Over the last few days, Taeil had kind of forgotten that Johnny was straight. Which was why it was rather jarring to see him chatting up a girl in their Math class that week.
"Yeah, so obviously I had to tell him that I lift way more than him," Johnny was bragging as the girl in question perched on the edge of his desk. "I mean, it was hard to say it, you know? He was so disappointed- oh, hey, Moony!"
Taeil stopped a few feet short of the desk, hands gripping his bag straps and a rather blank expression on his face. "Hi," he responded.
"Oh, you're the banana guy, right?" the girl asked, suddenly intrigued (and looking far more interested in Taeil than Johnny at this point).
"Yeah," Taeil sighed, "that's me."
The girl laughed and embraced him with a quick hug. "Sorry, I just never noticed you in class before," she admitted. "I'm Sooyoung, by the way."
"Whatever, stop chatting with my girl and fill up my water will you, slave?" Johnny interrupted.
"Slave?" Sooyoung repeated, raising an eyebrow. "Kinky."
"It's a long story," Johnny smirked. He handed Taeil an empty water bottle and waited expectantly.
"But I just got here," Taeil complained, dumping his bag on the desk with a huff. "Do it yourself."
"Yeah, do it yourself," Sooyoung agreed. "Stop bullying Taeil already, asshole."
"Hey, it's not like that!" Johnny defended himself. "It's part of a deal we've got going on, right, Tae?"
Taeil hesitated at the 'Tae', feeling that weird sensation in his stomach he got every time he heard that word.
"I thought you'd keep to your end of the deal," Johnny added, shooting Taeil a pair of the most heartbroken looking puppy dog eyes he could muster. "Or do you not want me to help you?"
"Okay, fine." Taeil finally nodded, taking the bottle from Johnny's hands. "But you're only doing this to get rid of me so you can ask Sooyoung if she wants to hook up later."
Johnny gaped for a moment. No one ever caught him off guard like that. "Well... he put the question out there," he said to Sooyoung with a shrug.
Sooyoung rolled her eyes and flipped her hair over her shoulder. "In your dreams," she replied.
"That's what getting rejected feels like," Taeil drawled.
"Geez, someone's had a confidence boost," Johnny remarked. "You want Step Three then? I'm gonna give you the honest truth - your hair looks like a cat vomitted up its own ass hair."
Sooyoung glanced up from where she had been writing her number on Johnny's book. "I mean... that's kinda harsh but-"
"Please tell me you agree," Johnny begged her. "I need to convince him to get a haircut."
"Well... a haircut always looks nice?" Sooyoung put in with an awkward smile.
"See? even Sooyoung thinks you need to get rid of the cat vomit," Johnny said triumphantly. "Hey- Tae- where are you going?"
Grumbling, Taeil marched out of the room in the direction of the water fountain with Johnny's bottle to hand. His hair wasn't that bad... was it? Maybe Johnny would drop the subject when he got back.
"Aw, Tae, don't be mad at me," Johnny called after him, following Taeil out into the corridor.
"Stop fucking calling me that!" Taeil demanded, ignoring Johnny who so easily caught up with his little steps.
"Why? 'Cause you hate nicknames?"
"No, because it makes me feel weird," Taeil said shortly, stopping at the water fountain. He started to fill up Johnny's water bottle, refusing to look at him.
"Oh?" Johnny smirked.
Taeil screwed the lid back on the bottle and shoved it into Johnny's chest. "If you were gonna come out here, you could've filled it up yourself."
"Hey," Johnny reasoned, "I know you're Mister Confident now, but that is no way to treat your senpai."
Taeil rolled his eyes and stomped back to class.
"Did I say that right?" Johnny asked, sprinting after him. "You live with Yuta, right? How was my pronunciation?"
Taeil tried his best to ignore Johnny for the entire Math lecture, though it was a difficult feat with Johnny getting in his face and prodding his arm and leaning way over onto his side of the desk. Taeil knew the overconfident boy was just trying to help him - since that was their deal, after all - but he was pissing him off so much. And his hair did not look like a cat vomitted up its own ass hair. His hair was fine.
Johnny reached over and tickled the overgrown hair on Taeil's nape with his pen, finding far too much joy in irritating him. "Moony, please," he begged. "Let me cut your hair."
Taeil didn't respond and tried to listen to whatever the lecturer was saying. Johnny, however, had other ideas. He reached into Taeil's pencilcase and retrieved a pair of yellow-handled scissors.
"Fuck, don't you dare!" Taeil hissed, reaching to snatch the scissors back.
Johnny held them above his head, out of reach. "Let me take you for a haircut, or I'm cutting it myself," he said, handing out the ultimatum like it was a present on Christmas.
"I actually hate you," Taeil snapped in annoyance.
Johnny put on the puppy dog eyes and pouted at Taeil, hard. It was so difficult not to be swayed by that stupid expression on his face and-
"Fine," Taeil muttered.
Johnny blinked. And then his pout slid into a bright grin. "Yes! I won," he said gleefully. "We'll go after we finish Math, okay? You are gonna look hot as fuck by the time I'm finished with you."
Taeil hesitantly wrote the answer to his equation and glanced up at Johnny again. "You really think a haircut is going to make that much of a difference?" he asked doubtfully.
"Dude, trust me, a haircut can make all the difference," Johnny promised.
After the lecture finished, Taeil left first, agreeing to wait outside the building while Johnny went to the bathroom. He wasn't so sure about this haircut thing. His hair was messy and too long, and dyed a faded red as one of Sicheng's experiments. He didn't think he looked bad, though. If taeil was honest, he didn't spend too much time looking at himself in the mirror, so he never really thought about it.
"Hyung!"
Sicheng came running across the courtyard to greet him with a smile. He looked as cute as ever with that fluffy blonde hair of his pulled back in the wind. Taeil wondered whether Johnny would make him go blonde.
"Yuta and I were going to watch the next episode of Death Note when we get in, if you were down for it of course," Sicheng told him a little breathlessly.
"Uh..." Taeil shifted awkwardly from foot to foot, "I can't.."
Sicheng raised an eyebrow at him, having a pretty good guess at where Taeil would be - or at least who he'd be with.
"Yeah," Taeil struggled under Sicheng's suggestive look, "sorry, I'm kind of busy doing-"
"-Me," Johnny finished, joining them from behind. He laughed and slung an arm around Taeil's shoulders. "Ha, just joking. You ready to go?"
Taeil shot Sicheng an apologetic look. "I'll see you later?"
Sicheng just nodded and raised a hand to wave goodbye. "I guess I'll watch it with just Yuta then," he mumbled.
"Have fun!" Johnny winked at him as he lead Taeil away across campus, making Sicheng blush furiously.
Taeil frowned and looked up at Johnny, the weight of his arm still comfortable around his shoulders. "What was all that about?"
Johnny just grinned. "You'll find out eventually," he said. "Now, to the barbers! By tomorrow you'll be in haircut heaven, and Mr Lee Taeyong won't be able to take his eyes off you."
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a | n :
been a long time since i updated this, but still excited for the rest of the book yehet
taeten? taeten.
sungjoy? sungjoy.
jk idk what'll happen yet
BUT JOHNNY IS STILL THE CUTEST AND I LOVE HIM AND HE DESERVES THE WORLD OK GOODBYE ♡
^ one of my fave ever videos in the media i love johnjae