It's the first time Jongin's walking around without his headphones.

He's been wandering around an unfamiliar part of the campus for a while now, and he still has no idea where the music department is.
He has been growing increasingly paranoid and frustrated, with people giving him weird and questioning looks as he moves around uncertainly.
We have to get out of here.
Jongin starts heading for the coffee shop where Tao works part-time; he needs a little caffeine boost anyway, after Sehun insists that Jongin stay up and listen to how great his first date was and how proud he was of himself for being 'total boyfriend material'.

"Hey Tao." Jongin walks in and immediately spots Tao wiping down a table, a spritz bottle hanging off the pocket of his apron.

"Jonginie!?" Tao snaps his head up in surprise, the rag dropping from his hands onto the ground.
The raven haired boy then scans around him cautiously, before clutching on Jongin's coat sleeve and pulling him in closer.

"My manager is having a breather, if you know what I mean. What are you doing here?" Tao gestures at the smoking area opposite the coffee shop, and Jongin vaguely makes out the silhouette of the familiar old man from across the street.

"I was wondering if you know where the music department is. I'm supposed to pick Kyungsoo up at five, but I have no idea where it is. Do you?"

"Yeah! It's a two or three minute walk from here, pretty easy to find. See the Humanities Library over there? Go past it, and when you get to the end turn right and keep walking. You'll see a huge building like a townhall. Oh, and it says 'School of music' on the front." Tao smiles briefly at Jongin, before it crumbles with a look of fear and a harsh whisper.

"He's coming! I need to go wash up in the back. Call you later!" And with that Tao goes running off to the room with a 'Staff Only' sign on the door.
Jongin is about to call after him, when he hears the front door open and a gruff voice behind him.

"If you ain't gonna order anything don't dawdle around here, brat. Kids these days think they own the place..." The short stout man gives Jongin the stink eye before disappearing behind the counter.
Wow.
I know right. Just be glad we don't work here.
The old manager is nowhere to be seen, but Jongin can't help but feel he's being watched, so he leaves the coffee shop eagerly without a coffee.
The music department isn't hard to find, just like Tao says; Jongin took his time familiarizing himself with this new part of the campus, and after five minutes he's standing before a three storied Victorian structure, voices in harmony pouring out from the windows.
Jongin sheepishly pushes open one of the heavy wooden doors open, and is immediately bombarded by soprano and alto voices harmonized with bass and tenors.
He decides to stay and lean against the wall in the entrance hall, not having the guts to snoop around.
Plus, this spot seems to be right under wherever the choir are practicing.
Jongin has never really been interested in any kind of music; it just never appealed to him that much.
Of course he appreciates good music when he hears it, but he doesn't ever make the effort to look it up or ask Sehun about it.
That's one thing that makes Jongin crippled with anxiety: he's interested in a music major, and he's not interested in music.
He can't keep talking about Sehun or Tao, and definitely not about himself; Heck, there's nothing interesting about himself to talk about.
He's just a freshman who knows nothing other than physical chemistry, and the last thing he wants is to bore the hell out of Kyungsoo with facts about his favorite experiment.
"Hey, did you know if you drop an iron nail into a mix of hydrochloride acid, hydrogen peroxide and a thiocyanate compound you get iron thiocyanate, which looks kinda like blood?"
Lovely conversation starter, Jongin's mouth twitches at the thought.
Then his thoughts are interrupted by what sounds like a herd of buffalo from above him, and soon he sees a group of twenty or so people pushing their way down the grand wooden staircase before him.
None of them pay him any attention to Jongin's relief, because he's cringing really badly to their loud voices and the ancient wood creaking under their feet.
When the group finally dismisses and Jongin's able to untense his body, he hears soft padding from the top of the staircase.
A small form appears, arms wrapped around three thick color folders with post-it's sticking out between the pages, canvas messenger bag flapping beside with every step down.
Jongin pushes himself off the wall with his elbows, hands still inside his pockets as he walks over to the bottom of the staircase.
He smiles and takes the stacked folders out of the small hands, revealing the wide eyes hidden behind.

"Hi."
Giant with a gentle heart.
Kyungsoo feels like someone's let loose a wild critter in his chest, running around and wrecking havoc in the feelings department for him.
Jongin is smiling up at him, his eyes looking unbelievably beautiful under the soft glow of the late afternoon sun coming through the large glass panels; Kyungsoo feels like kicking himself for not noticing how gorgeous Jongin's eyes are before.

"H-Hi. And th-thanks." Kyungsoo stammers.
His date, yes, date, is a total gentleman and he's trying his best not to faint on the spot.

"No problem. Shall we head off?"
That smile should be illegal.

"I'm sorry I don't have a car by the way, Sehun took it. His boyfriend works kinda far away and he can't wait till the weekend to see him."

"T-that's alright. We can walk?" Kyungsoo debates inside whether to take his folders back from Jongin.
He doesn't really want to come across as rude, but he feels really bad to have Jongin carry his folders for him.
He glances at Jongin cautiously, but the blonde seems to be nonchalant about Kyungsoo's concerns.

"Yeah... What are these by the way? Are they color coded?" Jongin fiddles with the folders and examines the sides and even the bottom of the stack.

"Um, yeah, they're mostly music scores, but there are some printed PowerPoint slides and notes... I-I just like to be neat."
Oh goodness please don't think I'm a neat freak...

"Cool. Wish I was that neat with my notes... I have a ton for physical chemistry, and sometimes I just find random sheets behind my desk when I clean up. Sehun doesn't help either, when he's too lazy to go to lectures he copies my notes, and then he either doesn't return them or shoves them under a random pile which will inevitably get pushed into the gap behind my desk." Jongin chuckles lowly.
He finds Jongin really interesting; he's picked up on the love-hate relationship Jongin has with his best friend, and it's cute how no matter how bad his complaints about Sehun are, Kyungsoo can still tell that he cares about him.
So that's what having a best friend's like.

"He's really lucky to have a friend like you..." Kyungsoo mutters, giving a little shy smile.
Jongin blinks blankly at Kyungsoo for a while, then returns the smile with a gentle shoulder bump.

"You're lucky too then, because you have me."

Author's Note:

Lol. Tao and Kai are actually pretty close.

BUT NOT AS CLOSE AS KAISOO OTP FEEEUUUUUULS