GLOW-UP

03 | johnny suh

"You look like you could hit me with that, so I should probably leave," Taeil said.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Johnny protested. "Before you go... blue is totally my colour, right?"

Taeil looked him up and down. "Nope."

Johnny scoffed. "Says you, grandpa. Loving the brown."

Taeil huffed and crossed his arms. "Go away," he said. "I'm not in the mood."

"Aw, you're always in the mood for me, math buddy," Johnny disagreed. "Now go sit up on the bleachers so you can watch how good I am while I play."

"Actually-"

"Go on!" Johnny waved him off with a grin.

Taeil wanted to leave, but seeing as he had to wait for Yuta and Sicheng anyway, he went up to sit on the bleachers, much to Johnny's triumph. The ice hockey team got back to practise, and Taeil got to watch Johnny show off.

"Alright, Banana Boy?"

Taeil turned to see his lab partner Doyoung also sitting in the bleachers, scribbling away in his pretty handwriting over a pile of notes. Taeil narrowed his eyes at the chosen nickname, but went over to sit down anyway.

"Why does everyone keep nicknaming me?" he whined. "It's annoying."

"It's because you're famous now," Doyoung informed him dryly.

"I am not famous."

"Johnny Suh's talking to you, so I'd say you're pretty famous," Doyoung reasoned, keeping his eyes on his work.

"Sure, Johnny always talks to me, so it's not like it's nothing new," Taeil scoffed, scowling in the ice hockey player's direction, though it wasn't like Johnny could see him.

Since he and Johnny had ended up on the same desk in their Math lectures, the seating plan had remained pretty much fixed because no one would move and there were no spare seats. Every week from then, Johnny had made a conscious effort to annoy Taeil by constantly talking during class, keeping up updated on ice hockey practise, or the latest thing Jung Jaehyun heard at his part-time work. One of his favourite tactics to drive Taeil out of his mind, however, was to try out every pick up line under the sun in the hopes that one would make him crack.

Doyoung raised an eyebrow. "In that case, you're more popular than I thought," he remarked.

Taeil huffed. He didn't feel like undergoing the full Kim Doyoung Analysis, so he quickly changed the subject. "Well, why are you doing work here? Do it at home."

"It's not my work," Doyoung said shortly. His eyes widened as he realised how much he'd already given away. The words had slipped out of his mouth before he could stop them.

It was Taeil's turn to interrogate then, and for some reason it was fun to turn the tables on his nosy lab partber. "Oh?" he asked. "Whose is it?"

Doyoung gave a long sigh because he knew Taeil probably wouldn't give up until he found the answer he wanted. If Taeil was any adjective, he was stubborn. "Jung Jaehyun's," Doyoung said, vaguely gesturing to the ice rink. "He, um, sits on my desk in Literature."

"So why are you doing his work?" Taeil peered over Doyoung's shoulder, casting his eyes over the work in disbelief.

"None of your business, Banana Boy," Doyoung snapped, shouldering Taeil away from him. He dumped his other files on top of the suspicious homework and tried to pretend none of it had ever been brought to light.

"Hey, will you stop calling me that?" Taeil demanded. "I'm just saying, you never do other people's work for them."

"Well, maybe I do," Doyoung said defensively. "You don't know everything about me."

"Fair enough," Taeil agreed, weighing up each side of the argument. "But I think I know you well enough to know that Jung Jaehyun would never convince you to do his homework." He pointed at one of the skaters on the rink without looking, probably at the wrong one.

"It's none of your business-"

"How much is he paying you?"

"Fine!" Doyoung exploded. He heaved a long sigh and explained the rest all in one breath. "He lives in the apartment next to mine, okay? He always asks to borrow my wifi and now we've got this essay due for Lit and he can't finish it because he's got hockey practise so I was stupid and agreed to do it for him, because we have to hand it in after lunch and I'm a nice person, okay?"

"Okay..."

"It's just a one time thing."

"Okay!" Taeil emphasised.

Doyoung shut the file and turned to look at him. "Anyway, I'd rather be doing this than... well, whatever you manage to do on camera."

Taeil buried his head in his hands. "Can we please never talk about that video?" he groaned.

"It's okay," Doyoung assured him with a tone full of false sympathy, "I'm sure there's someone more embarrassing than you out there. Somewhere."

"Shut up, I don't like you," Taeil snapped miserably.

Doyoung scoffed. "I don't like you either. You're a walking disaster, and you're way too invasive." He turned to look out at the rink just in time to catch Johnny scoring another goal. "Well... I guess we can't all be as cool as Johnny Suh."

Taeil slowly lifted his head, a bright idea glimmering in his eyes. "We can't all be as cool as Johnny Suh," he repeated.

"Yeah," said Doyoung, rolling his eyes, "that's what I said. So it's really just better to accept you'll always be embarrassing."

Taeil nodded. It was like all of Doyoung's words went in through one ear, then through Google Translate seventeen times, and then out the other ear. "Ah," he said, "so what you're saying is that I need to ask Johnny to help make me cool. Thanks, Doyoung!"

Spotting Sicheng passing through the ice rink in search of him, and Yuta skating over from where he'd been warming up, Taeil bounded down from the bleachers, hope shining in his every step. Doyoung might have been annoying, but at least he was smart. He always came up with the most logical solutions.

"No, what I'm saying is-" Doyoung watched him go, mouth gaping. "That's not what I meant, Banana Boy!"

Taeil ignored him. (It was totally what Doyoung meant.)

"You okay, hyung?" Sicheng asked, puzzled by Taeil's happy exterior.

"Yes! Never better," Taeil grinned. "Let's go and get lunch."

"I'll... uh... join you guys, once practise is over," said Yuta, shooting Sicheng a puzzled glance.

Sicheng just shrugged in response, and followed Taeil's lead towards the cafe.

It couldn't be that hard, right? Taeil reasoned with himself. Johnny Suh oozed cool and confident, and it couldn't be too much of a challenge to give Taeil the glow-up he needed...

...could it?

____________________

a | n :
and so the drama begins ;)
hope you're enjoying so far!