It’s late in the afternoon when Jongin stumbles out from dance class after a grueling four hours of practice. The upcoming end of year showcase for the second years means that their dance teacher is making sure to brand the moves into their bones until they’re flawless.

His muscles feel like lead, heavy and aching like he’s moving through water with every drag of his feet. Waving goodbye to Taemin when they part ways off the university campus, Jongin hitches his bag up higher on his shoulder, groaning at the ache. He drags himself along the pavement tiredly, slowly making his way to the bus stop. He contemplates taking a gulp of water from the thermos in his bag but twisting and balancing the bag to look for it sounds like a terribly exhausting chore at this point, and Jongin’s running severely low on energy. He’ll look for it once he’s sitting on the bus. 

Which, of course, drives past him two seconds later just as he turns the corner to see the bus stop right up ahead. 

“No no no no,” he groans, making a feeble attempt at chasing after the bus even as it shows no sign of slowing or stopping. Jongin stumbles to a stop, breathing heavily, and watches dejectedly as the back end of the bus disappears around the next corner. His bag slips off his shoulder, landing by his feet with a dull thump. He ruffles his hair irately and sighs, trudging the last few metres towards the bus stop while dragging his bag on the ground by the strap. His clothes stick uncomfortably to his sweaty skin, making him feel gross and he longs for a nice cool shower. 

Jongin scans the bus schedule plastered to the side of the bus stop before letting his forehead thunk against the hard surface, trying his hardest not to yell in frustration. The next bus isn’t due for another hour. 

He slumps down bonelessly onto the plastic seat, resigning himself to a long wait. Tugging his bag up from the ground, he rummages through the contents in search of his thermos and eagerly brings it to his lips, his throat parched. There’s barely a trickle of water left, hardly enough to even wet his lips. He might just cry. 

Jongin lets his head fall to the side, leaning it against the side of the bus stop and closes his eyes, contemplating for a moment the distance and time it would take to walk home instead. His leg muscles give an involuntary, painful twitch almost as if to dissuade him. A long, arduous wait it is then.

-

Thanks Soo, I’ll give it back to you tomorrow, I promise!”

Chanyeol waves before closing the door to his best friend’s house with a stack of immaculately handwritten Chemistry notes. It took the better half of an afternoon to coax and bribe Kyungsoo into letting him borrow the notes from their class. He hums happily as he walks towards his car, parked a short way off, a pleased skip in his step. ‘Time to ace that test,’ he thinks, thanking his lucky stars that his best friend also happens to be a chemistry whiz.

Chanyeol glances at his watch, noticing how late it is and hastens to find his car keys, fumbling around for them in his pockets. Looking up for the briefest instant, he does a double take when his eye catches something. He blinks for a moment before his jaw drops because, yes, that is in fact Kim Jongin sitting on the bus stop seat across the street, fast asleep. 

Not a minute later, he’s blocked from view when a bus rolls by, waiting as a few passengers get off before moving on, on its way. The bus that Jongin was presumably planning to catch had he not fallen asleep, rendering him completely oblivious to his surroundings.

Kim Jongin.

Chanyeol is glued to the spot, feeling the conflict bubbling in his chest as he gnaws on his bottom lip. On the one hand he should be a helpful citizen and wake the poor guy up so he can finally go home but on the other hand, what exactly do you say to your crush when you find him sleeping on a bus stop?  They have a few classes together, but they’ve never actually talked properly. On a typical morning, Chanyeol scores a few nods and greetings from a sleepy Jongin but that’s about it. 

In theory, it should help that they share, more or less, the same group of friends meaning they get to see each other more often. Chanyeol’s confidence levels, however, seem to be inversely proportional to the increasing number of golden opportunities presented to him. 

He sighs wistfully, thinking about all the times he’d been too engrossed in his own thoughts, wondering what to say without messing up and making Jongin think he’s some complete blockhead. He doesn’t want to screw this up before it’s even started at all; it’s not the first time he’s put people off by being, well, himself. 

Despite Kyungsoo’s attempts to punch him out of those thoughts, reassuring him that he’s not the problem, Chanyeol’s confidence has been shot down often enough that he doesn’t have it in him to believe that anymore. Just by looking at the common denominator in all the cases, he must be the one screwing up. 

So eventually he’d always end up just saying nothing at all, figuring that Jongin can’t hate him if he doesn’t know him. He can’t like you either if he doesn’t know you, his brain reminds him sternly. 

It’s getting dark though, a chilly breeze sending a shiver down his spine and it seems to knock Chanyeol back to his senses, pushing his self-deprecations aside, for the time being. He should go over there. He’s going to go over there.

He tosses the Chemistry notes into the car before making his way across the road, feeling the bubbling nerves rising in his stomach. His palms are sweating, god, he hasn’t even talked to him yet!

‘Pull yourself together, Park,” he mutters under his breath, frantically rubbing his hands on the sides of his jeans till he’s sure he’s shed at least three layers of skin.

By the time he’s standing right in front of the sleeping boy, he’s pep talked himself twice over, willing himself not to mess up. Now is not the time for bouts of awkwardness.

He reaches out tentatively to lay a hand on Jongin’s shoulder. He tries his name a couple of times while shaking him gently, rousing him slowly. 

Jongin’s eyes crack open and blinks up at him confused before Chanyeol realizes it’s his cue. Be cool, he thinks. 
 
“Hi!”

Nailed it. 

“Wha–” Jongin groans, straightening up from his uncomfortably slumped position and rubs the spot on his head where it was leaning against the bus stop. His movements are groggy, weary, before his eyes suddenly slam open and he bolts from his seat.

“, was I– did I miss it again?” Chanyeol isn’t quite sure if Jongin’s actually asking him or talking to himself as he whips his head from side to side, scanning the road and traffic.
 
“Uh, yeah kinda….like five minutes ago actually,” he provides helpfully, immediately regretting it the second Jongin turns to him looking like Chanyeol just kicked his puppy. 

“Dammit,” he whines in dismay, shoulders slumping as he trudges back to the bus stop seat and slumps down on it glumly. 

Chanyeol watches him in silence, wondering when the right time to make himself known again would be.

“Um,” he starts intelligently, “I didn’t mean to creep on you; I’m Ch–”

“Chanyeol, yeah,” Jongin finishes for him, tearing his eyes away from the road to looking up, studying him with renewed interest;

 “…hyung?” he tries tentatively, blinking up at him with impossibly wide eyes through the sweaty bangs flopping on his forehead. 

Doing his very best to keep his heart from impaling itself on his ribs, Chanyeol nods, offering him a smile.  

“Have you been here long?” he asks, taking a seat an acceptable distance away from Jongin.

“An hour at least,” Jongin sighs, his face falling when he looks at his watch, “looks like I’m gonna be here quite a while longer though.”

“How ‘bout you?” Jongin turns to look at Chanyeol, a bright smile on his albeit the exhaustion he’s clearly exuding, “What brings you to this fine bus stop?”

Chanyeol chuckles and juts his chin out to indicate across the street, “I was at Kyungsoo’s place, showing him why it’s a good idea to lend me his chemistry notes.”

His chest tightens at the way Jongin laughs, eyes crinkling as he covers his mouth with the back of his hand, seemingly unconsciously. 

“That can’t have been easy, Kyungsoo hyung is a tough nut to crack,” Jongin grins, eyes filled with mirth. 

“He’s no match for my infallible charms,” Chanyeol raises his nose high in the air and flips imaginary hair over his shoulder. Jongin’s laughter is loud even over the passing traffic and Chanyeol’s face breaks into a wide grin. He can’t believe how incredibly easy it is to talk to Jongin, thundering heart aside. The fact that Jongin’s still sitting there grinning at him gives him a boost of confidence and self-assurance. 

And a sudden idea. Kicking himself for not thinking of it immediately, Chanyeol gets to his feet and turns to Jongin. 

“Hey listen, d’you want a ride? I’m not actually here for the bus, my car is parked just across the street.” 

“What, really?” Jongin blinks in surprise, “then what were you doing here?”

“Oh, uh–” Chanyeol chokes a bit on his spit; “I saw you…sleeping. And I saw your bus leave so I figured I’d wake you up before it happened again,” he finishes quickly. 

Jongin nods, looking a bit embarrassed as he scratches the back of his flushed neck, eyes fixed on a spot on the ground. 

“So, you coming?” Chanyeol stands at the edge of the curb, pointedly raising his car keys.
 
“Ah thanks, really, but I couldn’t make you go through that trouble!” Jongin exclaims, waving his hands in front of him apologetically. 

Chanyeol smiles and shakes his head reassuringly, “Jongin, if it were any trouble at all I wouldn’t have asked.”

Jongin shifts unsurely, looking tempted but throwing glances down the street just in case. He’s already half out of his seat though, even with his internal conflict and Chanyeol can tell he wants nothing more than to go home. He jingles his car keys coupled with a bright grin, raising his eyebrows encouragingly. 

He knows he’s won when Jongin nods and his face breaks into a grateful smile as he collects his bag to follow Chanyeol across the street. 

Giving himself a mental pat on the back, Chanyeol ducks his head to hide a pleased grin; smooth, Park, smooth. 

It’s a little surreal having Jongin in his car, sitting next to him in such a small enclosed space. He can feel his heart in his throat again, sternly forcing himself to focus on the road and not on the soft curve of Jongin’s cheeks and delicate arc of his eyelashes. 

“Thanks a lot for doing this, hyung,” Jongin breaks his trail of thoughts, turning to smile at him earnestly. Through the corner of his eye, Chanyeol can see his hands gripping the strap of his bag tightly, like he feels as though he’s imposing. 

“It’s fine, really!” he beams reassuringly, wondering where he got this sudden burst of confidence. It couldn’t have come at a better moment though, seeing as Jongin finally relaxes in his seat after that, enjoying the breeze coming in through the window. 

It’s only when he’s two blocks away from his own house that he realizes; for all his bravado, he actually has no idea where Jongin lives, having completely forgotten to even ask for his address in his distraction at actually having Jongin next to him. Flustered, he swallows down his embarrassment;

“Uh…I totally forgot to ask where you live.” 

Jongin blinks at him confused, “But you’re already going in the right direction,” he looks ahead and points, “I'm just around that corner actually!”

“Here? You live here?” he gawps, thunderstruck.

Two streets away from Chanyeol’s place. 

He rounds the corner and pulls up by the sidewalk wordlessly, still trying to process this information.

“When you didn’t ask but you were already headed this way, I thought you knew already somehow?” Jongin tries.

Chanyeol laughs, his head spinning a bit from the realization that Jongin has been here, this close, the whole time; 

“I live two streets up actually.”

“No way! Seriously?”

They’re both laughing incredulously now, unable to believe that they never found this out before after all this time. Sobering up a bit, Chanyeol swallows, ignoring fresh spike of nerves twisting in his stomach to brave the words;

“You know, you could start hitching a ride with me after class since your place is on the way anyway. If you want to, of course,” he adds quickly, feeling his face burn as his hands clench reflexively around the steering wheel. He sees Jongin’s expression and immediately barks out a laugh, easing his own nerves a fraction, “It would still be absolutely no trouble at all, Jongin.”

“I- are you sure?” Jongin laughs at Chanyeol’s meaningful look and continues quickly, “I mean; that would be really great, thank you so much hyung, really.”

His smile is so dazzling. 

Chanyeol’s attention is brought back to focus when he feels a touch on his shoulder where Jongin’s has a hand curled.

“Thanks a lot for today too,” he says sincerely, squeezing lightly; “So I’ll…see you tomorrow then?”

“Count on it!” Chanyeol can’t get rid of the grin plastered on his face even as Jongin climbs out of the car and makes it to his doorstep before turning to wave goodbye and shout his thanks again. Chanyeol waves back, waiting till Jongin has disappeared inside until he can drop his hand and his entire body goes completely limp in his seat, unable to believe what a day he just had. He keeps smiling all the way home. 

.

The third years’ showcase is right around the corner and Jongin's dance teacher has been working them to the bone these past few weeks. He looks completely worn out, ready to fall over when he finally reaches the car and pulls the door open, collapsing into his seat. 
His smile is still as bright and dazzling as ever though, eyes crinkling happily as he leans over the gear shift to press a kiss to Chanyeol’s lips.

“Sorry, he made us run through the routine one more time. Thanks for waiting!”

Chanyeol waves off his apology with a grin, leaning over himself to peck Jongin on the cheek in return;

“Always.”