“Jongin!”

                Jongin turns around, pizza slice in hand, which he nearly drops upon seeing Kyungsoo jogging over to him with that smile on his face again. “Hey,” Kyungsoo greets casually.

                “Hey!” Jongin replies, with infinite more enthusiasm. “What’re you doing here? I thought you normally had class right now?”

                “I do, but they have an online option anyway and I was kind of hungry,” Kyungsoo admitted, lifting the Tupperware container in his own hand.

                “Oh.” Jongin fiddles with the paper plate holding his food. “Do you want to, um, join me then?”

                “You mean to the clubroom?”

                “I was actually going to eat here,” Jongin says, motioning to the seating area past the cash register. “Unless you wanted to head to the clubroom…”

                “No, it’s fine, we can eat here,” Kyungsoo replies. “I’m sure they’re not going to miss us. I know I’m not particularly gassed to see them either.”

                Jongin brightens. “Cool.”

                They pay for their food and sit down at one of the tables in the middle of the food court. Various other students fill the tables in the room, some chatting with friends and others eating in silence and gazing focused at their laptops or cellphones.

                “So, how are midterms treating you?” Kyungsoo asks conversationally as he breaks apart his chopsticks.

                Jongin groans. “Kind of stressing out.”

                “How many do you have?”

                “Three.”

                “I’m sure you’ll do fine,” Kyungsoo says, swirling his Pad Thai around. “I always see you reading your textbooks. Most people stopped doing their readings after the second week, so you’re doing better than most.”

                Jongin internally grimaces, because truthfully he hadn’t really been reading those textbooks when he had them open across his lap in the clubroom. More than fifty percent of the time he was staring at his textbook was time spent trying to figure out how to start a conversation with Kyungsoo, although on multiple occasions he held back, partly because Kyungsoo was actually doing his readings and partly because he had no idea how to follow up all of the conversation starters he’d already thrown at him. The rest of the time was spent secretly stealing glances at Kyungsoo because whenever he was concentrating really hard his eyebrows would furrow together in this cute kind of way and he would bite his lower lip and for Jongin it was a constant struggle between staring harder or looking away because the sight would literally start driving him crazy with the urge to just kiss him right then and there.

                “Besides, I’ve heard it’s pretty hard to get into the journalism program, so you probably have to be pretty smart to get in, no?”

                Another internal wince, because all he could think about was Kyungsoo’s friend Jinri and how she was probably studying for her journalism midterms at Ryerson as they were speaking.
                “Uh, not really,” Jongin says weakly.

                Kyungsoo chuckles. “I’m sure you’ll do fine all the same,” he says, reaching out and patting Jongin’s hand reassuringly, and Jongin’s heart skips a beat.

                “Heyyyyy, look who it is!”

                The two of them look up. “Oh, it’s you guys,” Kyungsoo says in surprise.

                “Oh, it’s you guys,” Jongin says flatly, completely devoid of all previous enthusiasm.

                Kris and Tao are wearing matching mischievous grins as they plop down next to them at the table, with Kris sitting next to Jongin and Tao next to Kyungsoo. “Didn’t expect to see the two of you. Here. Together,” Kris says, grabbing Jongin’s vitamin water.

                Jongin snatches it back. “Didn’t expect the see the two of you either,” he says sourly. “What are you two doing hanging out anyway? I thought you guys hated each other.”

                Kris and Tao blink. “We do hate each other,” they chirp in unison.

                “So, lunch date?” Tao asks nonchalantly, unscrewing the cap of his own vitamin water.

                Jongin blushes furiously, “Not a date.”

                “Oh yeah, right, cause you guys are planning for that other date, right? Kyungsoo’s gonna help you cook or something,” Kris says, reaching for Tao’s bottle. “Hey, give me some of that, Jongin won’t share.”

                “Forget it, I don’t want your sicko germs. Get your own.”

                Jongin glares at Kris, “Not a date.”

                “But you guys are still doing that, right?” Tao asks, leaning back and holding the vitamin water high behind his head as Kris reaches forward for it. “Alone? At his house? Or are you taking him to your place? Are you gonna go shopping for the supplies first?” he adds with a cheeky grin.

                There is nothing Jongin wants more at that moment than to strangle them both. “Not a—”

                “By the way, we’re trying to figure out how we’re gonna do this carpooling thing for the photo-shoot this weekend,” Kris says, standing in his seat now with one hand propped on the table as he reaches way over for the water, but Tao’s got it far out of his reach. “We were thinking you should pick Kyungsoo up.”

                “Don’t you live way out at High Park, though?” Kyungsoo frowns, either completely oblivious or not at all disturbed by the weird behaviour between the other three boys. “You’ll have to go past downtown and then come back again.”

                And to think Jongin had been prepared to forgive Kris and Tao for their earlier remarks. “Oh, you live in the area?”

                “Yeah, I actually live on res. I’m rooming with Luhan in the apartments.”

                So that’s how Luhan knew Jinri, Jongin realizes, and for a second he’s too preoccupied with wondering how the hell one rooms with Luhan without going insane to remember that he’s just missed his shot at doing Kyungsoo a favour.

                “Everyone else’s car is already full, though,” Tao interrupts just then. “Jongin’s the only one with a spot left, since he’s already agreed to drive Luhan and Sehun.”

                Jongin opens his mouth and almost says “I have?” but Kris gives him a hard kick to the shins and he promptly clamps his mouth back shut.

                Kyungsoo looks at Jongin worriedly. “Won’t it be a bother to you?”

                “No, no, not at all,” Jongin says quickly. “It’s no problem, really. Besides, the TTC rates have been spiking up lately, and you’ve got a long way to go.”

                “Well, okay,” Kyungsoo says hesitantly. “As long as I’m not troubling you.”

                “You are most definitely not troubling me,” Jongin assures him.

                “You are most definitely not troubling him,” Kris echoes, and Tao nods with mock-seriousness as he says this.

                Kyungsoo slowly gives Jongin a small smile. “Alright. Thanks, Jongin.”

                “No problem,” Jongin replies, grinning back.

                “Well, we should probably go,” Tao says, standing up and pulling Kris out of his seat.

                Kris frowns up at him, “But I’m not done with—”

                Tao offers Kris his vitamin water, and Kris automatically shuts up and takes the bottle. “You kids have fun,” Tao says as he drags Kris away.

                “See you later,” Kyungsoo waves them off before turning back to Jongin. “What were we talking about?”

                Jongin shrugs, still grinning dopily because all he can think about now is “Carpooling?”

A/N

Extra fast but extra short update because I have things planned and the next chapter is going to be really long I can just feel it 

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Thanks again for all the lovely comments! And to all the new subs welcome *presents you with a bouquet of Twizzlers because flowers are too mainstream*