Welcome to the Squad
You and I and Ice Cream on the SideThe story assumes that everyone is of the same age, just to make things easier write hehe. Enjoy!
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Jeonghan was a little excited today. Little might be an understatement since Jeonghan was basically squealing to himself throughout the day while thinking of meeting Joshua again. It might have been the void that Joshua seemed to fill for him in his lonely world that made Jeonghan obsess over Joshua. He refused to admit to himself that he was infatuated. The first thing Jeonghan did in the morning was write a letter directed at Joshua.
[warning, Geography jargon incoming! This diagram would help you understand if you don't study geography ^^]
Like a spit, you start to reach me. The sea slowly but surely carries your sediments towards my isolated island. I await the day you reach me, we'll form a tombolo that geography students will quote in their exams - the tombolo that connects you to me, the tombolo that symbolizes our love. I await that day, I await it impatiently.
Jeonghan read his finished letter and realised that it was so cheesy and lame, which made him cringe with disgust at himself.
"What if he doesn't know all these geographical terms? I'm not even being subtle about my message. I'm so straightforward in this letter, I feel so ashamed for my professors for having a student like me. What a ludicrous and tasteless letter. Ahhh never mind I should just throw this away in case Joshua sees this and pukes." Jeonghan thought, then folded the paper into half and threw it in the bin.
As Joshua was going to look at him today, Jeonghan decided to bother about his fashion for the day, habouring the small hope that being fashionable would catch Joshua's eye, no, eyes, Jeonghan wants both his eyes on him. Jeonghan's feelings regarding Joshua made him confused because he was not clear about his feelings for Joshua. On one hand, he never felt an attraction to boys to the extent where he would want to date them and neither did he take an interest in girls. On the other hand, he did kiss his childhood friend when he was 6... His childhood friend was a guy. He really wanted to be with Joshua and he was not sure why or how he would want their relationship to be like. Yet, thinking about Joshua gave him the butterflies.
"Maybe, maybe I'm in love." Jeonghan mused.
"Nah, don't be silly." Jeonghan said.
Monologues were Jeonghan's second nature, since he barely had anyone to talk to on a personal level. Although he had friends, he could not get close enough to even be invited to their birthday parties. It was sad but Jeonghan faced reality and realised that firstly, he was not sociable enough to make new and close friends. Secondly, probably no one liked him because he was the weird boy with long hair, which Jeonghan was too lazy to cut.
Jeonghan put on a pair of jeans. Usually, he would leave it as it is but this time, he cuffed his pants to look like he was putting in effort. He wore a simple white v-neck shirt and slipped on his navy green converse sneakers. Jeonghan checked himself out in the mirror to see if he looked weird or over the top. He felt a little insecure about looking different. His look was not much different from his look the day before but it gave Jeonghan a different vibe of himself. He shrugged it off and reassured himself by saying, "Just be confident."
During a lecture, Jeonghan got really bored and decided to scribble the lyrics of his favourite songs in his journal. Perhaps he was too engrossed in his scribbling to realise that another guy had been peering over his shoulder the whole time, watching him scribble down the lyrics of his favourite songs.
"I really really really really really really like you? Damn, I didn't know you were a er for catchy pop songs... Hahaha you like IU too? I see you're writing the lyrics to her songs down too..."
Jeonghan frozed. That voice sounded alarmingly familar. He quickly closed his journal and turned around to see who was commenting on his song choices. Jeonghan regretted turning around because their faces were so close their noses almost touched. It was Seungcheol.
"I really like you is just an exception, okay? I just happen to um... Relate to the song. Its tune is too catchy to get out of my head too." Jeonghan found himself justifying his song choices. He was flustered due to the proximity of their faces to each other.
"Jeonghan, your hair smells nice." Seungcheol remarked.
Jeonghan thought, "Is he even listening to what I am saying?"
Jeonghan replied, "Well thanks for the compliment, it's great news for someone who doesn't bother with hair care."
Seungcheol was amused by his reply and laughed. He said, "I was expecting something more like a blush and you looking away, you're interesting."
Jeonghan started to gain a little confidence because Seungcheol made him feel at ease and replied, "Well I'm glad that you could see the charming side of me." Jeonghan meant to be sarcastic by exaggerating but it was apparent that Seungcheol took his words literally.
"Well, you sure are charming." Seungcheol commented, earning a blush from Jeonghan.
"Friends?" Seungcheol asked.
"I guess." Jeonghan replied, with a smile tugging at the corners of his lips.
"Well, today is going good." Jeonghan thought.
It was lunch time after class, it was also a time Jeonghan hated because it just amplifies his loneliness. Amongst the noisy chatter, Jeonghan found his world to be deafeningly quiet during these times. Jeonghan sighed and took his lunchbox out. He was prepared to return to his dorm and eat alone but Seungcheol managed to grab hold of Jeonghan before he left.
"Hey Jeonghan, wanna grab lunch with us? By us, I mean my friends. By my friends, I really just mean the people in the acapella group."
"Um... Okay."
Jeonghan did not show it on his face but he was over the moon. That invitation to lunch with his friends may not seem like much in the eyes of the ordinary person but to Jeonghan, this meant a step closer towards being somewhere with some people, like having a second 'home'. Jeonghan desired the feeling of security; he wanted to feel like he had friends to return to at the end of the day even if the others ditched him and Seungcheol welcomed him with open arms. Seungcheol reminds Jeonghan of his father, who would always reassure him even if he was facing a lot of difficulty with coping in school. Jeonghan looked down to let his hair cover his face and grinned, thinking that no one could see the wide grin on his face.
Jeonghan followed Seungcheol to the cafeteria to meet Seungcheol's friends.
Out of the blue, a rush of thoughts flooded his brain. "What if it's awkward because I'm there? What if his friends hate me? Will they like me? Maybe I shouldn't talk. Oh no, I don't know how to act with a group of people... Save me please," These thoughts circulated in Jeonghan's head, causing his head to spin. Seungcheol sensed Jeonghan's uneasiness and reassured him that his friends would like him. They were from the acapella group anyway so they had to like him since they were going to be stuck together for the next few years.
Jeonghan's jaw dropped to the ground as he approached the table Seungcheol headed towards. Jeonghan's probably never going to get his jaw back up.
"He. Is. Drop. Dead. Gorgeous." Jeonghan thought.
There, Joshua sat, in all his orange-hair-glory, shining so brightly that Jeonghan almost had to cover his eyes. Well, that was in Jeonghan's perception of the matter anyway. For some unknown reason, Joshua was wearing formal attire. Jeonghan closed his eyes and blessed that reason and the person who invented formal attire. However, Jeonghan learnt from his lesson that his staring was obvious so he quickly broke his gaze and sat down next to Seungcheol. Being the sociable guy that Seungcheol was, he did not forget to give the group an "icebreaker chat".
"So as you guys know, this guy here is Jeonghan." Seungcheol started.
The boy next to Joshua started to fidget and squirm in his seat. He was nudging Joshua, trying to get him to ask Jeonghan about the performance and whether Jeonghan would sing for him.
"Hey Jeonghan, I'm Vernon! Nice to meet you, I'm Joshua's roommate and I heard a lot about you from him and Joshua has something important to tell you and I think that you should just agree to whatever he's going to ask of you and-" Vernon got cut off by an embarassed Joshua, who looked pretty pissed off with Vernon. He shot a glare at Vernon then turned to Jeonghan and smiled at him sweetly, exchanging greetings with him. There were eight other boys at the table too and there was supposed to be one more but he caught a high fever, which effectively made him temporarily bedridden.
"So during the lecture, I saw Jeonghan in front of me and saw him scribbling rapidly into his notebook. I thought, 'Who would be such a nerd?' and leaned over to see what kind of notes he was taking but it turns out that he was just scribbling lyrics and I thought he was interesting so I brought him over," Seungcheol explained.
The boys introduced themselves to Jeonghan. They were all very interesting people to Jeonghan, but Jeonghan never had any close friends after he moved away from his hometown so anyone would be interesting to Jeonghan anyway.
As they made small talk, Jeonghan started to feel more at ease. Gradually, he relaxed and felt comfortable conversing with the boys on the table, even though it was mostly him, Seungcheol, Joshua and Vernon talking to each other. The others were either occupied with each other (Meanie couple) or occupied with their food.
"I feel so at home with you guys." Jeonghan blurted. His face turned red as his words registered in the other boys' heads.
Seungcheol shot his playful smirk at Jeonghan again and said, "Welcome to the Squad."
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Me after finishing the chapter: mansae mansae mansae yeah! mansae mansae mansae yeah! mansae mansae yeah! (I think I should get my mental state of health checked LOL)
Ahhh it's the longest chapter that I've ever written!! I'm not even done with "today" in the story and it's already stretching over 2 chapters already. I'm stopping this chapter here because it seems appropriate haha. Don't fret, "today" will end in the next chapter :3 With some fluff maybe?
This chapter is unedited by the way, so if I meant to say Jeonghan and I type Joshua, I apologise in advance... Hehe (Oh, and for the super lame and stupid love letter at the start too, I'm not sure why I made Jeonghan do that in the story but I had this impression that he would pen his direct thoughts down hahaha)
Thanks for reading! I didn't think anybody would read this haha because it's just me and my crazy fangirl fantasies (though I've seen others who were more hardcore than me) My appreciation for good fanfic authors increased exponentially after attempting to write this fanfic. It's a lot harder than I thought but it is really fun hehehe.
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