~~~

“Isn’t that your friend?”

“My friend?”

“Yeah, look!”

“Shut up, Yeol, not so loud!”

“You’re one to talk, ‘Myeon. Anyway, is he okay? He looks...dead.”

“You guys go on ahead, I’ll be there in just a sec.”

Opening his eyes ever so slightly, Jongin hisses when the bright lights of the hallway (which were partially dimmed a while ago) hit him square in the face and he winces when a sharp pain spreads through his back and bottom. At first, he doesn’t even know where he is, hence the loud, less than manly shriek that leaves his lips when he fully opens his eyes and (literally) comes face to face with-

“You okay?”

Why the hell I always have to run into him at the goddamn worst of times? is all that echoes in Jongin’s head as he blinks, his wide (and a tad bit unfocused, but he blames it the fact that he woke up from a deep slumber less than five seconds ago) eyes staring into Sehun’s lively, warm and slightly concerned ones. Ignoring the numbness that surges through his entire body as a result of sitting slumped over in a corner for God knows how long, he sits glued to the floor and clenches his jaw when his head suddenly starts to throb, most likely due to him resting it against the glass case the entire time. Either that or, Jongin thinks, it’s because of the surrealism of it all. Either way, Jongin doesn’t want to know.

It isn’t until the strong scent of Sehun’s fragrance tingles Jongin’s senses that something in his brain seems to snap and before he knows it, he’s wide awake and scrambling to his feet with little success, given that both his legs are numb to the bone as a result of being bent in awkward angles during his slumber. Tumbling down to the floor, or more precisely, onto his backpack (he’s extremely grateful that he made the decision to leave his laptop in his locker this morning), he grits his teeth when another surge of pain spreads across his right temple. ing damn it. He reaches up and massages the right side of his head, all while avoiding Sehun’s piercing gaze. Come to think of it, the entire hallway is empty and dead silent, save for a handful of murmurs coming from his right, and Jongin seriously wonders why that is. Normally, silence doesn’t bother him, and neither do empty hallways. But today, right here and right now; it’s enough to make him feel hot and lightheaded, and Jongin isn’t a hundred percent sure why, but he’s at least ninety nine percent sure that it’s Sehun’s fault; the way the latter is squatting down in front of him and the concerned yet curious (and...amused? Jongin isn’t sure, though) expression all over his features.

Despite doing his very best to avoid Sehun’s eyes, Jongin can still see him; his black and slightly messy hair, his facial features, his navy blue and red sweater, his black jeans, the reflection of his watch and, most importantly, his eyes. It almost feels as if Sehun is cornering him on the spot (which, he kind of is, at least according to the brunet), something that makes Jongin feel that much more lightheaded (he actually kind of wishes somebody would walk down the hallway or emerge from one of the classrooms so he can get up and run away outside and breathe since he definitely needs it), and Sehun’s unbroken stare is definitely not helping matters. At all. All in all, Jongin isn’t sure, though; he blames it on the drowsiness.

“What are you doing here?” Sehun asks, voiced laced with both concern and curiosity, before reaching up and running a hand through his hair. It’s such a simple gesture, yet Jongin finds himself absolutely captivated. He doesn’t know if that’s a good or bad thing. He settles for bad. Really bad.

Stifling a yawn, Jongin mumbles a barely coherent ‘I dunno’ while attempting to stand up again. Blinking the sleep out of his eyes, he nearly wishes Baekhyun and or Jongdae would walk by and save him from his misery. There’s a lump forming in his throat and he hurries to swallow it before it can suffocate him. On the other hand, he figures dying in front of Sehun wouldn’t be all that bad. “I uh, dunno,” he mumbles, more coherent this time, all while avoiding Sehun’s eyes.

Sehun waves a hand in front of Jongin’s face, the latter’s gaze slightly glossy. “Are you sick?”

Jongin blinks. “Yeah. Wait, no.” He clears his throat, desperately wishing someone would hear him and come to his rescue. He’s suddenly struck with the realization of why he’s even in the hallway to begin with and he scrambles to stand up, successful this time, before grabbing his bag off the floor and hurriedly swinging it over his shoulder, nearly hitting Sehun in the face. “, damn it-”

Leaning away slightly, Sehun his head to the side, the curious expression never leaving his face. “Is something the matter?”

“Yeah,” Jongin croak-garbles, a chill running down his spine at the mere thought of all the detention slips that are most likely sitting on the teacher’s table right this minute. “I’m late,” he adds, standing up straight. Although he deeply regrets standing up so fast since, the next thing he knows, he’s hit with a sudden head rush and he curses inwardly before clinging onto the glass case beside him, saving himself from toppling over and possibly cracking his skull open against the glass.

In fact, Jongin is so busy cradling his head and trying to process the fact that he nearly could’ve suffered a concussion that it takes him a while to realize that Sehun has got his arm wrapped around his waist.

Again, it’s such a simple gesture; Sehun not wanting Jongin to fall over and possibly die, yet Jongin can’t help the sudden shock of electricity that courses up and down his spine at the unexpected (physical, not to mention) contact, a feeling that’s closely followed by a blush and he clears his throat. He looks up and at Sehun, who’s staring down (only slightly, though, since there’s only a two inch height difference between them) at him with a funny looking expression on his face, and Jongin instinctively looks away in fear of Sehun noticing his significantly reddened face. The latter has got his body pressed against Jongin’s and the brunet prays to God Sehun doesn’t sense, hear or feel the frantic beating of his heart. Come to think of it, Jongin is actually kind of thankful Sehun is there to hold him and keep him balanced, since he fears his knees might give in any second given that his legs feel like overcooked spaghetti. Seriously, does nobody have class in this godforsaken hallway?!

Jongin barely has time to enjoy the moment, though, because Sehun lets go and steps back the minute he’s sure Jongin can stand on his own, which is less than five seconds later, much to the brunet’s disappointment. Hoping his face has returned back to its normal shade, Jongin clears his throat before slinging his backpack, which slid off his shoulder as soon as Sehun caught him, over his shoulder, making sure to do so nice and slowly as to not whack Sehun in the face with it, for real this time. Just like the whole milk ordeal, Jongin is a hundred percent sure slapping Sehun in the face with his backpack is something he’d never be able to get over, much less forgive himself for (on the bright side, Jongin is sort of thankful that the hallway is empty, since there’d be nobody to accidentally crash into as he bolts down the hallway, would he strike Sehun). The thought nearly makes him shudder. “Uh. Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it,” Sehun chuckles, shaking his head slightly. “What’re you late for, by the way?” he adds, leaning back against the wall and shoving his hands in his pockets.

Jongin swallows. His posture is absolutely perfect. “Modern Lit,” he mumbles before making a move to turn on his heel and walk towards the door at the end of the hallway. Except he barely makes it three feet when he sees Sehun raise an eyebrow in confusion. “Huh?”

“Class?” Sehun chuckles. Jongin swears he could listen to Sehun talk all night. His voice really is like honey; honey mixed with confidence.

Feeling a blush creep up his neck for reasons he can’t explain; although he figures it’s due to the fact that Oh Sehun is standing less than six feet away from him and staring him square in the eye, in a deserted hallway, Jongin scratches the back of his neck. “Uh...yeah?”

Sehun chuckles. “You’re funny,” is all he says, without a hint of arrogance in his voice. Jongin nearly cries.

Jongin isn’t sure if the tension he’s feeling between him and Sehun at the moment even exists, but he tears his eyes away from Sehun’s face and opts to stare down the (rather creepy) hallway instead just in case. Swallowing thickly, he clears his throat for the nth time that day. He doesn’t know if it’s his sleep deprived brain playing tricks on him, but he swears he can feel Sehun’s gaze burning holes in his head and back. He isn’t sure though, and would rather not turn around and find out.

The brunet stands in the same spot for what feels like centuries before it dawns on him that he should probably say something. He wants to utter something along the lines of ‘why are you even here?’, but all that comes out is a dry, shaky and barely audible ‘what do you mean?’. Jongin fights the urge to scream. He doesn’t know if it’s due to Sehun or the overall fatigue at this point, but he settles for the former.

“It’s half past six, silly,” Sehun says, removing his left hand from his pocket to check his (rather fancy, Jongin thinks) watch for good measure. “You won’t find a single teacher anywhere around at this hour, trust me,” he adds, running the same hand through his hair.

Jongin blinks. How the long was I even asleep? he thinks before inwardly cursing. That’s another missed training session. Shoving all thoughts of why nobody bothered to wake him up despite the fact that he’d been sitting here for over five hours, he pulls out his phone, eyes widening slightly when he’s greeted with 16 missed calls from Baekhyun and 32 from Jongdae, as well as a total of 65 missed texts from both of them. He doesn’t even bother reading all of them, but he unlocks his phone anyway.

And is ultimately greeted with his recently opened app - his contact list.

It takes Jongin a few seconds to remember why he’s even staring at his contacts in the first place, but the ordeal in the cafeteria many, many hours ago (including the whole milk thing, unfortunately) quickly hits him and he fights the urge to chuckle as he scrolls upwards, through the many (mostly unfamiliar) names and faces.

His smile soon disappears, however, when he reaches the top of the list and is, of course, greeted with none other than-

“Yeah,” Sehun chuckles, rubbing the back of his neck. “I thought you’d noticed earlier,” he adds before taking a step forward so he’s standing only three feet away from Jongin, who scrambles to put his phone away.

Fighting the urge to back away, Jongin manages a small smile. “I uh, needed to get to class, and my phone was slow as hell,” he mumbles, gaze fixated past Sehun’s shoulder, on the small window on the door behind the latter. “Sorry,” he adds and mentally smacks himself. Smooth.

Sehun shoots Jongin an amused look, to which the latter replies with a garbled ‘sorry’, before laughing a little. “No need to apologize. Uh, so, if it isn’t too much trouble, and if you’ve got time,” he starts, running a hand down his chest to even out the wrinkles on his shirt, and raises an eyebrow when he sees the brunet’s fixated gaze. “Erm.”

Tearing his eyes off Sehun’s chest at lightning speed, Jongin emits an inhuman screech before flailing his hands around. “Sorry, oh my God, I don’t, I didn’t,” he babbles, avoiding Sehun’s gaze and turning his face away; he doesn’t even try to conceal the redness that spreads across his entire face mere seconds later. For once, he’s glad neither Baekhyun nor Jongdae are here since Jongin knows for a fact that they, mostly Baekhyun, would never, ever let him hear the end of it. Honestly, the last thing he wants is for Baekhyun to constantly remind him about how he was caught ogling Sehun’s pectorals; by Sehun, until he graduates. It sends a shiver running down the brunet’s spine just thinking about it.

“Anyway,” Sehun says, voice still as calm as ever (which, honestly, makes Jongin that much more anxious) seemingly unfazed, “since you’re here, if it’s not too much trouble, are you-”

“Hun, hurry the hell up, Coach just began his lecture”, Junmyeon hollers down the hallway after throwing the door open, his deep and loud voice shattering the otherwise calm (or as calm as it gets, considering how uncalm Jongin is on the inside) atmosphere, before slamming the door closed. The loud noise echoes through the hallway and seemingly the entire building and Jongin bites his lip in annoyance.

“If you’d like, we could suggest a time,” Sehun says, as if nothing happened. “You don’t remember?” he adds with a small laugh when Jongin just stands there with his mouth hanging open.

Blinking, Jongin quickly closes his mouth before clearing his throat. . Why. “Uh, yeah, I remember, sure, that’d be great, I have time,” he sputters, doing his best to keep his cool on the outside despite feeling like there’s an atomic bomb somewhere deep inside his gut that’s set to explode any minute. He hopes it doesn’t.

Sehun grins, and it’s the most beautiful thing Jongin has ever seen since the last beautiful thing he saw; that being Sehun’s eyes. “Awesome, lemme check,” he murmurs, scrolling through his schedule, which is jam packed. Jongin’s jaw nearly hits the floor. How does he even function with so little free time? “I’m free on Friday afternoon after six, does that work for you?” He asks, shooting Jongin a smile. The latter hopes he doesn’t melt on the spot. “Unless you’re all caught up with hockey training, that is,” he adds with a chuckle.

Still trying to process the fact that Oh Sehun just freaking smiled at him, and at him only, Jongin nods frantically, maybe a little too frantically, since Sehun blinks. The brunet mentally punches himself before opening his mouth to speak. “Friday is fine!” he blurts out. “And I haven’t got training so it’s okay!” he adds, voice unreasonably loud. “You found it, by the way?” he adds, pointing to Sehun’s phone.

Sehun scratches his neck. “Yeah, my coach fetched it for me a couple of hours ago,” he says. “And that’s great, I know this really cozy bubble tea place not far from the school, we could go there if you’d like,” Sehun says with yet another smile in Jongin’s direction. The latter nearly dies. “At what time does your last lesson end on Friday?”

Mentally blanking out, Jongin emits a series of unattractive ‘um's before it finally hits him. “At half past one, I think?” he says, shooting Sehun a meek smile. “Where is the place?”

“You’ll see,” is all Sehun says before he puts his phone away. Leaning against the wall again, he rolls his shoulders. Jongin tries his best not to stare. “You going home now?”

Jongin nods. “Homework; Chemistry exam tomorrow,” he mumbles. He can hear loud banging coming from the room two doors down but quickly dismisses it. “.”

“I see.” Sehun nods in understanding. “Good luck,” he adds, smiling slightly. He’s about to open his mouth and say something else when the door flies open, again.

“Hun, did you die or something?” Chanyeol yells. “You’re supposed to present the updated positions in like a minute; Coach is waiting!” he adds before closing the door. Jongin shudders. Do all football players have loud, booming voices? he thinks to himself, excluding Sehun, of course.

“Coming!” Sehun calls back before turning to Jongin. “My last lesson ends at half past five, so I’ll probably be heading straight to the café,” he says, checking his watch. “I’ll text you the directions if you want me to,” he adds with a smile. Jongin blinks. Does he smile 24 frigging 7????

“Yeah, sure, that’s fine, that’s great, good,” Jongin babbles, the warmth swelling in his chest preventing him from forming coherent sentences. “Can you at least say the name?”

Sehun chuckles before nodding. “Bubbleology,” he says and subsequently emits a loud laugh. Jongin absolutely adores the sound. “Sorry,” he mumbles a second later, regaining his composure. “The name always makes me laugh." He shoots Jongin a smile. "Friday?"

"Friday," Jongin grins, surprised at how stable his voice sounds - a giant contrast to the thousands of butterflies currently inhabiting his stomach.

The door flies open again and this time, both Chanyeol and Junmyeon poke their heads out. “Hun, hurry the fu-”

“Hold your horses,” Sehun huffs in mild annoyance, turning to Jongin with an apologetic look on his face. “Weekly team meeting,” he says, shrugging, before shooting Jongin a thumbs up. “Well, you’ve got my number now so hopefully there won’t be any misunderstandings,” he adds. “See you Friday!” He’s about to make his way towards the door when he suddenly stops dead in his tracks. “Or should I say, see you around?”

Jongin blinks, head all woozy. “What?”

“You have class over there on Mondays, am I correct?” Sehun asks, pointing to the door to the right of Jongin.

“Uh.” Jongin scratches the back of his head. “Yeah.”

“I thought I saw you this morning,” Sehun chuckles, shaking his head in disbelief. “Standing with your friends by the door.” He runs a hand through his hair. “I wanted to say hi but I wasn’t sure it was you,” he adds with a slightly embarrassed chuckle, staring at the floor. He suddenly looks up, a grin spreading across his face. “Since, y’know, your picture on Facebook isn’t even of you.”

Jongin blushes slightly before shrugging. “I can’t take good selfies,” he says dumbly and mentally slaps himself for the nth time that evening. Pull yourself together, moron!

“Just saying,” Sehun chuckles, putting his hands up in defense. “But it’s okay now that I’ve gotten a good look at you; now there’s no way I won’t recognize you in the near future, I hope,” he adds before clapping and rubbing his hands together. “See you around, Jongin,” he says, a slightly apologetic, yet friendly, as always, look on his face before jogging towards the door. Jongin barely hears Junmyeon holler something along the lines of ‘the goddamn hell were you doing?’, closely followed by a scoff of ‘none of your concern’ on Sehun’s part before the door slams shut, the loud noise echoing down the hallway.

Jongin stands nailed to the floor for what seems like a decade. Even though his head is spinning at an alarming speed, he doesn’t find himself scrambling to grab onto the nearest object. In fact, if anything, the lightheadedness he’s feeling is precisely what’s keeping him on his feet. If he’d been feeling wide awake earlier, it’s nothing compared to how he feels right now - the image of Sehun’s gentle expression is permanently burned into his head and the latter’s scent is locked in his heart. Out of nowhere, he’s suddenly reminded of his upcoming Chemistry exam and he nearly chuckles. If ‘Sehun’ counts as a reasonable answer to every single question, Jongin figures he’ll no doubt pass the test with flying colors.

Despite Sehun being, technically, less than ten feet away, Jongin misses him and he isn’t sure how it makes him feel. Jongin checks his phone. It’s been less than a minute and he already misses Sehun’s face, his laugh, his warmth, his voice, his scent, his precense, his touch - Jongin is at least a thousand percent sure that the feeling of Sehun’s touch on his waist won’t fail to make his gut churn whenever he thinks about it in the near future. Not that he minds, anyway. 

It’s not until a janitor waves a hand in front of Jongin’s face that the latter snaps out of his trance and he mutters a low ‘sorry’, cheeks flushing a bit, before turning on his heel and quickly (and reluctantly) making his way down the hallway and towards the exit. His phone buzzes in his pocket and he instinctively retrieves it, although he finds himself way too distracted to properly focus.

From: Jungah 😜 🤢

where ARE you!!? dinner’s ready, dad he wants you home right this instant! we’re eating early since he wants you to study for your science thing tomorrow so hurry!!! 👏👏👏

Jongin so absorbed in the thought of Sehun’s face and voice that he walks straight into the doors.

~~~