Catch Taemin If You Can; [four]

Taemin had dried his clothes in the washroom and was just walking out when he almost got knocked out by a soccer ball that swooshed down from across the hall. Taemin caught it and Jongin ran over, his face looking unusually hyped and red. 

“I am so proud of you.” Jongin said excitedly. “Baldy actually goes bald. The title that will mark today’s legend. Did you do it on purpose?”

“Yes, because it is my goal in life to sacrifice my own body and clothes to bring happiness to my people.”

Taemin said sarcastically before continuing to walk down the hall. Jongin scurried after his friend.

“Guess what this is.” Jongin said, holding out an orange vitamin drink. 

"A gift of respect that you bought me." Taemin said as he took the bottle and drank from it. 

“I didn’t tell you to drink it, you idiot!” Jongin cried indignantly, and snatched the drink back from Taemin who was getting exceedingly confused by Jongin's unusual aura of over-excitement. 

“A girl gave it to me.”

Jongin said proudly. 

“A girl?”

“Yup.”

Taemin rolled his eyes. So Jongin had (finally) gotten a confession from a girl. No wonder he was so excited. 

“She asked me to meet her by the benches after school.” Jongin took a sip and continued to explain. 

“She'll probably ask you out on a date.” Taemin said pointedly, smirking and giving his friend a big slap on the back. Jongin smiled awkwardly. 

“…I guess.”

“Are you going to say yes?”

Jongin hesitated before walking over to the hall window. Taemin followed him and saw what Jongin was look at. It was Soojung, sitting under a tree with her friends and laughing as she flipped her silky hair over her shoulders. Scruntinizing Jongin's bitter face, Taemin stole the drink from Jongin again. 

“…." Jongin said, as he managed to avert his eyes from Soojung. He disheveled his hair in frustration. "Why is it so difficult.”

“You’re the one making it difficult." Taemin replied impassively. "Can’t you live your life in a more simple and sensible way? It’s pathetic, whining for eight years-”

“What the hell?!" Jongin cried out defensively. "I don't whine!”

“Oh, okay." Taemin crossed his arms. "Then prove it to me and confront your goddamn Jung Soojung.”

“Shut up, Lee Taemin.”

Jongin growled lowly, but Taemin wasn't going to back down so easily. How Jongin was always pining over this girl was irritating the out of him. 

“Why should I? Everyone knows about your pathetic crush already.” Taemin shot, and Jongin looked at him in disbelief. 

“And why is it that you always get so worked up when Soojung comes to topic?!”

Jongin yelled, and Taemin closed his mouth as he didn't have a reasonable answer to that. Other than the fact that it was very, very annoying.

Irritated to the core of his head, Taemin took huge gulps of the orange drink. Jongin struggled to take it back, and Taemin let go when there wasn't a single drop of it left. Jongin glared, but gave up quickly as he sighed and fumbled with the empty bottle.

“I guess there's no harm in going out with her...”

Barely resisting an urge to smack his friend in the head, Taemin rubbed his face as he looked outside the window. His eyes met Soojung and the girl waved cheerfully at him. She stopped when Taemin didn’t respond, and –to Taemin's shock– Soojung gave him the finger with a bright smile. The whole thing looks surreal even to Taemin who knew the real Soojung, it was almost like looking at an angel's face of [The sunshine is so beautiful today] with [I will kill everything you love] subtitled underneath. Taemin unconsciously gaped and Jongin lifted his head. In the speed of light, Soojung came back to her sweet angel mode and waved at Jongin. Chortling a hollow smirk, Taemin turned and found his friend waving back at her, grinning like a fool. 

“I will never be proud of you." Taemin said, as he stopped Jongin from waving non-stop and grabbed his arms down. "You are an embarrassment.”

“Whatever.” Jongin said, as he smirked at his own idiotic behaviour and threw the empty bottle outside the window. 

And instead of a soundless landing on the grass patch, the bottle landed somewhere that made a thick noise of friction. Taemin and Jongin looked at each other in surprise. It sounded too much of a bottle hitting against a human skull for their comfort. The two peered outside to see what happened, until Jongin suddenly bent down under the window. 

And so? And so it was Taemin who had to receive the death glare of Baldy, who was standing in the middle of the field with a huge red bump on his forehead.

Yup, Lee Taemin again.

◈

Bring your parents to school tomorrow.

Baldy started out pretty seriously, but the atmosphere fell awkward as soon as he realized that Taemin didn't have a parent to bring. Most of the teachers were aware that Taemin's mom was in the U.S. while his dad was in Japan, living with their new spouses, and that was part of the reason why they left Taemin to roam around with his rumours. Baldy had waved him off shortly after and Taemin left obediently. His feelings weren’t exactly hurt, but that didn’t mean he was in a good mood either.

I'm still going to have to talk to somebody about you and your smoking problems. Aunts, uncles, anyone blood-related is fine. Tell them they should give me a call soon. 

Trying to block out Baldy's voice in his head, Taemin crumpled the note in his hands and headed for the school cafeteria. He was definitely going to pass out from a hypoglycemia shock if he didn’t consume any sugar soon.

Taemin had picked out a snickers bar and was just about to settle on an empty chair, when he ended up meeting eyes with Soojung. Taemin silently prayed for the girl to just keep walking and go on with her life, but it was disregarded coldly as Soojung smiled brightly and bounced towards him. 

“Hilarious, isn’t it?” Taemin snapped, when Soojung giggled and pushed her smooth hair over her shoulders.