“Why didn’t anyone tell me Zhang Yixing plays the guitar?” Baekhyun demanded the minute he entered the room, glaring at them with murderous intent. “He surprised everyone by performing in the middle of the cafeteria and I didn't know if I should kiss him right there or drag him here and make him sign the papers.”

From where he was perched on the windowsill, Jongdae laughed, “Uh...maybe it's because we didn’t know either? Also, don't you think it’s a little too early to get married? He doesn't even know it.”

Baekhyun shot him a glare. “By papers I mean the forms for him to join the club, you idiot, since we need as many talents as we can get.”

Unbothered, Jongdae shrugged off the clarification he didn't ask for. “Same thing. So what exactly did you choose?”

“Neither,” Baekhyun said, deflating as he buried his face in his hands. “I just grabbed Chanyeol and ran for it.” He looked up, thought about it for a moment, then continued, “Remind me to never do that again. Yeol has really sweaty palms and he can’t run in a straight line.” It was as though he didn’t already know that, given the fact that he had pretty much been raised together with Chanyeol, what with their mothers being the best of friends since high school.

Sniggering, Jongdae waved Baekhyun over with the music sheets he had been scribbling on. “Will do. Or better yet, the next time this happens, you should go for it.”

Baekhyun walked over. “And get rejected by the best looking transfer student to ever grace our campus? No thanks,” he muttered, snatching the papers over to study what Jongdae had composed.

A sound of displeasure escaped Jongdae. “Best? Yixing’s a real catch, I’ll give you that, but he’s got nothing on that tall guy, what’s his name? Kris?”

“Yes, it’s Kris, and no, he isn’t all that good looking if you look at him up close, alright? He’s got a funny nose.” Baekhyun answered, eyebrows knitted in half-concentration as he tried to hum the tune Jongdae had written for them. “"Is this for the charity night?”

“He does not!” Jongdae was getting suspiciously loud. “And yeah, they slotted us in right in the middle before the dance break.” He was also trying to change the topic and it wasn't subtle at all. 

“Before the dance club, then?”

Both Junmyeon and Jongdae nodded, Junmyeon still distracted by his student council duties as he did so.

“I like this one,” Baekhyun approved, then turned to look at Junmyeon, “Hyung, what are you doing?”

“Detention slips, what else?” Junmyeon replied, finishing the form he had been filling for the past minute and capping his pen when he was done. “Can you believe we have six students caught making out in the classrooms after dark?” He shook his head, “What a way to kick start the semester." 

“Yeah,” Jongdae agreed, “Should’ve locked the door and turned off the lights. They must be new.”

This was how the three of them always spent their Wednesday afternoons. The club room was their favorite place because it was where they could do anything they wanted. Not only was the room soundproof (which meant Jongdae and Baekhyun could pitch-battle for hours and nobody would interrupt them), it was also the most secluded room in Block C, the furthest building from the main gate.

For a club that only had a total of six members, they were surprisingly well-funded. With the snacks Baekhyun kept bringing in to store in the mini fridge Junmyeon had so generously contributes, and more tables and chairs they would need, all they needed were sleeping bags and they could probably camp out in this room for days when they had exams coming up or when they had regionals to prepare for. In these aspects, the jazz club was very different from the school chorale. Should Junmyeon be allowed to speak his mind without consequences (the way Baekhyun always ran his mouth without giving a damn), he would say that the jazz club members were an equally talented bunch of music lovers, just without batons stuck up their asses.

“Come on,” Jongdae said, “The chorale kids are on strict diets to stay in shape, as if that helps them stay in tune.” He shuddered at the idea of such a strict regime. “I’d kick anyone’s if I’m told to stop eating my favourite food.” He then gestured at Baekhyun and Chanyeol, who were fiercely competing to become the most repulsive chubby bunny Junmyeon had ever witnessed. “We’re the cool kids, alright? With an endless supply of marshmallows and all that jazz.” He grinned at his own pun, thinking he was being particularly witty.

The one-sided rivalry between the jazz club and the school chorale was another reason why they liked staying in their club room, locked in. For one, Jongdae was constantly harassed by the chorale kids because they felt that he was wasting his god-given voice by staying with the jazz club.

“Which is ridiculous,” Kyungsoo pointed out during their most recent club meeting (except they ended up doing anything except what they held the meeting for), “Because we have actually won, you know, awards.”

“Hyung? Hyung? Hyung!”

Junmyeon looked up, startled. “What?”

“I’ve been calling you for the past minute,” Baekhyun pointed out. Eyes narrowed, he leaned in so that Junmyeon was forced to meet his eyes, “I was trying to tell you that I met Jongin at the lockers just now and he was asking about you.”

Just like that, Baekhyun had Junmyeon’s full attention. “What did he say?” Junmyeon asked, voice soft. He leaned back when Baekhyun pressed in even closer.

“He asked me what you’ve been so busy with,” Baekhyun said. “Imagine my surprise when he told me you’ve cancelled your study sessions with him twice in a week.”

Junmyeon had to bite down on his lip so he won’t groan aloud, knowing exactly what Baekhyun was going to say.

“You’ve been avoiding him, haven’t you?”

To make things worse, Jongdae joined in. “You haven’t been that busy, hyung.” He pretended to think hard for a moment. “Didn’t you use to meet up with Jongin twice a week even though you were juggling school, community service and your internship?”

Smiling, Baekhyun carried on from there, “Jongdae’s right. Aren’t you supposed to have more free time on your hands now, hyung, which explains why you’re here with us, writing out detention slips, instead of rushing around the campus trying to get things signed and random  sorted out?”

It wasn’t all that uncommon for Baekhyun and Jongdae to gang up against him and as always, Junmyeon found himself at a loss of words. Defeated, he opted to look away instead of coming up with excuses he knew they wouldn’t believe anyway.

“Dude, you can’t avoid him forever,” Baekhyun persisted. “Whatever it is, you need to get over it.”

“I wish it’s that simple,” Junmyeon muttered, falling silent once more at the similar looks Jongdae and Baekhyun were giving him. It was a mix between pity and disbelief.

“It is,” Jongdae said, “But only if you stop complicating things for yourself.” With a shrug, he backed off, pulling Baekhyun with him as he did so, “Just so you know, we’re not going to help cover your the next time Jongin asks for you, alright?”

With a soft sigh, Junmyeon went back to his task of writing out detention slips. His heart aches on, longing.

 

---

 

It started innocently enough. Jongin was the new dance partner Minseok was assigned to and that was how they became friends.

“Every new member is assigned to a more experienced member,” Minseok explained when he first told the gang about it, “Not that it means the new members will always need our guidance. Jongin, for one, is actually miles ahead of me. His basics are really solid.”

"As solid as his muscles, I'm sure," Baekhyun added, envious. 

By extension, Jongin had eventually gotten close to the jazz club members as well. Minseok liked dragging him over to their table by the windows whenever the cafeteria got extremely crowded on days the food was actually edible. He got along exceptionally well with Chanyeol and like Sehun, ended up clinging to Kyungsoo whenever the older boy decided to do some charity and grace them with his presence. 

Even though it had been a little awkward between Junmyeon and him at first, their relationship gradually improved. It was mostly thanks to the fact that Jongin needed help in quite a few subjects and Junmyeon seemed to be the most suitable tutor he could find. The subsequent arrangement was simple enough: they would meet twice a week for Junmyeon to run through the things Jongin had difficulties with and in turn, Jongin would take Junmyeon’s mind off the more troubling things (college applications, for instance) by telling him stories.

Jongin never ran out of stories. During their Monday meetings, Jongin would tell Junmyeon about his weekend adventures. One time it was Sehun losing a dare to Baekhyun and having to dye his rainbow, thus earning him an entire list of rather embarrassing nicknames. The next time it was Taemin still struggling to learn to ride a bike, and them finding out that Chanyeol took an average of forty-six photos of himself a week. Their Friday meetings always ended with Jongin telling Junmyeon about the new things he had learned during dance practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays, listing terms and more terms before he had to explain each and every one to a very confused Junmyeon.

“Keep up,” he joked, laughing. Junmyeon couldn't possibly get mad when Jongin looked so damn cute. 

Junmyeon never expected to enjoy their study sessions so much. There were times when Junmyeon lived carelessly, vicariously through Jongin, and Jongin's happiness was always extremely infectious. 

Things, however, got complicated when their time spent together felt more than mere study sessions, and when Junmyeon couldn’t stop staring at Jongin’s lips and wondering how it would feel to kiss them, if they would taste faintly of the sugar free mints he knew Jongin carried with him in his bag.

Things got even more complicated when Jongin started chewing bubblegums - no thanks to Sehun - like they were the only things keeping him going. It got even harder for Junmyeon to not stare at him. Alternating between 8 and 10 chews, Joonmyun noticed, the bubbles they started small - first pushed out by Jongin's tongue, before he would blow them up to the size of a bottle cap. He would then push them back against his teeth and tongue, and continue chewing. The sound of him chewing should be annoying but it wasn’t. It was distracting, of course, but Junmyeon didn’t hate it.

Now that frustrated him. He knew for one that gum chewing wasn’t allowed. It was one of those trivial things the teachers didn’t think to put down in the school booklet, simply because they assumed all students would know that they shouldn’t be chewing gums when they were in a lesson or an exam. It was also one of those trivial things so trivial, teachers wouldn’t want to punish the students for eating something they wouldn’t swallow.

Naturally, Junmyeon couldn’t tell Jongin to stop chewing gums and blowing bubbles just because it made him want to kiss Jongin more.

 

---

 

“That’s it?”

Forlornly, Junmyeon nodded.

They were in Junmyeon’s room to discuss a class project and instead of getting some work done, Junmyeon had ended up spending the past half an hour telling Kyungsoo about the complications of his relationship with Jongin. He couldn’t avoid Jongin forever and he knew that, but he couldn’t understand why he was feeling what he had been feeling and without this understanding, he couldn’t face Jongin and pretend that everything was alright.

Kyungsoo shook his head disbelievingly, “This is worse than what Baekhyun told me.”

Junmyeon flushed.

“You’re hopeless,” Kyungsoo muttered, “Which explains why you need help in something as simple as a schoolgirl crush.”

“It’s not a schoolgirl crush,” Junmyeon protested. “I just. I’m just - ”

“You’re just weirdly attracted to Jongin’s bubblegum chewing, want to use that as an excuse to get a taste and then proceed to kiss the daylight out of him?”

Despite having known Kyungsoo for four whole years, Junmyeon couldn’t comprehend how he was able to say all of that with a perfectly straight face. Looking away, he fumbled with the things on his desk and succeeded in messing it up for the third time that day. “You’re ridiculous,” he grumbled, “All your assumptions are baseless and invalid.”

Junmyeon yelped when Kyungsoo flung a pillow at him, catching the back of his head.  

“You’re the ridiculous one. I think you know that you’re this flustered because I nailed the issue.” Kyungsoo leaned back, crossing his legs and settling himself more comfortable in the middle of Junmyeon’s bed, “You’re so infatuated.” He shook his head, stifling his laughter at the sight of Junmyeon’s stricken face.

“I’m not,” Junmyeon said. Even to his ears his words were unconvincing.

Kyungsoo left sometime past five and Junmyeon took the spot Kyungsoo had been occupying, burying his head under his pillow, beat. He made conscious effort to not dwell on the thought of Jongin but his brain did a very good job ignoring his plea. Lips. Bubblegum. Lips. Bubblegum. Lips. Bubblegum. went on and on until his phone vibrated in his pocket. He didn’t need to see it to know who it was.

[Thu, 10 Oct, 6:42 pm]
Jongin: we’re meeting tomorrow right?

Junmyeon's fingers hovered over the ‘reply’ button.

[Thu, 10 Oct, 6:43 pm]
Jongin: pls don’t cancel again :(

By the time he was called downstairs for dinner, he still hadn’t replied.

---

“Hyung!”

Oh . 

Panicking, Junmyeon turned to Minseok for cover, only to have the other boy walking away from him, leaving him a cool and heartless “Deal with it yourself.”

“I need to talk to you,” Jongin called out, grabbing the attention of a few people down the corridor with how loud he was being. He paid them no mind, walking straight towards Junmyeon, who stood frozen in front of his locker.

It was only when Jongin was a few steps away that Junmyeon started turning, wanting to make a run for it. He was too slow. Jongin caught his arm and in response, Junmyeon hurriedly fixed his gaze elsewhere, anywhere but on Jongin’s face, especially on his lips. Stupid face, stupid lips, stupid bubblegum. Moving to grab Junmyeon's shoulders instead, Jongin pulled him deep into the shadows, hidden from the other students in the hallway.

“I want to know why you’re avoiding me," he said. 

There it was, the inevitable, and yet Junmyeon was looking for an escape route. Shrugging off Jongin’s hands wasn’t an option because he knew Jongin was awfully sensitive, and the last thing he wanted to was to hurt Jongin's feelings.

As if you aren’t already hurting him, a voice in Junmyeon’s head griped. He ignored it in favor of thinking of another way to get himself out of this mess. Jongin wasn’t saying anything now that he was here, face to face with Junmyeon. He was watching Junmyeon closely, feeling like a fool. He really didn’t liked feeling this way. Nobody would.

“Look,” Junmyeon muttered, all the words in his head garbled, “I need some time to sort things out. Some things. It’s complicated.” He tried piecing the words into sentences but was failing quite terribly in doing so. “I can’t really explain them, alright? I just need time. Time out.”

Silence reigned. Junmyeon was still trying to grab at the words running amok and Jongin, on the other hand, was trying to make sense what Junmyeon said.

“Time out?” he wondered aloud. “Why the hell do we need a time out?”

Junmyeon, get a grip on yourself. True, they weren’t in some kind of sports game and they were most certainly not in a relationship. A time out, however, was still necessary. “Like I said,” he managed, “I don’t know how to explain it.”

“You don’t know how to explain it or you don’t want to?”

“Look, Jongin…” Junmyeon tried again. His skin felt very hot. Jongin’s gaze blazed and a small, desperate voice in Junmyeon’s brain was trying to get him to come clean. He took a deep, quaking breath and got ready to follow his heart.

“The truth is - " 

Junmyeon didn't get to finish his sentence. His words were drowned out by a shout of Jongin’s name - one of his friends from dance club waving him over - and Junmyeon visibly deflated, courage lost. His brain began flipping through the options he had and as it turned out, just as Jongin turned to look at his friend, he settled with the easiest way out and, shutting Jongin firmly from his mind, he ran away.

Minutes later, his phone buzzed. 

[Fri, 11 Oct, 11:05 am]
Jongin: i guess we’re not meeting today then?

[Fri, 11 Oct, 11:35 am]
Jongin: hyung, i think i deserve an explanation from you

[Fri, 11 Oct, 12:01 am]
Jongin: hyung...

 

---

 

By lunchtime, the whole table knew about what happened between the two of them. Minseok shot Junmyeon a worried look when he didn’t eat anything from his tray. “You can’t keep running from him forever.”

As if Junmyeon didn’t already know that.

Keeping his eyes on his tray and taking note that his apple juice was starting to oxidize, Junmyeon chose not to say a word. The rest of them - Minseok, Kyungsoo, Baekhyun and Jongdae - seemed to be alright with that, however, because they had lots to say to him. With obvious hints from Minseok, Kyungsoo launched into a discussion with Baekhyun about their future collaboration with the dance club a couple of months after the charity night performance.

“Collaborations are good for both parties,” Kyungsoo said, “Because we get to meet new people, make new friends, and step out of our comfort zones to venture into something unexpected, something amazing.” He was staring straight at Junmyeon as he said this and so were the rest.

“I’m not really hungry,” Junmyeon said, standing up abruptly. “I’ll go return my tray.”

“Wait, hyung,” Jongdae hurried, “Return mine too.”

Normally, Junmyeon would have said no, argued that Jongdae should be the one to return his tray since he was younger, and end up getting bullied by the three younger boys into returning everyone’s tray for them. This time, he simply picked up Jongdae’s tray and walked off before they could say anything.

 

---

 

This time, Junmyeon saw it coming when Jongin seek him out, once again successfully cornering him. Before Junmyeon could say a word, Jongin had pulled him into the empty studio and locked the door before turning to face him.

“Hyung - ” Jongin cleared his throat, trying to find the best way to go about this.

“You’re chewing gum again.”

“Wait, what?”

“That,” Junmyeon pointed, “Gum.” He wanted to say more but the smile Jongin gave forced his words back. He stopped pointing, feeling incredibly nervous. His heart was beating too fast and his lungs weren’t working right either.

“Gum, huh,” Jongin muttered to himself, “Gum.” Then, to Junmyeon, flirtatiously, he asked, “Hyung, do you want a taste?”

Junmyeon stared at him, unable to believe his ears. “What?” His lips felt dry and his face was hot.

“Kyungsoo hyung might have something about, um, a ?" Jongin said, “He also said you can be really stupid and passive sometimes, so I should go easy on you.” Cheeks equally red, Jongin didn’t look away. “So...you do want a taste, right?” he asked again, hesitantly.

Meeting Jongin’s gaze, not knowing what had gotten into him, Junmyeon found himself making a decision. He reached out to take Jongin’s face in his hands, voice barely audible even to himself, strangely unyielding, “What do you think?”

Jongin laughed, eyes crinkling cutely. “I think you do.” He paused, “You do, right?”

It was Junmyeon’s cue to laugh, air escaping him easily and relief filled his lungs instead. “I do.”

The lingering doubt Jongin faded with that affirmation. 

"I like you, Jongin. Heck, I might even love you someday.”

It sounded like a promise, and laughing, they leaned in and let their lips seal the deal.

 

---

 

“Hey, you guys, I have a joke,” Junmyeon said, much to the dismay of everyone sitting round the table. “I came up with it on my own. It’s a good one, I swear!”

“Go on,” Jongin said, always there to give him a chance. He ignored the pleading looks the rest of them gave him.

“What did one bubblegum said to the other?” Junmyeon asked.

“...”

“I think I’m stuck on you.”

Slowly, Sehun let out a groan, burying his head in Kyungsoo's shoulder as Baekhyun tried to make it look as if he wasn't laughing at Junmyeon. Everyone else started busying themselves with their own conversations before Junmyeon ask why they weren’t laughing with him. 

"Hyung," Jongin said, "I really adore you...but you're still the least funny guy I know." 

Across the table, Baekhyun had been staring at Junmyeon and Jongin’s entwined hands for the whole exchange. He turned to Jongdae, eyes blazing with determination.

“Oh no,” Jongdae groaned, “I know that look.” He tugged on Baekhyun’s shirt, “Whatever it is, don’t do it.”

Baekhyun declared, “I’m going to start chewing gum whenever Yixing’s around.”