Modern lit. The last class of the day.

The teacher is on the fast track to letting them out early when she pulls out a sheet of paper and says, “Our final project is coming up. You will be doing it in pairs, which I will assign.” Lovely. Sehun spaces out until he hears his name—

“Oh Sehun with Kim Jongin.”

—and then panics.

Kim Jongin, of all the students in his class? Why Jongin? Not only have they said less than two words to one another all semester, Jongin is a hot nerd who has dated some of The Hottest™ girls in their grade.

And then here’s Sehun, a panicky gay more concerned with his swim times than literally anything else in the world. Chlorine is just his cologne at this point, his body is shaped like a tortilla chip, and his bleached hair has grown out to show off dark roots, but who can tell under a swim cap?

Maybe he can ask the teacher to switch partners. Someone he actually knows and can talk to without freaking out.

When class is dismissed, he intentionally putzes around with his things until nearly everyone else leaves.

Everyone but Jongin, who evidently has no qualms at all being paired up with a water-brained jock.

“Hi.” Oh, his smile is so sweet. He has really nice lips. Sehun feels his cheeks burning. “Should we exchange emails, to talk about our project? I have club, or I’d say we could go to the library right away.”

Why check out books when one can check out Jongin? Sehun also has club practice after class; if he doesn’t go soon, he’ll be late.

“Uh...yeah. Sure.” When Jongin blinks and tilts his head like a puppy, Sehun realizes he’s only been imagining suavely passing his phone over. “Sorry…”

“No worries. I’ll add my number, too, just in case. I can be hard to reach, sometimes.” He chuckles and holds up the phone, winking with a peace sign held by his cheek. “I’m pretty bad with technology.” His contact page has a blurry but still unfairly handsome selfie with it.

Sehun isn’t nearly so confident, always having to take multiple photos before choosing the best to post, but he does add his phone number with little difficulty. Jongin’s phone screen is cracked; he doesn’t have a case on it.

“Cool.” Jongin takes his phone back and slips it into his back pocket. “We can figure out what to do later, okay?” He waves, collects his things, and leaves.

Making it look so easy, functioning like an average human being.

Sehun has a hard time doing that, even when he’s not short-circuiting.

“Mr. Oh,” the teacher says, standing by the light switch, “you’re going to be late.”

He barely makes it to the pool in time and forces all thoughts of pretty classmates from his mind, focusing only on himself and how cleanly he cuts through the water.

Reality strikes back with a vengeance in the form of a message from Jongin on his phone, buzzing for attention in his locker.

Could they meet up that weekend? Sure they could, but Sehun really doesn’t want to.

ok

They actually work well together. Whatever Sehun doesn’t understand, he asks about—timidly at first—and Jongin never makes him feel bad about it. Sometimes, he’ll go on full tangents and forget the question he was trying to answer, and by that time, Sehun will have forgotten, as well, too lost in the cute nerd’s passion for literature or puppies or comics or whatever it was he went off about.

Time passes quickly; they’re always surprised by how late it’s gotten and assign individual work to continue at home.

“We can video chat, if you have any other questions.” It’s a kind offer, but seeing him all soft in his jammies, still a little damp from a shower, does things to Sehun’s brain.

He wants to coo at how adorable he looks, but instead asks, “Have you always had glasses?”

Jongin touches his face as though to check and grimaces when his fingers touch the lenses. “Yeah...I don’t think they look good, so I don’t wear them to school unless I can’t find my contacts.”

Sehun thinks they look really good but doesn’t say so.

They’re elbow-deep in books and printouts and notes when Sehun really realizes he's not hiding his crush well. It’s after lunch but not quite dinnertime, and they hear the soft moan of a whale.

Jongin whines and drops his head onto his arm, hugging his gut with the other. “I’m hungry, but I really want to get this all down.”

“We could get dinner and keep working?” Sehun blushes when Jongin doesn’t say anything. “I mean we could just pick up some food at the convenience store or something—”

Jongin smiles brightly, all dimples and crinkly eyes, and Sehun’s heart flinches. “Good idea!”

He’s a clingy sort of person, Sehun’s discovered. When Jongin wants to point something out, he’ll tug Sehun’s sleeve. To look at what Sehun’s looking at, he’ll hook his chin over Sehun’s shoulder. When he laughs so hard he wheezes, he slaps at the nearest thing or person—lately, Sehun.

And he finds he doesn’t mind. He’s kind of handsy himself, and he’s got a bad habit of biting people he’s comfortable with, but he’s managed to avoid that with Jongin so far.

Not that he wouldn’t mind biting Jongin, but those are intrusive thoughts best left for cold showers and dreams during long nights, because nothing anywhere suggests Jongin would be cool with that.

Although nothing anywhere says he wouldn’t, either...

But who’s he kidding? There are more important things to think about, anyway.

They give their hands and wrists a break from typing, sitting across from one another in the comics and graphic novels aisle. Sehun’s found a swim team series with a protagonist more even obsessed with water than he is.

He hears Jongin’s foot slide across the carpeted aisle. It nudges his ankle, and he hums.

“You wanna go out with me?”

The words filter in one ear, jumble up in his head, and slither out the other ear. Sehun’s brain struggles to rearrange them in a way that makes sense, but no matter what it tries, it still comes out like Jongin’s asking him on a date.

“What?!” he shrieks, immediately shrinking at the litany of hisses to Be quiet! Wide-eyed, he looks at Jongin over his book. “What?”

He’s chewing his lip, slouching and clapping his feet around Sehun’s sneaker. “I just thought...it’d be fun? To go out with you?”

“...On a date?”

“Yeah?” He shrugs, tucking his hands under his . The art book he was reading closes on his lap. “It’s okay if you don’t. I just figured I’d ask, because I really kinda like you a lot. I know you’ve got swimming, and I’m probably not even your type…”

Sehun can’t hear his whispering very well from his hiding place in his book. Peering over it like a turtle peeking from its shell, he’s blessed with the dusky blush over Jongin’s cheeks. He’s biting his thumbnail and probably wants to run, since Sehun’s taking his sweet time coming up with a suitable response.

“You actually are,” he cannot possibly blush any harder, “my type. A date would be nice...”

His eloquence amazes even him, sometimes.

Jongin bursts out laughing, covering his whole head when hissed at and kicking at Sehun’s knee. When he has some control over himself again, he crawls on his knees to sit beside Sehun. There’s no room for even a book to stand between them.

“I’m glad,” he giggles. “I’ve been nervous this whole time.” If only he knew the anxiety Sehun carries daily and how it inflates around attractive boys.

Maybe now it can settle down a bit. He’s friends with Kim Jongin, the hot nerd who has dated some of The Hottest™ girls in their grade, and has seen the ugly laughter and impressive ability to sleep literally anywhere. Jongin is human, just like him, but he’s also special in ways Sehun wants to discover and explore and appreciate.

a/n: I was too late to submit more than one fic for Tiny Sparks, so this would've been my other "opposites attract" fic.

I also don't know what classes have projects anymore. It's been too long, and I always ended up solo, anyway, even in group projects.