Chapter Text
Jay brought one of the old chairs he found abandoned in a nearby alley, climbing up to peer over the other side. With the gate locked at the front, and the teachers doing rounds, he had no choice but to try this as a last resort.
He was still tired, but after sleeping in past the point of the gates locking, he needed to get in and quickly.
He looked around cautiously. He was fairly certain he had timed it right to the teachers rounds, but he couldn’t be absolutely sure. And he did not want to face the consequences if he got caught.
The detention didn’t bother him, and the cleaning punishment usually just meant he had an excuse to think through lyrics he wanted to work on. However, there was one side effect he never looked forward to.
Sunghoon is going to nag me if I get caught, he thought with a frown.
That notion propelled him up and over the wall.
I would rather break a leg than listen to him nag.
With that, he took off towards the side entrance.
-
“Why were you late?” Sunghoon raised his eyebrow, hopping up between him and Sunoo on the stage in the gym, where their little friend group often hung out during their breaks.
“What? I wasn’t late,” Jay denied immediately, and Jake snickered on his left side.
“You were late,” Sunghoon insisted.
Jay shrugged. “I wasn’t late.” He repeated.
“You weren’t in our history class.” Sunghoon narrowed his eyes.
“I totally was,” Jay rolled his eyes in return. “I just sit at the back, you know this.”
Sunghoon stayed staring at him for a long moment before he made an annoyed noise. “Fine. I’m going to ask Eunjin to switch desks with me.” He said finally.
“What? Why?” Jay sat up straighter in alarm.
“Because I want to sit with you in class, is that a crime?” He raised his eyebrow. “I didn’t see you at all, but you insist you were there so I feel bad that I missed you.”
“You’re seeing me now, do you need to see me first thing in the morning?” Jay scoffed, rolling his eyes.
“Is it really that unbelievable that I feel bad for missing you? You wouldn’t lie to me, right? So that means you were in the class and I didn’t see you.” Sunghoon sighed, cocking his head to the side.
Jay couldn’t believe his ears. He was totally, absolutely screwed. He would be forced to listen to Sunghoon scold him every morning because of his improper uniform, or his tardiness, or what else was wrong that day.
But he couldn’t back out now, he was too committed to the bit. And he would only nag more if Jay admitted he was lying.
Jay shot him a thin smile and turned back to Jake as he told some story.
-
Jay was running.
He managed to barely make it before the teacher closed the door.
“Always at the last minute, Jongseong-ssi.” The teacher deadpanned, clearly unimpressed.
“I’m not late,” he shrugged, running a hand through his hair to fix it up.
His music club block was his favourite, which meant that unfortunately, he was often late to his Korean class. He usually didn’t sweat it- Korean was one of his best classes despite his regular tardiness, the teacher often (if begrudgingly) admitted his lyricism translated well into their assignments -and since he turned everything in on time, it was difficult for her to justify docking points.
However, he was acutely aware of who would be waiting for him when he arrived in the class, and made his way to his brand new seat partner, who was staring at him, straight faced and unblinking.
“You’re late.” Sunghoon mumbled as he sat down.
“I was here before the door closed,” Jay disagreed. “So technically not late.”
“Your uniform is atrocious.” He muttered. “At least button your shirt.”
“The teachers haven’t even said anything, neither has Jungwon. Why are you-”
“Jongseong-ssi,” the teacher said, effectively cutting Jay off as he desperately tried to defend himself.
He sat up straight and gave her his full attention, blinking innocently. She raised her eyebrow at him.
“You were already tardy, and now you’re distracting another student?” She asked him, clearly annoyed.
“What? But he-” Jay tried to defend.
“Stand in the back,” the teacher sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Hands over your head. I’ll tell you when you can sit down.”
Jay pressed his lips together but didn’t argue. He glanced at Sunghoon one last time, betrayal all over his face. The tiniest smile broke through Sunghoon's normally stoic expression, and Jay scowled further, standing at the back with his gaze set on the wall, hands over his head.
Well. He was glad he could at least provide entertainment for the traitor.
-
“What is on your tray?”
Jay sighed, his head hanging as Sunghoon sat across from him.
“Food.” Jay said dryly.
“Are you sure about that?” He wrinkled his nose. “It barely counts as a snack.”
“So?” Jay opened the bag of chips. “You don’t have to eat it.” He pointed out, throwing one in his mouth.
“How are you going to have energy for anything the rest of the day?” Sunghoon raised his eyebrow.
“I have a banana,” Jay held it up, waving it in his face just to be a nuisance. “Something sweet for something salty, something healthy for something unhealthy. It balances out.”
“More like cancels each other out.” Sunghoon scoffed, pushing the banana out of his sight like it disgusted him.
“What about hi, hello, how are you?” Sunoo suggested. “How was class?”
“Huh?” Sunghoon’s gaze snapped over to the younger student.
The rest of their little friend group was sitting there, staring at them.
“They’ve been like this all day,” Jake complained. “Sunghoon was nagging at him in class too.”
“You act like this is new,” Sunoo teased him.
“You guys don’t get it! You only have to deal with it at breaks, I have to deal with it all the time-”
The conversation quickly turned to Jungwon updating them about the last student council meeting, and Jay was left to finally enjoy his food.
-
Jay was on time, he had adjusted his uniform to be more proper, and he had gone out of his way to get one of the healthy protein shakes so he had a little more sustenance.
There was nothing that Mr. Perfect Student could nag him about. Jay meticulously lined his pencils up on his desk, all sharpened and ready to go, his notebook was opened to a fresh, clean page, and he had even washed off the little doodles Riki had put on his hand during the second half of lunch.
When Sunghoon walked in from using the washroom after lunch, his eyebrows shot up in surprise. He opened his mouth and Jay held up his hand, adjusting his name tag that was a touch angled so it was straight.
“Alright, give me your worst.” He insisted, leaning back in his chair a little while still keeping good posture.
Sunghoon pressed his lips together in the faintest smiled as he nodded, at least a little impressed.
“Good job, you don’t look like a delinquent for once.” He said, taking his seat.
Jay pouted at him, making it more exaggerated when Sunghoon wouldn’t even entertain his disappointment.
“You could’ve just said good job, you know. You didn’t have to add all that about being a delinquent.” He picked up the end of his tie and waved it in his face. “I tied my tie for you.”
“I don’t think I should have to congratulate you on performing the normal duties of a normal student.” Sunghoon raised his eyebrow.
Jay huffed and twisted his name tag so it was askew again just to be petty, slumping back in his seat, armed crossed.
Sunghoon reached over and fixed his name tag, patting his chest twice.
Jay resisted the urge to reach up and mess up Sunghoon’s name tag, because if they got started on that, they would absolutely cause a disturbance that would bleed into class. And Jay was too determined to be a perfect student this period to start shit with Sunghoon that he would inevitably be blamed and punished for.
He took a deep breath and straightened up, settling into his role as Perfect Student. He would show Sunghoon, he could be a good, upstanding citizen who came on time and looked his best and paid attention in class and-
“Alright class, please pull out last night's homework and place it on the corner of your desk for me to collect.”
Shit.
Shit.
Jay squeezed his eyes shut briefly, and he could hear Sunghoon’s sharp exhale that was clearly barely contained laughter.
“Shut up,” Jay hissed.
“You didn’t do the homework?” Sunghoon whispered back.
“I meant to,” Jay insisted.
“You were up until like, 2:00am. What were you doing if not homework?” Sunghoon subtly raised his eyebrow.
“I… I got working on a song for the school festival next week,” he faltered. “I fell asleep working on a chord progression, I totally forgot.”
Sunghoon glanced at him. Jay shot up out of his seat.
“Seonsaengnim, may I use the washroom?” Jay asked quickly.
“Jongseong-ssi, we just had a break,” the teacher said disapprovingly.
“Please?” He added.
The teacher looked him over, then again in surprise. Which was fair, it wasn’t often Jay followed the dress code so closely.
His need to one-up Sunghoon seemed to have come in handy, because any other time he would have absolutely said no. But instead, he just sighed and motioned to the door, where the hall pass was hanging.
“Be quick, Jongseong-ssi,” he said pointedly. “Do not make me regret this.”
“Yes, Seonsaengnim,” Jay nodded, bowing his head.
“And leave your homework on your desk.” He reminded him.
Jay didn’t even hesitate. He pulled out a blank sheet of paper from his notebook and put it in the corner, before rushing off, barely remembering to grab the pass on his way out.
He had to think. Fast. Why did he not have homework?
My dog ate it.
Classic. Iconic. Shifts the blame from him entirely-
Overused, and regrettably, the closest thing he had to a dog was his golden retriever like best friend, and he doubted Jake would be up for helping him from the other side of the room.
I left it at home.
That would give him a day, the most he would lose is 10% as a late deduction, his parents both work so it’s not like he can call them to bring it in-
That only works if he was known for being a good student, but his general reputation and disposition despite his decent grades made every teacher second guess him even when he did hand the homework in on time.
I think I lost it on the bus this morning.
It had the same benefits as I left it at home, with the additional benefit of his parents not even being an option-
Not many but a few of his classmates took the same bus as him, and he didn’t even take the bus this morning because he was late.
He stopped pacing the bathroom and sighed, hanging his head. He would just have to go in there and accept his fate of sweeping and mopping the halls for the next week because he was pretty sure this fell under the category of ‘things that would make Seonsaengnim regret trusting him’, especially considering he had made a big show of taking the paper out from his notebook.
He took a deep breath. He had plans after school and instead he would be stuck in detention until late.
He headed back to class, fully prepared to come clean and admit his mistake, but when he returned, the blank sheet had set down was gone.
He paused, staring at his desk in disbelief. There’s no way he didn’t look at it, right? Like, there was absolutely no way he picked up that sheet of paper in just the right way the he didn’t see that the reverse side was blank? Right?
Jay felt like he was buffering. He didn’t know how to proceed. Because if that was true, and he genuinely didn’t see that Jay hadn’t done the homework yet, he had a chance. Or at least, a break. He may not be punished today, which meant his plans would remain intact, and it would become a problem for tomorrow Jay.
But he also knew in his heart of hearts that there was absolutely no way the teacher hadn’t checked both sides of the paper, which confused him even further.
“Jongseong-ssi, returning to class does not end in the doorway,” the teacher raised his eyebrow. “Please return to your seat.”
“Yes Seonsaengnim, sorry,” Jay bowed quickly and returned the hall pass, taking his seat next to Sunghoon who didn’t even really acknowledge him, already writing the new notes on the board.
Jay settled in uneasily, trying to keep focused on the class and not what unspeakable horror must be waiting for him at the end of the period.
It turns out however, Jay stewed in his anxiety for nothing. At the end of class, the Seonsaengnim wished them well and a good day.
“Jongseong-ssi,” he said as Jay tried to make a quick escape.
Jay internally winced and turned slowly towards him. “Yes, Seonsaengnim?”
He motioned towards Jay with the papers.
This is it. He was waiting for everyone to leave so he could really yell at me, I’m in so much trouble. Forget my plans today, I won’t be making plans for weeks, maybe even a month, he’s so pisse-
“It’s nice to see you cleaned up,” he said instead. “And homework on time? That new seat mate of yours is a good influence.”
Jay blinked a few times to process what he was saying. “Oh. Uh, yeah, Sunghoon-ah’s a pretty good influence. It’s only been a day but I already feel like being a better student.” He agreed- and perhaps was laying it on a little thick -but the teacher just nodded in approval.
“Good. Keep this up and you might make something of yourself yet.” He said with a friendly smile.
It wasn’t anything intending to be cruel, it was a genuine concern he clearly shared with other teachers. They all want Jay to succeed, and he appreciated it, he just generally didn’t care for studies.
But he smiled back and thanked him, bowing a bit before heading off to his last class.
-
“Hey, can I ask you something?” Heeseung asked carefully.
“Yeah, sure, what’s up?” Jay said, double checking that he pulled all the right books out of his locker to take home.
“Do you have something against Sunghoon?”
Jay slowed down his packing as he turned to Heeseung slowly, who seemed both nervous and determined. “What? No, why would I have anything against Sunghoon?” He furrowed his eyebrows.
“You just- you guys fight all the time, he rags on you constantly, even about what you have for lunch? And Jake said you guys got into a spat in your Korean and math classes.” Heeseung frowned at him. “You guys seem like you hate each other.”
Jay found it interesting he brought up lunch as an example, because it definitely confirmed his beliefs that no one was paying attention to them after the initial nagging.
After the conversation had shifted, he had dug his personal honey bottle out of his bag that Sunghoon always bothered him about and squirted a little bit of it onto the banana carefully, doing his best not to drip any on himself or the table. Some of the honey was slipping off the fruit quicker than he would have liked, so his tongue had darted out to lick off the excess before he took a bite, savouring the familiar flavour when he had felt eyes on him.
When he looked up, it confirmed his suspicions. Sunghoon was focused on him, or more specifically, his lips. He had blinked at the revelation, chewing slowly as he thought about what to do with the information before quickly licking a little bit of honey that had gotten stuck on his lower lip. Sunghoon had swallowed as Jay took another bite- he didn’t even do anything special or dramatic to keep his attention, and Sunghoon didn’t even seem aware that Jay had caught on to him staring.
He found the whole thing kind of funny. Despite his protests mere minutes before, he seemed to have no problem with Jay eating a banana after all.
His amused smirk must have tipped him off, because Sunghoon’s ears had turned red and he wouldn’t even meet his eyes. He instead had turned fully away from him to talk to Jake about his soccer practice later, resting his cheek on his palm, covering his ear with his fingers to hide his rapidly growing blush.
Jay had wondered if anyone else had seen Sunghoon’s brief infatuation with his honey coated lips, but Heeseung being under the impression that Jay and Sunghoon not only didn’t like each other but actively hated each other assured him that no one had. If they did, they probably wouldn’t be having this conversation.
“I don’t hate Sunghoon,” Jay shook his head. “I like Sunghoon, we’re close.”
Heeseung stared at him for a long moment. “Are you… sure?”
Jay shot him a confused look. “What do you mean, am I sure? Of course I’m sure? I think I would know if I hated Sunghoon.”
“Okay but… if you guys did just put up with each other because of the friend group, you know that it’s okay to tell us you don’t vibe, right? No one would be mad at you for it.” Heeseung reminded him.
It’s the most Jay every really heard Heeseung speak in a hot minute, which meant this was serious and genuine conversation to him. Jay tried to respect it by not immediately bursting into laughter.
“Hyung, do you hate Jungwon?” He asked him.
Heeseung straightened up. “Jungwonie? Of course not.”
“Because you don’t really talk with him a whole lot, you’re usually quiet around him, y’know?” Jay continued.
“Well that’s because- that’s- look, Jungwonie is different, I don’t have to speak as much around him because he knows me so well, I don’t think it’s fair to-” Heeseung cut himself with a heavy sigh, finally catching onto what Jay was getting at. “Okay, okay. I’ll drop it. But you would tell me if you were having problems with Sunghoon, right?”
Jay nodded. “I would tell you if I was having problems with anyone, hyung. Don’t stress about it.” He insisted, shutting his locked.
Heeseung nodded slowly and motioned down the hall. “Ready to go?”
“You go ahead, I have to go grab something from the music room,” he shook his head. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“On time?” Heeseung raised his eyebrow.
“Maybe.” Jay said honestly, saluting him before turning the other direction and heading down the hall.
He thought about Heeseung’s accusation and turned the notion over in his head. He supposed he could sort of see where he was coming from. They did spend a lot of time bickering, whether it be because of Sunghoon’s nagging or because he intentionally tried to start something because he liked his reactions, but he thought there were good moments too. And he could swear some of those good moments had happened in front of them before.
He shook his head and continued down the hall, his feet carrying him past the music room to his true destination.
He entered the increasingly familiar room quietly, not wanting to startle the occupant. He approached carefully and slid his hand into his view on the table to alert him of his presence before resting his other hand on the back of his chair, leaning over his shoulder.
“That’s pretty,” Jay mumbled.
“Thanks, I’ve been working on my compound curve,” Sunghoon answered, leaning back in his chair, rolling his head back and forth, trying to loosen up his neck.
Jay moved his hand from the back of his chair to the back of his neck, massaging it carefully. Sunghoon looked up at him, his eyes flickering to his tie, then his lips. In one swift motion, he reached up, hooking two fingers in the knot and pulling Jay down to kiss him.
Jay kissed him back automatically, smiling against his lips as Sunghoon turned a little in his seat, setting his brush down so his other hand was free to pull him closer by his waist.
The kiss deepened shyly, lasting only a minute or two before they parted with heavy breaths and red cheeks.
“Making out with your boyfriend in the calligraphy room? Why, Sunghoon-ssi, how rebellious,” Jay teased him.
“School’s over,” Sunghoon said dismissively. “No one’s around, so I’ll kiss my boyfriend if I want to.” He grinned, pulling him in for one more kiss.
Jay hummed against his lips. “I’m surprised the whole school doesn’t know how much you wanted to kiss me with how you were acting at lunch today.” Jay teased him.
Sunghoon pulled away immediately and flushed pink, clearing his throat and looking away. “You knew what you were doing.”
“The funny thing was, I wasn’t doing anything. Not intentionally. You were the one getting all hot and bothered over a banana and some honey.” He smirked, pulling Sunghoon back as he tried to pull away. “Don’t worry jagiya, it was cute,” he teased, leaning forward and pressing a few kisses beneath his ear. “I like it when you blush, I think pink suits you.” He whispered.
“Okay, okay, get off,” Sunghoon complained, his face getting hotter as he finally stood up. “Let me just put this away and then we can go.”
“You sure your Eomma doesn’t mind hosting me? I don’t have to come tonight.” Jay insisted.
“My Eomma loves you Jay, don’t worry,” Sunghoon insisted. “It’s going to be fine.”
“She likes me now, when I’m your friend.” Jay corrected. “We have no idea how she’s going to react when we tell her…” he trailed off.
“Jay,” Sunghoon said gently, returning to him to brush his hair back and off his forehead. “She’s been ready to pretty much adopt you for ages, she’s going to be thrilled you’ll be a son-in-law instead.”
“Son-in-law?” Jay smirked a little, pulling him closer by his hips. “We haven’t even graduated yet, jagiya, and you’re already thinking about marriage?”
Sunghoon shrugged shyly and wrapped his arms around his neck. “You don’t?”
Jay’s amusement died down as he pulled him even closer. “I do,” Jay confirmed quietly, resting his forehead against his. “One day.”
“With me?” Sunghoon asked even quieter.
Jay scoffed playfully and pecked his nose. “Of course with you, pabo, who else?” He teased, kissing him softly. “C’mon, you clean up and I’ll collect your stuff. If we hurry we can catch the next bus.”
Sunghoon pulled away reluctantly to finish clean up while Jay repacked his back and grabbed his jacket. He through the bag over his shoulder as he and Sunghoon left the classroom together.
“I can carry my own bag you know,” Sunghoon protested.
“I’m trying to be sweet,” Jay informed him.
“I lift more than you, in fact, I lift you. I should be the one carrying our backpacks.” Sunghoon insisted as they got outside.
“You’ve lifted me once, and it ended horribly.” Jay reminded him.
“Because you wouldn’t stop squirming,” Sunghoon shot back.
“Yeah, funny how that happens when you’re on the receiving end of a whole constellation of hickies.” Jay hissed as they arrived at the bus stop at the perfect moment.
“Ah, you noticed,” Sunghoon hummed. “I was trying to make it look like Ursula Major.”
“Can you not just say the Big Dipper like everyone else?” Jay rolled his eyes, guiding Sunghoon to the single free seat, setting their bags by his feet and caging him in with his body so when the bus got busier, no one would accidentally shove into him.
“Ursula Major is its name,” Sunghoon rolled his eyes. “The Big Dipper is a childish nickname because it looks like a spoon. Ursula Major has history and class.”
“You sound pretentious.” Jay said as Sunghoon reached into his bag, pulling out an onigiri. He unwrapped it and held it out to Jay who leaned forward and took a bite. “Thanks.”
Sunghoon nodded and took a smaller bite himself.
“And thank you for bailing me out today,” Jay mumbled. “I figured it must have been you.”
Sunghoon sighed dramatically. “You’ve been so stressed over this festival, I figured you would go into obsessive mode and forget something. And you don't like math as much as you love Korean or English, so I made an educated guess.” He held the onigiri out again to him for Jay to take another bite. “You won’t be getting 100% or anything, don’t expect anything higher than 75%.”
Jay nodded in understanding. “Those calligraphy classes are getting good if they’re teaching you to copy handwriting.” He teased.
“They certainly come in handy,” he chuckled, taking another small bite before offering it to Jay again.
Jay took another bite and chewed slowly. “Oh, yeah. Heeseung hyung thought we hated each other.”
Sunghoon nearly choked on his bite of onigiri, coughing as Jay rubbed his back. “What? Why?” He looked at him confused.
“I have no idea where he gets it from.” Jay said honestly. “He asked me if I had something against you.”
“Well if you did, you’re doing a really poor job of holding a grudge.” Sunghoon said, handing the onigiri off to him while digging through Jay’s bag to steal a sip of his water. “Also, fix your tie.”
“My tie is only messed up because someone yanked on it,” Jay raised his eyebrow.
“You liked it,” Sunghoon said dismissively, reaching up to fix it as Jay took another bit of the onigiri, holding it out to Sunghoon to finish it off. “There. Now you don’t look like a delinquent.”
Jay pouted at him. “Again with the delinquent allegations- I don’t think being a little late sometimes and not following the dress code exactly is grounds for delinquency accusations.”
“It’s okay, jagiya,” Sunghoon assured him with a grin. “I kind of like your delinquent side.”
Jay smirked and leaned down. “I knew it.”
Sunghoon kissed his cheek. “I have a type, sue me.” He joked.
Jay pressed a kiss to his forehead. “Well, I’ll admit it then,” He whispered. “I kind of like it when you nag me.”
“I nag you because I care about you, you know that right?” Sunghoon said softly.
“I know,” Jay nodded, a grin spreading across his lips. “That’s why I like it.” He leaned down again. “That, and you look cute when you’re annoyed.”
Sunghoon groaned and pushed his face away gently. “Okay, okay. Let me take a nap. Unlike some people, I didn’t sleep in this morning.”
Jay chuckled and made sure to get better situated so Sunghoon could nap without worry. “I’ll wake you when we’re close.”
“Thank you,” Sunghoon mumbled, already drifting off.
“Sleep well,” Jay murmured, but Sunghoon was already asleep.
Jay still wasn’t sure he understood where Heeseung got the idea that they hated each other just because they bicker sometimes, or especially because of Sunghoon nagging him.
He never really felt anything but love when he did.