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They all met at the fountain, Yixing bringing a timidly trailing Jongin. His little friend Taemin was nowhere to be found either. Baekhyun, Kyungsoo, Jongdae, and Sehun had already convened. “Welcome to the madness that is our friend group, Jongin,” Jongdae said, sardonically bowing.

“Just ignore him, he’s an idiot,” Baekhyun said, pushing Jongdae out of the way. “I’m Baekhyun. This is Kyungsoo and the idiot is Jongdae, but you can just call him DumbDae.”

“Calling me DumbDae is completely off limits,” Jongdae grumbled.

“You have to admit it’s a surprisingly creative nickname,” Joonmyun said. He had walked up and no one had noticed. “My name is Joonmyun.”

A tall boy with curly hair walked up to the group, completing it. “My name is Chanyeol.” He gave his slightly scary grin and Jongin raised his eyebrows.

“It’s nice to meet you guys.” Jongin appeared to have done a complete reversal in his personality. He was nothing like the cocky student Sehun knew from Chemistry class.

Baekhyun turned to Sehun and whispered in his ear, “I don’t see what you find so wrong with this boy. He seems nice enough.”

“He’s usually different from this,” Sehun whispered back indignantly.

“Whatever you say. I think you’re just blowing it out of proportion in order to convince yourself that you don’t really like him.”

“Shut up. No one asked for your opinion,” Sehun hissed.

“Whatever you say,” he sighed.

“We've heard a lot about you from our sour-faced friend here, but you don’t appear anything like his reports. Which is a good thing!” Kyungsoo added hastily. “It’s not like he badmouths you either—“ Baekhyun clamped a hand over Kyungsoo’s mouth before he could say any other stupid things. Jongin looked at him with a puzzled expression.

“Sorry, sometimes Kyungsoo can’t control his mouth. What he meant to say is that we’ve heard a lot about you and it’s nice to finally be able to meet you.” Baekhyun beamed at Jongin.

“Thanks...” Jongin replied.

“Don’t worry, we are just as socially inept as we seem,” Joonmyun sighed. “I hope you won’t judge us too much. I personally don’t know what possessed me to join this circus.”

“If anyone in the group said that they weren’t crazy enough to be a part of it, he would be lying, myself included,” Yixing stated.

“But you two seem so normal,” Jongin spoke before he could stop himself.

“And the rest of us don’t?” Jongdae questioned indignantly.

“No, we really don’t.” Sehun shot him down.

“Chanyeol laughs too much, Sehun looks like he is perpetually pissed, Kyungsoo looks perpetually surprised, Baekhyun is sassy as hell, but what about me? I’m perfectly normal!” Jongdae complained.

“You’re sassier than I am,” Baekhyun replied.

“That’s not true,” Jongdae whined.

“It kind of is,” Joonmyun replied as gently as he could.

“It’s kind of hectic in this friend group,” Jongin commented as an aside to Yixing.

“You get used to it after a while,” he replied, looking rather vague.

“So we heard you’re really good at chemistry and have been helping our little brother,” Jongdae commented, draping an arm over Jongin’s shoulders. He had already changed to informal speech.

“Little brother?” Sehun returned, cocking an eyebrow.

“I’d like to think so. A cute little brother to shelter from the evils of the world,” Jongdae preached.

Joonmyun carefully removed Jongdae’s arm, sensing Jongin’s discomfort. He sent a quick apologetic look toward the latter before herding Jongdae away.

“I’m not that great at it,” Jongin said modestly.

“Oh come off it; you can admit that you’re good at it. You did, after all, bring Sehun’s grades up by a goodly amount,” Baekhyun replied, eyes shrinking to crescents when he smiled. Meanwhile, Sehun looked absolutely horrified, between his embarrassing friends and the fact that Jongin was not acting like a cocky asshat. He was acting like a normal person. Sehun wondered briefly if the world would start ending or if Joonmyun would get laid in the next six years. Despite this, Sehun nodded begrudgingly in agreement.

“Thanks,” Jongin replied, cheeks tinting with embarrassment.

“Damn,” Jongdae whispered to Sehun. “If Yixing doesn’t turn out for whatever reason, be it that he’s straight or he isn’t into brats or those younger than him, this would be a good second, not gonna lie.”

“What is wrong with you all,” Sehun hissed back. “I swear to god you’re all working against me,” he grumbled so quietly that only Jongdae could hear his kvetching.

“And here I thought you were the one who invited him to join us. Guess it was Yixing, unless you were doing it to win Yixing’s approval,” Jongdae mused quietly. “Unless he’s secretly growing on you and you don’t want to admit it but your subconscious wants to get to know him better.” Sometimes Sehun really hated the devious look that Jongdae almost perpetually had on his face.

“And it looks like the dining hall is open. Let’s just go in and eat,” Sehun said suddenly and forcefully. “I’m hungry,” he justified when his friends threw him concerned looks.

“No argument here,” Chanyeol replied. Baekhyun and Kyungsoo nodded assent.

“Then let’s go in.” Yixing beamed.

--

They all said their goodbyes and returned to their dorms to do homework or go on the computer to avoid homework. Sehun decided to do the latter by texting Taeyeon.

-

“So I invited Jongin, you know, that guy I hate, to have dinner with us and all I get is grief about how he isn’t such a bad guy”

“It’s driving me insane!”

-

“From what I’ve heard, he really doesn’t seem all that bad”

“If you’re not interested in him, I’d gladly take his number ;)”

-

“I don’t have his number actually”

“We’re rooming right across the hall so I guess I never thought that I’d need his number”

-

“Why don’t you ask for it?”

-

“I don’t really want it.”

-

“Say that you have a friend who wants his number and she’s single and totally into dancers.”

-

“It just sounds like an excuse for getting his number.”

-

“Then why don’t you give him my number?”

-

“I don’t think he swings that way.”

-

“Well we can at least be friends”

“And I can totally tell him all of your secrets. :)”

-

“You’re terrible!”

“That makes me want to give him your number even less than before!”

-

“Fine”

“I’ll just ask Yixing then~”

“He’d definitely be willing to help me get you two together.”

-

“I don’t want to get together with that jerk!”

-

“Hunnie, I’ve known you for long enough to know that you’re trying to justify wanting both Jongin and Yixing”

“You can at least do him the courtesy of acknowledging that you like him as well as Yixing”

“It’ll also feel better for your heart”

-

“I’m not interested in him!”

-

“I’m still going to get his number”

“One way or another”

“You really shouldn’t have given me your roommate’s number”

-

“I didn’t think that you two would be plotting against me to try and get me and Jongin together”

“I’m just glad you haven’t told him yet about... Things...”

-

“I wouldn’t do that to you”

“It would make the air in your room really awkward and as much as I love teasing you, I don’t want to ruin a nice friendship”

“I’m pretty sure that he doesn’t know still”

“You boys are always like that”

“You know when other relationships are about to bloom but couldn’t be more clueless about your own relationships”

“Although on second thought sometimes you can be pretty thick about other people’s relationships too” Sehun could feel her laughing at the other end. He sighed in exasperation and knew perfectly well that she knew he was sighing.

-

“I’m tired of everyone playing matchmaker or just teasing me about Jongin”

“I’m going to go do Chemistry now”

-

“Ooh~”

“Isn’t chemistry Jongin’s specialty?”

-

“Never mind”

“I’m doing history homework”

-

“You’re subconsciously thinking of him~”

-

“Don’t you have homework of your own to do?”

-

“It’s much more fun teasing you than doing stupid algebra”

-

“Lucky me”

-

“Besides”

“I’ve been getting to talk to you less and less”

“Homework can wait”

-

“I miss you too”

“But break is coming up soon so I can come back and spend a couple weeks there”

-

“I’ve already marked my calendar”

“We’ll get bubble tea and do all the stuff we used to do”

-

“Looking forward to it”

“Mayhaps I might even bring some of my friends and you can meet them”

-

“That’d be great!”

“I really want to meet them all”

“Both Yixing and Jongin”

“Also Baekhyun and Kyungsoo sound really nice”

“I also want to see for myself if this Chanyeol person looks as funny as he sounds”

“I’m no so sure about Jongdae, but I’d be fine meeting him anyways”

“And Joonmyun too”

“He seems nice”

-

“I’m not sure whether they all live in the city but I’ll see if they can come over”

-

“Great!”

“I guess you’d better get back to your chemistry now”

“*Suggestive eyebrow wiggle*”

-

“You didn’t need to type that last part”

“I already knew that you were doing it” He exited the conversation and grumbled.

-

“Is Taeyeon teasing you again?” Yixing asked with a light smile on his lips.

“When is she not?”

“I think it’s cute. She’s like your sister and she looks after you.”

“But she’s also mean to me.”

“It’s only because she cares about you.” Sehun scrunched up his face. “She’s also glad that you’ve made friends.”

Sehun heaved a loud sigh of frustration. “I’m going to pretend that you aren’t working together with her and do my homework. My History homework.”

A/N: Yixing and Taeyeon shipping SeKai. I thought it would be kind of funny. That and Taeyeon will be appearing a little more in the fic quite soon!