Characters: Kibum, OC, SJ
Rating: PG
Chaptercount: 5/36
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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A few twenty minutes later, we arrived at one of the most huge and expensive sports halls in my city. As I got out of the car, I silently wondered if I would even have enough money to pay for whatever drink I was going to get myself. How much would a prestigious coke cost here? I remember considering just asking for a glass and going out to fill it with water from the tap in the toilets. Probably their toilet water itself was even more hygienic than my tap water.
My thoughts were interrupted as Heechul grabbed my wrist and dragged me towards the entrance. I had no choice but to follow him, but quickly pulled free when I almost fell face down on the ground because of his speed. With a sigh I then walked along with him, taking in the hugeness of the whole sports complex as we approached it. I wanted to ask him some things, but held myself back as I still tried to show some reluctance in going, just because I was stubborn like that. As I entered the building, I looked around at all the fancy decorations and the amazing interior design. I was soon snapped out of my trance when we walked into the cafeteria and a few happy shouted greetings floated towards Heechul. The group turned silent when they noticed me, however, and I realised they had had no idea of my presence on this outing.
“Yah, you didn’t ask them if they were okay with me coming?” I hissed at Heechul as we walked up to the table where his friends were sitting. He threw me a surprised glance, frowning a little over my words as he realised what they meant.
“Why would they mind?” he then asked.
“Heechul, what did I tell you about this earlier? Don’t just go around assuming things, but ask the people. You might be right about their answer sometimes, but that doesn’t mean you’re right all the time.”
We reached the group after my hissed lecture, so he didn’t reply to me. However, he did do something else, which was kind of unexpected.
“Guys, this is Snipe. You mind if she plays with us?” he asked his friends.
A long silence followed his words as he waited for their answer. They simply stared back, looking rather expectant. After thirty seconds of complete silence, Heechul’s patience had already ended.
“Yah! Why don’t you guys reply to my question?” he exclaimed offended.
“Uh.. You expected an answer?” one of his friends asked, looking genuinely surprised. It was a rather buffed up guy who looked older than the rest of them. His voice was very soothing, however, and he seemed to me like a nice person.
“Why else would I ask you a question? Babo!” Heechul retorted, rolling his eyes at the stupidity of his friends. I could only do my best to hide my amused smile.
“Well, you normally just rush in, ask us that question and simply go on without waiting for an answer.” one of the girls exclaimed, shooting Heechul an annoyed look. “But why in the world would we mind you bringing someone over anyway? Your friends are our friends, right? Unless they’re serial killers.” When everyone gave her weird looks, she raised her eyebrows in wonder. “What? With Heechul one can never know!” she reasoned, making the others nod in agreement. I chuckled softly.
“Whatever.” Heechul huffed, putting a hand on my shoulder and pushing me forward one step. “As I said, this is Snipe. Snipe, these are my friends. From left to right we have Shindong, Minji, Namin, Kyuhyun, Tae Woo and Mi Cha. You already know Hannie, of course.”
The said people all smiled at me or lifted their hand in greeting. I could only smile and nod back, trying to remember every name that had been said to me. Shindong, Minji -the girl who had talked before-, Na..min? Kyu..something, Tae Woo -the guy who had talked before-, and Mi..Cha. I repeated their names over and over in my mind, trying to link them to the faces so that I would be able to address people with the right name. I was still in the middle of doing that when Hangeng stood up and took a step towards me.
“Can I hug you?” he asked, making me look up at him in surprise.
“Err.. Sure?” I mumbled, totally confused as to why he would ask such a question.
“Well, last time you almost yelled me deaf and then you attacked my brother, so I thought I’d ask first before doing so..” he explained upon seeing my expression. I felt a blush creep up my cheeks at the truth of his words and was glad that I could hide my face against his chest for a moment as he pulled me into his embrace. The moment was lengthened to a few moments, which turned into a long while, until someone cleared his throat, making me pull away from him again. At least my cheeks had returned to their normal colour by then.
“It’s nice that you two became friends so fast, but why does he get a hug and I don’t?” Heechul complained, giving me a disappointed look. I eyed him for a moment, before huffing.
“Because he asked nicely and you didn’t.” I then replied. The group burst out laughing as Heechul mumbled some silent complaints. Luckily for me, Hangeng told everyone to move a little so that I would fit on the little bench as well and wouldn’t have to awkwardly stand while everybody else was sitting. Heechul just sat down on one of the chairs, not caring about awkwardness or being different from everyone else. He just plopped down and started sulking.
“So .. Snipe?” Kyuhyun mumbled, making me look up at him in surprise. He was sitting about four or five people away from me. I tried to give him a polite smile, which made him smile back. “Say, how long have you known Heechul for? I have never seen anyone insult him like that and then live to tell it.”
“Yah! Kyu! What nonsense are you talking? You are still alive, are you not?” Heechul retorted, sounding quite dangerous as he shot a deadly glare in the maknae’s direction. Oh yes, Kyuhyun’s the maknae of that group. He was supposed to be one year lower than me in university, but the boy just happily skipped two years because he was too intelligent.
“But I’m your friend, hyung.” the boy mumbled as a reply to Heechul’s outburst.
“Who says I’m not?” I replied calmly, showing the Kyu-something boy a self-assured smile. My words gained me a surprised look from both Heechul and Hangeng and the other people were staring at me with what looked most like disbelief in their eyes. “Yah, what are you all staring for? Does this come as such a big shock to you? Heechul and I are practically best buddies! Right, Chullie?” I turned to look at him, hearing how someone gasped in surprise at my use of nickname for Heechul. The latter only smiled at me and nodded.
“Yes we are.” he agreed, showing me a mischievous smile. “So can I get a hug as well now?” I felt like slapping myself, knowing that I had only me to blame for the outcome of the conversation. Just when I was about to answer with a confirmation, witty Kyusomething decided to butt in again.
“Since when do you like hugs, hyung?” he asked, seeming genuinely surprised at this new turn of events. Heechul shot him a death glare that could probably even stop an overactive old lady on drugs from messing with him. When Kyuhyun calmly stared back, not even averting his eyes once, a relaxed smile playing on his lips, Heechul decided to reply.
“Go on like that and I’ll show you the meaning of living dead.” he snapped at the younger boy, scowling over the said words. “And it’s not because I don’t like hugging YOU that I don’t like hugging in general. Have you looked at yourself? You are a DUDE.” After glaring at Kyuhyun long enough to make sure he wasn’t going to interfere anymore, Heechul turned back to me, giving me an expectant look. I just blankly stared back as if I had no idea what he was waiting for. It took him about ten seconds to get enough of our staring game. “Yah! Can I get my hug now?” he nearly demanded. I chuckled.
Right as I planned to get up, however, a hand slid in between my arm and body and kept me in place by holding on to my lower arm. I glanced at it in surprise, raising my eyes to look up at the face of the person ‘holding me captive.’ Hangeng was looking at Heechul with an amused smile on his face, keeping me next to him.
“I don’t think I would like you getting a hug from her as well, brother.” he said happily. “It would ruin the feeling of being special that I am momentarily having.” As I heard those words, I immediately turned to Heechul, wanting to know what his reaction would be. He squinted his eyes and cocked his head to the left a little, eyeing his brother with a thoughtful expression. There were a few moments of silence in which no one seemed to want to open his or her mouth. Finally the silence was cut as Heechul drew a deep breath.
“Yah! Hannie! You better not get beaten by me this time, because when I win, I want the hug after all.” he then said, grinning widely. I turned my attention back to Hangeng, who was only frowning at his brother. I immediately turned to look at Heechul again, who had meanwhile raised an eyebrow. It felt a little like following a tennis match, my head snapping from left to right as the brothers exchanged glances, trying to get what exactly they were silently conversing about. In the end, both brothers broke out into a huge grin.
“Deal.” Hangeng said happily. “But Soo Jin is playing on my side.”
“Deal!” Heechul called out, getting up from his chair. Everyone followed his example, getting up and moving out from behind the table. It was only when Hangeng had already gently pulled me three metres away from the table that I was able to react.
“Wait.. What?”
“Mhm? Did you say something?” Hangeng turned his head to look at me. I took use of the opportunity to pull my arm free from his grip and stopped, putting my hands in my side.
“What did you guys just make a deal about? What was all this crap talk about beating him and me being on your side. I don’t care what you think, but I’m not going to hit Heechul!” I reasoned with him. He stared at me for a moment, blinking a few times as if he wasn’t really sure that what he was hearing was real, before bursting out in laughter. He gave me a pat on my head and took my wrist again, pulling me to follow him as he was still snickering.
“We’re going to play basket, silly girl.” he explained as he pulled me along. “Heechul and I are both team captains and always play against each other. Every time we play, we make something else the prize for winning. This time when he wins, he wants you to hug him. When I win, you don’t have to. That’s why I told him you’re in my team. You’ll be playing for your own free will.” I followed him a few more steps, before pulling free again.
“Yah!” I exclaimed, making him jump a little in surprise over my raised voice. He turned to look at me with wide eyes, obviously not having expected me to yell at him. “You spent too much time with that arrogant piece of chinchilla, didn’t you?” I continued my tirade. “I do believe I have a say in this as well. Even when Heechul wins, I won’t have to hug him if I don’t want to! I did not agree to this stupid deal of you two and I’m certainly not going to let a game of basketball decide over whether or not I am going to hug anyone. Gosh, you two are such humongous piles of arrogance. It’s not because you happened to be plucked out by luck and got lots of money that that gives you the right to decide for other people. I’ll tell you the same I told Heechul; Ask people before just assuming they agree with you!”
I stomped away after throwing those words in his face and quickly made my way towards the door the others had walked through. I walked right out of the sports complex again. Quite an end away from me, the group was walking onto the basketball field, the girls already taking their places on the benches to the side. I remember back then I wondered why they wouldn’t play along. This was no big competition or anything and they were all friends, so couldn’t they throw some balls as well instead of boringly sitting on a bench? I decided to ask them about it later. First I would kick Heechul’s butt in playing ball and later I would get to more boring stuff.
I set for the group, but someone grabbed my wrist again. What was it with these popular people? Was wrist grabbing a high-rated hobby of theirs or something? I looked back to see who had grabbed me this time, only to see a flash of black and brown clothes pass me by and someone happily pulling me along with him. It took me three steps of being dragged along to realise it was Hangeng. What the..? We arrived at the basketball ground before I was over my surprise of being DRAGGED somewhere by Hangeng and he was out of my reach by long when I finally started moving again.
I huffed, mumbled something about ‘bad friend service in the popular ranks’ and dumped my bag on the bench. Because of the nice shining sun, I decided to play in my tank top, showing off my bellybutton
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