“YAH, CHOI TAEMIN!” With pants, Jinki had finally caught up with the ice princess, a hand placed at his shoulder upon arriving behind him. He had been trying to catch him around school all morning for two periods, yet had found no success, till now, in the halls. Taemin was harder to find around school than he had thought.

Turning around, Taemin jerked his shoulder back, letting Jinki’s hand fly away. He gave no response, just crossing his arms and staring at him with a keen eye.

He really is the ice princess… Jinki thought to himself as he nervously scratched the back of his head, giving the other a welcoming smile. “I’ve been trying to find you all day, man! Jesus, you’re a hard er to find around here…” He laughed alone, his amusement quickly dying out as Taemin turned to walk away. “Hey, hey – HEY!” He ran to grab his shoulder again, keeping him firmly near. “I spent two whole periods finding you, don’t think you’re going anywhere anytime soon, kid.”

“What do you want?” Taemin questioned with a flick of his eyebrow, not too amused with the whole situation himself.

Jinki felt as if a cold air front had passed by the hall, quickly pushing the strange aura of the other away and keeping his smile intact. “Not that I want anything… it’s just a suggestion, you know. I saw you playing basketball the other day… you know, me, I’m in your gym class, did you know? Haha!” He laughed nervously again, clearing his throat. “I just thought maybe you’d like to try out for the basketball team, you know. One of our main offense players recently injured his ankle so… we’re looking for a replacement but…”

“No, I’m not interested.” Taemin shook his head, tapping at his foot on the ground irritatedly. “I’ve never been interested in sports – never have, and never will be in the future.”

“But – you were damn good yesterday – like really, really good.”

“Nope.”

“But –!”

“No!”
 

And Jinki did not cease in following him – continuously giving him the offer again and again. He appeared at every class Taemin was, having figured out his schedule from his trusted resource, Mir.

“Will you just consider it for a moment?! Our team’s one of the best in the city – probably even the nation. We’ve got a great reputation, and plus, it looks really great on your transcript! College, think college applications, they’re not too far from now!” Jinki followed abruptly behind Taemin as they both walked in the halls, their destination being the lunch room. He didn’t know why he was so determined about this job himself – he just wanted Taemin on the team.

Although Taemin had successfully blocked the annoying meddler out for five periods, he too, had a final . With a growl, he stopped dead in his tracks, turning around the face the chinky eyed student. “If I join your little sports team thing, will you ing stop stalking me? It’s getting on my last nerve – you’re getting on my last nerve.”

Jinki’s eyes lit up immediately, nodding quickly at his words. “No more stalking, promise if you just join our team.”

“Fine.” Taemin responded and then moved into the lunch room, getting in line to grab his lunch.

“You mean it?!” Jinki quickly followed, laughing a bit in shrill joy of his success. He grabbed a tray as well, just dumping whatever food was served there in front of him.

“I do, so now back off.” Taemin shoved his face up against the other’s before retreating, paying for his lunch and moving away.

Jinki’s eyes followed, paying for his lunch and having watched where Taemin had disappeared off in the spacey cafeteria. He was seated – alone, of course, with no one around him in the corner, just sitting happily by himself and a manga book. His own table was by the right side, next to the blue windows – Joon and Mir were already there, along with the rest of his little gang. Yet… his steps were taken over to the “unwanted” side of the cafeteria, settling his bookbag down and seating himself in the chair next to Taemin.

As Jinki started to eat away at his pasta, Taemin stared at him, still cold and ferocious. “What are you doing?”

“Eating?” Jinki grinned, shrugging and chugging away his chocolate milk.

“This is my table. You can’t just sit here.”

Snorting, Jinki shoved another mouthful of pasta into his mouth, speaking with his mouth full. “I already did though, and I am.”

“I really will rip that smug grin off your face if you don’t off.”

“Ooh, threatening.” Jinki suddenly noticed his manga book, glancing over. “Deathnote?” Jinki’s eyes widened – Deathnote was by far him and Mir’s favorite manga series. He had watched the live action movies, had the anime season in a collector’s set box, and of course the full set of the manga nicely stacked next to each other on his bookshelf back at home. Not to mention his wall pull of just posters… Only Mir understood his obsession with this manga – or at least, till now.

Taemin’s eyes suddenly changed, from threatening to curious. “Yeah.”

“I didn’t even know you read manga… Only the third volume, eh?”

“I’m rereading it to go over the little details. There’s something new I read everytime in this series…” Taemin mumbled quietly, as if he was ashamed of being found out about his... otaku-ness.

For once, they were having a decent conversation – and this one lasted for about the duration of the whole lunch period. They talked and just talked about the manga Deathnote itself, as Jinki found out a bit about Taemin. Having found one similar interest it seemed led to finding out about a variety of other interests… like branches sprouting out from the same tree trunk. 

“Remember that one scene where Izaya like… completely wrecks some strange girl’s phone?”

“That was so funny – I think I laughed around for a whole hour, just having it on replay.” Taemin laughed, clapping his hands in remembrance as they walked the halls. His laughter caused Jinki to smile – he felt as if he was privileged to be able to hear it. Throughout the lunch period and now, he had gained lots of looks toward the two of them from others, knowing his status wasn’t exactly in the popular crowd – yet one not bad enough to be sitting in the “outcast” side of the cafeteria. Somehow, he didn’t find it as bad as he had thought it to be.

Jinki was still smiling when Taemin’s eyes trailed off to somewhere else, only realizing it when his laughter came to a quick stop. Jinki blinked at the sudden change, his eyes also staring over at what Taemin was gazing at. With another few blinks of his eyes, he stared at the campus couple of Minho and Kibum, just hanging around and being well, very close to each other, all lovey-dovey at the very end of the hall.

“Hah. This is… funnier.”

_______________________________________________

Authors Note: So the drama starts from here! Dun dun dun. >8)
Get ready for some dark subjects with lots and lots of angst!
But of course, I promise, there will still be some fluffy, lovely moments between our members promise!
Leave any comments and suggestions of course down below! <3 Thanks for anyone reading still. ;_;