mambo no.5

mambo no. 5

g, 1368w

right when she's on the verge of moving to the edge of human civilization, these two come along with the most ridiculous idea ever.

--requested by shida -- listen to mambo no.5!

It is one of those times when Soojung doesn't feel like seeing anyone at all, much less a certain Lee Taemin in the front doorway with his messy hair and greasy smile, complete with that look in his eyes that shows he has something up his sleeve.

She quirks an eyebrow at him. “Look, Taemin, I’m really not in the mood right now.”

“Please, come,” Taemin pleads, and she rolls her eyes, hardly believing that the guy in front of her is an entire year older.

She lets out the most exaggerated sigh ever, just in case it wasn’t obvious enough yet that she would rather be exiled to the edges of human civilization than to see his poor excuse of a puppy face. Mostly because whenever she sees Taemin, she’s reminded of Jongin – and Jongin, well, that’s a name that gets her blood boiling a few extra degrees. She’s going to need a fever reducer at this rate.

Soojung glares daggers through Taemin’s skull when he tugs impatiently at her cardigan sweater. “How transparent can you get? Don’t think that I don’t know what you’re trying to do.”

Taemin blinks innocently. “What do you mean?” But Soojung knows that at this moment, he is the very definition of a lying bastard and the failed attempt of a wingman. Jongin’s wingman, that is. It makes her cringe. Those two are always way too obvious.

She groans. “Why do I like Jongin again?” she cries out in exasperation. If she didn’t, she could just be silently napping in her room instead of dealing with this intruder.

Taemin laughs. “Beats me,” he mutters to himself, shrugging nonchalantly. Soojung fights the urge to slap him.

“Are you still mad at him?” Taemin asks. (She ignores the way he’s inching toward the door, kind of nudging her along.)

She bites her lower lip, pouting. “I mean, like – he’s always late to our dates and it’s hard enough to meet up as it is and then he goes and screws everything up – and sometimes he doesn’t watch his words and says some stupid insult and his apologies are never genuine – ”

Taemin pulls out his phone. “Yeah, Jongin?” he says.

Soojung stops her tirade and groans inwardly.

“So yeah, she’s still very much mad at you. Just a warning for you to step up your game. Spend an extra five minutes stretching or something. Drink lots of water beforehand. Don’t want to pull any muscles, obviously.” Taemin grins at Soojung, whose lower jaw has practically reached the ground. “Alright, bye. See you soon, Jongin.” The boy hangs up and turns toward his friend’s girlfriend.

“Curious now? Time to go! Car is waiting!” Placing his hands on her shoulders, he starts leading her out the door, ignoring her protests and questions the whole car ride.

“Here we are!” It’s some expensive restaurant, decorated with streamers and balloons and flowers, finished off with shimmery candles and ambient music. It seems as if the place has been rented out, as all the tables are empty except the center one. As she takes the scene in, she feels shivers travel down her spine. The simmering anger within her begins to subside, replaced with a dreaded sense of anticipation.

Soojung mentally slaps herself on the forehead and tells herself not to be so easily pacified. So she waits, unsure of what to do, but when she turns around to ask Taemin, he is nowhere to be seen. Ugh, that jerk, she thinks to herself.

She doesn’t know what exactly she expected – not that she expects that her life would be straight out of a romance film – but what she got was not exactly in her scope of imagination.

Suddenly, the overhead lights go haywire and Mambo No. 5 booms from the speakers in the ceiling. She almost chokes on her spit when a neatly-attired Jongin, donning red suspenders and a black dress shirt, runs straight out from nowhere and starts dancing to the music with everything he has. And let’s just say that graceful is not the first word that comes to mind.

“What are you – ”

He’s contorting his body into the weirdest positions and everything from the angle of his arms to the awkwardness of his flexed feet to the outrageous expressions on his face is all sorts of comical.

“One, two, three, four, five! Everybody in the car, so come on let’s ride!” he shouts in the most ridiculous accent ever, and by the time twenty dumbfounding seconds have passed, he’s sweating buckets down his temples.

He’s giving her not-so-seductive faces while doing the bell hop and she can feel her ears turning red. She doesn’t want to believe that this is the guy she is dating, but sad reality tells her that she is. And surprisingly, she doesn’t quite have a problem with it.

“Join me, Soojung-ah!” he grins, while doing the twist. “You know how to do this, right?”

She tries holding in her laughter, but she simply can’t anymore. She giggles when Jongin takes her hands and moves her along with the beat of the music. “Jump up and down and move it all around!” he chants, and she finds herself dancing along. She’s hoping that Taemin is not recording any of this.

Dancing with Jongin has always been fun, but never this fun. She feels her anger melting away and she throws herself into the stupidity of it all.

“To fall in love with a girl like you,” Jongin pants along with the lyrics, whispering in her ear. “You can’t run and you can’t hide, you and me gonna touch the sky,” she sings along with him. “MAMBO NUMBER FIVE!”

And the song ends, and all she can hear is their harsh breathing, hot air on each other’s skin. He peers into her eyes, his fringe damp with sweat. “Sorry, Soojung, for everything. I love you, I really do.”

She grabs a napkin from the restaurant table and reaches up to wipe his sweat. She smiles.

“Do you forgive me?” She pretends to think for a while, rubbing her chin.

“If not, I’ll just have to hit the replay button…” he teases, while wrapping his arm around her torso and bringing her closer.

“Fine, I forgive you,” she sticks her tongue out at him. “I love you, too,” she whispers back, her eyes curving into her signature half-moon crescents.

“And uh, can I ask you a question?” she nudges him lightly on the shoulder.

“Yeah?”

“Where did you come up with this ridiculous idea?”

He has a sheepish look on his face. “I was desperate, okay?”

“Actually,” another voice resounds from across the room. Soojung turns and it’s Taemin. She rolls her eyes at him. “It was my idea,” he says.

“Excuse you, it was totally my idea!” Jongin retorts.

“I am obviously the best wingman ever,” Taemin continues, completely ignoring Jongin. “You have no idea how pro I was at getting Soojung over here. Takes skills and extreme dedication. You two should thank me.”

Soojung kind of wants to demolish the expanding balloon that is Taemin’s ego, but she lets it slip for today. She feels Jongin squeeze her hand, and she smiles.

“Oh, by the way, I got it all on video! This is amazing blackmail material,” Taemin waves his phone in the air, to which Jongin and Soojung both groan. They sound like dying whales, and rightly so. She had a feeling that this would happen.

“Well, I will leave you two to your romantic rendezvous while I edit this fabulous video for my archive of embarrassing Jongin and Soojung moments!” And just like that, he’s out the door, greasy smile and all.

She and Jongin exchange amused glances. Soojung looks around. “So, uh, hey.” She feels a blush creeping onto her cheeks once they are alone.

“Hey, beautiful,” he winks.

She laughs. He’s cheesy, he’s occasionally forgetful, and sometimes he makes an utter fool out of himself – but he’s Jongin, and she loves him just the same.

Plus, it’s not every day that you get to witness a certain Kim Jongin lose himself to the groovy beat of Mambo No. 5, even if it is prime blackmail material.

a/n: can't write humor/crack/fluff for my life. but i tried bc a dear friend requested this drabble, hehe! hope you enjoyed it!