grand slam | seokhan

12 || Watered-down Instead of Put Out

"Looks like we're stuck together for this one." Jeonghan sighed as he looked over his left shoulder to see Jihoon standing next to his seat with a pursed frown. The black-haired senior panned over to the rest of the computer room, where everyone else had already found themselves partners.

Out of everyone in the computer class, he and Jihoon just had to be the last two students without partners. Jeonghan would have laughed at the coincidence if he weren’t so focused on not failing this class, or well this peer assignment at least. Jeonghan couldn’t say the same about the last assignment, where his group of four had basically left him out of the loop.

"Are you disappointed or happy about it? I really can't ever read your emotions Jihoon, even when we were kids." Jeonghan chuckled as he pulled out a chair to his right and patted it so that the short baseball captain got the invitation to sit with him.

If he was being forced to work with someone, he’d prefer it to be someone he knew. Jihoon was pretty predictable so even if Jeonghan hadn’t seen the small senior since their last year at Summer camp together, he knew what to expect from Jihoon.

Needless to say, Jihoon took the seat immediately without paying close attention to Jeonghan’s small gesture which didn’t surprise the black-haired student.

It took Jihoon a second to settle in, as the short senior had to log onto his account on the computer next to Jeonghan’s. He made himself comfortable in the seat next to Jeonghan’s, leaning back to rest his back against the backside of the chair he was sitting in while trying not to shift too much as to make the bookbag he slung over the chair fall off.

It was when Jihoon was content with his seat and when the computer in front of him fully loaded his account that the pale senior decided to grace Jeonghan with an answer.

"This is obviously my happy face Jeonghan, isn't it easy to tell?" Jihoon glanced over to Jeonghan and gave the senior the blankest expression he could muster.

The short senior seemed to be amused by the way Jeonghan sighed at him and rolled his eyes, which caused a small, brief smile to spread upon Jihoon’s lips.  "I’m sending the document link to your email now, tell me when you get it."

Jeonghan nodded in response to his partner and the two casually began completing the assignment given to them by their computer teacher. The black-haired student was quick to notice though that compared to the other pairs, both him and Jihoon were a bit too quiet for his liking. It was nice to be able to concentrate on the assignment on his computer screen, but at the same time Jeonghan didn’t want to spend the entire period in silence while typing out a report on the history of binary.

If Seokmin were there, the brunet would find a way to incorporate some fun with their work. He was with Jihoon though, who was someone who generally never spoke to anyone unless he was being spoken to.

"You know, I saw your team's exhibition match last week." Jeonghan broke the silence between them with some small talk he knew Jihoon couldn’t resist. The short senior ceased his typing and glanced over to Jeonghan who rested his head on his left hand while reading over what he had already typed up on their document. "They're not as good as you described them to be at Summer camp all those years ago, but Seokmin… he's a really good pitcher."

"Good enough to get you on the team?" The black-haired senior felt the pit of his stomach drop at the mention of the team, which was hypocritical considering that Jeonghan was the one who introduced the conversation topic to begin with.

Jeonghan wasn’t sure that Jihoon sensed his immediate discomfort, but if he did was he certain that Jihoon couldn’t care less if he was uncomfortable. Even the students sitting behind them sensed something off about the pair so much so that they repeatedly took glances behind them to spy on Jeonghan and Jihoon’s conversation. "I'm sure you've noticed at the match, but we desperately need a good hitter on the team."

“You really won’t let up with that huh? You really can be persistent when you want to be Jihoon, that’s something I forgot about you.” Jeonghan wasn’t really one to raise his voice, but he felt like the words coming out of his mouth definitely had more impact than they usually did when he used his laid-back, carefree tone to communicate. He didn’t want to play into Jihoon’s game by getting too irritated by the short senior, but his blood boiled when he saw the nonchalant expression on Jihoon’s pale, silky smooth face.

Jihoon wasn’t the one losing sleep over this, why the hell did he care whether or not Jeonghan played baseball? “But you know that you can’t expect me to join your team when-”

“When you’re so stubbornly caught up on wasting your talent to prove a point to your dad?” Jihoon replied quickly before Jeonghan could even finish his thought.

The bewildered look in Jeonghan’s dark brown eyes told Jihoon all he needed to know. He really was striking Jeonghan where it hurt; it was blatant from how Jeonghan shifted his focus down to his left hand to play with the white scar just beneath his index knuckle.

It was also what Jihoon was trying to accomplish. He was really sick of the way Jeonghan tried his hardest to step around the real root of his issues by ignoring them. It didn’t fit in with Jihoon’s style of just facing his problems head-on.

“Do you really think that denying who you are is going to fix anything? What I think is that you’re being an idiot for letting your dad control you like this. All you’re doing is punishing yourself at your own expense. The only person winning here is your dad. It’s no better than when he worked you like a fucking dog-”

“You’re wrong. He’s not controlling me, I’m my own person now Jihoon.” Jeonghan clenched his teeth before letting go of his left hand and straightforwardly glaring at Jihoon.

It didn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that the two were having an argument, watered-down, right in their computer classroom which was quite fortunate for the nosy pair of students sitting behind them who were both absolute garbage at all matters science-related.

What angered Jeonghan the most wasn’t the topic at hand necessarily, but the audacity of Jihoon to act as if he knew what he was talking about all while maintaining an expressionless (somehow he seemed cocky at the same time) appearance. “You’re only saying this to get me on the team, I won’t buy into this.”

“You can keep telling yourself that, but you and I both know I’m right: your old man is still playing you like a puppet, even now. All I’m trying to do is get you to see that.” Jihoon paused when their teacher called for the whole class’ attention to declare that their allotted time to work on their pair work during class was now over; they would get time the next class session to finish it up.

Commotion among the students filled the large computer room as they all returned to their respective seats. Jihoon let out a loud sigh before grabbing his bag and standing up from where he was sitting. The short captain let out a small hum before reaching over in his open bag to pull out an empty form, placing it in front of Jeonghan before he could protest.

“Don’t be a fool Jeonghan.”

The black-haired senior was left to stare at the blank medical. Looking down at the form reminded him of the fond memories of his past, where he rushed home every baseball season to get his parents to sign off on the medical. Yet, it also reminded him that that passion he once had was what was the start of all his problems.

To say Jeonghan was conflicted was an understatement, because while he was sure of himself what Jihoon had said to him did stick in the back of his mind. That was why while the angry side of Jeonghan led him to crumble the empty medical up, the saddened senior still placed the crumpled paper ball into his backpack.

= = =
i wonder if anyone is still reading this book lmao