You're not sure what time it is, but you're floating in and out of consciousness, slowly becoming aware of the world around you, so it's probably almost time to wake up. You decide not to open your eyes in case it's a false alarm and opt to wait for your phone alarm. 

On cue, it starts playing a song that you're too tired to identify, and you automatically fumble for your phone, hitting snooze instead of off in case you fall asleep again.

That'd be bad, you think. 

You roll out of your plush bed, letting your feet hit the carpet, muted thumps the only sound in the entire house. You yawn, rubbing the sleep out of your eyes and slowly pad to the bathroom where you shiver from the cold tiles beneath your feet. Your reflection stares at you, showing as much apathy as you are. There are cowlicks everywhere, and you make an effort to pat them down with your palm.

They stand right back up anyway, but you'll fix that. 

After you're done with your morning routine, you shuffle downstairs where (hopefully) breakfast awaits you. There is none, like you expected, but you can't help but get hopeful in case your parents had actually made food for you, just in case it does happen. You open the steel refrigerator door and peer inside, looking for some eggs. Scrambled eggs sound really good right now, and you'll be damned if you weren't going to make any.

Pulling out three, you crack them in a ceramic bowl that your parents bought from China or Thailand, you can't really be bothered to remember, and you season it with all the good things before you pull out the wooden chopsticks and just stir. It takes a while to get it to perfection, because you, Do Kyungsoo, strives for nothing less than perfection, but you finally plated it with the steaming scrambled eggs on a bowl of rice.

A knock on your door interrupts you when you're reaching for a spoon in the drawer, and you roll your eyes. What horrible timing. Still, you move towards the wooden door that separates you from the outside world and check the peep hole that is really too tall for you. You see Jongdae waiting for you and when he notices you through the peep hole, he waves, a lazy grin gracing his face.

Right.

He's your ride to school, how could you possibly forget?

You unlock the door and swing it open, a raised eyebrow the only greeting you give him. 

"Alright, Kyungsoo, don't look at me like that," Jongdae says, stepping in and taking his shoes off. "Oh, hey, it smells good in here. Did you just make breakfast?" You listen to him blabber on absentmindedly and close the door, locking it again. The brunet moves into the kitchen, probably to poke at your food, and you pick up his sneakers and prop them up against the wall. 

"Hey, I'm eating your breakfast!" Jongdae calls from the kitchen.

Your jaw drops and you rush into the kitchen, going to slap him silly. When you're in the doorway of the kitchen, you see the male scraping half of your breakfast onto his own plate. Your hand smacks him upside the head for stealing your breakfast and he spills some of the rice on the table.

"Ouch!"

You open your mouth to say something against him, only to remember that you can't speak. You're mute, and you always will be. Instead, you pull out your phone and rapidly type in a message.

do you mind not touching my food

"C'mon, Kyunggie, be a pal, let me have some!"

fool, if i wanted you to have some i would've made you some

Jongdae gasps and holds a hand to his heart. "That hurts! I thought we were best friends!"

yes i'm starting to rethink that horrible life choice

He rolls his eyes at you before patting you on the head like you're some kind of child. Which you're not, by the way. "You wound me," he replies dryly.

ah yes such a shame that is.

Jongdae snorts before scarfing down the food that he helped himself with. You do the same, only you take care not to end up choking on the food like the male in front of you did several seconds after. He coughs loudly, running to the tap and putting his face under it. Jongdae turns on the faucet and takes large gulps of water to wash everything down.

"Thanks for helping me," he responds, the dish going in the sink.

not a problem friend

You send him a lopsided grin to which he sticks up the middle finger, and you make a sound that is a cross between a whale dying and a cat upchucking one of it's furballs. You can't really be sure that your laugh sounds like that, but you had tried to think of the things that sounded close to it. 

When the laugh slips out, you automatically shut your mouth, self-conscious of the ugly laugh you had. Jongdae doesn't react to it, and you wonder if he pretended not to hear it or that he really didn't mind your laugh. You hope it's the latter. 

"Anyway, Kyungsoo, you done? We seriously gotta get to school now," Jongdae says, sending you one of his signature grins. You nod and hand him your plate and it ends up in the sink for you to wash later. Jongdae and you walk to the front door where he slips on his shoes while you're at the shoe rack and you can't decide between the colours of your Converses.

The brunet notices this before sighing and yanking a random colour, putting it in front of your face. "Here. Stop being such a girl and just wear it." 

You huff indignantly before slipping on the dark blue sneakers and grab the messenger bag that hangs on the hat rack and sling it over your shoulder. Your hands push Jongdae out of the door and you hand him the keys to lock your front door because quite frankly, you can't be bothered with it. You run down the steps to Jongdae's old car that was a hand-me-down from his parents and open the door to the passenger's seat.

WIthin a minute, the brunet trails behind you, opening the door to the driver's seat and tosses you the keys. "Gosh, what am I? Your slave?" A beat passes between them before Jongdae adds, "Actually, don't answer that."

He puts the key into the ignition and the car wheezes before it starts up and then you both are off to school. 

When the school is just a few blocks away, the car slows down to a stop due to the red light at the intersection. You watch the car that had manage to elude the red light drive away, and you turn your attention to your right, watching the myriad of students walk by. It isn't until a dark red backpack passes by your window that you snap to attention.

Jongin.

"What? What is it? Is someone dying?" Jongdae asks, alarmed by your sudden alertness.

You choose not to reply despite the fact that you couldn't say anything even if you wanted to. Instead, you crane your neck against the car window, straining for a few more fleeting glances of the boy. 

Jongdae follows your line of vision before he tsks in annoyance. "Kim Jongin? You're pining over him?" he asked, flicking your cheek to which you scowl at. The light turns green and the brunet pushes on the peddle, driving past Jongin until you can't see him anymore.

i'm surprised you know what the word pining means

You show him the message when he stops by a red stop sign.

"Shut up, I know a lot of words that you don't know I know. I pay attention in school, you know." Jongdae lets a few students cross the street, his fingers drumming on the wheel. "Does he even know you exist? I mean, not that I'm not supporting you in this, but what are the chances he's actually going to notice you? Especially since you can't, like, you know, talk."

nobody said i wanted him to notice me. i'm fine with pining to myself thank you very much

Jongdae pulls up the car to the parking lot, his lips pursing when he reads the message. "You can't hold back your love for very long. It's kind of like poop, you can try to hold it back, but eventually you're going to your pants if you don't let it out. In the toilet, which in this case, would be Jongin. Not that he's a toilet, of course," he says, glancing at you for a reaction.

um ew. besides i'll cross that bridge when i come to it which i'm sure will not happen since i'll be over him in a few weeks

The brunet snorted, clearly showing his disbelief for that claim, and you jab your bony elbow into his side. "Alright, alright, I believe you. Just forget about him soon, okay? But just in case it does happen to work out, you guys are going to be so cute. I want to be your best man and the godfather."

A wheeze manages to exit your windpipes which happened to be a poor excuse for a laugh.

keep dreaming bub

"Ew, I see enough of you during reality, I don't need to envision your love life in my dreams," Jongdae retorted, holding the door open for you. You dip your head in thanks, stepping inside. You both head towards your lockers (which you weren't sure why you needed since you were allowed to carry your backpacks everywhere, therefore, you had nothing to deposit in there—not even a coat), where you lean against the lockers adjacent to the brunet's. 

You watch as he places his athletic bag into his locker, presumably full of his soccer equiptment. Earlier in the year, Luhan, their deer-like friend, had forced Jongdae to sign up, not wanting to be alone on the team, and reluctantly, the brunet had agreed. ("Thank you, Jongdae," he said, his eyes sparkling.) Luhan had offered you the choice to sign up as well but you decided not to, figuring that sports were not and never will be your thing.

"Alright," Jongdae announces, slamming the locker shut. "Off to class, then." He sends you a grin to which you mildly send back, and he slings his arm around your shoulder, leading you to the homeroom which you both shared.

ahh, i'm sorry this chapter was so anticlimatic orz. it'll be better next chapter, i promise. also, who cares about ages because jongdae and kyungsoo are going to the same class together because i say so dammit.