Characters: Kibum, OC, SJ
Rating: PG
Chaptercount: 23/36
Summary: Soojin meets a guy who turns her world upside down but then there's a few dozen others as well.
A/N: This is one of my most beloved novels (not that I wrote THAT many, but still) and I think I will forever cherish the characters in this. This story also helped me shape my view on the different members and is the first of few stories in which I used first person.
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Everyone stared at him without knowing what to say. I was the only one not looking directly at him, because I felt like being caught in the middle of doing something embarrassing. The silence became rather awkward as still no one spoke and Kibum looked from one at the other, obviously wondering why suddenly everyone had become silent. He then started grinning and gave Zhou Mi’s back a soft pat, since the Chinese was closest to him.
“Okay, so you were obviously talking about me.” he said amused, looking from person to person still. “What gossip were the old ladies exchanging then?” I couldn’t help but smile hearing those words. It was typically Heechul to discover someone was talking about him, just smile about it and then demand to know what exactly had been said. Kibum’s words proved once again how much the friendship with my dear mister Even More Arrogant had influenced him.
“Just talking about your famous personality.” Jongwoon replied, smiling as well. “You know, the one you use as an excuse for every weird thing you do.” He showed his younger friend an innocent grin. “Wouldn’t surprise me if ever you get interviewed and they ask you why you chose the major you’re doing that you’ll answer that ‘your personality just made you unable to do anything else.’” Jongwoon, Zhou Mi and I chuckled, but the others looked at Kibum worriedly, fearing that he might not like those words. I knew better, of course. Kibum would never get angry over friendly bantering. Especially not coming from one of his hyungs.
“I probably would, yes. Got any problems with that?” he asked amused.
“Actually I don’t.” Jongwoon replied to that, and the two friends exchanged a happy grin. Someone then called Zhou Mi to play, because it was his turn and I took use of the opportunity to drag Yumiko away from the group and continue our conversation more privately again as we watched the boys play snooker.
“Did you hear what Jongwoon said?” I asked her in a whisper and she nodded. “So he takes the first step; showing me what he feels by kissing me, and then waits until I take the second one?” She nodded again, making me sigh. “What the hell does he expect me to think? ‘Hey, you kissed me once so you must be completely infatuated by me. Let’s get together.’ How am I supposed to know he works that way?”
“Maybe he thinks you know him well enough. You have been in the same class since kindergarten, right? Maybe he thinks you’d have figured out as much by now.” she replied, whispering as well. I gave myself an imaginary slap, realising how true that was. Since he had waited until he was sure I wouldn’t mind him kissing me, he had probably known that I liked him as well, or at least did not dislike him, so maybe he had thought that with my straightforwardness, I would take the kiss as some kind of sign that he liked me and that I would make things..move on somehow. I had simply been too blind and too awaiting.
It was time to change that, but I wasn’t going to just drag him out or have the conversation with everyone watching, so instead of doing so, I waited until he stood slightly by himself. I then walked over to him and took a place by his side. When he turned to look at me, I smiled, which made him smile back. I looked at the snooker table again where Hangeng was just having a go at it since there currently weren’t any customers around.
“So are you avoiding me or not?” Kibum calmly asked after a short silence. I turned to look at him in surprise, not knowing where he could have possibly gotten the idea from that I was avoiding him.
“Avoid you? Why would I be avoiding you?” I therefore wondered out loud, making him turn to look at me as well. When our eyes locked, I felt my heart leap, which caused me to shift my feet uncomfortably. I wasn’t used to my body’s weird reactions to his mere presence.
“You know.. I haven’t really spent time with you anymore after Tuesday. You didn’t go along with us on Friday evening like you usually do, and just now when I came to stand with your group, you quickly left.” he then replied, turning his eyes back towards the snooker table. I was left staring at him for a while, unable to reply just yet. When I finally got back to my senses, I looked at my glass, fidgeting with the edge, just to occupy my hands.
“Well, I wanted to give my other friends some attention as well during the week, you know; the ‘dealing with a large group of friends’-thing, but Heechul.. That’s Heechul.. When you give him a minute of attention, he immediately demands the next four days as well. He invited me for dinner at his house on Friday, which I told you. That wasn’t an excuse to get out of going out with you guys, if that was what you were thinking.” I explained everything, looking up at him again once I started talking and smiling softly over the last words. “I actually came up to you to ask if you had time after school tomorrow to go somewhere with me.” He looked back at me as well, an amused smile playing on his face.
“Sure. Where did you plan on going to?” he then said, making me grin sheepishly and shrug. The fact that he didn’t ask more about the group I had been standing with before or the thing we were talking about made me relax a little and feel much more comfortable around him again.
“I don’t know, just..somewhere? I didn’t really have a place in mind, just wanted to spend some time with you again. Talk a little, maybe take some pictures.” I mumbled, which caused him to chuckle.
“You’re really enjoying your job of model, aren’t you?” I could hear the amused smile in his voice, which made me smile as well.
“Actually I was thinking more of me taking pictures of you this time. You know, this ‘making myself able to look at something forever’ kind of stuff. Some guy told me about it once, it sounded interesting.” I replied nonchalantly.
“This kind of stuff, huh? Must have been one weird guy.” He gave me a slight wink as he walked up to the snooker table to play his turn. I was left standing there, staring at him in a daze because of the unexpected gesture. He returned mere moments later, after playing the white ball against the black one they were supposed to get in one specific corner, but missing the goal only barely. “So tomorrow after school you’ll drive me somewhere and I bring my camera?” he then asked, as if our conversation hadn’t been interrupted. I snapped out of my daze and nodded.
“Yeah, sure, I’ll drive somewhere.” I said with a smile. “My car can use some movement. She’s been getting so little exercise lately with everyone driving me around like that.”
“He. A car is always a he.” Jongwoon corrected me, suddenly appearing at my side once again. I almost jumped in surprise and quickly swatted his arm.
“Stop doing that!” I scolded him, making Kibum grin and Jongwoon chuckle. When I saw Heeyoung standing a little away from us, animatedly talking to Haerin, Eun Hee and Ga Eun, I quickly pushed Jongwoon in her direction, calling out to her. “Unni, please keep your boyfriend with you. We don’t want our Loonytunes wandering around like this.” My words made Kibum’s chuckle turn into a laugh, whereas Jongwoon frowned at me.
“Loonytunes?” he demanded to know. I smiled innocently and took a step to my right so that I would stand behind Kibum a little, using him as my shield against Jongwoon’s disapproval.
“Well, I can always go back to Loonywoonie, but I was getting a little bored with that nickname, so I came up with a new one. Isn’t it original? Don’t you like it?” I said, ducking away behind Kibum some more when Jongwoon kept staring at me without changing his expression. Kibum was still grinning and the four girls who had come up to us after my words were smiling amusedly.
“She has a point there, dear.” Heeyoung then said, patting Jongwoon’s shoulder. Eun Hee took a step towards him as well, to be able to punch his shoulder friendlily.
“Yeah she does, oppa. And I like the nickname. Loonytunes. Maybe I should u-” she started, but he interrupted her before she could finish her sentence.
“Don’t even THINK about calling me that, dongsaeng-ah, because I might just never invite you to come along ever again.” he threatened, giving her one of his deadly glares that successfully made her take a step back again and keep silent. I chuckled and got out my best puppy eyes, still hiding behind Kibum as I did so.
“So you don’t like my new nickname?” I asked him, doing my best to sound disappointed. He sighed and eyed my pout for a while, before rolling his eyes and sighing.
“Fine, fine, but only you can call me that!” he then gave in. “Because otherwise Jungsoo will call me that as well and then Heechul will think he can do the same, and I do not want to have to hit him.” His words made us all laugh.
“Ah, well, it’s not that hard to hit Chullie, really. Heeyoung does it all the time, you can ask her for advice.” I then said nonchalantly. That caused Heeyoung to grin happily and the three girls to laugh even more. Right then, Siwon finally managed to get the black ball into one of the corners, which caused everyone to crowd around him and congratulate him on winning.
After an appropriate celebration of Siwon’s success, we paid for our drinks and the snooker games and then started to leave, since it was getting more towards the evening, dinner time, and some still had to get some studying done. The exams were getting closer every day with only about a month left to go, so it was more than normal for the people to get a little anxious. Especially Shindong, Tae Woo and Hangeng who were in the last year of their studies.
Since everyone had been getting rides from everyone to get there, it was a little bit of a mess to see who went with which car, but in the end it was settled and Yumiko and I were given a ride by Hyukjae, who lived closest to my house. Of course Donghae drove along as well, since he lived in the same house as Hyukjae.
Once at home, Yumiko quickly greeted her friends, rushing into the house at once because she was pressed to use the bathroom. I was quite a bit slower than her in unbuckling my seatbelt, so I experienced a slightly awkward moment as I wondered what I should say to the two guys whom I didn’t know that well, while struggling with my seatbelt. After a whole minute of battling with it, Donghae finally decided to help, so he loosened his own seatbelt and then leaned down in between the two front seats, reaching out a hand to help me.
“That one always gets a little stuck.” he told me with a smile, grabbing the thing and giving it a good pull. Our hands brushed against each other as he did so, which caused the both of us to stop in our movements for a second or two, before continuing like nothing happened, yet the slight flushing of my cheeks didn’t go unnoticed by me. When the seatbelt was finally loose, he sat back down, but kept looking at me. Hyukjae eyed me through the rear-view mirror as well.
“So..” I mumbled, slightly unsure as to what to say. There was a moment more of silence before I started my nervous rambling. “Thanks for the ride home. I hope you two had fun today. I don’t really know what kind of things you like, really, but I guess that’s normal since I don’t really know you as well. It’s kind of silly how Yumiko knows you so well and I don’t know you at all. Maybe we should hang out once. Get to know each other a little better as well. After all, friends of Yumi are my friends too.”
“Sounds great.” Donghae sort of interrupted me, making me stop talking like an idiot and look up at him. He showed me a smile before continuing. “Why don’t you come along with Miko once when she comes to soccer practice with us?” My eyes flashed towards Hyukjae without really noticing, but he also smiled at me.
“I agree. I’ve been wanting to get to know you for a while already. It’s like everyone knows you but us. Why don’t you come along after school tomorrow?” he then said. It was the first time that I actually directly talked to the two of them and it was rather pleasant. They were both very open and inviting, especially Hyukjae.
“I’d love to..” I replied, feeling a little bad for having to refuse. “..but I’m already going somewhere tomorrow after school.”
“The day after tomorrow then? Or whenever you like. Just come along, you’re welcome every day you want to come.” Hyukjae said happily, winking at me through the mirror. I grinned.
“Will do. Probably Wednesday will work. I’ll just ask Yumi when you guys practice and such, if that’s alright. But I hope you don’t expect me to play along. I’m pretty sure I suck at soccer. Basketball is my strong point.” I replied just as openly as I felt.
“Just like Kibum. Who knows, though, maybe you are multi-talented. Or simply okay at soccer and great at basket.” Donghae said grinning. “We’ll see you around then, right?”
“Certainly. Thanks again for the ride. I’ll say bye to Yumi for you guys as well, since she left in such a hurry.” I grinned when I got out of the car, going to stand on the sidewalk and waving shortly as they drove away. When I turned around, Yumiko was standing in the doorframe, giving me a meaningful look.
“Was that you staring at Lee Donghae again for too long?” she asked me, raising her eyebrows. I laughed, poking her side and slipping inside the house past her.
“No, that was me talking to your friends and being invited to join them for soccer practice this Wednesday. Would you mind if I do?” I then replied, looking back at her to see her grin widely.
“So finally you show an interest in my friends as well?” she replied jokingly. “I can’t wait to see how you and Sung Yeon will get along. She’s really cool! And I want to know what you think of Ryeowook. He’s kind of cute, but I think he is tougher than any of the others. Oh and Siwon is a real gentleman. Too bad he already has a girlfriend or I might have been able to just forget about the whole Sungmin-Zhou Mi trouble and just go for him.”
“Why not go for Hyukjae? As far as I know, he doesn’t have a girlfriend.. Not that I know very far.” I chuckled as I started going up the stairs to drop my stuff in my room. Yumiko followed.
“Nah.. He’s cute but.. I think I prefer Sungmin-Zhou Mi trouble over him.” she replied, grinning widely. “So tell me what you and Kibum talked about.” I laughed and shook my head over her curiosity, but started to tell her anyway.
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