~~~

10:49 PM

1. Is the activation energy of the reverse reaction A, B, C, D, E or F?

Jongin groans and checks his watch for the nth time that evening. He’s in no mood for Chemistry whatsoever - which he truly should be considering the fact that there’s an exam on said subject right around the corner, but no matter how hard he tries to concentrate, he fails every time. In other words, he’s given up on figuring out the enthalpy change of different types of reactions hours ago. His books lay strewn all across the table and he inspects his notebook, which is lying open faced before him, not a single pencil anywhere. In fact, the only thing Jongin has managed to write down, or, to be exact, draw in the past five hours is a small, black heart in the top right corner of the page he’s currently on. It’s so comical he has to fight back a chuckle. Again, he blames the butterflies which have yet to leave his stomach.

Jongdae hasn’t contacted him since they parted at the bus stop six hours ago, and Jongin is mildly thankful given that he’s, just like Chemistry, in no mood whatsoever to call or text his best friend for unknown reasons, even though Jongin is highly aware he’s got nothing better to do. Except maybe complete his Science homework, which has been proven to be useless. Jongin figures Jongdae is busy chatting with Chanyeol, anyway.

For the past five hours, Jongin has been doing absolutely nothing, save for doodling hearts in his notebook where his Chemistry formulas should be and which he has yet to write (and probably never will for that matter). His head has been spinning non stop, and he blames it on Sehun. Quite frankly, when does he not blame Sehun for absolutely everything? “Most likely never,” Jongin mumbles out loud to nobody in particular.

Coffee and tea date, as Jongdae had called it earlier. Jongin chuckles to himself as he rests his head on his hand, absentmindedly doodling another heart on the second page. Sehun reminds him of one of those typical, classy men you’d typically find in coffee shops and high ranked universities; handsome and posh, just the way he likes it. Or to be exact, how he likes (or, would like) Sehun.

One thought leads to another and the next thing the brunet knows, he’s picturing Sehun, the latter sitting on a fancy, brown leather couch as he wordlessly sips his cup of bubble tea, clad in matching brown suit pants as well as loafers, a fancy watch wrapped around his left wrist and a dark blue V neck sweater clinging to his (defined, or at least so Jongin thinks, and hopes) torso. In his head, Jongin stares at Sehun as the latter finally notices him and momentarily stops sipping his drink, shooting Jongin a smug yet friendly smile, to which the latter responds with a blush (a thought that makes Jongin blush in real life as he sits behind his desk) before walking over and taking a seat next to Sehun. Jongin figures they’d embrace and begin discussing God knows what and keep at it for hours; Jongin would be munching on a cake of some sort while Sehun would watch in amusement, occasionally commenting on how funny Jongin would look with frosting all over his mouth. And the rest, well, the rest is pretty much history.

It’s the pain that spreads through his leg as a result of accidentally banging his shin against the leg of his desk that snaps Jongin out of his trance, and he rubs the sore spot on his leg before blinking in awe. He doesn’t know how to react when he realizes he’s got the same feeling of warmth and fuzziness in his chest as before and he clears his throat. Thinking back to his dream-like scenario, he chuckles low in his throat before mentally punching himself in the face. I’ve gotta stop watching cheesy- soap operas, he thinks to himself before exhaling heavily in an attempt to clear and rid his brain of any Sehun-related thoughts because seriously, as inviting as the thought of doing absolutely nothing but think of Sehun all day is, he knows at the back of his mind that flunking his upcoming Chemistry exam won’t be worth it. At least so I hope, Jongin thinks as he bends down and rummages through his backpack before slamming his Chemistry homework onto the table with the full intention of not doing it. You barely know the guy, for ’s sake!

Sharpening his pencil, Jongin focuses his attention on the first question of the worksheet.

B) Name the first 20 elements of the Periodic Table.

Groaning internally, Jongin sighs before picking up his pencil and pressing the tip against the paper.

Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, Beryllium

He’s a second away from writing the word ‘Boron’ when a (female) voice suddenly rings through the air, making him flinch in his chair and, as a result, bang his shin in the same spot on the table as he did just a minute ago. Gripping his chest in surprise, he briefly wonders if it was the unexpected voice that nearly scared him out of his wits or the frantic knocking that accompanied it. He settles for both. “What do you want?”

“Why’s your stick just lying on the floor out here, Jongin,” Jungah, his (annoying, or at least according to Jongin) sister, whines as she knocks on the door a second time, even though Jongin is absolutely positive that he made it apparent that he had heard her the first time.

Jongin rolls his eyes. On the bright side, she did give him an excuse to take his mind off his studies. “I don’t know,” he groans, dragging a hand down his face and spinning around in his chair in boredom, “could you move it, please?”

Jungah tuts behind the door, and Jongin can practically see her eyeroll from where he’s sitting. “Did you go to practice?”

“No,” Jongin groans, feeling a headache coming on, and he honestly doesn’t know if it’s due to his sister’s annoying (technically, Jongin always finds her voice annoying, but today, right now, he finds it extra irritating for reasons he can’t describe) voice, the fact that he’s most certainly unprepared for his Chemistry exam or just Sehun in general. As much as he doesn’t want to admit it, he settles for the third alternative. “I didn’t.”

“Jongin!” Jungah exclaims, way too dramatically for Jongin’s liking, “I told you not to quit, remember? You can’t give up now! Remember what I and Mom told you last week,-”

Mentally screaming, Jongin runs a hand through his hair. “I remember, I remember,” he exclaims, throwing his hands in the air. He’s thankful his door is locked, otherwise Jungah would be greeted with the sight of him huddled in a fetal position on his chair, would she choose to open the door (to which Jongin knows she wouldn’t even hesitate). He shudders. He’d never be able to live that down. “I was just...extra tired today, that’s all,” he adds, sighing. “Look, could you-”

“You’re such a freaking slob,” Jungah tuts. “How on Earth do you expect to find yourself a man if you can’t even bother picking up after yourself?” she adds and Jongin fights the urge to burst into tears.

“It’s just a goddamn hockey stick, I’ll pick it up as soon as you step away from my door,” Jongin says. “And shut up, some men like dir- I mean, uh, laziness, I...guess,” he adds, voice slightly wavering. He clears his throat. “Nevermind, I’ll pick it up later.”

“What was that?”

“Nothing,” Jongin groans, already tired of her voice. For the first time since he got home six hours ago, he picks up his pencil and proceeds to force himself to learn the atomic numbers before him. However, he doesn’t get very far when he hears the same, high-pitched voice again, and he nearly rips his own hair out.

“You may be a straight-A student,” Jungah says, “but you’re still a slob. And have been for like, forever. So you finding a man; that’ll be the day.” She emits a rather unattractive, or at least in Jongin’s ears, cackle before speaking again. “Anyway, since you chose to ditch practice, I’ll be using the shower,” she says and Jongin hears her footsteps gradually fade as she walks away from his door and down the stairs.

Jongin runs a hand through his hair. Somewhere in his brain, the words ‘man’ and ‘shower’ somehow fuse together and before he knows it, he’s busy imagining Sehun showering after 7 hours of intense football practice - he pictures the way the water would look as it runs down Sehun’s back, his neck, his abs, his -

For ’s sake. Jongin squeezes his eyes shut. Damn everything.

Jongin is so busy mentally beating himself up over his less than platonic thoughts when a noise- not his sister this time, thank God, suddenly blares through the speakers of his phone, and he barely manages to stifle the startled scream that (embarrassingly enough) leaves his lips as he snaps his head up in the nick of time to see his phone screen light up.

Head heavy and hurting from both the intense thinking he’s been doing all day as well as his sister’s presence, as well as the butterflies in his stomach that have yet to go away, still, Jongin’s mind is only half functioning as he gets off his chair and plops down onto his bed as grabs his phone.

Messenger

From: Oh Sehun, at 11:01 PM

just finished practice!!! we played a practice match against another school and won!! :D they’re treating us to a free meal as a reward, isn’t that neat? ~

/sh

Attempting to shove aside the inevitable feeling of warmth that swells in his chest, Jongin blinks in astonishment. Has he even had time to shower yet? he thinks as he moves to unlock his phone and type out a reply. However, he freezes, index finger hovering above the screen, and bites his lip in contemplation. Listening to the sounds of the shower water running from the bathroom one floor down, he clears his throat before unlocking his phone and dialling Jongdae’s number.

Jongdae picks up after the third ring. “Hey!” he squeals, way too chipper at this hour. “You’re up late.”

“Uh, I was just uh, wondering,” Jongin mumbles, “is it desperate to reply like, ten seconds after he sent me something?” He plays with a loose thread on his blanket.

“Oh my God, he messaged you first?” Jongdae says excitedly. “I’d say he enjoys talking to you, lunkhead, so no, of course it wouldn’t be,” he adds unapologetically.

Jongin bites his lip even harder. “Wait, are you sure?” he asks, just for good measure, and sighs when he hears Jongdae’s signature groan on the other end of the line. “I mean look, I’ve been thinking lately; what if he’s only messaging me because I messaged him in the first place? I mean, he’s a nice guy, it makes sense why he simply wouldn’t ditch me and leave me on read, right? Like, I’m sure if we run out of things to talk about he’ll just forget about me.” He opens his mouth to speak again but quickly closes it when Jongdae growls in irritation.

“Jongin,” Jongdae says, and his tone is so serious Jongin feels a chill run down his spine, which never usually happens when Jongdae is talking, “the fact that he messaged you now- Wait, hold on, what did his recent text say, even?”

“He just said that practice was over and that they won a practice match against some other school and that his coach is treating them to a free meal,” Jongin says all in one breath, without hesitating. “Literally one minute after his practice ended. I mean, that doesn’t have to mean anything, right? I mean, I know you said not all football players are ruthless jocks and whatnot, but I mean...you know.”

“Okay, first of all,” Jongdae says in an exasperated tone, “like I was gonna say, the fact that he messaged you to let you know that his practice was over, which, by the way, is a clear indication of him letting you know he’s available for now; to talk that is, really says a lot if you ask me. Besides, they won, Jongin, it makes sense for him to boast a little, it doesn’t automatically make him a ‘ruthless jock’; if anything, it means he’s dedicated to his sport, which is always good if you ask me. I mean, wouldn’t you boast to your crush if you had the opportunity?”

Jongin blinks. “What do you-”

“For an honor roll student,” Jongdae chuckles, “you can be surprisingly naive, you know that?”

“I mean, he’s amazing at football - he’s the captain, for God’s sake,” Jongin babbles, seemingly not having heard Jongdae’s remark. “He knows he’s frigging amazing, why on Earth would he feel the need to boast? His team has won three championships because of him; why would he feel like boasting about winning a pesky practice match? And why to me, of all people?”

Jongdae goes silent for a minute, wanting to make sure Jongin won’t interrupt him. When it’s clear the brunet has said his part (for now), he speaks again. “...Because he’s interested in you?”

Jongin opens and closes his mouth - he was certainly not expecting that level of directness. Making sure he doesn’t zone out, he swallows. “What?” What on God’s green Earth happened to taking things nice and slowly?

“As a person,” Jongdae says, and Jongin ignores the feeling of deflation in his gut. “He's interested in you as a person. I mean, I’m not a hundred percent certain, but since you two barely know each other, I’d say he’s testing you to see how interested you are in learning about him. And I know that makes him sound like a douche, but it makes sense; if he’s intrigued by you, he’ll wanna know if you feel the same exact way, so I’d say you ask him a ton of  questions and let him know that your head’s in the game, ‘kay?”

“...So,” Jongin mumbles, still not having fully processed Jongdae’s words quite yet, “what you’re saying is…” He blinks, scratching the back of his head. “.....he likes me?”

Jongdae stifles a scream. “No.”

“Then what are you saying?” Jongdae exclaims, throwing his hands in the air, not realizing he’d been yelling at the top of his lungs until he hears Jungah’s voice from downstairs.

“Jongin, be quiet, Dad’s trying to work!”

Mumbling a barely audible ‘sorry’, Jongin turns his attention back to his phone. “Well?”

“What I’m saying is,” Jongdae says, speaking in the same slow, low tone Jongin has grown to dislike so much, “he’s interested, but platonically. Would you fall head over heels for someone you’d only been chatting with for a couple of days? Not to mention, never actually seen in real life? What I’m trying to say is that there’s a door between the both of you, and he’s gradually peeking inside, and it’s your job to open it and let him in and assure him that you are, in fact, interested; and therefore he’ll grow more comfortable and thus friendly with you. And if you’re lucky, something’ll happen. Just don’t expect too much at first, and try to control yourself on Friday, by the way; you’re still strangers, remember that. Not as much as before, but yeah.”

Jongin blinks. It’s not until he’s finally managed to process Jongdae’s words, two minutes later, that is, that he emits a loud squawk, earning him another ‘shut up, Jongin, Dad’s working!’ from downstairs. “He has seen me, though!” he babbles into the receiver.

Jongdae hums in surprise. “Really? When? Did he wave or smile at you?”

“Well,” Jongin mumbles, biting his lip, “no. I mean, I asked him how he knew about the whole hockey thing and he said he’d seen me in the sports catalogue since his homeroom’s located in the same hallway; we’ve never actually said hi in the flesh, so to say.”

Jongdae goes silent again. “...Are you talking about that glass thingymajig?”

“Yeah?”

“Dude, you literally have Modern Literature in the same exact goddamn hallway every Monday,” Jongdae exclaims. “How have you not seen him around? You must’ve at some point!”

Racking his brain, Jongin sighs before shaking his head. “He has a different schedule-”

“Right!” Jongdae blurts out, not giving Jongin a chance to finish. “Which class is he in?”

“12C,” Jongin says, rolling over onto his back. Staring up at the ceiling, he inwardly curses himself for not paying more attention if he and Sehun possibly walked past each other in that godforsaken hallway without knowing it at some point(s). He makes a mental note to be more alert on Monday. “Why?”

“I’m on my computer since was busy typing up my Astrology essay when you rudely interrupted me,” Jongdae says in a concentrated tone, ignoring Jongin’s squawk of protest. “So I’m looking it up right now, hold on.”

Jongin blinks. Pressing his ear closer to the receiver, he swears he hears the sound of fingers scattering across a keyboard. “Looking what up?”

“His schedule, ,” Jongdae mumbles before clapping and rubbing his hands together. “Here we go, I got it!” He goes silent for a couple of seconds. “You’re eating lunch at the same exact time every day, which is goddamn great, and he ends at four every day, save for Tuesdays when he ends at half past four, and he starts at 8:30 pretty much every day. You don’t seem to have any mutual lessons, which , so I guess you’ll have to make every single move in the cafeteria, I’m afraid.”

“I’m pretty sure I’d know if we had mutual lessons, idiot,” Jongin groans. “And-”

“Speaking of which, you should reply,” Jongdae says, and Jongin hears the sound of a laptop being closed in the background.

“I can’t, remember?” Jongin mumbles. “I don’t wanna look de-”

“It’s been half an hour,” Jongdae exclaims, slapping a hand on his forehead. “If anything, you’ll look uninterested, which, in that case, will definitely bore him so if you wanna keep him, I say do it now. Is he online, by the way?”

Jongin blinks. “Uh.” Pressing the Home button, he reluctantly opens up his Messenger app and bites his lip when he sees the green dot below Sehun’s name at the top of the screen. “Yeah,” he says, returning to his and Jongdae’s call.

“Dude, he’s probably waiting for you to reply,” Jongdae screeches in agony. “Reply, lunkhead! Don’t make this difficult, come on!”

“He’s probably in the shower,” Jongin retorts, running a hand through his hair, swallowing when a series of suggestive images pop into his head. “Besides, I’ll need at least ten minutes to think of something good to say.”

“In the shower,” Jongdae says in both an exhausted and an unbelieving tone. “Right. And that’s why he’s still online - phone on and logged into Facebook and everything?” he tuts. “Kim Jongin, I’m gonna hang up now; I’ll text you if I manage not to fall asleep before midnight, and if you haven’t replied by then I’m gonna take the train to your house and smack you silly,” he says confidently.

Jongin chuckles. “I’ll do the same thing if you don’t do the same thing with Chanyeol,” he snickers and bursts into laughter when Jongdae squawks.

“He doesn’t even have a Facebook account,” Jongdae exclaims.

“Then you know what to do, tomorrow,” Jongin says smugly, gaze fixated on the glow in the dark star stickers on his ceiling.

Jongdae goes silent for a while. “What?”

“Tomorrow, at lunch, when Sehun’s with his crew, you’ll go straight up to Chanyeol and introduce yourself,” Jongin says and he’s surprised at how confident he sounds. “And if you chicken out, I’ll shove you into him, I’m serious.” He blinks when Jongdae goes completely silent. “Did you die?” He furrows his eyebrows when Jongdae still doesn’t say anything. “Shall I call 911?”

“...Why don’t you ask him out tomorrow?” Jongdae asks after a full minute’s worth of absolute silence.

Jongin blinks, not having expected the question. “Huh?”

“Why waste your time building up a friendship on Facebook and waiting for hours for each other to come online when you could just as well talk to each other in the cafeteria? It’s so much wiser, not to mention face to face conversations are the best conversations,” Jongdae replies. “You could introduce yourself once and for all and make a good first impression.”

“No way,” Jongin squawks. “I’m gonna do that on Friday; I’ll probably scare him away if I walk up to him, anyway.”

“So you’re gonna break the news to him while you’re in the midst of crying your eyes out at a horror movie in the cinema instead?” Jongdae asks in a weirded out tone. “Okay, very well. I’m just saying, dates usually flow a lot better when both parties know a little bit about each other beforehand. But you do you, I guess.” He lets out a loud yawn before speaking again. “Seriously, I gotta finish this essay, which won’t be a problem since you won’t need me anyway,” he adds smugly. “Seeing as you’ve got Prince Charming to keep you company.” And with that being said, he hangs up without giving Jongin a chance to reply. Inevitably.

Exiting the call, Jongin heaves a sigh before opening up his and Sehun’s conversation. Surprisingly enough, the green dot is still there; above Sehun’s name and profile picture, and Jongin takes it as his cue to type out a quick reply, Jongdae’s words still fresh in his mind.

that’s awesome!!! (you should be used to winning though, right? since you’re you and all x)) and eat well!!~ :3 isn’t it a little bit tiring to have practice so late? like, i should be in bed at this hour but i’m up studying for my chemistry exam that i have on friday :c how do you not like, die during lessons??? i mean since you start at 8:30 every day that means you only get an average of like 7 to 8 hours of sleep??? how do you even function?? :o

Pressing ‘Send’, Jongin watches as his message pops up underneath Sehun’s recent one, before it’s enclosed in a dark blue bubble. Figuring Sehun is in the shower, or simply changing, Jongin decides to turn his attention back to his Chemistry assignments while he waits for Sehun to reply. If the latter chooses to, that is. However, Jongin barely gets to press the Home button and exit Messenger when his phone buzzes, less than fifteen seconds later, and he stares at the screen in awe.

i guess i’m used to it, but i’m still as surprised each time i win hehe x) and i usually sleep 7 hours a night, that’s right ~ it’s not as awful as it seems, or maybe it’s because i’ve been waking up at 7 three years in a row now so… :’)

and how’d you know i start at 8:30 every day?? hehe :’)

/sh

Jongin blinks. Either he's a lightning fast texter or he was waiting with his phone in his hand the entire time. As much as Jongin wants the latter to be true, he settles on the former for good measure. The feeling of confusion quickly melts away when it’s replaced with a sense of pure embarrassment and he smacks a hand on his forehead. Yup, he definitely thinks I’m a creep, he thinks as he grits his teeth in irritation. .

“Jongin, is my ballet dress in your closet?”

Jongin sits up and runs a hair through his hair. Standing up, he walks over to his door and turns on the light, given that his room is nearly pitch black. He hisses slightly when the harsh brightness stabs him in the eyes before turning to his door. “It’s frigging midnight,” he groans, “why do you need it now?”

“Mom must’ve put it in the wrong room,” Jungah says, completely ignoring Jongin’s question. “We both know I have the spare key, so either you let me in or I let myself in.”

Jongin sighs, too exhausted to argue, before wordlessly unlocking the door and watching as Jungah enters his room. Her long, black hair is wrapped in a light blue, fluffy towel and Jongin prays that she doesn’t drip water all over the carpet as she walks around his room, seemingly inspecting it, which confuses him since she constantly barges into his room on a regular basis. “Can you just get your dress thingy and leave? I’ve got stuff to do,” he (sort of) lies, gesturing towards the pile of schoolwork on his desk for extra emphasis.

Jungah looks at him, eyes furrowed. “You need to dye your hair again,” she says simply before walking over to his closet. “And Jesus Jongin, your closet’s a frigging mess, you definitely won’t be getting yourself a man anytime soon,” she adds after opening Jongin’s closet doors and retching at the strong scent of perfume that hits her square in the face. “And have you been spraying perfume on your clothes? It-”

“-Can you just get it and get out, please,” Jongin groans and mentally slaps himself when he hears how whiney he sounds. “No but really, please. I’m busy.”

“Busy with what?” Jungah asks absentmindedly, digging through the endless amounts of boxers, shirts, pants and belts in Jongin’s closet, the latter wincing because wow, is his closet messy. He makes a mental note to organize it in the near future.

“Science,” Jongin says simply, leaning against the wall. Even though he knows she won’t steal anything from his closet, he keeps a close eye on her just in case. “Hey, your towel’s becoming loose, don’t get water all over my floor!”

“I won’t,” Jungah says, holding up a shirt Jongin forgot he even owned and has been looking for for the past two months. Making a face, she tosses it aside before continuing to dig through the contents. “Speaking of which,” she says after, finally, retrieving her pink and slightly wrinkled ballet dress from the bottomless pit that is the depths of Jongin’s closet, and standing up, “I won the spelling bee today and got these.” She digs through the back pocket of her jeans and pulls out two red pieces of paper, which Jongin soon recognizes to be movie tickets to a cinema not far away. “I’m going with one of my friends, so I won’t need them. Want ‘em?” she asks, raising a curious eyebrow in Jongin’s direction.

“Yeah, whatever, thanks,” Jongin says absentmindedly before taking said tickets and putting them in his backpack. Looking at her, he crosses his arms over his chest before nodding at the door. “You done?”

Jungah tuts before nodding. “You really should re-dye your hair, your roots are showing like crazy,” she says as she walks towards the door. However, she stops dead in her tracks when she spots Jongin’s phone, lying face up on the latter’s bed, his and Sehun’s conversation still on the screen. “What’s that?” she asks, jogging towards his bed and hovering over his phone. “Who’s this?” she asks, a giant grin spreading across her face.

Internally panicking, Jongin squawks and barely manages a ‘nobody’ when Jungah suddenly grabs his phone, and he momentarily curses himself for rather wanting a sister than a brother before running over at lightning speed and attempting to pry his phone out of her hands with little to no success. “Give me that, for God’ sake, -”

“Oh my God, is this your boyfriend?” Jungah says, way too loudly for Jongin’s likely, and the latter prays his father doesn’t storm up the stairs and start asking questions. “Jongin, you promised you’d let me know when you got a boyfriend, remember?” she squeals, eyes darting across the words written on the screen, all while Jongin desperately (and hopelessly) tries to knock the phone out of her hand.

It’s not until Jungah yells something along the lines of ‘Dad, Jongin’s got a boyfriend!’ that Jongin scrambles to cover with his hand. He’s eternally thankful for doing so since it muffles nearly half of her sentence, and he snatches his phone out of her hand before turning it off and throwing it on the bed, over his shoulder. He stares her square in the eye and is momentarily confused as to why she looks so incredibly...apologetic? But he quickly dismisses it as his imagination before giving her a light shove towards the door. “Out, now,” he grumbles under his breath.

She stops by the door and gives him a slight salute, closely followed by a cheesy grin, before closing the door behind her. Jongin has never been so quick to lock his bedroom door in his life.

Walking towards his desk, Jongin chuckles slightly as he sits down on his chair and begins spinning around out of pure boredom. He eyes the homework on his desk and he’d be lying if he said he wanted to do it. Sighing, he rests his head on his hand and lets his gaze roam around his dimly lit room. After a while, it lands on his phone, which is still lying face down on his bed and he suddenly remembers his and Sehun’s conversation. He feels the same, fuzzy feeling beginning to swell in his chest and he gingerly gets out of his chair before crawling onto his bed. It’s been fifteen minutes, he thinks, at least I won’t look desperate.

Unlocking his phone, Jongin presses the Messenger icon and mentally recites what he’s about to write in his head while he waits for the conversation to load.

It takes five whole minutes for the conversation to show up on the screen and, when it does, Jongin suddenly feels his head go numb.

.

You, at 11:32 PM

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

Oh Sehun, at 11:34 PM

i’m sorry???

~~~