~~~

8:32 PM

Sitting down at his desk, Jongin cracks his knuckles against the edge of the table before placing his backpack on the surface, pulling out his homework and neatly laying it out before him. Turning to face the window, he exhales slowly when the cool evening air hits him square in the face. He’s technically supposed to be at the rink right now, but he decided against it for reasons unknown. He blames it on the truckload of work that’s been piling up lately.

With a sigh, he s his pencil case and proceeds to retrieve a perfectly sharpened pencil as well as an eraser that’s slightly dirtied at the corners. Smoothing out his paper, Jongin crosses his legs as his eyes skim over the text in front of him. Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Jongin nearly chuckles. Kid’s stuff, he thinks to himself before leaning forward. But for some reason, his gaze is torn away from his homework paper and lands somewhere to the right instead.

To be precise, on his phone.

One thought leads to another and within a matter of seconds, a numbing sensation spreads across the brunet’s entire chest. He gulps, pencil hovering an inch above the lines. Baekhyun’s words echo like a mantra in his head and Jongin grits his teeth as he desperately attempts to shove them away and focus on his assignment - he doesn’t even remember exactly what Baekhyun said, save for something along the lines of ‘grab his attention’.

For a few more minutes, Jongin does his best to focus on Shakespeare but inevitably, Baekhyun’s words gradually fill his head to the point that he needs to put down his pencil and run a hand through his hair. Desperately regretting choosing to skip practice, Jongin heaves a sigh before shoving his papers aside and grabbing his phone. With both Shakespeare and Hamlet long forgotten, he ignores the lump that’s beginning to form in his throat as he unlocks his phone, something that’s proven to be a huge mistake when his latest app, which just so happens to be Facebook, pops up on the screen. Biting his lip, Jongin watches as said app proceeds to refresh itself, all while doing his best to keep his eyes off the little chat icon at the bottom of the screen, and nearly drops his phone in surprise.

He has a dog??? Jongin blinks in surprise as he clutches his phone, eyes glued on the screen. He can’t help the warm feeling that swells in his chest as he takes in the sight of Sehun, clad in a plain, black T-shirt and holding a small, white, fluffy dog; while flashing a peace sign. His black hair is styled perfectly, as always, and he’s in what the brunet assumes is his room. Swallowing, Jongin checks the uploading time. 8:40 PM. He gulps again. So that’s what he looks like right now. Jongin doesn’t know if it’s due to the fact that he’s a dog person himself or the fact that it’s Sehun, but either way, he can’t stop the feeling that settles in his gut (which subconsciously results in an unnaturally wide smile, much to his dismay) as he continues to gawk at his phone.

Averting his gaze a little bit, Jongin’s smile grows even wider (if that’s even humanly possible) when his eyes skim across Sehun’s caption. Damn it.

“study buddy ❤”

God damn it. Shaking his head a little in disbelief, Jongin lets out a low chuckle. So he’s the emoticon type.

Jongin doesn’t know what makes him do it, he figures it’s the heat of the moment, but before he has time to react, his finger is moving of its own accord and before he knows it, he’s staring at the hoard of comments under Sehun’s photo.

“omg so cuteeeee :3”

“let me be your study buddy instead  <3”

“your hair’s so cool, looks way better than the blonde 😂😂😂😂😂 jk jk”

“taking selfies with ur pet instead of working on the group assignment i see… ;) *sigh*”

“💖💖💖💖 sehun you're adorable oh my god”

“ahhhhh so handsomeeee”

“you’re just as beautiful irl”

Skimming through said comments, which takes a good while given that there’s at least 120 of them, plus the fact that he skips the ones solely consisting of heart and tongue emojis, Jongin chuckles to himself, but his mood quickly plummets and his smile instantly fades when it dawns on him that every single person who commented on Sehun’s picture is a woman. At first, he isn’t a hundred percent sure but, after checking a second time, he comes to the conclusion that he is (unfortunately) correct. Heart racing for reasons he doesn’t know and would rather not explain, Jongin scrolls through the comments again in search of any form of reply from Sehun and is, surprisingly, relieved to find that there is none.

A wave of reality seems to hit him and he quickly turns his phone off and throws it on his bed. Figuring his Literature assignment is of far more importance than...whatever this is, Jongin audibly sighs before picking up his pencil again. Why the do I even care, he thinks (or to be precise, grumbles) to himself as he turns his attention to the first question on the sheet.

1. Shakespeare includes characters in Hamlet who are obvious foils for Hamlet, including, most obviously, Horatio, Fortinbras, Claudius, and Laertes. Compare and contrast Hamlet with each of these characters. How are they alike? How are they different? How does each respond to the crises with which he is faced?

In his peripheral, Jongin sees his phone, seemingly staring menacingly at him, but he does his best to repress what he’s currently feeling in his gut before he rests his head on his left hand and starts to write.

Horatio’s steadfastness and loyalty contrasts with Hamlet’s variability and excitability, though both share a love of learning, reason, and thought. Claudius’s willingness to disregard all moral law and act decisively to fulfill his appetites and lust for power contrasts powerfully with

Jongin sighs before fidgeting with the pencil in his hands. Damn it. He seems to sit in his chair for hours before he finally clears his throat in an attempt to clear his head. Dismissing it as overall stress, he grips the pencil tighter and resumes his sentence although he barely gets a chance to properly write out the letter ‘H’ when he suddenly hears his ringtone blaring through his phone’s speaker, nearly making him jump out of his own skin.

Placing a hand on his chest in surprise, Jongin curses under his breath and makes a mental note to lower the volume of his ringtone first chance he gets. It’s not until the adrenaline wears off a couple of seconds later that an indescribable feeling bubbles in his gut and he suddenly feels his heart pick up speed for reasons unknown. He sits and listens to his ringtone for what feels like years and, before he knows it, his legs are moving of their own accord and he scrambles for his phone on the bed. Gripping it in his hands, Jongin audibly exhales before ever so reluctantly peeking at the caller ID and nearly collapses in relief.

Chuckling to himself, Jongin swipes to the right before placing the phone by his ear. “Hey.”

“Heya,” Baekhyun replies, although Jongin thinks it sounds more like a question than anything else. “What took you so long to pick up?” His voice suddenly turns smug. “Lemme guess, you were busy daydreaming, weren’t you?”

“No,” Jongin growls in irritation. “I wasn’t. As a matter of fact, I was studying, see?” he says, gesturing to the pile of paper on his desk and mentally facepalms when he realizes Baekhyun cannot, in fact, see it.

Baekhyun chuckles a little. “Have you messaged him yet?”

Jongin swallows the lump in his throat. “Nope,” he says simply, popping the 'p', and groans when Baekhyun sighs in exasperation.

“Dude, Jongin, just message him already,” Baekhyun says, and Jongin swears he hears a snicker in the background. “You’ve got literally nothing to lose. I mean, what’s the worst that could happen?”

Jongin nearly facepalms. “Oh, I don’t know, that I end up making a fool out of myself if and when he doesn’t reply,” he mumbles, playing with his pencil.

“You do realize you don’t have to send him a sermon along with a ton of emojis, right?” Baekhyun says. “Just a simple ‘hey’ is fine; the key to long lasting relationships is steady friendships, you know that. Oh, and add an emoji.”

“I can’t send him a ‘hey’,” Jongin squawks, dropping the pencil and plopping down on his bed. He figures Shakespeare and Hamlet can both wait until later. Much later.

Baekhyun sighs on the other end of the line. “Because…?”

“Because we don’t know each other,” Jongin says as if it were the most obvious thing in the whole world. “Because we’re not friends, how about that?”

“But you do want to know to get to know him, and you do want to be his friend,” Baekhyun says as a matter-of-factly, “right? I’m not asking you to jump straight into the lovey-dovey stuff, y’know, I’m just saying that-”

“It’s too direct!” Jongin exclaims, throwing his free hand in the air before letting his arm drop back down on the bed. “Seriously, nobody sends someone they hardly know emojis along with ‘hey’, it just doesn’t work like that.”

“As long as you message him and get your sappy- puppy crush over with,” Baekhyun hums, “then I’m happy. Seriously, I know you’re dying to talk to him, don’t deny it. The worst that could happen is that he doesn’t reply, and why wouldn’t he? It’s not like you’re bombarding him with ten thousand messages and a ton of heart emojis, you’re saying hey and that’s it. Who knows, maybe you’ll end up becoming friends; even better. Point is, even if he ignores you, you’ve tried it,” he adds, all in one breath.

Jongin sighs again before running a hand through his hair. “But I-”

“Being straightforward doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing, either,” Baekhyun interrupts. “Some men like directness.”

“You don’t even know if he’s gay,” Jongin moans in agony.

“You don’t even know if he is,” Baekhyun retorts, a slight hint of irritation in his voice. “And hey, if you build up a friendship you’ll eventually find out, right? Then you can move right on and forget about him.” He sighs. “I know it’s easier said than done, but come on, you obviously love the guy and want to get to know him better, so why not make up for the years of checking him out from afar and just hit it off right away?”

“Yeah, because I’d definitely want to find out he isn’t into men after having built up a strong- friendship,” Jongin groans with a roll of his tired eyes. “But I get it. And-”

“Besides, you totally zoned out today during class,” Baekhyun snickers, and Jongin audibly groans. “Seriously, I was this close to reaching over and shaking you since I was beginning to think you were on the verge of a or something,” he adds with a snort. “Cat got your tongue?” He snorts again. “Or should I say, Sehun?”

If it were physically possible to slap somebody through a phone screen then Jongin would most definitely do so in a heartbeat. Gripping his sheets, he clears his throat before rolling over so he’s lying on his stomach. “Shut up, I was distracted.”

“So Sehun has got your pretty little tongue, then,” Baekhyun cackles. He laughs for what Jongin thinks is five whole minutes before he quiets down. “No but honestly, you were so out of it. Like, glossy eyes and everything, it was hilarious. Now, tell me,” he adds, and Jongin hears what he assumes is the sound of a book being closed, “what exactly is it about Prince Charming that you find so admirable? I’m dying to know.”

Jongin nearly chokes. “Why do you ca-”

“Duh,” Baekhyun huffs, and Jongin can practically see Baekhyun’s eyeroll from his spot in his room. “Because you’ve been ogling him for three whole years now, you’d think he were some sort of living Greek statue carved out of granite or something; whenever I catch you staring at him I can practically see hearts dancing around in your eyes, you aren’t fooling anyone. Now stop asking so many goddamn questions and tell me already before I come over and force it out of you.”

“I barely know him!” Jongin squawks. “How do you expect me to-”

“Lemme guess,” Baekhyun sniggers, “is it his humungous d-”

“ off, you utter asswipe,” Jongin chokes, face flushing red; he’s eternally thankful for the fact that Baekhyun isn’t in the room with him otherwise the latter would most definitely to the grave about it.

“So that’s a yes, then,” Baekhyun says simply. “I mean, I’ve always known but still. Anyway, I gotta go, I’m so ing behind on that Biology project, damn it.” He lets out a sigh of exhaustion and Jongin swears he hears Jongdae’s voice in the background, yelling something along the lines of ‘get the hell off the phone and come help me with the research!’. “Dae’s all up my about it.”

With a small chuckle (large emphasis on 'small' given that his stomach feels like it’s been stuffed to the brim with cotton), Jongin rubs his eyes before placing his phone on next to him on the bed. “Of course he is, you’re no help at all whatsoever,” he hums after pressing the loudspeaker button. “I gotta go now, too, so you’re good.”

“Frickin’ braniacs,” Baekhyun mumbles, his loud voice booming through the speakers and shattering the peaceful silence. Jongin jumps slightly at the change in volume. “And of course you do,” he adds with a tut.

Jongin raises an eyebrow. “Whaddya mean?”

“Well duh, you’ve got Prince Charming on the other side of town desperately waiting for you to text him,” Baekhyun says simply and hangs up a second later before Jongin has a chance to reply. The latter makes a mental note to dunk his best friend in the nearest trash can the second he sees him tomorrow.

Lying on his bed, Jongin stares at the ceiling for a good ten minutes before Baekhyun’s words seem to hit him like a freight train.

Some men like directness.

He isn’t sure if it’s due to the fuzziness in his head that’s preventing him from thinking clearly or the fact that for once, Baekhyun is in fact right, but either way, seemingly out of nowhere, Jongin sits up like a bullet before he grabs his phone and opens up his Facebook. His fingers seem to act of their own accord as they move down towards the bottom of the screen and press the little chat bubble icon. Eyes darting up to the right hand corner, Jongin presses down on the '+' icon and feels a certain bubbling sensation when his friends list comes up.

He proceeds to type Sehun’s name into the search bar but he doesn’t even make it past the letter ‘E’ before Sehun shows up at the top of the suggestion list (Jongin convinces himself that it is, in fact, not a tingling sensation that bubbles in his chest when he sees Sehun’s profile picture - despite having seen it on more than one occasion), and Jongin wastes absolutely no time in pressing Sehun’s name. He waits for a few seconds and grips his phone a tad bit tighter when a new, empty conversation pops up on the screen, Sehun’s picture at the top.

For a few moments, Jongin’s mind goes completely blank as he stares at the blank chat before him, but something in his mind seems to snap (he blames it on Baekhyun and his godawful honesty) and before he knows it, he’s halfway through typing up a new message, fingers scurrying across the keyboard as he stares intently at the words that show up in the chat box.

hi there!!! how’re you doing?? ~~

Jongin bites his lip as his eyes quickly skim across the sea of different emojis and emoticons before him and finally settles for a few simple, smiling ones (after much, much contemplation). He’s seconds away from adding a dog emoji but decides against it for obvious reasons. I’d definitely scare him away forever.

hi there!!! 😃😃 how’re you doing?? 😊😊😊~~

That should do it. Before he knows it, Jongin has pressed the ‘Send’ button and he watches, mind still in a haze, as a blue chat bubble pops up on the screen and engulfs his words. He lies on his bed for what feels like forever and closes his eyes, desperately wishing his head would stop spinning.

It’s not until a noise signaling that his message has been successfully delivered rings through the air that Jongin suddenly feels like he’s being suffocated, a heavy feeling settling in the pit of his gut as his heart picks up speed. Praying his throat doesn’t close up, he stares at his phone in horror, his recently sent message staring back at him almost menacingly. A feeling of nausea hits him as he reluctantly reaches over and clicks on the message. Sent at 9 PM. Jongin recoils like he’s been burned and runs a hand through his hair. God damn it.

Jongin doesn’t know why, but the next thing he knows, he’s scrambling for his phone, grabbing it with shaking hands as he struggles to close out of the Messenger app (honestly, one look at the message is enough to make bile rise to the tip of his throat) and open up his contacts list. Before he knows it, he’s pressing his phone to his ear (really hard, but he’s beyond caring at this point) and listening to the consecutive beeping noises as he waits in silence. He prays to God his hands don’t shake so much that he drops his phone. 

Baekhyun picks up after the eleventh ring. “Hel-”

“Baek,” Jongin practically yells and he’s surprised his voice didn’t crack given that his mouth and tongue both feel like sandpaper. “Baek, holy fuc- , Baek, damn it, oh my God.”

With a drawn out sigh, Baekhyun groans. “What now? Either you’re stuck on some Shakespeare assignment I can’t solve for the life of me or you’re still stuck on whether or not you should me-”

“Iingmessagedhim,” Jongin croak-garbles, a feeling of both dread and anxiety coursing through his veins as he utters the words. He grips the phone tighter and swallows when Baekhyun is silent on the other end of the line. “Hel-”

“Hold on, what?” Baekhyun sighs. “Why’re you sounding so anxious? It sounds like you’ve run a marathon. Could you run that by me one more time? And stop frigging yelling, you nearly made my goddamn ear pop.”

Jongin stills for a minute before taking a shaky breath. “I did what you said,” he says bluntly, and suddenly feels his anxiety skyrocket. “I did what you said and m-” His sentence ends in a hiss as he quickly removes the phone from his ear when Baekhyun emits an inhuman screech.

“Dude, you didn’t!” Baekhyun practically yells into the receiver, and he has to take a few breaths to calm himself. While Jongin finds it mildly irritating, he can’t help but feel a tad bit more relaxed since for once, he’s glad someone’s more worked up than he is right now. “You did! Damn , oh my God, what did you write? Has he replied? What did he say? , if only I wasn’t stuck in the goddamn library with Dae, I’d come right over.”

Jongin thinks he hears Jongdae yell something along the lines of ‘shut up, Baek!’ before he opens his mouth to speak, hands still shaking. “Of course he hasn’t en replied yet, I sent the goddamn message less than five minutes ago,” he says, attempting to keep his voice as balanced as possible. “And well, I wrote what you said,” he adds and instantly feels the same feeling of anxiety bubble in his gut.

Baekhyun hums something in reply. “So you wrote ‘hey’, then?” he asks, excitement prominent in his voice. In fact, he sound so excited Jongin’s surprised he’s even able to form coherent sentences. “With a smiley?”

Scratching the back of his head, Jongin clears his throat. “Well, uh...not really. I mean...yeah.”

“Huh? What’d you write, then?” Baekhyun asks, curiosity lacing his words.

“I can uh,” Jongin says, voice shaking a little, “send you a screenshot if you want.” When Baekhyun hums in approval, Jongin takes it as his cue to exit the call and open up his Messenger again, both relieved and disappointed to see that Sehun hasn’t replied (nor read) to his message yet, before pressing down on the home and power button - he’s surprised he’s even able to do so given that his hands are shaking like there’s no tomorrow. He watches as a flash of white covers his entire screen before opening up his and Baekhyun’s text conversation. Attaching said screenshot, Jongin anxiously waits and subconsciously swallows when the words ‘Read at 9:50 PM’ show up under the picture less than five seconds later.

“Ah,” Baekhyun says simply after a few seconds of silence, and Jongin instantly feels nervous again. “Okay.”

Unable to detect any hint of excitement in his best friend’s voice, Jongin furrows his eyebrows before lying on his stomach. A dreadful feeling overwhelms him, although he does his best to shove it aside. “...What? What is it?”

Baekhyun is silent for a minute. “Nothing,” he says a second later, the usual excitement returning to his voice, much to Jongin’s relief (and suspicion). “It’s good! Let me know what he says, alright?”

Jongin bites his lip before letting out a sigh. “Was it uh, too much?” he asks, although he both knows and dreads the answer. He lets out another sigh, louder this time, when he hears Baekhyun clear his throat on the other end of the line.

“Hey now, I don’t know what the guy’s like,” Baekhyun says defensively. “And like I said, some men are into directness!”

Dragging a hand down his face, Jongin balls it into a fist before exhaling slowly. “So in other words, it was too much,” he mumbles and rolls over so he’s lying on his back. “Fuc-”

“What’s done is done,” Baekhyun chuckles before sighing dramatically. “No but seriously, I didn’t think you’d actually do it. You gotta hit me up when he writes back, you understand? No matter how mushy gushy it is, I gotta see it since I practically set you guys up.”

“You added him on Facebook without my permission or knowledge,” Jongin snorts. “And I will, don’t worry. And whaddya mean by ‘mushy gushy’, I’ll be surprised if he even replies at all!” He sits up and grabs a pillow before pressing it close to his chest. “I mean, I’d be a tad bit relieved, but still.”

Baekhyun goes silent again. “But you’d also be devastated,” he says quietly, but confidently. He sighs when Jongin doesn’t say anything. “Look, you made the first move; sure, it might’ve been a tad bit over the top, but like I just said, what’s done is done; now all you gotta do is wait. If he ignores you, that , but hey, at least you can say you tried, right? Not that I think he’ll ignore you, but still. And if he replies, do your best to keep a conversation going, alright? Like Dae said, grab his attention. And I know you’re good at that, so you’re basically good to go!”

“Wait, so like,” Jongin babbles, tugging on his hair, “if he doesn’t reply, what do I do? I can’t just ignore him since nobody sends something like that without a reason, but I can’t, you know, ask him why he didn’t reply since that’s just creepy- oh God, I don’t know what came over me, I shouldn’t have messaged him in the fi-”

“Dude,” Baekhyun says sharply, “for the third time, what’s done is done. All I said was that it might’ve been a little overdramatic since you barely know each other but hey, then again, maybe he’s the type who likes straightforwardness? You wouldn’t know. Now quit yammering and go play hockey or dance or something, take your mind off of this for a while, would you? All this overthinking’s gonna end up melting your brain.” He chuckles slightly although Jongin can tell he’s dead serious.

With a loud sigh, Jongin buries his face in his hands. “I don’t wanna,” he whines and despite the slight childishness of it all, he really is in no mood to dance nor go down to the rink for some odd reason. Sitting up, he scratches the back of his head before checking his watch. 9:30 PM. I should probably crash soon, he thinks to himself before yawning and eyeing his schoolwork still spread out across his desk. “I should probably continue studying; that’s if I manage not to fall asleep five seconds into my Hamlet novel.”

“That’s strange,” Baekhyun says, “you never pass up an opportunity to dance or hockey around. Oh well, you know what they say, love makes people do crazy things,” he adds with a snicker and bursts out into a fit of (rather unattractive) cackles when Jongin proceeds to let out a squawk.

“It’s nearly ten, my body’s in no condition to dance,” Jongin babbles. “Not to mention the rink isn’t even open at this hour.” He stands up and walks over to his chair before sitting down and spinning around - he has absolutely no motivation to resume his studies, that’s for sure. He rolls his eyes when Baekhyun snickers. “Seriously.”

“Bull, my friend,” Baekhyun snorts again, “the rink’s open ‘til midnight on Mondays and you know it damn good and well. Just say it’s because you’re too busy freaking out about Sehun to do literally anything else and we’re good.” He chuckles a bit when Jongin doesn’t reply. “Okay, I really gotta go; Dae’s been pressuring me to help him with this damn project for over two hours now and I don’t wanna know what he’ll do if I ditch it,”

“Excuse you?” Jongin hears Jongdae call from presumably the other side of whatever room they’re in. “This is our project, now stop talking to the lovesick puppy for ten minutes and help me find a good book! This project’s due tomorrow!”

“Is the library even open this late?” Jongin asks under his breath while rubbing his eyes. A wave of fatigue suddenly hits him out of nowhere and momentarily replaces the feeling of anxiety he’d been feeling only seconds prior and a part of him feels extremely, extremely thankful. “I gotta go, Baek, talk to you tomorrow at school, right?”

Baekhyun hums something in reply. “You bet!” His voice suddenly turns serious. “Look, not to go all mother-like on you, but I’m proud of you for being so bold, I honestly didn’t think you’d do it. At least not this soon, on such short notice. I’m sure he’d like you or at least find you interesting, so please, relax and let it come naturally, alright? You did the right thing, I don’t want you stressing over nothing,” he adds before letting the usual chirpiness return to his voice. “Okay seriously, bye!”

“Thanks, and bye,” Jongin chuckles before he hears the line cut off. Instinctively, his fingers move to open up his Messenger app for reasons he doesn’t know, and he bites his lip when he sees the familiar words staring back at him. Part of him wants Sehun to see it and reply but the other part of him desperately wishes for the latter not to see it, as crazy as it sounds. Upon closer inspection, Jongin notices Sehun hasn’t even read his message yet and he sighs in exasperation as he drags a hand down his face.

What have I done.

~~~