Ari stared at Jay, crossing both her arms and legs around the large stuffed bear she had gifted him some time ago. The bear's name was Coco Chanel (despite having absolutely no affiliation with Chanel), and she'd very ceremoniously plonked it onto Jay's couch upon her third visit, after the first and second had revealed how cold and lonely his stupid-expensive, stupid-huge apartment was.
"But why are you giving him a present?" Ari asked, uncomprehendingly. "When did you guys become friends? Why didn't I notice anything?"
"When I tried to stop Zack last time," Jay said very quietly. His voice was a little raspy from infrequent use. "He asked to be friends..."
They were in Jay's high-rise apartment, just the two of them---even Mister Butler had gone out for something. She was sitting on Jay's immense and oddly not that comfortable sofa, while Jay was pacing the rug, brainstorming what to get Daniel for his birthday.
"So you're gonna get him such a big birthday present just for that," Ari said, feeling speechless. "You haven't even given me a birthday present yet."
"Well," Jay hesitated. "Your birthday..."
"I know it's not my birthday yet," she pouted and fell onto her back on the sofa, kicking her legs out into the air aimlessly. "But how can you give him a birthday present before me?"
Was she being petulant? Yes. Did she care? Not really.
Jay faltered, seeming to be unsure if she was teasing or if he really had made some sort of friend faux-pas. Ari sometimes forgot how unfamiliar he was with having close friends.
Before Jay could begin to spiral into anxiety that he'd offended her for real, Ari opened up the arms of the oversized teddy bear towards him. She waggled its paws invitingly at him until he walked over and embraced it, and by extension her, his arms slipping under her back to squish her into the bear.
"Do you really-really-really want to get him a present?" Ari asked, wrapping the teddy's arms loosely around Jay's neck in a downy hug. Feeling his nod through the layers of cotton and fluff, she sighed. "Then I'm imposing a limit of 4 bags! No more than 4."
Sensing his reluctance, she said, "He's gonna get alarmed if you give him too much stuff, you know. And giving him less now means you can give him more later. Like for Christmas or something." She paused, and added, "And I don't believe in doing good deeds without leaving a name. I'm going to help you write him a birthday card, and you won't get a choice in the matter!"
Ari felt Jay perk right up. "Okay," he mumbled, hiding a smile into the bear's ear.
She laughed a bit, too. This boy was so freaking cute, how could she not have befriended him immediately? It was just impossible, even as a hypothetical thought.
"Alright, let's go out and choose some gifts," Ari said. She gently patted Jay's head, indicating that he should get up. When he only squeezed both the bear and her waist harder, she patted his shoulders this time, much more firmly. "Jay---ack!"
"Coco! At least let Coco Chanel down," she cried, clutching steel-like triceps as she was bodily lifted up from the sofa, stuffed bear and all. "Coco belongs on the sofa!"
Jay only paused long enough to let her plop the big bear back down onto the sofa before he hauled her out the door and into the car waiting downstairs for them, not letting go of her once.
"You're spoiled," she informed him once they were settled in the back seats. When she ruffled his hair, he tentatively pushed his head into her hand like a newly domesticated cat. "I've spoiled you."
Jay had nothing to say to that, especially not now that they were outside of the house. And that was how they went, the driver, whom she suspected to be Mister Butler, zipping them over to the nearest luxury department store, while Jay explored a newfound career as a particularly large and particularly shy koala.
So it turned out that showering affection on someone who'd been affection-starved for years might make them a little clingy. Who knew, thought Ari.
••••
"Oh my god," someone said, plopping down next to Ari in the school cafeteria. "Did you see Daniel Park today? He looked delicious."
"Hi Yui," said Ari, nibbling on a shrimp tempura that Jay had slipped over when she wasn't looking.
"Hi," Yui said, also giving an offhanded wave to Jay sitting in front of them. "But did you see?"
Ari looked over at Daniel, who was walking in with Jiho and Zoe. He looked like he normally did, but with more expensive shoes. Granted, he also normally looked exceedingly handsome, but she saw exceedingly handsome men most every day. Shirtless, at that. And in high definition close-ups.
"Sure," said Ari. She chomped at the last bit of the tempura. "Delicious."
Yui sent her a look that established how unconvinced she was by Ari's dedication to Daniel Park's yumminess. "Anyways, do you think I should snatch him up? But that leech Zoe is always hanging off of him."
"You would be hanging off him like a leech too, if you didn't have a boyfriend," Ari commented, unconcerned.
"Ex-cuse me," Yui retorted, tossing her long, silky hair over a shoulder. "Having a boyfriend has never stopped me from doing anything in my life."
Well, Ari supposed she could respect that, to a degree. Although she personally thought that managing one man sounded exhausting enough.
Then Yui leaned against Ari, coquettishly holding her free arm and shaking it a bit. "Putting men aside, when are you going to come over to be a guest on my stream? Someone was asking about you yesterday, you know."
Ari gave her an odd look. "But why? I was only on there a few times, no one should still remember me."
"Dunno," Yui said bluntly. "Guess they thought you were cute or something. Anyway, I'll split the stream profit halfsies with you if you do it."
"Will it be a mukbang?"
"Sure, if that's what you want."
"And I don't want your boyfriend to be there. He's a boor."
"Ugh, fine. You're SO high maintenance."
Ari laughed and hugged Yui's arm back. "Nice doing business with you."
"Yeah, yeah, I'll text you the details later." Having said her piece, Yui got up and flounced out of the cafeteria with another flick of her hair.
Seeing Jay's look, Ari said, "What? Money is money and food is food---ugh!" A body collided into hers from the side, tipping her chair over. Without any warning, she felt herself briefly becoming weightless; in the next second, she collapsed onto the floor, the chair falling onto the fleshy part of her legs with the weight of another person on it.
Ari was stunned for a moment, breathless.
The person who'd been splayed on top of the chair scrambled to get up, urgently lifting the chair off of her. "Oh no, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" He was a plumper boy whose face she couldn't immediately place. "I'm so sorry, are you okay? Are you hurt?"
Immediately, she heard the clatter of at least one other chair falling back. From the corner of her eye, she could see Jay jumping to his feet as the shock faded and he realized what had just happened.
"Fuck, this pig can't see where the fuck he's going," a guy in sunglasses said, coming closer. He kicked the plumper boy away and crouched in front of her. "You good?"
At his words, the pain from her legs and her banged hip and elbow flooded in. Ari hid her face under the curtain of her hair, a whine beginning to rise in her throat.
"Oh shit, are you crying?" The guy in sunglasses reached out to grab her shoulder, trying to see her face better to check.
Before his fingers could touch even the corner of her clothes, another hand smacked him away. Jay's familiar sleeve came into view, curving around her protectively. There was no way he'd run around the long cafeteria table that fast; he must have leapt over it.
From above her head, to her left, she heard a furious voice snarl, "Hobin Jin, why the fuck are you kicking people around in the cafeteria? Are you fucking crazy?"
And, from the right, "Take off your sunglasses. I'm going to punish you so you can't ever do it again."
"Ari, are you okay?" Daniel asked as soon as he arrived, panting a bit from having run over from the other side of the cafeteria. From one hand hung the sweater he had been wearing, which he quickly put over Ari's lap so that no one could see under her skirt. "Is anything broken?"
Zoe, having arrived with him, immediately knelt down to arrange the sweater to cover everything better. "Does it hurt a lot?" she demanded. "Should I go beat that asshole up for you?"
"Oh, it looks like it must hurt," said Mira. She also knelt on Ari's other side, her hands hovering over her leg as if unsure what to do. There was a vivid red welt beginning to form where the chair had dug in. "Can you stand or should I call the nurse over?"
To be honest the chair hadn't hit anything important---it was just that the red imprint it had made looked quite fierce against the pale skin of her calf. At most it would be a big, tender bruise, which was not nearly as severe as her classmates were making it out to be. But still Ari couldn't stop her tears, which were for the most part from the sudden shock of the pain rather than the pain itself.
A few feet away, Vasco and Zack were already beginning to round on Hobin, who looked increasingly pissed.
"It was a goddamn accident, why are you bastards all pouncing on me like that? You simping for the same chick or something?" Hobin snapped, smacking away the hand that was about to grab at his collar. "Shit, it wasn't even me that hit her, it was fucking Duke."
"Everyone saw you kick him, asshole," Zack said, menacingly. "Apologize to her properly."
"What the fuck!" Hobin Jin dodged Vasco's attempts to snatch his sunglasses away. "Hands off, you motherfucker!"
"Take off your glasses so I can scold you."
"I bet she's not even that hurt---hey, you!" Hobin called angrily, turning his head to her. "You're fine, right? Tell these fuckers that you're fine."
"I'm," Ari hiccupped, finally raising her head, "Okay."
When she looked up at him, it was through damp lashes heavy with moisture. She knew that the skin around her eyes was already flushed red, and her cheeks were awash with the tears that were trickling slowly down. Her mouth had pulled itself into a sullen pout that she couldn't straighten out no matter how much she tried.
Hobin looked at her and paused.
It would have been an excellent opportunity for either Zack or Vasco to grab him, except they were looking at her as well.
"Huh," Hobin said. "Looking at that face, I'd want to beat the crap outta me too."
Zack snapped back to attention first, and turned to him with a mean grin. "Then you won't fight back when I hit you, right? I promised not to fight, you see."
"Hey," Hobin called out, ignoring him. He walked closer to Ari, making everyone tense up, and then, when he was barely still out of Jay and Daniel's reach, leaned down towards her with both hands in his pockets. "Was it Ari? You want me to carry you to the nurse's office? These assholes are all useless, trying to pick a fight instead of actually giving you a hand."
She could feel Jay's body stiffen behind her. In the next instant, she felt arms sliding under her knees and back, lifting her up without hesitation. Zoe reacted quickly as well, rearranging Daniel's sweater over her thighs so that it was still covering her well.
"Wow, look at this bastard," said Hobin, straightening up and tilting his head back. "Is he saying hands off or something? You other suckers are falling behind, y'know."
Ari didn't pay him a single mind, more concerned with other matters.
"Jay, I can walk," she sniffled, patting his shoulder so that he'd let her down. She'd be limping a bit, but being carried through the school was a bit too embarrassing.
Unfortunately, her protests were quite summarily ignored, and Jay made his way out of the cafeteria with long strides, trailed by the terribly contrite Duke and orbited by a small retinue of worried friends.
___
[ Author's Note ]
I didn't know what to write so I just started writing and this came out by accident... BTW, whose perspective do you want to see first?
I personally think Jay's muteness is probably psychosomatic, caused by trauma or stress. :) Not to say that this condition could realistically be cured by a close friendship, but I thought it would be super cute if she was the only one he'd talk to, even though she'd understand him either way.
Vin Jin returns back to his original name of Hobin Jin because I think Vin Jin looks like a dumb name.