Chapter Text
“Guys, I think I’m gonna join the student council.” Bin says absently, gazing out the cafeteria window and down into the courtyard below. The ground outside is covered in snow but the student council is out there setting up tents for the holiday fair that is supposed to take place in the next couple of days.
“No, you’re not.” Bin’s best friend, Minhyuk, says without looking up from his food. He shovels a scoop of dry mashed potatoes into his mouth. Since it’s nearing the holiday season the cafeteria had decided that holiday food was appropriate to serve the students. Which would have been fine if the food didn’t taste like it had been prepared last Christmas.
“Why not?” Bin whines, latching onto Minhyuk’s eating arm from across the table wiggling it back and forth making it impossible for him to take another scoop of his food. He snatches his arm back from Bin with a glare and stabs aggressively into his turkey.
“Dance team takes up literally every second of your time? And you never do your homework. That alone pretty much disqualifies you from even being considered.” Bin grunts in reluctant agreement, gnawing on a bite of his own turkey. It dries his mouth out so quickly it feels like he’s never even seen water, let alone tasted it.
“Ugh. I seriously don’t know how you eat this stuff. It tastes like kinetic sand.” Bin says tossing his fork back onto his tray.
“Well, I don’t know why you want to be a part of student council. There just a bunch of stuck up jerks who don’t know how to cut loose and have fun.” Minhyuk snarks back. Suddenly there is an arm slung around Bin’s shoulder and mop of tousled blonde hair is plopping into the seat beside him.
“I know exactly why.” Jinwoo, a senior and a part of the dance team, says with a knowing smirk. Myungjun, another senior, takes the seat beside Minhyuk.
“Yeah, it’s ridiculously obvious.” Myungjun chimes in. Minhyuk cocks an eyebrow at the two of them, cheeks stuffed full of mashed potatoes.
“Three words. Student. Council. President.” Jinwoo says, ticking off the words on his fingers. Minhyuk groans and rolls his eyes and Myungjun just smiles the most shit eating grin he can manage. Bin blushes at having been found out.
“Okay, okay. Fine. But it’s not like you can blame me. He’s literally perfect.” Bin reasons.
“Well, the whole school seems to think so. Have fun waiting two hundred years for your turn to confess to him just to get shot down immediately.” Minhyuk says, returning his attention to his food.
“Aw, what makes you think he’d get shot down?” A new voice chimes in. It’s Sanha, a freshman and the newest addition to the dance team at the beginning of the year. He takes the seat at the end of the table with his tray of holiday food.
“He’s almost as handsome as the president.” He finishes with an innocent tilt of his head.
“Okay. Firstly, no. No one is anywhere near as handsome as Lee Dongmin.” Jingo says, preparing to educate the newcomer. There’s a soft, “Hey!” of protest from Bin that goes ignored as Jinwoo plows onward.
“Secondly, nearly every person in this school who likes boys has had a crush on him at some point. Either they get to nervous and never confess or they do and he shuts them down immediately.”
“Not once, during the entire time we’ve been going to school with him, has he ever accepted someones confession.” Myungjun adds in.
“Well, how long have you been going to school with him?” Sanha asks.
“He moved here when we were all in our second year of high school. So three and a half years?”
“Well, maybe with Bin it’ll be different.” Sanha says.
“Yes. Thank you for your support in my romantic endeavours, Sanha. Minhyuk, I’m officially reliving you of your best friend duties. Sanha is my best friend now.”
“Hey!” Minhyuk grunts around a mouthful of food, eyebrows creased together. Sanha just claps with delight.
“Well, I’m off to wander around the courtyard until we accidentally bump into each other.” Bin says sweeping his tray off the table and turning to head out.
“Moon Bin, you can’t manufacture a meet cute!” Minhyuk calls.
“Just watch me!” Bin tosses back over his shoulder.
“Wait!” Jinwoo shouts before he gets more than two steps. Bin turns back to his friends.
“Can I have the rest of your food?” He pleads. Bin rolls his eyes and tosses his tray back onto the table before turning to leave once more.
“Good luck!” Sanha yells.
“Don’t embarrass yourself!” Bin hears Myungjun singsong just before the cafeteria door swings closed behind him.
Bin does manage to generate what should have been the perfect meet cute. Only, it doesn’t exactly go as planned.
He makes his way down from the cafeteria and out into the courtyard. Dongmin is quite tall, a few inches taller than Bin, himself, so he’s quite easy to spot. He’s talking with a couple of girls who are both clutching clipboards in their hands. Both of them don’t look like they’re paying attention to what Dongmin is actually saying. There more just generally staring at him. He’s got a big cardboard box in his arms that must be pretty heavy. Dongmin;s face scrunches up as he shifts the box higher into his arms. He stops talking to the girls in front of him and it appears as though he’s waiting for them to respond. They just keep staring and Bin watches Dongmin roll his eyes, clearly fed up with the lack of response. Bin moves closer.
“Did you call about the streamers or not?” Dongmin asks with and weary sigh. It sounds like it could have been the thousandth time he’d asked that question. Theres a loud bang of someone dropping something from a few tents over and it’s enough to snap the girls out of there meditative state.
“Uh, yes. They said that all the streamers should be hear by tomorrow.” They first girl says.
“Okay, thanks. You two must be tired. You can head in and get ready for class.” Dongmin says and then he smiles at them, eyes crinkled into crescents and all. They smile back and Dongmin nods his head before sweeping away from them. The two girls clutch hands and squeal together, bouncing up and down a little before turning and heading inside.
Bin sees that Dongmin is on his own now, making his way to the back corner tent in their little set up and he decides that it’s his time to make a move.
He circles around the perimeter of the court yard so that he’s approaching Dongmin from the front. Then he very purposely pretends that he’s looking at the different tents and not where he’s walking. As Dongmin gets nearer and nearer to him Bin can feel his heart beat picking up speed until its pounding against his chest.
Finally, it’s the moment of truth!
Except Bin misjudged the distance between his and Dongmin’s shoulders and instead of just brushing gently against each other, Bin’s shoulder slams into Dongmin’s, not only causing the box he was struggling with earlier to topple from his hands and smash into the pavement, but causing the student council president to fall to his knees as well.
As the box hits the ground there’s the telltale sound of glass shattering. The top of the box splits open and out roll a couple of barely intact snow globes.
“Oh my god! I’m so sorry! Are you alright?” Bin asks rushing to help Dongmin stand up. He hold out his hand. When Dongmin looks up at him Bin’s not sure he’s ever seen someone look that angry in his entire life.
Lee Dongmin is finally looking at him and him alone and Bin hates it. He swallows a lump of nervousness in his throat and Dongmin ignores his outstretched hand and hauls himself to his feet on his own. They’re face to face and Bin has never been more terrified.
Dongmin’s glare is intense, his face is bright crimson with rage and his chest his heaving. His jaw is clenched tight and his lips are quivering. Bin gulps again.
“You better hope to hell that you have some way to get me fifty snow globes by tomorrow or i swear to God, I’ll find a way to get you suspended.” Dongmin says and it’s dangerous and low and, God damn, Sanha said that he was scary during dance practice.
“Um… I don’t know where to get fifty snow globes…” Bin says sheepishly. He’s quite literally shaking in his boots. Dongmin’s eyes narrow and Bin know that he has absolutely said the wrong thing.
“You better find a way, then.”
Bin is pretty sure that he’s gonna get stabbed with one of the shards of glass that lays on the pavement at their feet.
Just then, Bin’s lord and saviour, one of the student teachers rounds the corner of the row of tents.
“What’s going on here?” He asks, approaching Dongmin who’s anger almost immediately deflates.
“I dropped the box of snow globes.” Dongmin says. He sound defeated more than anything now. The student teacher looks down at the box laying, dejected, on the pavement. He takes in the broken glass and tuts sympathetically.
“I’m sorry, Dongmin. I know you really worked hard on those.” And, oh, if Bin didn’t feel bad before he sure does now. Dongmin had made the snow globes and he’d just run into him without thinking about anything but himself.
“It’s okay, Kangjoon. If I made them before I guess I can make them again.” Dongmin says with a smile. It’s weak and watery and it doesn’t come anywhere close to crinkling his eyes like the smile he’d given those two girls earlier.
Dongmin leans down to start cleaning up the broken glass when Bin notices him wince. He looks down at Dongmin’s hands.
“You’re bleeding! He says with a gasp, grabbing Dongmin by the wrist to stop him from touching the glass more. Dongmin tugs his hands away from Bin and turns them over to examine them himself. The student teacher, Kangjoon, grabs Dongmin’s wrists himself and tuts again.
“I’ll clean this up. Bin can you take Dongmin to the nurses office and help him get cleaned up?” Kangjoon asks. Bin nods while Dongmin groans. Kangjoon gives them both hall passes for the nurse to sign.
“It’s just a couple of scratches. It’s not like I broke my legs. I can make it to the nurses office on my own.” He says.
Kangjoon ignores him and speaks directly to Bin.
“Just go with him. Make sure he doesn’t try to sneak off somewhere to handle it on his own.” Bin nods again and Dongmin glares at the student teacher before turning to walk away in a huff, leaving Bin to trail after him.
“I’m still mad at you, you know.” Dongmin says flashing a glare at Bin whose walking a good couple of feet behind him.
“And I’m still sorry. I really didn’t mean to bump into you that hard.” Bin says jogging a little to match pace with Dongmin.
“So you were trying to bump into me?” Dongmin asks, single eyebrow raised in accusation.
“No…” Bin lies through his teeth and Dongmin rolls his eyes.
They walk in silence for a few beats.
“Why couldn't you just talk to me like a normal person? Do you have any idea how long it took me to make those snow globes?” Dongmin snaps at him. He sighs as they reach the door to the nurses office.
“Look if it’s any consolation it should take the two of us about half the time to get them all done.”
“The two of us?” Dongmin asks, eyebrow raised again.
“Yeah. I figure I broke them, the least I can do is help you replace them.”
“And if I don’t want your help?” Dongmin asks with a tilt of his head.
“Then I’ll talk to Kangjoon and he’ll convince you.” Bin says, reaching around Dongmin to open the door to the nurses office. Dongmin just enters the nurses office with a defeated sigh, Bin following close behind.
The visit goes fairly quickly. The nurse cleans the glass from Dongmin’s palms before cleaning the blood off with an alcohol wipe and wrapping his hands. Then she leaves them telling Dongmin that he can spend the rest of the day there if he wants.
“By the way, the rest of the school is gonna be pissed when they find out this was your fault.” Dongmin says waving his bandaged hands in the air.
“Well, I’m pretty pissed it’s my fault to be honest.” Bin says,scratching the back of his neck in embarrassment and sitting on the bed across from Dongmin. Dongmin huffs out a little laugh and Bin’s head snaps up just in time to catch the little smile that graces Dongmin’s features. It’s short lived but it makes Bin’s heart stutter none the less.
“Did you just laugh?” He asks. He knows he’s pushing his luck but, honestly, this back and forth that they’ve got going on is thrilling.
“Absolutely not.” Dongmin says, sobering immediately, completely impassive expression sliding back onto his face. Bin had so often seen him wearing it around the school like a mask. Bin shakes his head.
“Alright. What ever you say.” Bin stands and prepares to leave the nurses office.
“Where are you going?” Dongmin asks and Bin thinks that maybe he detects a little bit of worry? Like Dongmin might just want him to stay? He’s probably just imagining things.
“I’m going back to class? I’ll pester Kangjoon later and we can meet up to work on the snow globes.” He says before fixing Dongmin with a smirk.
“Unless you want me to stay?” And Dongmin’s face immediately wrinkles up in disgust. Bin shrugs and turns to head out of the nurses office. He hears rustling behind him and turns back to see Dongmin sliding off the bed and heading toward the door as well.
“What? If you’re fit to go back to class then so am I.” He says, looking defiantly at Bin, like he’s challenging him to disagree.
“That logic doesn’t really make a ton of sense. You should stay in here and rest. At least until the period is over.”
“Seriously? It’s just a couple scratches. It’s not that big a deal. You’re just trying to buy time before the whole school finds out you hurt their precious student council president.” The last part comes out almost mockingly, like Dongmin hates that that’s how people think of him.
“You caught me.” Bin says instead of asking about it. He barely knows Dongmin and it would be unfair to assume things just because of what he thought he heard.
“But, seriously. You aren’t going to be able to write very well with your hands all scratched up anyways. You might as well just hang out here for the rest of the day and get the notes from someone tomorrow.”
Dongmin sighs and scrunches his hands experimentally, wincing when it pulls at the cuts the wrong way. He sighs agains and sits back down on the bed and Bin knows he’s won.
“Moon Bin.” Dongmin calls from his seat on the bed. Bin turns to look at him curiously.
“You know my name?” He asks.
“You’re friends with Jinwoo and Myungjun, both of whom I have most of my classes with. Did you really think that they ever shut up about the dance team? You included? Cause they don’t.”
Bin chuckles a little. He doesn’t blame Jinwoo and Myungjun. He kind of never shuts up about their dance team either. It’s his pride and joy, his baby. He’s just hoping that one day they’ll get to perform at one of the school fairs in front of everyone. Or maybe one day they’ll be able to compete somewhere.
“Give me your phone.” Dongmin says with absolutely no preamble. Bin doesn’t hesitate to hand his phone over. Dongmin taps away at Bin’s phone before handing it back with his number newly programmed into it.
“As much as I hate to admit it, I could actually use and extra pair of hands to get all these snow globes done. So, if you really are serious about helping text me tomorrow and I’ll send you the details.”
Bin smiles down at his phone trying not to let his giddiness show.
“Okay. I’ll talk to you tomorrow then.” Bin says before slipping out of the nurses office.
“Only if you’re serious about helping! Otherwise I’ll block you!” He hears Dongmin call as the door swings closed behind him.
Once the door is fully closed Bin looks to the left and then to the right, checking to make sure that there’s no one around who might see him. Then he indulges himself in a happy little dance that consists of a considerable amount of air punching and tiny jumps. Then he slips his phone into his back pocket and makes his way to class like nothing happened.