Catch Taemin If You Can; [six]

Taemin and Jongin were already running twenty minutes late. Not that Taemin cared, he was already known as the kid who smoked and littered in school anyways. He strode out lazily, and froze in the middle of opening the front door. Quickly dodging behind the door, Taemin stood against the wall so that he couldn’t be seen outside the window. A shadow was lingering around their driveway and Taemin quickly went through his list of stalker-turned-past-girlfriends. Jongin came out from the washroom, slinging his backpack on his shoulder as he got ready to leave.

“I told you we shouldn’t have put the radish in our soup." Jongin said as he eyed Taemin judgmentally. "The symptoms are appearing.”

Grabbing Taemin by the collar, Jongin and pushed him out the front door. The shadow jumped out in front of them, and Jongin flinched in surprise. Jiyeon smiled faintly and waves her hands.  

“Good morning.” Jiyeon said tentatively. 

“Hi..." Taemin cringed. "Uh, what are you doing here?”

“I came to see you.” Jiyeon replied.

Taemin immediately regretted eating the chocolates. He would never have agreed to watch one movie with Jiyeon, had he known it would've brought such dreadful consequences.

“To be honest, I wanted to make sure if you were really... gay." Jiyeon spoke up. "If you were just trying to avoid hurting my feelings, then…”

“No! No, it’s true!" Taemin hastily cut her off. "See…?”

Taemin stuck his body right next to Jongin and plasted an awkward smile on his face. Jiyeon’s eyes moved back and forth between the two, her face hardening with each second. Nodding her head in bitterness, Jiyeon turned around without a word. The two boys watched her saunter farther and farther away until she was completely gone from their sight. 

“Why am I even friends with you.”

Jongin shoved Taemin away. Taemin didn’t respond.

◈

Taemin feared of becoming a senior next year because that meant he had to walk up four flights of stairs every morning to his class. He was having enough trouble walking up to the third floor every morning, and Taemin removed his uniform jacket, wiping the sweat before it smeared into his collar. He usually ordered Jongin to carry his backpack for him but Jongin had ditched him, saying something about attending an important soccer meeting.

He wouldn't have had this problem only if his mom was here to feed him proper food every night, Taemin thought, suddenly feeling sick from last night’s radish-carrot soup. Taemin started up the stairs again when someone tugged him from behind. It was a small girl, holding out a carton of strawberry milk and hiding her face behind her long hair. Accepting the milk from her, Taemin lowered his head to see the girl’s face. She shrank back even further. The girl was a freshman, Taemin could tell by the colour of her tie.

Taemin smiled. Who needed mom when you had freshman cuties looking after their oppa?

“For me?”

He chuckled, seeing the girl nod bashfully. He opened the small pink carton and took a sip.

“I’d like to see your face if you don’t mind.”

Taemin smiled again as she slowly lifted her head. She was definitely cute, and Taemin silently screamed “I ain’t dead yet!” as he started to go over his storage of good pick-up lines in his head. But before Taemin could open his mouth, Jongin suddenly dashed into the scene and took Taemin’s backpack from him. With a sly smirk, Jongin snatched the milk in Taemin’s hand and started gulping it down.

“What the hell, that's mine!”

Taemin yelled as Jongin handed the empty carton back to him. Jongin then averted his gaze to the surprised girl, noticing her for the first time since he got here. 

“Freshman?”

He asked and the girl nodded submissively, flushing bright pink. Jongin approached the girl and leaned in as if to study her face.

“You like this guy?”

Jongin frowned, and the girl nodded again as her eyes rounded. Feeling unshamefully proud, Taemin shooed Jongin away.

“I’ll take it from here-”

“He’s a heartbreaker you know.”

Jongin cut him off, and Taemin barely stopped himself from smacking Jongin in the head for the sake of his own image. Instead, he waved a denial towards the freshman as he pulled Jongin's arm. But Jongin merely resisted by placing his hand on his forehead, and Taemin let go immediately, avoiding a critical blow to his chic image. Jongin bent over to meet the girl’s eyes and lightly ruffled her bangs.

“A pretty girl like you deserve a much better guy.”

Jongin smiled. The girl blinked several times, her face colouring to an even deeper shade of red.

Taemin had never seen Jongin smile like that during the ten years he spent with him. It was the kind of smile that could turn horrible metal scraping screeches into harmonious chorus of baby angels, and Taemin blinked dumbfoundedly. Jongin smiled again and walked up the stairs, leaving Taemin to stand blankly in his spot.

Since when did Jongin smile like that? And why ha