Vignettes of a Thursday
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Hyunjin didn't know if he had ever seen Jisung as excited as he was this morning, and that was saying something.
"He liked it, he liked it, he liiiiiiiiked it!" Jisung sang as he did turns and failed leaps to his seat.
Hyunjin looked up from his neat pile of books, silently judging the dancing boy.
Jisung stopped near his desk and hummed a little ditty while his hips shook and his hands happily punched the air.
Hyunjin gave a whole neck roll and looked to his textbook for some kind of distraction.
That was until Jisung slammed his hands on the desk, demanding attention. Hyunjin flinched and backed his head away from the boy. Jisung didn't seem to know the definition of personal space.
"Hey, Jin! I finally made a good decision!" Hyunjin forced a smile and nodded.
"And that would be?" Instead of answering, Jisung stuck his head even further into Hyunjin's face to show off his black and purple striped beanie.
"So he didn't call it ugly this time?" Jisung backed up and grinned.
"Nope! He even gave me extra kisses!" Jisung's hands went up by his ears and shook to show his delight. Hyunjin's hands did much the same thing, but his scrunched up nose gave the action a different feel.
"I did not need to know that."
"But I told you anyway~" Jisung skipped to his seat, slid in, and nudged Hyunjin with his shoulder.
"Oh my gosh!" Jisung leaned back in his seat and let his arms sway on either side of his body, "happy Minho is the best! I think I'm gonna wear this beanie for the rest of my life!"
"Yeah and while you're at it, don't pair it with neon orange." Hyunjin mumbled a little too loud.
Jisung's head whipped up, but the rest of his posture stayed the same.
"What did you say?"
"Nothing." Jisung dragged the rest of his body up and rested his arms on his desk.
"Yeah right. You probably said the same thing he did," Jisung wiggled his head a little in disapproval, "why are you guys so similar? It's annoying."
"Didn't know I had Minho qualities."
"Well you're both hot, that's a big one, then there's your fashionista tendencies-"
"But I'm not-"
"AND all you ever do is make me mad!" Hyunjin cocked a brow at how the boy had thrown his hands up and almost smacked a passing girl in the face. He had seized up a moment later and profusely apologized to the girl who slowly backed away and gave big eyes to her friend in the back.
"The feeling is mutual." Hyunjin covered up his residual annoyance with the loud boy by laughing at his own statement. Jisung turned back around not looking overly bothered.
"I heard that, but you're not getting rid of me. Especially this close to Friday."
"Is something happening on Friday?"
"Well duh! It's called I get to watch you fall on your butt for two hours at dance class!" Jisung cackled and returned to his giddy self while Hyunjin gripped his knees and rolled his tongue around in his mouth. Jisung sensed the anger building as Hyunjin cocked his head from side to side.
"Look, dude..." Jisung sunk back into his chair and put out his hands as defense, "I was just joking. I'm sure you will only fall a few times this time!"
Jisung gave Hyunjin an encouraging nod, but Hyunjin just contorted his hands in anger.
"You better be glad we're in school and I care. Also, take off your hat." Hyunjin spoke through his teeth.
Jisung's hands flew to his hat and he pulled it down with a pout.
"But... but... it's my new lucky charm!" Jisung faked a few sniffles that earned zero sympathy from Hyunjin.
"Yeah, and the teacher's gonna take your lucky charm, so take it off." Jisung grumbled and tore off the hat, leaving a poofy mass of hair in its wake. Hyunjin's eyes widened in realization, and he turned around.
Changbin was already asleep on his desk, black beanie still on and arms sprawled out.
"Bin! Yo, Bin!" Hyunjin whisper-yelled across the rows of empty desks, lightly tapping on the one directly behind him.
Changbin smacked his lips and slid his arms up under his head.
"Changbin, wake up! You're gonna get in trouble again!"
"Shut up, Jinjin." There was no cuteness in his tone, but weirdly, the nickname remained.
"The flip kinda name is Jinjin?" Hyunjin put his palm up to Jisung's mouth as he continued to call Changbin.
"I won't until you take off your hat!"
"It's a beanie."
"I don't care!"
"Fine, but just 'cause it's you." Changbin's body dragged across the desk as he sat up and lazily pulled at the top of the beanie. As it came up, small bits of hair stuck to the edges, but somehow managed to fall back down perfectly. Changbin stuffed the beanie in his desk and went back to his sleeping position.
Hyunjin nodded in approval and turned back around to see the teacher walking into the classroom with an abundance of papers.
"So... you gonna explain why dark boy suddenly talks to you?" There was Jisung again in Hyunjin's personal space.
"I wouldn't tell you even if I knew, go away!"
"So he's talking to you just 'cause?"
"I told you, I don't know!"
"Yeah, right, you don't know." Jisung looked Hyunjin up and down before giving up and turning to the board where their class schedule was now written.
******
It appeared that Seungmin had no intentions of scaring or teasing Hyunjin that day as he peacefully sat in his assigned chair, scanning a piece of music. Hyunjin picked up a chair from the stack and joined him.
"Whatcha looking at?" Seungmin pointed to the piano up front, "oh."
Hyunjin stood up and walked to the short stack of papers on the piano. He picked up one of the stapled packets and read the title.
Young and Me.
Interesting.
Hyunjin took it back to his seat and began to peruse the new piece. There was something familiar about it, but Hyunjin couldn't quite figure out what it was.
"Oh, are we starting it today?" Chan's voice was right beside Hyunjin's ear as the boy had dropped himself down right in between his two friends.
"Yeah, I guess. It looks a lot harder than it sounded." Seungmin answered.
"Sorry? That wasn't my intention."
"So that's why it was familiar!" Hyunjin exclaimed, giving Seungmin big eyes.
"You just got that?"
"Shut up, I'm not as smart as you!"
"It literally says Bang Chan on the first page, but okay." Seungmin practically rolled his eyes.
"Talk to the hand, Seungmin from chorus." Hyunjin put his palm up to Seungmin's face, a surprised gasp coming from the recipient and a low chuckle coming from Chan.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah? Why?" Not expecting the question, Hyunjin lowered his hand and gave Seungmin an inquisitive look.
"You're usually not this...responsive?"
"What does that mean?"
"It means you must have gotten used to our Seungminnie here, because you're not a cute, shy bean anymore." Chan interrupted, shaking Hyunjin's shoulders before it turned into a massage.
"I'm not a bean regardless, but okay." Chan laughed and patted his back.
"If you say so~" Chan sang as he went to sit in his seat on the other side of Seungmin.
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Hyunjin managed to somehow get picked as a captain for their basketball scrimmage today.
That would have been great if he knew the people in his class, but thankfully after the first choice, his teammates guided him on who to choose next.
He ended up with five lanky guys that were taller than him and walked with a swag that radiated confidence. That's the only reason they got to the final round. Hyunjin certainly didn't help because every time they passed him the ball he would fumble around with it or bounce it off his foot.
He obviously had spent too much time with Jeongin whose pastimes were eating ice cream and watching dumb dog videos on Youtube.
It could have been worse though, and his teammates seemed happy to have made it as far as they did. Hyunjin walked out of the gym with a couple random dudes' arms over his shoulders and a new appreciation for group sports.
******
When Hyunjin saw Minho at their normal lunch table, he sent the boy a smile that was so large it forced his eyes closed.
"What's got you so happy?" Minho asked as soon as Hyunjin got in hearing range.
"Nothing. Just a good day." Hyunjin sat across from Minho and grinned.
"Okay..." Minho looked away from the overly happy boy in just enough time to see Jisung catapult himself onto Minho's lap, "Woah! Hi, Babe."
"Hi!" Jisung giggled and wrapped his arms around Minho's neck. Hyunjin looked away.
"Jinnie!" Felix had recently been spending his lunches with Hyunjin. Chan was always present too, but that was never a problem, "wanna get in line?"
"Sure!" The pair took each other's hands and skipped to the lunch line.
Hyunjin marveled at the fried chicken and mac and cheese that got ladled on his tray.
"How come no one told me it was chicken day!?!" Felix giggled at Hyunjin's response to the food.
"I don't know, but let's go, I'm hungry!" They once again skipped across the cafeteria floor, but this time their jumps were a little more cautious. They sat down beside each other and shared a grin before simultaneously biting into a chicken leg.
Jisung groaned.
"This is what I get for packing my own lunch!" He set his elbows on the table and supported his face with his fists, looking with longing at the chicken.
Felix turned and hid the chicken leg under the table, bending down every few seconds to take a bite. Hyunjin shook his head at the boy's antics, but also joined in by eating in slow motion to prolong Jisung's misery.
******
Hyunjin sat in the front row of his math class, the vocabulary having an actual definition thanks to Felix's help. He took notes to the best of his ability and wrote down the examples given by his teacher. Hyunjin's eyes shone with pride as he realized he could actually answer the teacher's questions.
He continued on this streak until Minho hit him with reality.
Yo, pretty boy! You teacher's pet now?
Hyunjin scrunched up the sun-shaped sticky note and turned his body around to look at Minho.
"Shut up, I'm trying to learn!" He mouthed to the back of the room.
After that, he picked up the constant flow of notes, but didn't read them. He almost regretted it when Minho approached him at the end of class, but once he survived the headlock, Minho let him get to the bus in peace.
******
"Hey, Lixie!"
"Hey, Jinnie!"
Felix stood up and let Hyunjin slide in beside him. They immediately got into a cuddly position, Felix's legs sandwiching Hyunjin's legs and his head on Hyunjin's shoulder.
Changbin got on and sat on the opposite side of the bus, earbuds in and beanie on, not acknowledging either of the boys in the seat across from him.
Hyunjin wanted to ask what was wrong, but Felix was basically pinning him down and was too enamored with something on his phone to even notice Changbin at all.
Changbin said nothing as he exited the bus that day, but took the time to send Hyunjin a goodbye nod that was happily returned.
A few minutes later, it was Felix's stop, resulting in a huge amount of hugs before he ran to the gate surrounding his trailer and waved wildly as the bus rolled away. Hyunjin waved back for as long as he could still see Felix before settling back in his seat.
As the bus continued it's route, the corners of Hyunjin's lips lifted up and his tongue cheekily peeked out.
When the bus reached his stop, Hyunjin bounced out of the bus and down his driveway. He ran up the stairs to the porch, opened the door, and dropped his backpack by the wall. Kkami ran up to him, wagging his tail and wiggling his whole body.
"Baby? Is that you?" Hyunjin's mom called from somewhere in the house.
"Yep, it's me!"
"Oh, good! Can we talk for a second?"
Oh no. Not this again.
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I'm so excited about the next few chapters, so stay tuned!