Word Count: ~1.9k

It was the first chemistry test of the year, just basic chemistry like predicting chemical reactions, converting units, and basic knowledge about matter. Sehun had stayed up late into the night, until his roommate told him that further studying would do no good if he didn’t get any sleep. Even after Yixing’s advice, he stayed up another hour, which probably would have been better spent sleeping.

He couldn’t remember the name of liquids that act like liquids and spent a long time staring at the question to no avail. He wanted nothing more than to bang his head on the desk in front of him; instead he simply glowered at the test with a look of even greater disgust for the subject than usual. At least he had finished the multiple-choice section in a timely manner. He finished the five pages of multiple choice questions within about fifteen minutes, doubting the answers for only a few, but the real challenge came with the short answer questions.

Jongin, beside him, was working through the test quickly and within twenty minutes, he had finished the entire fifteen pages. He sauntered up to the teacher’s desk, handing the test in to a very surprised teacher. He collected his things and left the room, throwing a last smirk over his shoulder before turning the corner and walking down the hallway. Sehun shot a venomous look at him as he left, wishing more than anything that he was as good at chemistry as that jerk.

Sehun suppressed a groan as he looked through the other four pages short response questions left. At least he had finished all of the multiple choice questions he could at the moment, although he would be going back and trying them again once he had finished the test and began to check his answers. Each page had three questions on it; some of them paragraph replies, some calculations, and a few fill in the blanks, for which Sehun was very thankful. Sehun very much wished that he had taken up Jongin’s offer the night before and studied with him instead of being a prideful brat about not wanting to accept help from such a jerk. For once, he seemed sincere when he invited Sehun.

Ten minutes until the class period was over and he still had a whole page of questions left and no time to go back and check his work. He laid his face on the desk, hating chemistry with a burning passion as he tried to remember how to convert moles per cubic metre into atoms per millilitre. The teacher called time and he slunk to the front of the room to hand the test in. By his estimate, he would be getting a solid C, most likely. He proceeded to gather his things and then trudge out the door.

Surprisingly, Jongin was waiting just outside the classroom, the usual smirk that irked Sehun to no end plastered all over his face.

“So princess, how’d you like that test?” Sehun responded to the comment with a venomous glower that only earned a snicker from its target.

“Not as much as the little prodigal .”

“Don’t be like that,” he said with mock injury in his voice.

“I’m sorry that I can’t breeze through a fifteen page test in twenty minutes like a certain cocky jerk we know.”

“I’m hurt. And here I waited for you all this time.” Sehun responded with an eye roll and sigh of exasperation.

“I’ve got to go to Korean class now. Run along to whichever class you will be plaguing next.” He made a shooing motion before turning around and leaving down the hallway.

“I’m fairly sure that your classroom is in the other direction,” Jongin called lightly.

“I knew that,” he snapped, turning on his heel and pushing past Jongin with a practically murderous look on his face.

“Just trying to be helpful,” he called playfully after the livid boy.

--

Sehun was in a sour mood for the rest of the day, not just because he had taken one of the worst tests of his young life but also because he couldn’t get that irksome Jongin out of his head. He even snapped at Chanyeol in his incorrectly directed frustration, getting him to shut up for the rest of the class. Jongdae didn’t dare joke with him, feeling the homicidal aura emanating from his friend. For lunch, Sehun popped into the dining hall and then left to eat it out on the quad alone. He ripped it to shreds with his teeth, directing his anger this time at the apple.

He called in sick to avoid afternoon classes, to avoid seeing that jerk and instead spent his time back at his room sulking. When he first entered the empty room, he buried his face in a pillow and screamed until his lungs hurt in general frustration at both the test and that annoying Jongin. Once he had finally calmed down enough to be reasonable, he opened his chemistry textbook to see how badly he had actually done on the test.

After flipping through the pages of chapters one, two, and three, he found that he had not done as poorly as he had originally predicted. He had gotten most of the multiple-choice questions that he had answered and most of the short answer questions correct. He might even be able to pull out of the test with a low B, with test corrections, a high B or a low A. He silently hoped that Jongin had made some stupid mistakes as he sped through the test as quickly as he did but deep down, Sehun knew that Jongin wouldn’t have made any mistakes because, although he was a cocky , he did have the talent to accompany it. His failure would just be too much for Sehun to hope for.

--

When afternoon classes ended, Sehun went out to meet his friends by the fountain. They were there as they always were and he was relieved that at least this part of his life was okay.

“Sehun ah! Are you feeling better? I heard you were sick. Is that why you were so irritable earlier?” Kyungsoo inquired. Had it been any other person, Sehun probably would have punched the guy in the face, but Kyungsoo’s intentions were always innocent, so he just couldn’t get mad at him, besides, Baekhyun was there. If Sehun had punched Kyungsoo, Baekhyun would have ripped his face off.

“Yeah. It was a stomach thing but I think I’m okay now. Thanks.” Kyungsoo’s smile was so pure and innocent that a smile crept onto his face, turning the corners of his mouth up.

“I’m glad to hear that you’re okay,” a familiar light voice said from behind him. He turned to see Yixing. “I thought you might have been throwing a tantrum about your chemistry test,” he teased. Sehun’s paper white skin turned pink. God did Yixing know him well. Jongdae looked between the two of them and began to snicker. Everyone turned to him but he didn’t reply to the questioning stares, he just waited till the fit of laughter passed.

“It’s nothing,” he gasped when he was done. Joonmyun smiled at him and it was his turn to blush.

“So… How were electives today?” Sehun asked.

“Chorus was annoying because we’re learning SNSD songs,” Baekhyun complained.

“Oh come off it, you know you like them. I hear you singing Gee when you’re showering at night,” Kyungsoo poked him in the side.

“Well it’s annoying when guys sing them,” he huffed. Jongdae began singing the chorus, deliberately flat just to get under Baekhyun’s skin. “See!? Like that,” he grumbled and Jongdae cackled. Chanyeol was laughing himself to death as well but Kyungsoo put a comforting arm around Baekhyun’s shoulders.

“In dance practice today, Jongin did the entirety of Humanoids perfectly with Hyukjae hyung,” Chanyeol said lightly and the livid look that Sehun shot him made him jump when he turned to face the boy.

“What? He was good.” That was supposed to be his dance, not that jerk Jongin’s. He grit his teeth, using all of his self-control to not scream obscenities at the top of his lungs.

Yixing wrapped comforting arms around Sehun. “Jongin isn’t exactly the person of the month at the moment,” he replied. Sehun made a face.

“He was never person of the month,” he growled. Yixing simply replied to this with a mysterious smile.

Apparently the day had gone much better for the rest of them than it had gone with Sehun and he was almost jealous. When the dining hall opened, they tried to cheer Sehun up by making funny faces as they ate. Jongdae even salted Chanyeol’s kimchi when he wasn’t looking. Joonmyun chided him lightly that it wasn’t nice to do things like that to their poor innocent Chanyeol even if he was chuckling himself. The surprised reaction certainly brought a smile to Sehun’s face and he felt better for a while.

--

Heading back to their dorms, Sehun, Jongdae, Joonmyun, and Yixing met Jongin again and Sehun’s grimace was back with a vengeance. The instant the elevator doors opened on his floor, he stalked off, leaving a slightly surprised Yixing and a smirking Jongin.

“I think you’re getting to him, but he doesn’t quite understand what it is you are doing. Maybe you should try a different approach,” Yixing said vaguely, not looking at Jongin, before following the fuming boy. Jongin trailed behind, not really wanting to follow too closely behind Sehun.

He was trying different approaches. He waited for Sehun after class. He offered to help him study, but the boy just didn’t understand his intentions and he was getting frustrated.

Jongin slunk into his room and flopped facedown on his bed. His roommate didn’t bother looking up from his book.

“More problems with your boyfriend?”

“I wish. He hates my guts,” Jongin mumbled into his pillow.

“You should really work on that ego of yours then.”

“I know that Taemin!!! He’s just hard to relax around.”

“Just try and drop the tough guy act, then. He’d probably like you more if you showed him your cute and sensitive side.”

“Shut up. I know this already, all of it.” He peeled his face off of the pillow to look at Taemin.

“Well then try harder. Help him with his chemistry or something. Try and volunteer to help him but don’t sound like an doing it.”

Jongin flopped his face back onto his pillow and replied with a presumed obscenity mumbled into the pillow.

“Whatever,” Taemin replied, turning the page.

--

Across the hall, Sehun was curled up in a ball facing the wall.

“He’s such an egotistically !” he complained loudly to Yixing once again. “He thinks he’s all that because he can dance and he is good at chemistry. God. Would he just get over himself already?!”

“Why don’t you give him a chance? I bed he isn’t as bad as you think he is. Maybe he’s just a little misunderstood and uses this arrogant façade to protect himself,” Yixing suggested, pegging Jongin perfectly.

“No. I don’t wanna,” Sehun grumbled like a small child throwing a tantrum.

“Suit yourself,” Yixing sighed. “All I’m saying is that you should give the boy a chance. You might be surprised.”

A/N: Jongin fangirling. His Kai is slipping. XD