Chapter Text
"Kyungsoo hyung"
Oh there it is..
From the corner of eye Kyungsoo catches Baekhyun staring at him.
The unmistakable sounds of running footstep.
"Hyung !!"
Jongin whines draping his arms around Kyungsoo's narrow shoulders.
" Jongin" he hums as nonchalantly as he can, lifting his thermo cup to lips and taking another mouthful of black liquid. For few seconds, it will keep him occupied from talking anything.
" Hyung, I have been calling you," Jongin let's his hand slide down so he can fall in step with the walking duo.
Kyungsoo can feel the light brush of those warm hands over his spine before they slack completely off his body. And the warmth is gone as fast as it came.
"Hi Baekhyun" he waves to the other college student and gets a mumble of something about why the younger doesn't call him hyung too.
"Sorry, I was thinking" he lies through teeth, avoiding to look at both of them.
Jongin's arm brushes with his shoulder. He purses his lips, breathing slower, takes a step aside covering it as avoiding bumping into the guy going in the opposite direction.
" Ahhh... It's okay," a sweet smile, "you are coming to the party right?"
"Of course!"
No, he isn't.
Kyungsoo doesn't want to go to the damn party with cheap alcohol, flashing lights, noisy music DJ'd by chanyeol,the resident self proclaimed dj and musician of campus.
And most importantly, he doesn't want to see Jongin with her. Eyes crinkling around the corners, lips stretched painfully into big am-so-happy-to-have-you-so-lucky-my-love smiles directed at the girl.
The bees hums in the campus garden besides them, buzzing loudly and jumping from flower to flower.
Spring has came.
Spring has only started a few weeks ago for the world.
But Kyungsoo holds the spring for almost six months now, in his heart.
With Jongin, comes spring and Kyungsoo hates it.
Jongin gives him a sweet smile. It's almost impossible to tear eyes away from his face. He is that beautiful to look at, even when he isn't doing anything but walking in the campus.
Kyungsoo gulps and turns away his lungs gets tight with several knots already forming.
Jongin keeps talking about something that Kyungsoo fails to catch and ends up nodding slightly.
Aa the words fill the air between them an itch scratches the walls of his throat. Taking a deep breath, Kyungsoo tries to pray it away, clearing his throat in the end.
"And here" handing the younger the project work review, Kyungsoo turns away with " I got to go" he whispers in low voice, unable to stand the sheepish grin on the younger's face any second longer.
Jongin takes it giddily, flipping a few pages and closing it hastily.
Kyungsoo rushes away, dragging Baekhyun with him by a firm grip on forearm. .
"Hyung!!! I love you, you know I love you the most right?!!" Jongin yells to the now, moving away duo and hint of happiness laced around the words.
Oh, how much Kyungsoo wishes it was true. The words in fact are true just not in the same way Kyungsoo wishes em to be.
Oh how much he wishes, those I love you's can put the spring in lungs to sleep. He would love to breath normally for once.
When they reach the classroom corridor, he plasters a smile and excuses himself to the bathroom as Baekhyun casts him worried glances. As if he can read Kyungsoo's mind or see the garden growing in his lungs.
Finding the far most cubicle free, he lungs into it closing the door behind, jolting the bolt in place.
The dirty bathroom tiles gets painted with in seconds with vibrant colour of spring.
Soft pastels of red,blue, pink, yellow....
Big medium small colorful petals of flowers.
You name it. Kyungsoo would find it in the tumble of softness. The soft sweet scent nuzzling his nose, ends up with a hint of bitterness in his throat. It's raspy, who knew those soft petals can be so hard on insides of his throat.
" Hey there, you okay?"
Someone calls, from the adjacent cubicle.
A courtesy humans have developed over years to ask someone they don't even know if they are okay.
That someone lies that they are okay and so does he.
Kyungsoo wonders if he has told his five minutes shit-tank neighbour that he isn't okay, would he care?
Or rather would Kyungsoo care, if suddenly someone pours their problems to his ears with a string of tears from eyes.
No, he concludes after a minute, he would probably try to console em with few nice words, and beyond that he wouldn't.Because everyone have their own set of problems to worry over and who would be willing to take the burdens of others?
Heaving, and taking few long deep breaths to assure his lungs they aren't going to die anytime soon, " I am," he lies, hoping the other isn't someone he knows to catch in the tone of his voice.
The amount of flower petals kept increasing over time at first it was just one single red petal, starting from his lungs and crawls onto his tongue. Soft against his tongue until he realises and checks. It was a rose. Love. That day he first witness Jongin talking to a girl, body entirely turned to her side, eyes lit in concentration. He does that only when really holds some interest in the person.
And within few weeks, his eyes fluttered open as he finds himself sprawled out in a bed softer than he remembers underneath him. The wind from the open window near his bed lets him know that the softness a comes from the blossoms. Soft and pink just like the boy in his dreams. His bedroom was no less than any Japanese sakura park. If only he can sell people tickets to visit, he laughs bitterly.
Every since he started to produce instant flower petals, Kyungsoo improved some of his skills. He got better at lying, better at cleaning.
And he got better at avoiding, a certain someone.