✽ here it is... a cuter / less complicated story for once... high school au. there shall be fluff. there shall be comedy. there shall (of course) be angst, too. but it's mostly cute fluff. bc sometimes it's nice writing something lighter for once lol.

✽ the title is in latin bc i LOVE latin, like always. "salvis gratia" means "saving grace". yes, the title relates to the plot/main theme of this fic ;)

✽ i hope y'all will enjoy a cuter story from me for once!! and BAD BOY SEHUN. first time i'm writing it so i'm excited!! also playboy chanyeol!! cliche af but i love cliches so /shrugs. i do plan to put my own spin into this cliche-ness tho so i hope you'll enjoy this story too!! hehe -v-

✽ gorgeous poster by Lost Graphic Studio, thank you!

Jongin is inserting the key in, about to start the ignition when a voice calls out, “Hey church boy! Give me a ride to school!”

Jongin looks back to see Sehun bouncing towards him, clearly having just run out of his house to catch up to Jongin.

Jongin frowns at him. “I told you to stop calling me ‘church boy’.” 

“Would you prefer goody two-shoes instead?”

“You do realize you asked me for a ride, on my motorcycle?”

“Yup, you do drive a motorcycle, and that’s soooo badass, but like,” Sehun tilts his head with a bright smile, “deep inside, you have such a good heart!”

“A good heart,” Jongin echoes flatly.

“Yup! So good I want to taint it and mess you alllll up.”

Jongin stares at him, at the deceptively innocent smile Sehun is flashing him, like Sehun is talking about how nice the weather is today, and not about his desire to mess Jongin up.

“My friend Baekhyun said you’re no good for me,” Jongin replies in the end.

“Am I…” Sehun puts a finger on his chin, like he’s in deep pondering, before reaching out and slithering that same finger towards Jongin, the fingertip nudging right on his chest. “And what makes you think you are good for me?”

I can be good for you, if only you’d let me, Jongin thinks but doesn’t say. Instead, his eyes trail from Sehun’s finger to his arm, up his shoulder, and settle onto the younger’s chest. Sehun is not wearing a tie today, again, and the first three buttons of his uniform are ed, revealing defined clavicles and an endless expanse of pure white skin.

Jongin looks away, letting the silence stretch, and Sehun starts pouting, crossing his arms against his chest. “Fine! If you’re going to be a meanie I guess I’ll skip school since I’m too lazy to walk!”

When Sehun moves to leave, Jongin heaves a suffering sigh and calls out, “Alright, I’ll give you a ride.”

The younger boy immediately perks up, spinning around with a grin. “Really?”

“Yes. As long as you promise to actually attend class, and not just reach the school gates only to waste the whole day in the convenience store across the street or something.”

“Yes, yes,” Sehun dismisses him, sliding smoothly behind Jongin onto the seat and immediately wrapping his hands around the older’s waist, clinging onto him. Jongin can feel Sehun’s heartbeats thumping rhythmically against his back, and he hopes Sehun won’t be able to feel Jongin’s own.

“You know,” Sehun says suddenly just as Jongin is starting the ignition, voice small and low, a whisper, “your friend was probably right. I am no good for you, Jongin. So why are you still so nice to me?”

Because you’re like poison deep within my veins and I can’t get you out, Jongin wants to say, but instead answers it by starting the motorcycle and speeding off, Sehun clutching onto him with his cheek pressed against Jongin’s back the entire time.

✚

The spot behind the Economics building is well hidden, not many people venturing so far into the back of the campus, and Baekhyun enjoys eating his lunch there and just―relax. Maybe practice singing his next song, or whatever he likes.

Apparently some other people feel the same way, though. The ‘do whatever one likes’ part because the spot is so hidden, for not even ten minutes into his lunch, he finds a basketball smashing against the edge of the very table he’s sitting at, the force so strong it knocks Baekhyun’s lunch up, almost upending it all over the surface.

“Man, and you told us nobody hangs around here!” one of the boys complained as his whole group materializes.

“I thought nobody did! How was I supposed to know this nerd would hide out here to eat lunch like a ing loner creep?!” another boy retorts.

Baekhyun grits his teeth. Excuse him for enjoying a calm and quiet atmosphere, which is obviously broken as soon as this pack of hyenas stepped inside his ‘private sanctuary’.

He’s about to pack it up and leave, because he doesn’t feel like getting into a fight with these obviously brainless jocks right now, when a shadow hovers the table.

When Baekhyun looks up from his seat, he finds one Park Chanyeol staring down at him, a hand idling spinning the basketball he just picked up after it rolled to the ground.

“Sorry about that. Didn’t ruin your lunch, did it?”

Before Baekhyun can answer, one of his douche friends calls out, “You know this nerd, Chanyeol?”

“Yeah!” Chanyeol grins brightly. “We’re childhood friends!”

Baekhyun wants to protest, says No, we are not. Our mothers just happen to be best friends with each other, but that doesn’t make Chanyeol and I friends.

“Really? You’re friends with him…?” the guy asks as if being friends with Baekhyun is way beneath Chanyeol.

“Yeah! Gotta do my charity deed of the year, right? You know how many peeps would line up to be friends with me. My one good deed to help a poor, lonely lass out―”

“I’d rather be run over by a garbage truck than to be friends with you,” Baekhyun interrupts, hissing. “You are an arrogant, of a who probably doesn’t have an ounce of molecules inside your empty brain. Just a mindless mass of muscle with his equally brainless goons following you around like yapping dogs.”

Chanyeol’s friends look shocked at what they’d just heard―that he had dared to insult the Park Chanyeol, one of the most popular boys in the entire school and Prom King of last year and probably this year, too.

The guy himself, however, just grins in amusement at him and replies, “I see you finally ditched those nerdy glasses of yours. I heard from my mom you got new contacts? You look good, Baekhyun.”

Baekhyun huffs, resisting the urge to retort, Yeah, well, you used to wear nerdy glasses, too. Then contacts. Then lasik surgery. Except no one knew that except me because I’ve known you all my life even though I didn’t want to.

Instead, he barks out, “Yeah, well―You’re ugly!!”

Which… might not be his best comeback, but whatever!

Baekhyun hurriedly grabs his things and stomps away before Chanyeol can react.

It isn’t until he’s safely inside the Economics building, back slumping against a wall, that he exhales, heart still beating a thousand a minute.

Because―god, Baekhyun hates Chanyeol so much.

…And he hates that after all these years, he’s still so in love with Chanyeol, no matter how much he desperately wishes he isn’t.