The summer sun was blazing down, making hassled mothers sigh as their children ran ahead, ice cream cones melt and hazy patterns spin off the asphalt trail into the muggy air. His friends were their usual noisy selves as Jongin questioned every major life decision he had ever made. Surely, if he hadn’t said hello to the shy boy with the angular face and slight lisp in kindergarten who’d turned out to be his best friend, Sehun, none of this would’ve happened. Or if he’d just been a little more stubborn about being drug along by Sehun to the dance class where the rest of their rag-tag band had formed up when they were in junior high. Or even if he’d been stronger willed earlier that day when Sehun whined at him about how they were “…wasting the summer inside Jongin, why don’t we go to the amusement park with everyone?” then he wouldn’t be in the exact position he was in. 

The last position, in fact, that he ever wanted to be in. Yes, he was surrounded by friends as the large group of boys turned heads by refusing to stand and instead sat on the rails sectioning off the line they were in. Yes, he was laughing along as Jongdae told some ridiculous tale about a girl he went home with after the party last Friday that none of them believed because he was holding Yixing’s hand as the latter smiled at him affectionately. But he knew that his face must be displaying at least a little of the panic he felt in his soul because Sehun had his arm firmly planted around Jongin’s shoulder, Chanyeol was sympathy feeding him dip-n-dots and Junmyeon was sending him motherly looks when he thought the others weren’t paying attention. 

Jongin hated amusement parks. They were sticky and unsanitary, children were always letting out some sort of high-pitched sound, dogs weren’t allowed and, of course, the rides. Amusement park rides should be illegal. He didn’t trust in the rickety structures that had been standing longer than he had been alive. Teacups and carousels, sure, he could place his faith in those; they didn’t clank ominously as a small death car slowly inclined him towards what would surely be his end. They certainly didn’t reach top speeds of 55 miles per hour. But what self-respecting high school boy would be caught dead on those rides? They wouldn’t, which is why Jongin would have been better off staying home today. But Sehun had whined and Jongin hadn’t had time to come up with a suitable excuse for staying home. Which led him to where he was currently: slumped into a rail as his friends began to notice his terror and Junmyeon’s not-so-stealthy looks and began to for it, the bastards.

“Awe, look at Jonginnie’s face, he looks so scared,” Baekhyun chimed in the middle of Jongdae’s falsified story. Jongdae looked annoyed for a slight second before chiming in that Jongin was looking a little green. Jongin couldn’t tell what face he was making, but he had no doubt his skin tone matched Jongdae’s description. He really hated roller coasters. 

“You should probably stop shoveling ice cream down his throat, Chanyeol,” Minseok, the ever responsible eldest of their group, pointed out. Chanyeol met his eyes apologetically before he pulled the spoon away from Jongin’s lips, where it had been poised to give him another bite. 

Kyungsoo playfully ruffled Jongin’s pink hair. “What’s there to be afraid of Jonginnie? It’s not like anyone’s died on this thing in the last ten years or so.” He pulled his hand back down as Jongin met his eyes with panic. “I’m just kidding,” he was quick to supply, eyes wide and innocent “no one’s died on this since the seventies at least.”

Jongin groaned and buried his face in Sehun’s shoulder as the boys laughed at whatever expression had settled onto his face. 

“But seriously, Jonginnie, the way you’ve been dressing lately makes girls cross the street to avoid you,” Baek chimed in, again. “I’ve seen three mothers grab their kids’ hands and pull them out of your path once they spot the pink haired, pierced delinquent you’re turning into. You’re seriously gonna ruin this cool kid image you’ve been building in the face of one moderately sized roller coaster?”

Jongin rolled his eyes and didn’t bother to reply as the group snickered again at his misery. This “one moderately sized roller coaster” was anything but. It was the biggest, fastest, tallest ride in the entire park. His friends had traipsed along through the arcade, taking ridiculous selfies and buying sugar loaded food, and then made a beeline right for the damn thing once it was in sight. As a result, Jongin hadn’t had a chance to burn through any of the energy the outing had caused, and his stomach was twisting itself into knots over the thought of certain death that awaited them at the end of line. Which was steadily getting closer and closer to him.

Yixing sauntered over to Jongin’s free side and placed his blessedly cool hand on Jongin’s flushed cheekbone. “Don’t be afraid Jonginnie, you can always take the chicken’s way out,” he pointed over to the obnoxious sign that pointed the way from the front of the line back out to the arcade area. 

“I hate you all,” Jongin whined when they all laughed again. 

Luckily Junmyeon chose that moment to let his motherly tendency come to Jongin’s rescue, “Now now kids, Jonginnie is obviously fighting to overcome some kind of traumatic childhood experience with roller coasters.” Jongin glared at Sehun while the younger tried desperately to smother his snort of amusement at Jongin’s expense. Junmyeon ignored this and went on, “Everyone’s allowed to get nervous sometimes, and at least his nerves strike at a time that doesn’t almost ruin the spring dance recital because he was too nervous to pay attention to where he was walking and knocked over half the set.”

Baekhyun let out an indignant yelp at this and started babbling in his own defense about how it was their first recital and the stage lights were off and how was he supposed to know that the group before them would move the fake trees that made up the background before they performed, but Jongin was only half listening because a group of teenage girls in front of them had just filled up the cars for the current ride, and their group was next. 

“Oh, god,” he let slip out of his mouth as his friends slid off the rails and moved forward towards the lanes that would let them board the cars when the ride came back. Sehun patted his back reassuringly and as he did Jongin remembered the words that had just come out of Junmyeon’s mouth and rounded on his best friend. “By the way, just how exactly did Junmyeon know about my ‘traumatic childhood experience’, huh? We were still in elementary school then and you were the only other witness!”

Sehun, in the light of Jongin’s frayed nerves, had the grace to look ashamed. “He asked one day why you never came to the amusement park with us and I told him.” Jongin groaned exasperatedly and Sehun rushed to reassure him, “It’s not like it was your fault! It could’ve happened to anyone!”

Jongin closed his eyes and tried not to remember while Sehun grabbed his wrist and held it out for him so the attendant could scan his wrist band. His attempt to stop the flow of memory didn’t work, and he was back in his blue uniform, arm in arm with Sehun on a school field trip to the amusement park. They had waited eagerly in line and finally made it to the front; they had hopped immediately into the front row seat of the coaster. They had both been anxious and fidgety while the car clacked its way up the first hill, when some college kid with his girlfriend decided to play a “harmless” prank on the kids in the row in front of them. Jongin had been so excited he felt a little nauseous, and when said threw a handful of nuts and bolts into their car and exclaimed “! These just fell off the back of your seat!” Jongin’s excited nausea turned into the other kind of nausea. The kind that made you throw up all over yourself, your best friend, the and his girlfriend while the souvenir cameras flashed away. When they made it back safely to the interior of the coaster, Jongin had been hysterical while the teachers fussed over him and the ’s girlfriend had made him apologize even though they were covered in puke. Oh Sehun had flitted away to buy a souvenir picture to forever mark the moment Jongin had officially started to hate roller coasters. The bastard still had it stashed away somewhere and used it as blackmail when Jongin didn’t want to go to parties.

He was so lost in the humiliating memory that he didn’t realize he hadn’t moved on in the line until the attendant brought him back to the present with a soft, “Uh, sir, if you’re gonna ride the next round you and your friend need to grab a spot.”

Jongin opened his eyes to see the most attractive amusement park worker he had ever seen looking at him with concern. By this point he was so anxious he knew he looked sickly beneath his tan, and the memory of nausea had not helped to steady his already uneasy stomach. He could hear his friends chuckling in the background and Sehun had to physically pull him away from the bleached blond worker with a “Sorry man, roller coasters just make him a little nervous.” 

When Sehun turned him away from the worker’s beautiful, if apprehensive, eyes the reason for his friends’ laughter became clear. The jerks had filled up every available spot in line except for right where the seats in the front of the coaster would be once the train came back. Jongin felt panic light up his insides and his hands trembled; the only thing keeping him walking towards the line instead of back to the chicken’s way out (pride be damned) was Sehun’s firm grip on his shoulder and, bizarrely, the fact that the stupid attractive attendant would see him scamper off like a frightened ten-year-old. 

Jongin anxiously fidgeted next to Sehun. He tried to find some comfort in the fact that Sehun didn’t seem to mind sitting next to him and burned some of his nerves away by bouncing repeatedly up and down. His attempt to calm himself wasn’t working and he couldn’t help but dread what was surely fixing to happen. He hadn’t been on a roller coaster since that fateful day and he wasn’t looking forward to puking dip-n-dots all over himself and Sehun. That was still somewhat permissible when you were in second grade, not so much when you were half a summer away from your last year of high school. 

The cars came rattling back into the station, accompanied by the excited chatter and laughter of the high school girls. “See, Jonginnie, it’s okay,” Chanyeol threw in his direction from where they were stepping out from behind the barrier to the cars, “if they can handle it I know you can too. Hwaiting!” he finished with his fists up and a chuckle, which Baekhyun joined in on.

“Keep laughing ,” Jongin threw back, “last time I was on a roller coaster I threw up all over the people in the row behind me.” The smirk immediately fell off Baek’s face and he started whining for Yixing to switch him seats while Sehun giggled next to him as they settled into their seats in the front car. 

Jongin’s brief moment of victory faded as reality hit him in the face once again. This was happening. He was fixing to face his biggest fear with all of his friends no doubt dying of laughter behind him. He tried to steady his hands and his breathing as the lap bar came down onto his legs. All at once everything was moving too fast and the lights were too bright and he couldn’t block out the screeching of the children in line behind him and he was too warm why the hell was he wearing so many layers this grunge phase was so stupid who convinced him this was a good look on him in the first place? 

He didn’t even notice the attendant checking Sehun’s lap bar until a cool hand grabbed his clammy one and he looked into those eyes again. As mortifying as it was to be a seventeen-year-old so obviously distraught that an amusement park employee felt the need to calm his nerves, he couldn’t look away from the steady assurance in the eyes before him. The narrow form over Jongin blocked his sight of the crowd as Jongin got his first good look at his face. He had never seen a boy he thought was so beautiful before. Bleached blond hair that looked like it would be soft if Jongin ran his hands through it surrounded a tan face with black eyeliner liberally smeared around his eyes. Jongin couldn’t look away, but he couldn’t speak around the terror and surprise blocking his throat either. 

Luckily the boy took the initiative and simply said, “I’m Taemin. If you manage to survive this, I’d really like to get your number,” with a smirk. And then those hands were softly brushing his denim covered legs to check that the lap bar was secure and he was stepping back towards the control booth with a wink.

Jongin could only sit with his mouth hanging open as Sehun threw back his head and howled with laughter as the car slowly started up the steep incline of the first hill.
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Jongin was still in mild shock as the car pulled back into the beginning of the ride. He stood on shaky legs and managed an unstable exhale as he punched Sehun in the arm, hard. Sehun simply continued laughing, had laughed the entire ride until tears streamed down his face. Then they were being rushed away and Jongin looked behind him for Taemin as Sehun pulled him off with their friends to see their pictures, but didn’t see his blond hair anywhere. With disappointment replacing the nausea in his stomach he stumbled into his group of friends who were all snorting with laughter at the various faces of their group. Mostly smiling faces filled the pictures except for Baekhyun, who was hiding his face in Chanyeol’s neck with his mouth open in a silent scream, and Jongin whose mouth was simply hanging open in shock beside a hysterical Sehun. Jongdae had managed to time the picture with an adorable peck to Yixing’s cheek and the latter was blushing adorably as he stepped up to purchase a copy to keep.
As they prepared to depart to find more rides, a hand wrapped around Jongin’s elbow to hold him back. He turned to be met once more with Taemin’s face, his lips turned up in a charming smile. “I just went on my break,” that smile turned devilish and an impish light struck up in Taemin’s eyes, “do you want to ride the roller coaster with me?”

When all was said and done Taemin ended up up with a sore hand from Jongin’s grip and the other boys screams echoing in his ears. Jongin ended up with his own souvenir picture featuring a kiss on the cheek, Taemin’s number, and a promise to see each other the next day.

Jongin really loved roller coasters.