CHAPTER THREE
SOMETHING ABOUT YOU
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jongin was frustrated in himself. it's literally the first day of school and he was already not giving enough attention to even understand what the hell is going on. even if he's been getting 4.0 gpas and straight a's for his entire school career, english is definitely his worse subject. something about language learning just doesn't click with him.
the girl in front of him seemed pretty good at english though. granted, jinsol did grow up in new zealand where she learned and spoke actual english to people. she aced this class. it actually reminded jongin when he and jinsol were talking in the park. well... jinsol talking to him at the park and he drifted off to nowhere. but he still remembered the way she spoke. he didn't know how to describe it but it just sounded nice.
"ko jinsol." mr. kim called out, capturing both jinsol's and jongin's attention. "may you read the next paragraph?"
jinsol nods before standing up from her seat. she straightened out her skirt before beginning to read.
"lord, how they've changed it— in our 'parlors' these days. christ is one of the 'family' now. i often wonder if god recognizes his own son the way we've dressed him up, or dress it down? he's all regular peppermint now, all sugar-crystal and saccharine when he isn't—"
jongin genuinely tried to pay attention and actually understand, but he could only focus on her voice. once again it was nice. it sounded even better when he heard how she spoke english with an accent. it definitely sounded different from the usual english he heard, but he actually preferred the sound of jinsol's english than anyone else's. yet he didn't even realize that he was acting like this in the first place. even jongin from yesterday would never find himself acting like this. especially to a girl he's only met very briefly the day before. but jongin was way too deep to catch himself.
"i want to talk to you." jongin murmurs to himself as he admired jinsol as she finished up the paragraph.
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"mhm" jinsol hums as she stretches out of her seat. the students around her jump out of their seats as well and scramble around to get their lunches along with yells calling out to their friends down the hall.
"god school is boring." sehun yawns as he also stands up, "mr. kim seems pretty chill though."
jinsol chuckles as she follows sehun out of the classroom to get their lunch. "yeah well at least today isn't as bad as i thought it would be."
jongin watches the two leave. he sighed before deciding to grab his lunch and following the pair, but his plan was quickly
"nini?" chaeun calls out. "where are you going?"
jongin sighs before turning around with a seemingly fake smile. "i'm going to eat lunch."
jongin seriously didn't want to talk to chaeun right now. he'd much rather talk to jinsol. properly this time. he already missed his chance last time.
"well stay here for a minute, i need to talk about something." chaeun pulled him back into the classroom as she leaned a bit to see if sehun and jinsol were gone.
"does it really need to be talked about right now, chaeun?" the brown eyed male asked the girl in front of him.
"it's about the new girl, ko jinsol." chaeun explained. "do you know her, jongin?"
"w–well we did first meet each other on sunday." jongin attempted to explain as he scratched the back of his neck. "it was more of an encounter though."
chaeun's arms were crossed as she eyed him up and down. "kim jongin isn't exactly social either so this encounter must be more if you even spare her a single word."
"well i could be changing things up this year," jongin smirked at chaeun. "it is the last year of high school anyway."
with that jongin left the empty classrom, leaving ahn chaeun alone in her thoughts. she hummed to herself as a smirked creeped up her lips.
"changing things up, huh?"
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science. definitely more of jongin's style, but obviously not jinsol's. to jinsol science is fun until you actually have to explain yourself to why this phenomenon actually happens. to her it's all fun and games until the actual work starts.
"hello class i am your ap chemistry teacher, mrs. han hyunjoo, nice to meet all of you."
after the repeated introduction is finally over, mrs. han went over a shit ton of ground rules for the classroom. the basic things like always wear your lab goggles and not touch anything hot. the rules that wouldn't have been there until an idiot decided to touch a burning hot beaker. the rules that are always so obvious and self-explanatory, but there is always those one or two kids who disregard any common sense.
"you will have one lab partner for a semester, so make sure to choose carefully. choose someone who you'd work efficiently with and not someone who you'll mess around with." mrs. han explained. "i'll be a nice teacher and let you guys choose."
as if on cue different friends and groups of students looked over at each other with smirked plastered on their lips. soon enough mrs. han let the students go to pick their choosing.
jongin took this opportunity to partner up with jinsol and get to talk to her for once. getting out of his seat, he made his way to the other side of the classroom towards the girl.
sehun, who was sitting separately from jinsol also got out of his seat. he made his way towards jinsol, noticing that jongin was also on his way as well.
"jin—"
"jinnie!" sehun called for jinsol's attention and interrupting jongin.
"lab partner?" jinsol smiled at her best friend. although she sounded as if she was asking a question, it was obvious that they already were.
sehun nods, brushing past jongin. it was almost unnoticeable that the two made eye contact, each burning with fire. sehun sat next to jinsol, pulling his stool closer to his best friend and peering over her shoulder to see what she was looking at.
oh sehun even looked up to see that jongin was still staring daggers into him along with his jaw tightening.
"has everyone picked their partners?" mrs. han called out, seeing that everyone was sitting with a partner except kim jongin.
the boy sighs in defeat, "i.. don't have a partner, mrs. han."
mrs. han chuckles. "that's alright jongin, why don't you partner up with kang garam back there?"
the class suddenly erupts in snickers as jongin turned back to see a a guy with a large nose that practically took up fifty percent of his face along with acne that dotted his face here and there. not the mention that he was a bit on the rounder side.
jongin never talked to garam before, but he's heard rumors about how he picks his nose and eats his own boogers, and that he's a perv. although he's heard notorious things about the guy, he refused to believe them. sure he wasn't such a social person but he would never judge someone he hasn't talked to before.
"hello." jongin threw the kid a small wave as he sat down.
"i'm sorry you were forced to partner with me." garam apologized, "if you want we don't have to work together. you do you're own work and i'll do mine."
jongin smiled at him as he shook his head. "no it's fine. i think we'll get along well, kang garam."
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"the class hasn't even started yet and i already hate it." jinsol pouts and she conversed with sehun.
"you're only saying that because you suck at calculus, jinsol." sehun points out as he faces the front of the classroom.
the brunette scoffs, "and don't act like you're any good at it either, oh."
jongin found himself often eavesdropping jinsol's and sehun's conversation. yet he wouldn't really call it eavesdropping, more like overhearing with a purpose. god, what was he doing? he didn't even know why he was doing it. was it the lack of interaction? or it just happened that the two best friends talked loud enough for jongin hear? whatever it was, it was getting a bit creepy.
but now another new teacher came into the classroom. introducing himself once again, the class standing once again to welcome the teacher, and then the teacher explain some ground rules and some other. it was just a cycle and jongin was already done with it, even the entire class was done with it.
the teacher was called mr. jang and he looked as if he could kill somebody with just his thumb. he was tall with a lanky figure yet he still looked tough and scary. from first impression he was strict, very strict.
so strict that he assigned the class with a project. on the first day of school for fucks sake! jinsol felt dead inside. sehun felt like he was already failing the class. and yet jongin felt this was a good idea to be able to talk to the girl in front of him.
he did hear mr. jang say that there will be partners involved. yet he felt dejected to hear that it's the teacher who's choosing who gets who.
"i will be assigning your partners." mr. jang announces. "i'll start with kim bitna, you will be partnered with bang seonah. shin hyungwoo with do boyoung. park joowon with ahn chaeun. oh sehun with lee ahra."
"ugh." sehun whines as he fell back into his seat. "sorry, jinnie."
jinsol giggled. "it's fine, hunnie. take this as a chance to get to know more girls."
sehun scoffs at his best friend, not bothering to respond as mr. jang continued.
"moon jaein with son taekyung. ra eunho with bae daehwi. heo yongguk with nam dahyun—"
jinsol sighs. the list seemed to go on forever as she waited for her name to be called. she looked around as mr. jang continued to see classmates that haven't been called yet. although it was the first day, she knew which classmates she wouldn't want to be partnered with.
"seo yangmi and min sooyoung. ko jinsol and kim jongin—"
jinsol and jongin's attention was immediately captured. including chaeun and sehun's.
jongin smiled to himself as he finally managed to be successful. he was actually going to be able to talk to jinsol. properly at the least.
jinsol on the other hand felt somehow incredibly nervous. it was the guy from the park. the guy who sehun almost fought if she wasn't there. if anything she felt the awkward tension in the air.
"that is all" mr. jang said calmly, yet it seemed to thunder across the room. "the project will be based on what you have learned last year in pre-calculus. each pair will be assigned a specific lesson to complete the worksheet and activity to later be shared to the class on friday. good luck."
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the pair had already left the classroom the moment the bell rang. now they were walking down the halls of their high school. the crowded hallways made it difficult for jongin to catch up though.
"ugh," sehun grunted for the nth time in just one class period.
"you've been saying that for an entire class period, sehun." jinsol pointed out before chuckling. "you got any other words to describe how you're feeling right now?"
"finessed." sehun said without hesitation, earning a giggle from his best friend.
"perhaps you have other words rather than slang terms."
"first of all, ko jinsol," sehun scoffs as the two descended the flight of stairs. "literally sixty-eight percent of my entire vocabulary is at the least, slang terms."
jinsol expression remained with a smile as she continued conversing with sehun. "that's really specific. i'm just surprised you chose sixty-eight instead of sixty-nine."
laughter was shared between the two once again as they were about to leave the school. the sun looking to be close to setting in the afternoon sky. coming back to jinsol's thoughts as the conversation came to an end, she thought about today. it surely wasn't as bad as she imagined it to be. granted, she imagined the worse to come, yet it never did. if jinsol was completely honest this could perhaps be the most she's been at ease. or at least these last couple minutes after school had ended.
sehun sighed as he sat on top of his bicycle, patting the small cushion for jinsol to climb on.
"jinsol!" a familar voice called out the girl before she turned to face him.
"hmm?" the girl hummed as she turned around to see someone she wouldn't think to see.
jongin cleared his throat as he caught to his partner right before she was about to leave. he seemed slightly out of breath, probably because of his constant running around people throughout the halls just to get to them. "the project... it's um.. it's due on friday so i wanted to ask what days you're available to work on it."
"oh," jinsol muttered quietly. "i have a lot of things going on after school on thursday and wednesday. but i am available on tuesday..."
sehun scoffs as he watched his best friend talk to a guy he tried to fight just 24-hours ago. a scowl was obviously plastered on his face. he didn't trust kim jongin in one bit and he couldn't let jinsol be alone with him. not one second.
"so do you want to work on it tomorrow?" jinsol suggested.
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a/n
sorry not sorry if using a shit ton of time skips. i also feel like there isn't much idk in dept writing and interactions between jongin and jinsol. but later on when there isn't much left to introduce (like in two or three chapters) there will be much more jongsol (?) rather than jinhun (?) lmao (?)
— jun (JUN-IPER)