At the end of the corridor of the third floor of the west building, the school’s old music room that was once left abandoned is filled with the sweet beat of jazz, the strong pounding of the bass and the subtle pants coming from the lithe figure.

His body follows the rhythm of the music in swift steps and flawless movements, graceful pirouettes and small leaps. Jongin pants harder when his shins gives a dull throb and his knee almost forgets to lock itself that his legs buckles slightly. The pain is getting unbearable by the passing seconds, but Jongin doesn’t stop because the music is in him, invading his blood systems and thrumming beneath his skin.

He dances and dances to the intoxicating beat that he doesn’t realize how much he’s sweating and how his ragged breaths had turn to long gasps to in air into his lungs. It hurts, goddamit it hurts so much, but he’s still determined on finishing the song on the cassette.

A few steps and turns of his foot later, his kneecap feels like it’s been hit hard by a hammer and a pained cry wrenches out his throat. Jongin crumples to the ground, arms winding around his shins where his bones feels like cracking. His teeth clench hard and his fingers grasp tightly on his school trousers, as if that will lessen the pain on his legs.

The jazz music from the tape continues playing in the background, sweet and tempting and Jongin thinks dammit. He lies on the wooden floorboards of the music room, feeling the pain ebbing away slowly as the seconds bleed to minutes and silent tears push through his lids.

He’s failed again.

--*--

Kyungsoo sees Jongin at the rooftop just like how they had agreed to meet yesterday. When he pushes open the door to the rooftop, Jongin is already waiting there, lying on his back with his arms folded behind his head and his legs on top of the other. His eyes are closed and his lips are slightly parted and Kyungsoo wonders how he could actually sleep comfortably under the extreme heat of the sun.

Not knowing whether to wake him up or not, Kyungsoo shuffles awkwardly towards the boy and sits beside him quietly as to not wake him up. From this close, he realized just how stunningly beautiful Jongin’s skin tone is. It’s a shade darker in comparison to Kyungsoo’s paper-white skin but Kyungsoo thinks he might just like the fine contrast between them.

After a few beats of silence in which Kyungsoo quietly studies Jongin’s face and listens to his even breathings, Jongin’s eyelids flutter open slowly and his gaze met his. The older gasps when Jongin had caught him staring and quickly made an attempt to stand, but Jongin is quick and he caught his wrist just in time.

“Don’t go anywhere,” Jongin whispers, voice husky from sleep and eyes half-lidded. He pulled Kyungsoo’s wrist down gently so the boy is sitting down crossed-legged beside him once again. Kyungsoo stares at him warily but then decides to open his lunch box and start his meal.

“You came…” Jongin states, gazing up at the sky above and shifts to find a comfortable position. Kyungsoo nods slowly, glancing down at the boy lying beside him from the corner of his eyes. Jongin smiles softly. “I thought you would forget about me.”

Kyungsoo laughs and stuffs a meatball in his mouth. “Of course I won’t forget, silly.” Jongin chuckles with him and Kyungsoo likes hearing the sound of it.

“How are your wounds?” Kyungsoo asks. Jongin shrugs and gingerly prods the slightly blue-ish skin of his cheekbones with his fingertips. It’s less bulging now compared to yesterday, albeit the left side of his abdomen still hurts as much from the hard kick.

“I think they’re healing pretty well. I’ve also changed the bandages you plastered yesterday.”

Kyungsoo smiles in relief hearing the news and pats Jongin’s shoulders lightly. “How did your parents react to it?”

Jongin snorts. “Like they even care. They didn’t even spare a single glance at my bruised face. My parents hardly have any time since they’re too focused with their work, but if they do, it’s only for my older brother.”

Kyungsoo bites his lips, almost considering to brush his fingers against Jongin’s hand to comfort him, but then chooses not to since it would be way too awkward, so he focuses his attention back on his neglected lunch.

“Hey…”

Kyungsoo looks up from his food and swallows the spaghetti in his mouth. Jongin’s eyes shift nervously from Kyungsoo, then to the sky, and then back again to Kyungsoo’s face.

“Thanks for saving me from those kids yesterday.”

Kyungsoo blinks surprisedly and then smiles really bright. “It’s okay. Besides, I couldn’t just stand there doing nothing about it right?” Kyungsoo grins, making Jongin smile back widely.

It’s the first genuine smile Kyungsoo has ever seen from him.

--*--

It’s a pretty hectic Thursday afternoon for Kyungsoo. He has to turn up and lead one of the student bodies’ meeting that’s held after the second break, since their president, Junmyeon from class 2-2, called in sick that morning.

Sometimes, Kyungsoo grumbles about how tiring being a vice president can be. From the beginning when he had entered this school, he already had the secretary role in mind and was ready to steal that spot at any moment after the old third year students have graduated. Alas, he was picked by his friends and teachers to take the role of vice president, and not knowing how troublesome the position could be, Kyungsoo just agreed with his friend’s choice.

Kyungsoo sighs, mind wandering off to the meeting he would have attend later. The topic discussion would circle around the opening of the new dance club and art club and Kyungsoo feels an oncoming headache because he still needs to focus on final exams later in October. Great. Only four more months till he’s graduating.

When he turns around the corridor, there is a small commotion, and some students passing by also came to stop and join the crowd watching at whoever it is on the center. When curiosity takes over, Kyungsoo approaches them, standing on the balls of his feet to catch a glimpse of what seem to grab so many attention from the back of the crowd.

“You little ! How dare you lay your filthy hands on Suhyun?!”

There is a tall, well-built figure looming over a tanned boy who is pushed against the wall with the collar of his dress shirt being fisted by the person holding him. Kyungsoo gasped when he recognized Jongin – his eyes just as challenging and lips set into a mocking smirk.

“Well, I don’t see what seems to be the problem with helping your girlfriend collect her books when it had fallen out of her bag, don’t you think?”

“He’s lying, Jisuk oppa!” A girl next to them – Suhyun, Kyungsoo concludes – speaks up. “He was just trying to grab my hand and he was going to force himself on me. Oppa, I’m really scared.”

Kyungsoo hears the students around him start to whisper amongst each other, “Wow, Kim Jongin really is a ert, huh?” “If I was Suhyun, I would have already punched him myself” “That Kim Jongin never knows when to learn his lessons doesn’t he?”

Kyungsoo feels his blood boiling and his fist clench unconsciously at his sides. How can they speak such things of him?

“Don’t you ing lie, Suhyun. You know I was only returning the books to you when you grabbed my hand yourself,” Jongin narrows his eyes at the girl. Suhyun only mock glares at him.

“Am I lying, Kim Jongin? You were the one who tries to grab my attention were you not?”

Jongin hisses frustratedly until Jisuk’s strong arms pushes him harder against the wall. “Stop talking like to my girl, Kim Jongin,” He spits out. Jongin’s gaze didn’t waver, still piercing and cold. “Who do you think you are? Speaking as if you know what’s right, what’s wrong? Your over there needs a good lesson to not use her toungue to talk bull.”

Jisuk laughs loudly and turns suddenly towards the crowds circling them. “Hey, you guys. Which of you believes in what this little over here says about Suhyun? Who the hell believes that Kim ing Jongin is the victim here?”

The crowd stays quiet, nobody raises a hand as they all silently agreed that they believed Suhyun’s story more than the boy being pushed against the wall.

“I do.”

A soft voice speaks at the back of the crowd and everyone’s heads turns around to look at the person who had spoke. Suhyun shifts closer to her boyfriend and her face scrunches up in disapproval that someone had stepped up to Kim Jongin’s side instead of hers.

Kyungsoo emerges from the crowd of students and a few gasps and whispers are heard from them. “Hey isn’t that Kyungsoo from class 3-1?” a voice says somewhere in the crowd.

Jisuk, Suhyun and the rest are all still standing in shock and awe that their school’s prince had just defended the loser of all losers. Jongin looks at Kyungsoo with his brows knitted together.

“Kyungsoo, what are you doing here?” Jongin’s voice comes out small compared to his previous confident and snarky tone. Kyungsoo strides towards the two and smacks away Jisuk’s arm that was holding Jongin roughly by the collar.

“Don’t ever touch him again,” Kyungsoo threatens low, moving between them to step in front of Jongin. Jongin rubs his throat where he can breathe in easily now. He looks at the shorter figure in front of him, protecting him from Jisuk.

“Kyungsoo-“

“Shut up Jongin.” The older cuts him off and finally turns around to face Jongin. “How could you be so careless? You know what Suhyun’s personality is like, right? You could’ve just ignored the fallen books, you know,” Kyungsoo says softly, almost accusingly.

Suhyun huffs from the sidelines and clings to her boyfriend. “Kyungsoo,” Jisuk speaks up for the first time after Kyungsoo had shown up. “You don’t have to always be an angel and save some bothersome , right? This bastard doesn’t even worth your pity-“

“I’m not saving him just because of pity,” Kyungsoo seethes, turning his head to glare at Jisuk from over his shoulders.

“I’m saving him because I sincerely believe in what he says. I’m saving him because Kim Jongin deserves so much more than this.”

The silence hangs in the air and everyone stood dumbstruck at the words he had just said. Kyungsoo, who cannot stand the bubbling anger in his chest grabs Jongin’s wrist and pulls him out of the crowds before he can explode into a fit of rage in front of everyone. Jongin, who’s still stunned, stumbles behind (despite being taller and stronger) him as Kyungsoo leads them both towards the rooftop.

A/N: Alright, it's been a while! Oh and I've changed my username to _PinkTape (previously chentrollerman) incase you were wondering! Feedbacks are nice, I really like them! They encourage me to write better and quicker updates :) So comments are very welcome <3