Days passed and not a single word was shared between Jongin and Kyungsoo. Hell, they barely even shared a glance, never mind speech.
Kyungsoo was extremely confused about the whole thing, especially about what he should feel.
On one hand, he had convinced himself that Jongin was in the wrong for making a move, but on the other hand, the absence of his presence was proving too much for Kyungsoo. He just wanted his friend back.
That was the turning point for Kyungsoo, leading him to at least try and make eye contact with Jongin from then on, but the other boy did not appear to think the same.
As they hurried between classes, they would pass by each other in the corridors. Kyungsoo would stare at Jongin with a hopeful expression, only to have the younger look up, widen his eyes and rapidly pick up his pace as he scurried past.
This happened several times in several places, eventually draining all hope out of Kyungsoo's small soul.
Now, he was sat cross legged on Baekhyun's bed as he explained the whole situation to him.
Baekhyun listened intently, nodding his head every now and then to acknowledge the younger's words.
'So, why didn't you run after him?' he asked, once Kyungsoo had finished explaining.
'I panicked, just like he did,' Kyungsoo sighed, running a hand through his hair. 'I've never noticed any hints that he liked me, I mean he's hugged me a few times but only to annoy me. I just felt like, since we'd only really consider ourselves friends, it was pretty out of order. I feel obliged to be angry at him, but I don't want to be.'
'Then don't be,' Baekhyun dead panned, taking a bite into his apple.
Narrowing his eyes at the older, Kyungsoo made a mental note not to go to Baekhyun for advice again.
'I'm not angry anymore, I'm just annoyed that he won't even look at me.'
'I think you should talk it over with him.'
'Thanks, Sherlock,' Kyungsoo replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm, 'I could've figured that one out for myself.'
Baekhyun simply shrugged, emitting another sigh from Kyungsoo.
'When should I do it?' he asked.
'When the time is right,' the older said and took another bite of his apple before continuing. 'If you try and plan a specific time to bring it up, you'll just end up messing it up and possibly making things worse. Just wait until you feel ready and then talk about it when the time feels right.'
Kyungsoo raised an eyebrow. 'I'm shocked, Baek, you actually said something that helped for once.'
'Shut up, hobbit.'
'You're the same size as me!'
~
'As of today, we will be starting a project that will last you through this half term.'
The whole class groaned loudly. Class projects were the worst.
'You will be working in partners with the person sitting next to you.'
The general mood of the classroom flipped as students cheered, since most of them were sitting beside their friends.
Unfortunately for Kyungsoo, that wasn't the case. He was situated on the end of the row, next to Jongin. He leaned over his desk and counted down from the end to find that there was an even number of students, meaning he would have no choice but to work with Jongin.
Glancing at the said boy, he found him staring down at his textbook with a troubled expression.
The class began to move and space out, some people collecting materials whilst others began forming plans on pieces of paper.
With a quiet sigh, Kyungsoo stood up. 'I'll go get some paper,' he mumbled, more to himself than to Jongin.
When he returned, Jongin had barely moved. He stared down at his hands, twiddling his thumbs and glancing to the side every now and then. But whenever Kyungsoo looked up, he looked away.
Wordlessly, Kyungsoo scribbled a few ideas down on the paper, but soon he was struggling to think of more. He needed his partner's help.
Taking a deep breath, he lifted his head to ask Jongin, only to come face to face with his back. At some point, he had began talking to Tao and Yixing beside him.
Kyungsoo recognised Tao from when he was introduced to him yesterday, but the other boy had been unidentified until he caught sight of the work book in front of him, which was where he spotted the name 'Zhang Yixing'.
The said boy lifted his head for a moment, his pen hovering over the paper beneath his hand. 'How do you spell 'history'?' he asked. Kyungsoo noted that he seemed very spaced out.
Jongin let out a breathy laugh. 'Dude, you've been studying it for years. How can you not know?'
Yixing looked down at his paper again and frowned. Jongin sighed, before spelling out the word.
As Kyungsoo watched, he realised he was never going to be acknowledged in this situation. Frankly, he would be completing the whole project himself, whilst Jongin found any excuse not to talk to him.
Having made his decision, he lifted himself out of his seat and headed to the front of the class.
Daring to glance up at Kyungsoo's retreating figure, Jongin found the boy standing in front of their teacher's desk, speaking with her.
A small part of his heart ached as he realised what Kyungsoo was doing, but he had nobody to blame but himself. The thing was, he just couldn't face him yet.
Breathing a sigh of relief after the teacher approved his request, Kyungsoo walked over to Sehun and Baekhyun's desk. The two were concentrating profusely on cutting tiny shapes out of coloured card.
'Baek, you're working with me now. Sehun, you're working with Jongin,' Kyungsoo said firmly, not bothering to ask if the two were okay with the change of partners first.
Sehun grinned and immediately stood up. 'Cool!' he exclaimed as he began packing up his belongings.
Baekhyun simply rolled his eyes, watching the sandy haired boy hurry over to Jongin's desk.
'Couldn't handle it?' Baekhyun asked, turning to look at Kyungsoo.
The younger sighed and shook his head. 'He completely ignored me and was just talking to his other friends. Sorry about this.'
'It's fine,' Baekhyun said and waved a dismissive hand. 'Sehun was annoying me anyway.'
'What were you guys doing?'
Baekhyun glanced back at Sehun, who was now chatting with Jongin. 'I don't even know, it was his stupid idea but I couldn't think of anything else.'
Laying out his sheet of paper with ideas scrawled over it, Kyungsoo pursed his lips and said, 'well we better think of something else, then.'
At the back of the classroom, the mood was much the same.
'What's this all about? I thought you and Kyungsoo were buddies?' Sehun asked.
Running his hands down his face, Jongin replied, 'it's a long story.'
When Sehun demanded to know, claiming that they had plenty of time anyway, Jongin gave in and began explaining everything. Once he had finished, Sehun chuckled lightly.
'Whoa man, I didn't know you liked him,' he said.
'Neither did I, until last week,' Jongin grumbled.
'So basically, this is all Jonghyun's fault?'
Despite himself, Jongin laughed quietly. 'Yeah, I guess it is.' His smile faded before he spoke again. 'I just don't know what to do, bro. I made a complete idiot of myself.'
The younger boy patted his back gently. 'There there, Jongin-ah, everything will be okay. Besides, it was just a kiss, right? I'm sure you'll work things out.'
'But what if he never wants to even be friends with me? I mean, it's clear he doesn't like me back..'
'You don't know that,' Sehun said, shrugging his shoulders. 'Have you got any proof he doesn't like you?'
Jongin thought for a moment. To be fair, he had been the one to flee from the scene outside the cafeteria. Kyungsoo could've pulled back, slapped him or worse, but he didn't. Maybe it was just due to shock, but he hadn't actually fought at all.
And when Jongin engulfed the smaller boy in bear hugs, despite groaning and pushing him away, Kyungsoo's soft cheeks would always flush an adorable faint pink.
'Jongin?' Sehun urged, pulling the boy from his thoughts.
'Yeah, sorry,' Jongin muttered. 'I guess you're right.'
'I think you should just talk to him. See how he feels, and then work from there. If he likes you, he likes you and if he doesn't, he doesn't.' Sehun paused for a moment to glance towards the front of the classroom. His eyes locked with Kyungsoo's, who was gazing at Jongin with misery in his round orbs. He shot a faint smile at the small boy, who returned it before turning back round. 'Either way, I'm sure he'd be more than happy to at least be friends with you again.'
Jongin raised an eyebrow. 'I'm shocked, Sehun, you actually said something that helped for once.'
'Shut up, dark kid.'
'.. Touché.'
~
The bell sounded to signal the end of lesson, and Jongin lazily pushed himself up out of his chair.
He had decided that if he was going to talk to Kyungsoo, now would be a good time since it was the last lesson. But the said boy was fast approaching the door to go to the library, most likely to continue gathering ideas for the project..
Plucking up some courage, Jongin grabbed his bag and headed out the door. Once outside, he looked around for Kyungsoo and found him just heading through the double doors that lead outside, past the main entrance to the school and to the library.
The library was a whole other section of school, but could be reached two ways - along a corridor upstairs or via the school grounds. Due to where they were now, it was quicker for Kyungsoo to cut across the yard.
Picking up his pace, Jongin hurried outside. He had lost Kyungsoo for a moment and had had to guess that the small boy was nearly at the library by now.
But what was waiting for him in the area in front of school wasn't what he expected.
As his eyes fell on the pretty girl, Jongin froze. She was standing in front of Kyungsoo, who was blushing brightly as he clutched his books to his chest and leaned back against the school gate. Baekhyun stood beside the two, grinning as though he was watching a cheesy romance film.
Jongin decided that the girl must be from the female school just across the road, as she was still in uniform despite already being outside their school gates.
She was talking to Kyungsoo, but Jongin couldn't hear what she was saying from this far away.
When the girl stepped forward and pressed her lips against Kyungsoo's, Jongin suddenly wished he'd never chased the boy outside.
Unable to watch anymore, he turned and walked back the way he came.
~
'So do you think a model would work?' Kyungsoo asked, as he and Baekhyun walked side by side to the library.
'Yeah, we could do a model for each event and then, if we lay it all out on a folded piece of cardboard, we can write about it at the top,' Baekhyun said enthusiastically.
As they passed by the entrance to school, Kyungsoo chuckled. Although he didn't look like an artist, Baekhyun had always been talented at art, especially sculpting.
'But not too much writing,' he grinned, 'people don't like reading loads and I don't like writing loads.'
Baekhyun laughed as he nodded in agreement. 'Fair enough.'
Suddenly, the sound of someone clearing their throat caused them both to turn around.
Kyungsoo's eyes widened at the sight of Lee Sunkyu, a beautiful sunbae that Kyungsoo had seen around the area sometimes and heard about, though he didn't know much about her except that she was practically the Park Chanyeol of the girls' school, only brattier, snobbier, and a thousand times more feminine.
And despite the fact that he was gay, Kyungsoo still knew what a pretty girl looked like.
'Hey, Kyungsoo,' she said slowly, flicking her hair as she did so.
Although grinning, Baekhyun furrowed his brows and looked between the two. He was amazed at how these two were acting right now.
'Hello,' Kyungsoo managed, mentally thanking his voice for not betraying him.
'I heard what you did in the cafeteria yesterday,' Sunkyu started, her voice low and seductive. 'Everybody knows about it, even at our school. You were really brave.'
Feeling his cheeks instantly flame, Kyungsoo redirected his gaze down momentarily. 'Thank you,' he replied.
'You're really cute, Kyungsoo.'
Suddenly, the smile dropped from Kyungsoo's face. He frowned, trying his best not to lose his temper. If there was one thing he hated, it was being called cute.. Unless it was Jongin.
'I'm not-'
Baekhyun gasped and slapped his hands to his mouth, as Sunkyu leaned forward and smacked her lips against Kyungsoo's.
For a moment, the small boy was too shocked to move. Baekhyun stared at the scene, at Kyungsoo's wide eyes and Sunkyu's iron grip.
Coming back to his senses, Kyungsoo squirmed and pushed her away. When she finally staggered backwards, her heels clicking against the concrete, he breathed deeply to regain his breath.
He met the girl's angry gaze, his brows knitted together as he wiped his mouth, all respects for his sunbae gone in an instant.
'What the hell?!' he screeched, gripping his books tighter as he turned to hurry away. But he stopped in his tracks when he noticed a figure at the other side of the school grounds, although not too far away, heading in the opposite direction.
The figure's back was turned, but he could still recognise the person. And it was the one person he really wished hadn't seen that.
'Jongin!' he cried, not bothering to look back at Sunkyu as he hurried back towards school.
Jongin didn't turn, but instead headed inside. As he did so, Kyungsoo noticed him lift a hand to his face. Was he crying?
'Jongin!' Kyungsoo called again, coming to a stop when the retreating boy fell out of sight.
He sighed, staring after the younger. Now they really needed to talk, because this was all just a huge misunderstanding.
~ A/N
What d'you think is going to happen? I'm interested to hear if you guys have any theories;)