~I got my eyes on you~

There is not one else that Taeyong hates more than his 16-year-old self.

He hates that kid.

In fact, he is pretty sure there have been more than a few times a week that he has hated that version of himself. But he is also dead sure that he hasn’t felt so strongly about it until now.

Why?

Because right now, he was sitting in a classroom, in which he doesn’t belong; among people he doesn’t know; next to the one man he has been crushing on since forever (read: college orientation day).

Jung Jaehyun.

The one and only star of the Dentistry department. And Taeyong’s night and shining armour.

The first time he had seen him, Taeyong had been in a rush. It had been one of those days when the 18-year-old would indulge in catharsis by cursing at his younger self for ever even touching his twin sister’s stuff. He had been highly immersed in the said activity that he become blind to his surroundings and ran right into a pole. Effectively knocking himself out and missing his orientation day, aka the very first day of college. Only good thing that had come out of it was the fact that he had woken up in clinic in the college campus, to the face of the very same person sitting next to him.

He had apparently found Taeyong out cold outside and had promptly carried him indoors like the good samaritan he was.

And Taeyong has only had hearts in his eyes whenever he saw him ever since. It helped that the boy was good at sports and was a good singer, which literally meant that he was at every event, on a stage, or a relatively clear area which always gave Taeyong a good view of the man.

But right now, he was anything but happy or giddy as he peeked at the boy next to him.

Why?

Because he was wearing a short jeans skirt, with hair extensions, and light make-up. Light according to his sister that is.

The point is, Taeyong was sitting in a dentistry class, covering for his twin sister, who was currently half way to Busan to meet her currently ex-boyfriend, so she could ‘seduce’ him into dropping the ex.

And this is where Taeyong, for the umpteenth time regrets that one moment of foolishness where he thought he could prank his sister by replacing her lip balm with glue stick. The result was, that the prank not only failed big time, but he ended up a slave to his twin for life. Especially since she guilt-tripped the poor, much more gullible, 16-year-old Taeyong into believing that he almost killed her. She had made him do a lot of embarrassing crap, this wasn’t even the first time she made him dress up as her and take her place in her class, a handy trick since they were twins. He had done it all, all in the name if ‘owing her’, including walking into the girls’ lingerie section in the VS store and buy a little something in his size.

The tradition continued even when they entered college. Even though Taeyong was a dance major, and Taera a medical student, they were in the same campus and hence Taeyong was subject to cleaning up his sister's mess more often than not. Though it was the first time that she had made him take her place in class since school. Mostly because they both were scared Taeyong couldn potentially ruin Taera's rep, and she valued her reputation more than anything. So it was shocking to him when she asked him for this favor, and knowing her, she probably did with good, solid, unavoidable reason.

But even amount of embarrassment he felt while purchasing lady’s underwear would never top what he felt right then.

He had been minding his own business, sitting at the very back of the class, a spot where he knows his sister loved to sit. He was just sitting there, scribbling on his book, occasionally pouting and looking around. Being all classy and chic while flipping his fake hair extensions, and smiling with his pink satined lips, at her classmates randomly. No doubt his ‘Ms Popular’ sister knew everyone there.

All in all, he was a perfect imitation of Lee Taera in class, no one would’ve doubted it even for a second.

But all that calmness went on a holiday to Busan with his sister when he accidently almost swallowed the eraser he had been playing with when he saw just who had entered class. Thankfully, he didn’t swallow anything, except his spit. Which ended up chocking him when Jaehyun’s eyes met his and the other waved brightly at him.

He had been on his way to recover when he realised that the hand gently patting his back, and the gentle+warm+honey-like hand that was comforting him belonged to the very same person that cause him to choke in the first place.

Jaehyun knew him. Jaehyun was being nice to him. Jaehyun smiled in relief when he stopped chocking (and moving in general) but immediately frowned when he noticed that he wasn’t breathing. You need to breathe Taera-ya he had said, just as gently as the wind, and Taeyong was convinced that even mountains would make way for Jaehyun if he ever asked them to do so in that voice.

Though Jaehyun had broken little dream bubble with a single sentence, Taeyong's heart was still going crazy with excitement.

Taeyong had wanted to comply and stop choking. But that is not how biology and life work, because what he had ended doing was spew some nonsensical words and watch Jaehyun get confused, but at the same time the lecturer walked in and stole Jaehyun’s attention.

He knew he messed up big time. 

Even though him and his sister were identical twins, born just a minute apart, he was the shy one while she was the sociable one. It really shouldn’t have been a surprise to him that she was friends with Jaehyun. Only, she had never mentioned knowing him, even though she was aware of his flaming crush, and neither had he ever realised that they would be classmates, since he had learned that Jaehyun was an aspiring dentist too.

He peeked at the boy next to him again.

Jaehyun was staring back, looking amused.

“You are being way too obvious.” He whispered, since class was on, and he probably didn’t want to get caught. But to Taeyong, it was like some wild crazy fantasy of his was coming true and he willed his mind to stop analysing that whisper and morph it into things it really wasn’t.

“H-huh?” he stuttered.

“Taera doesn’t take down notes in class silly!” Jaehyun chuckled, his eyes glued in front as if he was listening to every word being said.

Taeyong of course was much more interested in studying Jaehyun’s defined jaw-line and took more time to process that statement. By which it was too late and Taeyong found himself being hit on the back of his head with something.

He frowned and looked away, and at the weapon used to inflict pain on him. It lay by his feet, it’s tip kind of disfigured due to the impact. Taeyong used his superior trigonometric skills and figured out that his attacker was a certain Thai male sitting a few seats away. He picked up the plane and unfolded it, certainly it hasn't been sent to just hit him. 

Stop eye ing him Tae. Its uncomfortable for me to watch, I can’t even imagine how horrible Jaehyun much be feeling. Stop it or I’ll force you to watch heteroual for a whole hour.

Taeyong lifted his gaze back at the Thai, who was now looking back at him, using the time the teacher took to write on the board to flip him off and then went back his normal position. Like the fake model student, he was.

He hated Ten as much as he hated his sister. Both were manipulative and cunning and made him run in circles doing their bidding. It would be called bullying if Taeyong hadn’t been convinced that he somehow needs to follow them. It was damn ed up, but it saved him the drama.

But right now he was kind of thankful. Ten potentially saved Taeyong making a fool out of himself in front of Jaehyun for a second time. He needs to keep his composure and focus on not getting caught. Because as much as he hates his sister for making him go through this, he didn’t want their charade to get caught today out of all days, at least not when Jaehyun was there and he was in a ing mini skirt.

That’s it Taeyong, keep your eyes to yourself. You just to not look at that direction. You can do this. Think about all the good things Taera promised to get for you from Bus- come to think of it, this is the first time she bribed him for covering for her. That studpikjdsygebfdbhseiuldda!!

Jaehyun chuckled softly beside him.

And just like his resolve was broken.

“You’re being really way too obvious.” He whispered again, but this time it seemed more like he was saying it himself than to him. In fact, Taeyong caught an even softer cute following it. But he wasn’t too sure, since he was back to being mesmerised by the gorgeous creature that was Jung Jaehyun

Though without him even realising, he soon fell asleep on his desk, something that was much more the Taera that the whole class, including the professor, were used to.

It wasn’t until the bell rang that Taeyong came out of his dream world. In case you wanted to know, it totally involved Jung Jaehyun in a suit and him in a dress he vaguely remembered seeing in Taera’s cupboard. And they were on a date, a late-night drive along the beach, it was perfect. He did briefly, even in his dream, wonder if he actually liked cross-dressing, but then dismissed the idea as soon as he remembered that he was in fact dreaming that he was Taera, and then from that point on the whole thing turned into a nightmare and he almost screamed at whoever it was that was shaking his shoulder.

He was gald he hadn’t done that.

It turned out to be Jung Jaehyun.

“Hey…good morning princess.” He said, his voice dripping with amusement. Taeyong blushed hard, noticing that the two were closer than before. He lifted his head off the table, and groaned at the stiffness in his neck. One look around the class told him that he and Jaehyun were the only ones left in the room.

They were alone.

He was alone with Jaehyun.

A thousand senariois crossed his mind, many of which included this very scene, though he had been dressed as Taeyong in them. Safe to say, they were very , and Taeyong really shouldn’t have been thinking about it, but he did. And he was thankful that a skirt was much better at hiding an than sweatpants.

“…you listening?”

“Huh…sorry?”

Jaehyun chuckled again, a fond smile on his face and Taeyong felt a prick in his heart. Was that a smile he regularly gave Taera. Was Jaehyun in love with his twin?

“Nothing. Just, the classes are over for the day…and since it’s lunch time anyway, I was asking you whether we could go get lunch together?”

So basically, Jaehyun was asking him…no Taera out. Taeyong’s nodded timidly and turned away to collect his things. Though in reality he really just wanted to hide from Jaehyun the disappointment in his face.

He got up from his seat and followed behind Jaehyun, the boy conversing with him on light topics. While Taeyong kept his eyes glued on the floor, wondering just how one simple mistake as a 16-year old had brought him his first heartbreak.

In his mind, he was running through the many day he had sat there on the bleachers watching Jaehyun take laps around the soccer field in the speed of light and win every single sports event he had taken part in. He still remembered the rush of adrenaline in his veins when Jaehyun fell in the basketball courts, and was called off as he had injured himself badly. He remembered hurting for a man he hadn’t spoken to since that fateful day, as he watched him limp to class.

It had been a beautiful one year of him crush on Jaehyun, but it all had been a waste of time.

He didn’t even know what he had been expecting. He never talked to the boy. Sure their eyes had met a couple of times when they passed each other on campus, but other than that they had literally zero interaction.

Ofcourse he would fall for his sister, the pretty, funny, attractive and friendly Taera. What was the goofy Taeyong compared to her?

“Hmm...compared to her, Taeyong is the best dancer in college. The cute boy from the arts building, who doesn’t know just how many hearts he owns. People literally are dying to get to know him, but he has his walls up so high, it’s hard to even see him unless he wants to be seen. Taeyong is that guy that juniors run to when they need help. The one that even seniors look up to. He’s that boy who mesmerised, and completely ed up my entire world in just one look. One smile was all it took, and this poor soul was a slave. One look, and anyone would lose it. What defence did poor me have, a poor unexpecting soul who had only wanted to make it to the orientation on time, but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw an angel on the ground. A fallen angel maybe, a silly confused angel who didn’t even look me in the eye when he thanked me. But already owned my heart.”

It was then, in that moment when Taeyong looked into Jaehyun’s eyes that he realised that he has said that out loud. And like in a dream, Jaehyun had told him exactly what he had wanted to hear.

In his deep thoughts, Taeyong hadn’t noticed Jaehyun’s worried glances, since head been quite and unresponsive for such a long time. But the boy had let him be, opting to gently guide him outside and towards the restraint he had intended.

He hadn’t noticed that they were sitting in a restaurant, while he was pondering his life choices, Jaehyun had patiently waited for him to reach the present again. He had maybe noticed how uncomfortable the boy was and had even reached out to hold his hand.

Taeyong hadn’t noticed anything at all. Not even the look of adoration Jaehyun always had in his eyes whenever they crossed paths in the campus, nor his bright smiled and crinkling eyes when he noticed him among the crowd in the bleachers, cheering for him. He didn’t notice that Jaehyun had been distracted by his ear-piercing, which he had noticed by accident and caused his injury. He didn’t notice, that in every audience for his performances, there stood a Jaehyun, a few feet away, greedily drinking in his movements.

He really didn’t know anything at all.

“You-you kn…know me?”

“Ofcourse I do! It’s hard not to…”

“I…mean…you knew the whole time.”

Jaehyun began laughing.

“Yes the whole time. I must say, that skirt looks much better on you than on Taera…where is she gone off to today?”

“Bu-busan.”

“Ah…reconciliation with the ex?”

“Yes.”

“Taeyong-ah.”

“Yes?”

Jaehyun began laughing again, and Taeyong had a feeling it had something to do with the silly expression his face. His cheeks burned red with realisation that al along, Jaehyun had been talking to him, and not Taera. Somehow it lifted the doubted in his mind, and he actually laughed along. He himself admits, he is kind of over dramatic.

“Taeyong.” Jaehyun called out again, laughter gone from his voice. “Taeyong.” He called out again, as if trying it out. The boys smiled, and chuckled, and turned all shades of pink before laughing again.

“You know what? After we are done with lunch...I’ll drive you home…and then maybe…after you change into…something more comfortable…I’m not saying you don’t look good in a skirt…’cuz you do! But I feel you prefer those grey sweat over this…and what I’m to say is…go out on a date with me tonight?”

“No this isn’t a date?” Taeyong asked, only half teasing the other.

“No…yes…yes! This is…but a proper one…one in which we are both comfortable and…maybe talking and-“

“Yes…I’d love to.”

Safe to say, that the first of the many many many many many dates the two would go on. And also, the start of a beautiful relationship. And years later, as Taeyong lay his head on Jaehyun’s broad chest, he realised that maybe he didn’t hate his 16-year old self all that much, in fact he was thankful he had been that stupid. It had resulted with in him in a skirt, in a class in which he didn’t belong, with people he didn’t know, and next to man, who became the love of his life.