On some days, Jongin reaches school normally, like the average student would. But on some days, the stress from studying too much gets to him and basically the whole school, making them crazier than they already are. Now, Jongin’s pretty normal most of the time, and he’s almost always calm and cool, but maybe the crazy his friends emit rubbed off on him for too long. Like how if you’re exposed to certain chemicals for too long you suffer the side effects? Yeah, exactly. Usually, if someone were to tackle him down when he’s in a daze and hastily take both his shoes off, he’d stay put and scream at them from afar as they run off with ‘em.

But when Yukhei does just that, Jongin sends him a glare as a warning. And so Yukhei takes a few steps further to the back and smirks, holding his shoes up in his right hand by the side of his head and daring Jongin to get his shoes back. Jongin sighs, rests his hands on his hips for a while before he bends a little to reach his foot. He pulls off one sock. Yukhei watches him in wonder, not suspecting anything. Then he pulls off the other sock. He stuffs them in his bag before he tosses it to Chanyeol who’s laughing at him a distance away. Chanyeol smoothly catches the bag, glancing at it for a split second before looking back up at Jongin in confusion.

“I was in Track back in High school. I was one of the best in running. I even trained myself to run in all types of shoes, and barefooted too, just for fun. My feet were like wings, and I was able to practically fly,” Jongin explains with a laugh, but there’s menace in the way he smiles. That’s a lie. It wasn’t training per se, just him escaping from his bullies even after they took his shoes off. “Let’s see if I still have it in me, shall we?”

Jongin sends Chanyeol one last grin before he turns back to Yukhei with a scowl, putting the other into a defensive mode as he stumbles over his words, “what— I—”

And before Yukhei could form a clear sentence, Jongin’s already throwing himself into a dash. Yukhei’s quick to wake a sprint, his eyes widening as he curses out loud. Jongin chases him for a long time, screaming his name out in anger. In response, Yukhei cackles like a maniac, his voice climbing up through different pitches as he does so. He’s severely stressing his larynx with how loud he’s screaming. They run in circles around the whole campus, turning everyone’s heads whenever they run past and erupting laughters even within the dead-looking students.  

At one point, Jongin even picks up the sound of Jongdae’s voice cheering him on when they charge past the Psychology department.

“Choi Lucas!” And because he knows Yukhei hates being called by his other name, Jongin furiously screams it so Yukhei wouldn’t miss it. “Get back here, you little piece of !”

“Ahh!” Yukhei responds just as loudly and just as furiously.

When they’ve made a whole full round, and reached the Linguistics department once again, where Chanyeol’s patiently sitting on a bench while waiting for them, Yukhei decides to look back to see just how far Jongin is from him. He screeches when he’s aware of how incredibly close Jongin is. But before he could push himself to run faster while he turns back to the front, Yukhei crashes into Renjun with a shriek.

Jongin halts in his tracks, dramatically gasping before jogging to the pile of bodies groaning in pain on the ground. Yukhei gets up, his joints cracking in protest, apologising hurriedly under his breath as he extends a hand to help Renjun get up.

“I’m so sorry, Prof’! I am so so sorry!” He clutches on Renjun’s shoulder a little too hard so the teacher violently flinches in his hold. “Oh, my God! Your shoulder is not alright!”

While Renjun’s trying to convince Yukhei that he’s okay, Jongin notices another body laying on the ground, clutching the side of his abdomen in pain. His eyes are closed, and half of his face is covered with another arm, but Jongin could recognise him anywhere.

“, Sehun, are you okay?” Jongin hurries over, grabbing ahold of his two forearm before helping him to sit up.

“Ugh,” Sehun groans. “Could be better.”

Jongin grins, amused. He titters for a while, finally taking in the situation. He doesn’t know whether to laugh or get mad at Yukhei for causing such a mess. He turns back to his friend and smacks him in the back of his head, causing him to spin around with a scandalised expression.

“Shut up,” Jongin warns. “You know you deserve it.”

“I’m sorry, Prof’. Sorry, Sehun.” Yukhei drops his expression, body deflating out of guilt.

“It’s okay.” Renjun sighs.

“Sehun, you okay?” Yukhei tries to smile but ends up looking like he just popped a sour candy into his mouth.

“I will be,” Sehun waves him off, “after I take some painkillers. Worry about Renjun, it might not do good for his underdeveloped height.”

Jongin bursts in laughter after he tries to hold himself back. He blames it on Renjun looking at Sehun with the best deadpan expression.

“Ha. Ha. Make fun of my height, sure. I’m still growing, by the way.” Renjun rolls his eyes. “But at the end of the day, I’m still smarter than you gentlemen.”

Jongin doesn’t stop laughing, Renjun’s comeback flying past his head. The crazy definitely got to him. Yukhei giggles along before finally handing Jongin back his shoes. Without putting on his socks, Jongin slips his feet into his shoes, stomping a few times to kind of get used to the feeling of being sockless.

“Here, your bag.” Jongin jolts when Chanyeol shoves his bag into his arms. Sniffling, the latter says, “I’m going to head home, I’m so sleepy.”

“Alright.” Jongin smiles. “Don’t die.”

“Thanks.” Chanyeol snorts in reply,

Chanyeol leaves, and that’s when Jongin and Yukhei decides to go grab dinner together. Yukhei asks Renjun if he wants to follow along and the prodigy shrugs in response, saying he has to check his schedule to see if he’s available. Jongin realises then that Yukhei would ask Sehun too, and true to his predictions, Yukhei did ask Sehun.

Sehun nods. “Sure. Where?”

And he does that without looking at Jongin, only focusing on an oblivious Yukhei. Sehun knows Jongin still doesn’t like being around him too much, at least not when he’s aware of it, and he knows that if he looks at Jongin, he’d feel pressured enough to force himself to leave. Jongin’s sure Sehun doesn’t want to leave, and he wants to know why so badly that when Sehun does send him a short meek look, he doesn’t bother diverting his gaze away.

Sehun blinks a few times, getting caught for stealing a glance making him flustered. He simply looks away when he realises Jongin’s still staring. He tries to get up from sitting on the ground but once his left foot touches the ground so he could steady himself, Sehun yelps as a shock of extreme pain shoots up from his ankles. His body goes limp as a response and sends him towering to the side to fall on his face. Desperate to catch himself, Sehun pulls the person closest to him by the side of his shoulders and holds onto him like he’s his pillar. Sehun’s sweating bullets there, not knowing why a probably sprained ankle could cause his body to respond so strongly. In between his struggles, he sees Renjun by the side and a flash of light, almost-blond brown too. He’s holding onto Jongin, he realises.

Sehun feels his ears getting hot. How embarrassing.

He doesn’t even notice the way Jongin’s sporting a huge frown, his hands clenching into fists because he doesn’t know what to do with them. Sehun doesn’t care that much about Jongin’s reaction, if he’s honest, because as of right now he’s so scared of the pain. He heavily drops his head onto Jongin’s shoulder, his teeth gritted as he attempts to step down his left foot down onto the ground, only to groan aloud. He’s faintly aware of Renjun and Yukhei asking him what’s wrong but he’s too preoccupied to answer them right away.

“I think—” Sehun gulps to suppress the anxiety in his voice. He has to breathe hard to prevent his voice from breaking. “I think this is more than a— a sprain.”  

Sehun completely fails to notice the way Jongin now has his hands on him, his face painted with stress.  

         “Okay, woah, okay, I really have to go. I got some marking to do.” Renjun mumbles as he darts his eyes down to his wristwatch.

“Aw, Prof’, don’t leave.” Sehun looks up at Renjun, frowning. “At least not until they cast me up.”

“Nah, sorry, Sehun. I really gotta go. Yukhei’s buying coffee downstairs and Jongin’s at the front desk talking to the nurse.” Renjun gives Sehun a rough clap to his shoulder. “They’ll take care of you.”

Sehun smiles, nods his head before watching Renjun’s retreating back. He looks around, sees the nurses rushing everywhere, he hears soft chatter ringing about everywhere. Sehun likes the hospital. It’s weird in a sense because it’s completely unusual to grow fond of such a place, where there’s people hurting, where there’s people struggling to make every breath count. But being in a hospital comforts him, it’s the safest place to be in whenever he feels like he’s going to crumble into himself out of whatever reason.

Sehun’s in a trance, deep in thought, and he doesn’t notice the bench softly rocking once Jongin sits down next to him. He has half his back facing to the left and the other half to the front, his left foot resting up on the bench. When he feels a tap to his shoulder, Sehun turns around.

“Hey, I’m really sorry for that.” Jongin gestures to Sehun’s foot, grimacing as he huffs out in guilt. “It’s partially my fault.”

Sehun laughs, his eyes disappearing and curling in to form the shape of small crescents. “It’s fine.”

“And I’m sorry for yesterday too.” Jongin has his hands on his lap, his thumbs wriggling out of having nothing else to do. “I… shouldn’t have gotten offended.”

Sehun stares at Jongin for a second, expressionless, but Jongin could tell Sehun doesn’t have any badwill behind those eyes. It’s like he’s trying to figure Jongin out. Jongin can’t blame him either. One day he’s snapping at Sehun and the other he’s helping fill out Sehun’s registration form for the hospital, of course Sehun would want to know what the hell’s going on with him. “It’s normal for you to. Plus, I shouldn’t be trying to point out what I think are your flaws. Who am I to you?”

It’s a rhetorical question, and it’s supposed to be left alone, not to be answered, but Jongin finds himself dwelling on the question. Jongin doesn’t like Sehun, and that’s one thing he’s sure of, but he doesn’t hate Sehun too. Just a while ago, he came across a blank on the registration form asking if Sehun has any allergies and for some reason, Jongin knows. He remembers Sehun doesn’t have any allergies.

Jongin chooses a table right next to Sehun’s, putting down his tray. He looks over at Sehun, and he finds the other looking back at him. Jongin looks away, scolding his face to hide any abashment that could’ve shown on his face. Sehun always notices him. Wherever he is, Jongin’s there, and Sehun always sees him. It’s been pretty weird for Jongin the first couple of months he’s started following Sehun around. But after the latter makes it clear that he doesn’t mind it either way by not saying anything even when he sometimes stares at Jongin for long, blissful minutes, Jongin never stopped being around Sehun.

“You , I can’t eat mayonnaise! I’ll die.” One of Sehun’s friends exclaims. “God, you’re so useless.”

“I didn’t know you were allergic to mayonnaise. Sorry,” another friend of his apologises half heartedly, expression bored as he picks on his food with a plastic fork. Suddenly looking up, he smiles. “I’m allergic to pineapple.”

“Noted. Now I know how to kill you.” The same friend from before snickers and everyone around the table laughs along.

They share their allergies round the table. Some even storytelling about the time they almost died due to allergy reactions before