through it.

“Don’t let anyone follow you,” Jongin calls after him. Kyungsoo just waves again.

-

Sneaking away proves harder than he had thought. Jongin has a bunch of people watching him wherever he goes, usually his friends, if you could call them that, but also bafflingly, he has fans. He’s not even captain of the team, yet they go to all his matches, and make banners, and the whole thing is just ridiculous, but the handful of girls make it difficult to leave.

He ends up going a roundabout way and doubling back on himself, arriving a little late. Jongin is already waiting for him, laying on the dampened grass lackadaisically, shirt untucked and hair messy.

“Get out my books,” Kyungsoo instructs. Jongin acts like its a waste of his time, even though he’s the one this escapade is benefiting, but acquiesces. He spreads them out in front of them, and opens the blue one, the one with all of Kyungsoo’s project information in. The first few pages are an introduction to his theory, about how planets are formed and how this influences the likelihood that it is liveable, whether the way they are formed has any relation to the surface and atmosphere, and the rest is mostly formulae interspersed with updated theorems and questions.

“Ok, so you read the intro, right? You need to memorise the highlighted parts and recite that in the presentation. Give me that, and I’ll highlight the formulae you need to know about, and I’ll write you something to say about it…” He grabs a highlighter and starts filling in huge blocks of numbers, and colouring over arrows and annotations. With a brighter coloured pen he scribbles notes for Jongin to help him understand better.

“If planets are too small they lose their atmosphere? I didn’t know that. That’s pretty cool,” Jongin says, leaning over his shoulder to watch him write. Kyungsoo nods,

“Like mars.” He confirms,

“Mars? Cool,” Jongin smirks, looking at the sky when he thinks Kyungsoo isn’t looking. Astrophysics is an amazing subject, and Jongin’s reaction is one of the reasons he loves it.  And the recent photographs of pluto excited him so much he actually squealed when he saw them, running to show his parents.

“Yep. This is the important stuff, you have to make sure these are memorised. Just recite them, along with the powerpoint presentation I made, and be formal. It’s a prestigious university, and if I act like I don’t care, then I won’t get a place there.”

“I get it,” Jongin says, taking back the book and starting to read over the things he’s highlighted, “what the heck? You highlighted like all of it. There’s no way I can memorise this!”

“Yes you can,” Kyungsoo encourages him, silently confirming his suspicion that Jongin never studies.

“You’re such an insufferable nerd.” Jongin complains, “no wonder you have no friends,”

“I have friends!” Kyungsoo cries, affronted.

“Your parents don’t count- and neither do the other nerds in your science club. I bet they don’t even talk to you outside of that,” Jongin adds when Kyungsoo opens his mouth to object, leaving his eyes stinging a little. He bites the inside of his cheek, reminding himself not to cry. It’s sort of true, he admits, he doesn’t really have any friends. No one here really gets along with him, and he doesn’t have time for friends anyway, he has too much studying to do, and besides he’d be way better making friends at uni.

“Are you going to the summer festival?” Jongin asks offhandedly, carefully writing something down in another notepad.

“No, I doubt it.”

“Why not?”

“Well as you so tactfully put it a minute ago, I have no one to go with,”

“Oh.” Yeah, oh, Kyungsoo thinks. Jongin probably has tons of people that he can go and hang out with, but Kyungsoo doesn’t- wait. He’s stuck in Jongin’s body, so that means he will have to go. Kyungsoo snorts,

“It’s not even a festival,” It’s just a small school fair that’s always decorated with lots of flowers. They have a band playing, and sometimes people dance, but not often.

“Yeah, it’s not like it’s a formal dance or anything, you could go by yourself if you wanted to. Buy some of the stuff they sell,”

“I guess, but that’s not as fun, is it?”

“No I suppose not,”

“Any ideas who will be summer king and queen this year?” Kyungsoo says the words with a tinge of disdain. The titles are pointless, and they go to the boy and girl who the student body vote for the most. A popularity contest, basically.

“I have a feeling Soojung will be the queen. I don’t know about the king, though,“ Jongin contemplates, “lots of people like her, so it wouldn’t surprise me,”

“Hmph,” is all Kyungsoo can say. It’s probably true- it’ll be either her or Song Qian.

“Oh, by the way, Soojung will probably want to go with me, don’t say no to her if she asks, ok? But I don’t want you asking her, that would be weird.”

“Got it,” Kyungsoo frowns. “Is she your girlfriend?” He really doesn’t want to have to kiss her or do romantic things like that. No way.

Jongin snorts, like the idea is absurd.

-

“Kyungsoo, your father and I would like to talk to you,” Kyungsoo’s mother peers around the door, her perfectly coiffed hair becoming a little wispy after a long day’s work.

“Um, ok?” Jongin says cautiously, before following her downstairs to the dining room where they’re both waiting for him with cups of tea in front of them. He perches on the seat opposite them, and wonders if he’s done anything wrong, anything out of character.

“We’ve noticed you’ve slowed down with the studying, and we’re worried,” Jongin stiffens, he’s done loads of studying, Kyungsoo usually does more? What an insufferable nerd.

“What your mother is trying to say is that we don’t want you to give up hope. We know we put a lot of pressure on you, but that’s only because we believe in you. We know how much you love space, and galaxies, and we just want the best for you. Let’s face it, you just wouldn’t be happy apprenticing at your mother law firm, would you?”

“No,” Jongin says slowly. This is so weird, this is so weird,

“So just. Don’t give up- and don’t you think for a second that you won’t get into that university. We all know how hard you’ve been working, and we love you. You’ll make a fantastic astrophysicist”

“Um, thanks,” Jongin mumbles, fighting off the urge to cry. Kyungsoo’s body is like a damn waterworks sometimes, producing tears at anything and everything.

“We know you can do this,” they smile at him brightly, but don’t move. It makes Jongin long for the hugs his parents give him, and reminds him how different their families are. He feels a little lonely when he heads back to his- Kyungsoo’s- bedroom.

-

With a pair of disposable gloves, Kyungsoo dares to clean a little of Jongin’s room- just the truly revolting parts, the rest he can live with. Holding the dreaded bottle out in front of him, he heads outside to put it in the trash where he will never have to see it again.

On the way back in, Jongin’s dad corners him,

“Do you have a date for the summer festival?”

“No?”

“Hm. I thought you would go with Soojung again, that’s all,”

“If she asks me to, I guess I will,” he murmurs, wondering if it’s significant that he goes to lots of events with this girl.

“Good man,” Jongin’s dad claps his shoulder, “and how is the lacrosse going? Big final coming up soon. Nervous?”

“Could be worse,” He chuckles awkwardly, wanting this to be over, “And yes, I’m terrified.” Jongin’s father’s eyes soften, then he pulls him into a hug, startling Kyungsoo.

“You have nothing to worry about, I’ve seen you play. You’ll get that scholarship spot easy,” that’s right, Kyungsoo remembers, Jongin’s family can’t afford to pay for university. Their lives are so different.

“Thanks,” he squeaks, still reeling from the unexpected hug.

“You’re welcome, Jongin,” he lets him go, and turns to leave down the corridor, but looks over his shoulder at the last moment, “your mother is very pleased that you’re finally cleaning your room, too,”

-

The days fly by, Jongin coaching Kyungsoo in lacrosse techniques after school in secret and Kyungsoo tutoring Jongin in astrophysics at lunch times. The deadlines for both of them loom, and soon there’s only a few hours left until Jongin’s game and Kyungsoo’s presentation.

Kyungsoo is freaking out, just a little. He still doesn’t think his lacrosse skills are good enough, despite all the effort Jongin has put into training him.

Really what are the odds that both events would fall on the same day like this? Jongin is probably on his way to the university right now, hopefully giving all the notes one last read through.

Soojung had asked him the other day to go to the summer festival together, so of course he had to say yes, giving him something else to worry about.

-

Sitting in the locker room, hours early for warm up, Kyungsoo tries to control his breathing, and focuses on the beat-heavy music pounding through Jongin’s headphones. He kind of wishes Jongin were here right now, to make some stupid remark and take away the tension.

Eventually some of the other team members filter through, laughing and messing around. Kyungsoo is already changed, so he doesn’t have to strip in front of anyone, though no one else seems to care about that, making a game over how many asses they can slap.

The coach makes a speech, and to be fair to him it’s a good one. It raises the team’s spirits, and makes Kyungsoo almost forget about the pressure weighing him down while he speaks. Almost.

But the moment they parade out of the changing rooms and onto the field, with the crowd cheering, and the cheerleaders performing complicated routines- Soojung gives him a wink from her place above the other girls- he wants to throw up.

Instead, he grits his teeth and lowers himself into position, glaring at the opposition through his grill.

-

Flicking through Kyungsoo’s notes, Jongin wants to go home. His hands are shaking- damn Kyungsoo’s traitorous body!- and he feels a little dizzy. He’s sat along the wall along with a bunch of other people who he assumes must also be here to present something. There’s only one more person before it’s his turn. He clenches his sweaty hands, fumbling with his cue cards. Kyungsoo prepared them for him, in between practicing lacrosse and tutoring him, and he couldn’t be more grateful.

“Nanwoo,” the next person is called, a sure looking girl with serious short hair. Jongin wishes he was that sure about this subject.

The wait for his turn is nail biting, before he, too, is called, and led into a large room. There are five bored looking adults sat in a line in front of him, probably fed up with all of the science lectures they’ve had today already. Stuttering, he introduces himself, and inserts the memory stick into the pc, waiting for it to load and pretending he can’t feel sweat dripping down his back. It’s different to sweat when he’s not playing sport, and he doesn’t like it at all.

“M-my presentation is about the way planets are formed and whether this influences the likelihood of it being habitable by humans..”

-

Kyungsoo runs up and down the pitch, weaving in and out of players and avoiding being tackled. They’ve already lost points, because Kyungsoo messed up earlier. How does Jongin keep a cool head? He can barely even see what he’s doing, and he’s sure he’s messing up all the formations.

Someone whacks his shoulder pad,

“Jongin, what the hell? Focus!” A teammate scolds him. Kyungsoo grips his stick harder, determined not to mess this up.

-

They look bored, they look like they’ve seen all this before. All Jongin can do is keep talking, keep stuttering and stalling and hope that they’re taking this in. He has to think of something that will hook them. He runs through the archive of everything he’s memorised, and has an idea.

“A-and I know it’s probably silly, but I read a lot, and I mean a lot, of science fiction books. You probably hear this a lot but I-I’m really interested in the idea of creating habitable spaces on other planets, and I know that there are plenty of p-potentially habitable planets, but what about creating one?” He winces, hoping what he just said wasn’t too stupid- he’s basing all of this off a single doodle that he’d found in one of Kyungsoo’s books. A planet making machine.

Looking up, some of the interviewers have raised eyebrows and are leaning forward. He takes a breath-

-

Kyungsoo breathes heavily, unable to get a full breath. He scoops the ball off the ground while running, and sprints to the other side of the field, grateful for Jongin’s lithe body- his own would have given out long ago. He ducks under opponents, and passes the ball back and forth between his teammates, narrowly dodging stray sticks and feet that threaten to trip him up.

Nearing the net, he passes to someone, giving them the opportunity to score. It bounces into the back of the net, and the home crowd goes wild.

Now the scores are even, with just under half time to beat them.

-

“As you know, smaller planets are unable to retain atmosphere, so the planet would require far too much material for this to be anything but theoretical for the time being, but with everything I’ve been showing you up till now, someday I’m sure we could figure out how to create a planet humans could live on.” Jongin continues, stuttering less now, “Maybe we could farm asteroids and and melt them together into something big enough- I mean, who knows, right? The possibilities are endless, and that’s what I love about astrophysics. There’s so much out there, so much we don’t know. I want to find out more about everything,”

-

Another goal in the bag, leaving them 3-3 with five minutes left. Kyungsoo wipes some of the sweat off his neck, and shakes his head. They still have a chance to win this, but even if they don’t Kyungsoo is sure to put in his all, just like Jongin would. He needs that scholarship and Kyungsoo is determined not to let him down.

The whistle blows again and he sprints in tandem with his team member, both of them marking an opponent, but passing it between them and making headway. Reaching the net, Kyungsoo is tackled from the side, and he lands hard, the ball flying out of his net. He struggles, fighting against the man weighing him down. With seconds to spare, Kyungsoo rights himself and reaches for the ball, scooping it up as fluidly as he can from this angle.

He throws.

-

After Jongin’s presentation is over, he has to answer a few questions, mostly about his life (“I spend a lot of time studying, and recently tutoring a friend,”) and hobbies (“I read a lot of sci-fi, and I kinda like lacrosse,”) how he became interested in astrophysics (“I don’t even know, it’s just always been there. Maybe when my dad put those glow in the dark stars on my bedroom ceiling as a child,”) and the interviewers seem interested in him. But even if they do seem less bored than when he came in, they might well start laughing at him the moment he leaves, and he won’t know for sure he has a place for weeks.

He thanks them for their time, like Kyungsoo told him to, and bows a little. Making sure he has everything with him, he leaves the room and heads back down the corridor alone to where Kyungsoo’s parents await.

-

Somewhere, Hathor smiles.

-

Both boys dream of falling through space and flying past millions of stars in a cosmogyral dance.

-

Kyungsoo wakes up in a good mood after yesterday’s close win. Everyone had been cheering for him, and his teammates had lifted him into the air. It had been a lucky shot, and a huge risk, but it had worked!  After it was over, the rest of his team had hefted him into the air, and everyone was cheering. It was amazing.

He slips out of his bed, and reaches out blindly for his phone, smiling softly to himself. Feet almost slipping on the pale wooden floor, he almost doesn’t notice the galaxy posters on the wall. When he does, he really slips, grappling onto the wall to keep him from falling.

He’s him again! Kyungsoo is back in his own body!

Laughing, he hurries to change into clothes he can wear outside and rushes down the stairs in a flurry of thunderous footsteps and even foregoes shoes in order to run to the house next door. In his haste to get there, he doesn’t see the other person coming his way until the last moment, but he doesn’t crash, strong arms catching him before he can fall. Arms he knows.

“Kyungsoo!” Jongin shouts, swinging him around in a circle, “We’re back to normal!”

“I know!” He cries, clinging to him in return. Jongin sets him down and smiles broadly, his beautiful teeth glowing at him. It’s bizarre to see him this way, after spending almost two weeks seeing that face when he looked in the mirror, but nice at the same time. He doesn’t even realise he’s grinning back until Jongin clears his throat and they both let go of each other like they burned.

“Look at yourself,” Jongin says, flicking Kyungsoo’s collar, “and you have the nerve to harass me about how I dress myself, you should be ashamed,”

“Shut up,” Kyungsoo mumbles, “I was excited, ok?”

“Ok, ok,” Jongin placates him. “Anyway, what now? Do we just go back to normal?” Kyungsoo shrugs,

“I guess so.”

They stand in silence for a few minutes, unsure what to say now that their only reason for interacting is gone.

“So, I’ll see you at the summer festival, right?” Jongin asks, rubbing the back of his neck,

“Maybe,” Kyungsoo purses his lips, “Oh, I told you that Soojung is going with you to the summer festival, right?” Jongin nods, “have fun together,”

“We aren’t- yeah. Ok. See ya,”

“Bye,” Kyungsoo watches Jongin go back into his house, and waves to him before he closes the door. Then he goes back to his own bedroom, and stares at his stars.

-

There’s a strange limbo, wherein they don’t see each other much anymore. Kyungsoo is much more mellow than before, still working hard up till the last minute with exams but floating around in a slight daze now that his interview has passed and Jongin’s game is over. Jongin goes back to his usual sociable self, cracking terrible jokes and making people laugh.

Jongin scrapes his scholarship, and Kyungsoo receives a letter to confirm his place.

-

It’s the day of the festival, and everything is a hubbub of colour and activity. The main colours this year are yellow and a sort of off-red. Lots of flowers adorn the tents that have been pitched all over the sports field, and wind chimes and all sorts of pretty things dangling from strings.

Jongin matches the decor well, as Soojung made him wear this awful floral print shirt she found somewhere in a charity shop probably. He humours her, though, anything to make her happy.

The smell of sizzling meat makes Jongin’s stomach rumble, and Soojung notices,

“Wanna go get a burger or something?” She asks, grinning up at him, teasing.

“Sure,” Sehun speaks for him, pushing them both in the direction of the nearest barbeque stall.

He wonders where Kyungsoo is. It’s not too long until they announce the summer king and queen, and he hasn’t seen him once. Maybe he’s decided not to come after all.

“I’m glad you’re feeling better now, you were acting really highly strung and I was worried for a while,” Soojung comments, nudging his side playfully,

“Yeah, after my inte- ah, game, a lot of the tension is gone,”

“That’s good,”

“Yeah,”

Jongin really hates to say it, but he kind of misses Kyungsoo. He was almost cute, in an obnoxious, condescending kind of way. Well, at first he was. After he got to know him a little more, he just seemed stressed all the time. He wonders if he’s ok now, sat at home reading his sci- fi books or whatever he does.

Food in hand, Jongin Sehun, Tao and Soojung head towards the main part of the field where the announcements are to take place, and wait for everything to be ready.

-

Kyungsoo feels awful, he’s like a stalker or something, lurking in the shadows and watching Soojung and Jongin enviously as they walk through the crowds, greeting people occasionally, and chatting. In a way he misses feeling liked, and popular, but having strangers greeting had made him feel awkward while he was in Jongin’s body. And Sehun cracking inappropriate jokes all the time was more annoying than anything.

He follows them at a safe distance, for no reason at all, until they arrive at the main event. Like everyone else, he waits as the microphone cords are set up, and the head teacher, Mrs Bang calls everyone to assemble there.

Like every year, she starts her speech by thanking them for coming, and congratulating them on grades and suchlike. Kyungsoo smiles wryly, proud of what he’s achieved on his own, even if the only other people that know are Jongin and his parents.

“And finally, what I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for: the announcement of the summer king and queen!” She announces, pulling a sparkling envelope from inside her jacket with a flourish. Her audience cheers, plastic cups full of juice and beer raised into the air, along with flower garlands that some of the first years made to sell.

Mrs Bang delicately rips open the envelope, and with a cascade of more glitter and a few petals, the small card inside is revealed. She holds it up and her eyebrows raise. The crowd start to make noises to boost the tension, and Kyungsoo kind of hopes Jongin is crowned, but also selfishly kind of hopes he isn’t.

“The title of summer queen, this year goes to…. drumroll please,” she gestures to the school band behind her, the drummer obliging, “Jung Soojung!”

Everyone goes crazy, shouting and applauding. Kyungsoo winces at the volume, but is pleased for her, in a melancholy way.

He thinks he might be jealous of her somehow, but he isn’t sure.

-

Soojung jumps up and down a few times, and hugs Jongin’s arm. He laughs too, guiding her towards the steps, and giving her a slight push when she comes over shy. When she’s on stage, she looks radiant, and he’s proud of her. She did a so much volunteer work and cheerleading took a lot out of her this year, as well as keeping up pretty good grades too, so she deserves this crown, no doubt about it.

She cries a little when the headmistress places the garland on her head, adorning her with flowers, and Jongin chuckles- of course she would cry.

He cheers for her too, cupping his hands around his mouth and whooping as she and the head teacher shake hands.

“Thank you so much!” Soojung sniffles into the mic, “I’m so grateful to all of you for voting for me, I never thought I would get this,” she wipes her eyes, careful not to smudge her makeup.

“Give it up for our summer queen!” The applause comes back again full force and Soojung takes a small step back to make room for whoever the summer king is going to be. Once the clapping peters out, the head teacher brings back the card with the names on.

“And now for your summer king,” she declares, “drumroll please. This year’s summer king is...Kim Jongin,”

Jongin blinks, not sure he heard that right, but people around him are jostling him to the stage, and pushing him up the steps.

-

Kyungsoo watches in resignation as Jongin is pushed up the stairs, and claps for him. He decides he’ll stay until Jongin has finished thanking everyone for voting for him, then he’ll go back home. He has no real reason to stay, or maybe he’ll buy a flower garland first, his mother might like one.

“I’m...stunned. I’m not quite sure what I did to get voted into this position- I wasn’t even aware I had my name down?” He looks befuddled, and Kyungsoo smirks, wanting to at least see him with his crown on, so he can become even less than the arrogant he thought he was a few weeks ago. How time flies, he muses.

“Thank you, everyone,” he bows his head, still looking confused, but just before he steps back to take the obligatory photos, somehow he catches Kyungsoo’s eye, and he smirks. Kyungsoo wants to run, but he’s rooted to the spot as Jongin smiles slowly,

“Actually, before I go, I’d just like to say thank you to someone in particular, who pushed me to do my best and challenged me recently in a way I’d never really tried before,”

Oh god, he doesn’t mean me does he? Kyungsoo panics, wanting now more than ever to run away. Jongin whispers something to the head teacher and she nods,

“Kyungsoo, get up here,” he waves at him, and then heads start turning and he wants to cry a little bit, unable to sort out whether he feels happy that Jongin is acknowledging him, or embarrassed for the same reason. Head ducked, he makes his way through the throng of equally confused people.

-

The smaller of the two reluctantly comes up the stairs, and sends Jongin a malevolent glare that would have scared him before, but not anymore. He’s just embarrassed,

“C’mere, I think we should share the crown,” Jongin announces, pulling Kyungsoo against him and inclining his head a little so they’re almost the same height, then pulls the flower laden wreath over the both of them so it balances precariously.

Kyungsoo can’t help laughing at the ridiculousness of it all, even in the face of such a large crowd, and Jongin wonders why he doesn’t smile like that more often, because he’s adorable.

The audience start to clap again, just a few people at first but after a few seconds it’s so loud Jongin can’t hear anything except the sound of applause. Kyungsoo is crying a little, and wipes his hand roughly on his sleeve, and hides his face. Jongin shakes him playfully, earning him an elbow to the stomach.

After the applause dies down, they are finally led off the raised platform and around the back to where a decorated archway is hidden, to take photographs. Anyone is allowed to take photos here after they’re done, but summer king and queen get the first shots. Jongin leads Kyungsoo along, looking behind him to make sure the uptight nerd is following him, and something blooms inside him at the sight of him wearing the crown by himself.

The photographer looks a little shocked to see two boys when he was told there would only be one, but works with it, putting them either side of Soojung, who blanches.

“This is more boy than I ever want to be in contact with again,” she complains jokingly, and Kyungsoo’s eyes grow wider than saucers,

“You aren’t Jongin’s girlfriend?”

“No?” She laughs, and they hear a snap sound from the camera, capturing their faces like this forever. Jongin is definitely going to buy some of these photos, and he’ll keep one in his room. There’s space on his bedside table now that Kyungsoo has cleared it up a little.

“You thought…?” Jongin snorts, “No, Soojung is completely gay. No boys for her,” Jongin tells him smugly, and Soojung elbows him in the side, winding him.

“Oh,” Kyungsoo whispers.

“Smile please,” the cameraman orders, and they all stop talking to pose for the photos.

-

Still overwhelmed with everything almost half an hour later, Kyungsoo leans against the back of the bleachers after sneaking away from everyone who had been clamouring to talk to him after Jongin’s stunt.

He had been on stage, with Jongin, half crowned summer king. Him, on stage!

People had cheered, whether it was for him or for Jongin’s unexpected kindness he didn’t care, it had felt good.

And Jongin didn’t have a girlfriend, that was strangely relieving. Ok, that was a lie, it wasn’t strange at all. He knew exactly why that made him feel better. Somehow, during the time they had switched bodies, he had started liking him. It isn’t love, he’s pretty sure of that, but he knows it could be. If he gives it the chance to grow.

He likes Jongin’s smile, and his face, and his stupid blonde hair- that had been a punishment for losing a bet- and he likes his hands, and his dumb voice, and-

“Kyungsoo?”

“J-Jongin?” Kyungsoo stands up straight as the lacrosse star approaches,

“I was looking for you everywhere, nerd,” he says, but this time there is a layer of affection behind the word. Kyungsoo wills himself not to stare,

“I just, I don’t know. I had to get out of there, it was a bit busy,”

“I understand, I’m sorry for bringing you to the centre of attention,” Jongin leans against the bleachers beside him, and pulls Kyungsoo down so they’re sitting on the grass side by side. What did he come here for? He runs his hands over the grass by his leg, distracting himself from the fact that the person he recently realised he has feelings for, however small, is so close.

Jongin moves his hand until their little fingers touch, making Kyungsoo jump a little, but before he can pull away Jongin grabs hold of him.

“W-what are you-?”

“I can’t believe I used to hate you.” Jongin sighs, shaking his head ruefully.

“I don’t follow,” Kyungsoo lies, trying to quell the hope that Jongin is giving him. There’s no way Jongin could like him in that way, right? He’s just imagining things, he has to be.

“There’s  no way I could hate you now. You work so hard, and I admire that,” Kyungsoo’s heart sinks, and he tries to extract his hand, but Jongin won’t let him go. He clears his throat and continues, “but I also really like you. You’re cute, as much as I hate to say it.”

“I’m-? Huh?” Kyungsoo coughs, “you must be mistaken,”

“Nope. Definitely you. I would know, after all,” he teases, making Kyungsoo smile. Then blush at the thought that maybe he wasn’t the only one checking his borrowed body out.

“I-I think. I like you too?”

“Is that a question?” Jongin’s hand squeezes around his,

“No. I like you.” Kyungsoo repeats, this time with more certainty. Something inside him bursts, and he can’t stop himself from smiling, so he covers his face with his other hand. Today is the best day ever.

“No, no don’t cover your smile,” Jongin playfully bats his hand away, so Kyungsoo beams at him. But, he thinks, this won’t last that long, and his smile fades as he realises the only have the summer to spend with each other.

“I’ll miss you, when we have to go to our respective universities,” Kyungsoo sighs. Jongin looks at him funny,

“You mean you didn’t check? The almighty brain Kyungsoo didn’t think to check which uni I’m going to?”

“What?” Kyungsoo frowns.

“I’m going to the same one you are. I don’t know how this happened, maybe Hathor knew this was inevitable or something, but we aren’t going to be split up,”

“Oh,” Kyungsoo breathes. Jongin has both of his hands captive now, and he shuffles a little nearer, so close Kyungsoo can feel his soft breaths on his cheek.

“Are you going to kiss me?!” Kyungsoo squawks in shock, jerking back and trying to get his pulse under control,

“You sure know how to ruin the mood,” Jongin laughs, “but yes. Unless you don’t want to,” he raises an eyebrow, as Kyungsoo glowers at him.

“,” he grumbles, pushing his lips against Jongin’s roughly. Jongin makes a surprised noise, but presses back gently, eyes fluttering shut as he teaches Kyungsoo how to kiss properly.