Chapter Text
It starts off with Sunghoon, who by nature is a curious person, picks up the fallen pencil dropped by his desk partner. Now, nothing would have been a problem if Sunghoon could keep his business to himself and not want to meddle in someone else's.
Which, quite frankly, wasn't his intention.
It was just his smile. The way his neighbor — Jaeyun, was it? Sunghoon doesn't really remember, which probably says a lot about the type of student he is — beamed at him, grabbed his pencil from Sunghoon's hand, and went back to whatever he was writing.
Nothing out of the ordinary, right? No, Sunghoon didn't think so either until he saw that the smile was still present on the other's lips even when his focus was already on his paper. It peaked Sunghoon’s interest, so much that he found his eyes wandering back to the stranger instead of listening to the history lecture his professor was giving. And, as days go by, Sunghoon is a little more aware of Jaeyun. He's discovered a couple of small details about the brunette that up until a couple weeks ago he would've not cared about.
Jaeyun writes. Or maybe draws. No, Sunghoon thinks, the way his pencil moves is too orderly for it to be a drawing. He definitely writes.
What Jaeyun writes, Sunghoon has no idea. He hasn't gotten that far. What he does know is that he writes all the time. Not a day goes by where Sunghoon doesn’t see him write. He’s also seen a range of emotions from Jaeyun as he writes; somedays, he rips a page out of his notebook, crumples it up, and throws it in his bag — the same pocket each time, Sunghoon might add. Sometimes, he writes very passionately, and a little crinkle appears in his forehead as he bites his lip.
Yes, Sunghoon observes. What once would have been a class period of silently staring out the window into the hallway, watching little pieces of paper blow by or students scrambling to get to class is replaced by intently watching Jaeyun write whatever he writes. And if Jaeyun noticed yet, he hasn’t said anything.
And due to the discovery in Sim Jaeyun, Sunghoon notices him everywhere. Not just when they’re sitting next to each other, but when he’s in the campus library looking for resources for his chemistry assignment and he walks into an aisle and he’s just there, sitting at an adjacent table; writing. Or when he’s walking back from a cafe with a cup of liquid fuel in hand and he notices a flash of bright orange, and sure enough, it’s him, playing soccer alone on the field. (which was initially a surprise, because Sunghoon's never seen him do anything but scribble in a notebook.)
Jaeyun, much to Sunghoon’s surprise, is really good at soccer. Sunghoon took it upon himself to sit on the bleachers, sip his coffee, and observe. On his day off, too, something that Sunghoon treasures dearly. (“You’re so boring, why don’t you want to hang out?” Riki pouts. “It’s the weekend.”
“Exactly,” Sunghoon says simply. “Weekends are my vacation time. Now shoo, don’t you have a date with Sunoo or something?”
“He’s sick. I told you this.”)
He looks free, Sunghoon thinks. For someone playing alone, he looks oddly happy, Sunghoon gets it, and reminisces.
Figure skating isn’t like other sports. When you’re out on the rink, you don’t have a team. Sure, you have your managers and trainers cheering you on, but you don’t have anyone to share the experience with. At first, it felt lonely, isolating, and to make matters worse, Sunghoon didn’t have any friends. He would watch other’s walk into the rink with their friends and practice together, laugh together. He wanted to join them. He wanted friends, but he didn’t want to bother them. They looked so happy. Sunghoon didn’t want to ruin that.
So he didn’t, he would just observe; he would see friendships form, and friendships untangle like they weren’t fit to begin with. What he would excuse as getting ideas for practice was actually envying people and their friendships.
It took a long time for Sunghoon to enjoy figure skating. It wasn’t until he started getting good that he stopped watching. He eventually came to like it when the rink was empty, when he had it all to himself, because he was able to freely skate without worry. When he didn’t have to be wary of bumping into people, or disrupting their practice, that was his favorite.
“Hey, you okay?” Sunghoon’s tapped, and he looks up to see Jaeyun crouched on the bleacher seat directly below him, curiosity glossing his eyes. He dropped the soccer ball he was holding in the space between them, and Sunghoon shakes his head dismissively,
“I’m fine, don’t worry. I was just thinking.”
Jaeyun nods, understanding. “Yeah, I get you. It’s still morning, too. Brain’s not working correctly.” He knocks on his head softly with a smile.
“I’m sorry?” Sunghoon laughs, raising an eyebrow. “I think my brain works fine.”
“Oh, no!” Jaeyun panics. “I didn’t mean that as an insult! I was just saying that- Y’know, your mind isn’t fully awake yet?” He practically deflates, moving his legs out from under him, so he’s sitting on his butt. “Words are hard.”
Sunghoon can’t help but to erupt in a fit of chuckles. “Don’t worry! I was just joking.”
Jaeyun relaxes, shoulders dropping and hands falling from where they were previously flailing. “Oh.”
Sunghoon laughs again, and Jaeyun joins in.
“It’s Jaeyun, by the way.”
“I know.” Jaeyun blinks, obviously confused, and Sunghoon doesn’t even try to hide his amused smile. “World history, we sit next to each other, remember?”
“Well, yeah,” Jaeyun shrugs. “But I didn’t think you remembered.”
“You have little faith, Sim Jaeyun. But wait- do you remember my name?”
“Of course! It’s Sunghoon, right?”
Sunghoon nods. “ The one and only, I think.”
“Are you on the soccer team?” Sunghoon asks, picking up the soccer ball. Jaeyun is now beside him, looking out into the empty field.
“No. I wanted to, but I don’t have good enough time management for it. I barely get my assignments done as it is.”
“I gotcha. I couldn’t imagine having my weekends taken away by practices and games while also having to keep up on college work.”
The two have a lot in common, at least the two or three things they’ve exchanged ever . They like sports, but are terrible at time management. (Not really for Sunghoon, but he’d rather gauge his eyes out than waste his precious weekend time being sticky from sweat and heaving in enough air to deplete an entire city, He’s had enough of that during highschool.) They are in the same world history class. That's a similarity, right? They both have fun — being alone?
It’s good enough for Sunghoon.
He wants to ask about the writing, but it’s quite literally their first meeting. He doesn’t even know how he would initiate it. Would he ask about hobbies and just hope Jaeyun would mention it? Or would he flat out ask him about it, no filter? Just thinking about it makes him want to fold himself into a corner of embarrassment, so he’s better off not saying anything.
So, they sat in comfortable silence for a while, until you’ve got a friend in me started blaring through Sunghoon’s phone.
Riki is calling. (He — while very drunk on a Thursday night — chose it, and didn’t remember until he was being chased around the dorm by an angry Sunghoon, armed with a plastic spoon.)
Sunghoon could change it, but he’d rather not have to swim with the fishes to find it.
Typical Riki.
Jaeyun chuckled while Sunghoon fumbled with his phone. “Sorry, my roommate is calling.”
“No, it’s fine.”
He answered the phone and immediately brought it to his ear with an irritated sigh. “God, I hate that ringtone. What do you want?”
Riki laughs in his purposefully irking tone, and Sunghoon kind of wants to curb stomp his phone. Kind of . “Ah, funny. Anyways, are you dead? The cafe is 10 minutes away, you’ve been gone for an hour.”
Sunghoon shuffles, checks his phone, and sure enough, it’s 11:30.
He left at 10.
He clears his throat. “I’m fine. I just got- caught up.”
“If you’re not back soon I’m going to make you get me a coffee.”
“Okay, mom.” He rolls his eyes. “Bye.”
Sunghoon shoves his phone into his pocket, and turns to Jaeyun. “I’ve gotta go. I’ve been threatened with the loss of four dollars.”
Visibly confused, and a little concerned, Jaeyun nods. “See you around?”
Sunghoon flashes a smile. “We sit next to each other in history, don’t we? Of course.”
Jaeyun waves him off as Sunghoon exits the field, preparing for the interrogation he’s gonna get by Riki.
(He did in fact play around eight rounds of 20 questions, and the best thing he got out of it was a gasp by Riki.
“You actually talked to someone? Without my help? You’re growing up!”)