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“Oh, that’s the sixth one.”
“What?” Minseok turns to Jongdae questioningly and follows his gaze.
Jongdae hums tentatively, “That guy.”
“That’s the sixth cartwheel I’ve seen him do since I arrived.” He explains, eyes never leaving the twirling mess. Oh, seventh.
“But you just got here?” Minseok replies amusedly.
Jongdae finally turns to look at him with a sardonic deadpan, “Exactly.”
His gaze returns to the topic of discussion. “I almost got hit in the face first thing when I stepped into the house,” he recalls the close call.
Minseok laughs good-heartedly at him and turns to look at the cartwheeling exhibitionist, but his eyes get lost in the crowd trying to find the guy.
“He’s there. By the snacks table. Ooh, not a good combo this one.”
Minseok follows Jongdae’s directions and spots the guy. He realises with fond glee that he knows who the guy is, and laughs once again. “That’s Park Chanyeol. Sophomore. Like you. I’m surprised you don’t know him. You’re both in the same school.”
Minseok sips his beer as they both watch Chanyeol bid his goodbyes to the group of people by the snacks table and, to no one’s surprise; cartwheels his way onto the next group he knows. Minseok chuckles, more at Jongdae’s exasperated look rather than at the cartwheeler.
“Well, I may not know him, but I do know the more he keeps this up, the more I’ll want to do something about it.” Jongdae ends the topic at that and turns back to Minseok, both falling into a comfortable silence.
Minseok starts dozing off then. The party’s not boring, nor is his company. But after attending almost every party there was in his freshman and sophomore years in college, now as a senior, not much can impress him.
Moreover, he’s naturally a reserved guy around strangers. Not that Jongdae’s a stranger. Jongdae’s like a real brother to him. They’ve only been friends for about 2 years, but they’re so close they can enjoy each other’s presence in silence.
But apparently, he’s the only one doing that right now.
“Twelfth! Twelfth! He just did 3 in a row. That was his twelfth. Is he not dizzy?!”
Minseok jolts at the sudden outburst from his companion. Jongdae is hysterical beside him as he sits upright on the tall stool they’re each sitting on. He takes a minute of confusion before it dawns on him that they never really left the previous topic.
“Are we still on Chanyeol?” He asks, perplexed.
Jongdae ignores him in favour of ranting about the guy again.
“Like whyyyy?” Jongdae drags out the last syllable in a whine. He really doesn’t understand why the guy’s… cartwheeling.
Minseok listens mindlessly, not attempting to stop or interrupt Jongdae when he’s in the middle of his tantrums. God knows, and everyone has tried, Jongdae can never be stopped. He’ll only get worse if you try to talk sense into him.
“Stopppp. Oh my gosh someone stop him before he hurts anyone!”
But there’s only so much a sane man can take.
“Jongdae. Jongdae,” Minseok has to call him a few times to actually get his attention, “why are you so bothered by him?”
Jongdae gives him an affronted look as if Minseok just insulted him.
“Hyung, are you not bothered by his-his behaviour?” he huffs out in his frustration.
“Jongdae. Look around you,” Minseok gestures out to their surroundings.
There’s a couple behind the fridge fidgeting around suggestively in the kitchen with them. Not too far off, there’s a group of seniors tormenting some freshmen in a game of beer pong. More couples in the sofas. Drunk students dancing haphazardly in the living room. Suspicious students handing out suspicious items. Students openly smoking pot. Really, what behaviour is Jongdae talking about?
“We’re in a college party, Dae. I think a happy-go-lucky cartwheeling dude should be the least of your worries.”
Jongdae grumbles petulantly, his usual reaction to the rare times someone manages to reason with his whining.
But even with Minseok’s sound logic, Chanyeol still has all of Jongdae’s focus.
“You know what, if I knew better, I’d say you’re interested in Chanyeol but you’re just too shy to approach him.”
Jongdae absolutely screeches at his comment.
“And guess what? I do know better. So why don’t you go to him and vent out your UST with him.” Minseok leaves Jongdae tongue-tied with a smug smile and goes to find more alcohol.
Jongdae’s now left alone pouting, arm on the kitchen island and chin on his hand as he stares at the tall ass guy in the grey hoodie.
The guy—Chanyeol—is animatedly conversing with a different group of people, his arms flapping about as he tells them a funny story. Well, Jongdae assumes it’s funny as he watches the people surrounding Chanyeol laugh.
Chanyeol throws his head back as he throws what Jongdae assumes is his punchline. The music’s too loud, all heavy and full of electric beats that block out the chatter. Thank god , Jongdae would have been even more annoyed if he hears the guy laugh.
Interested? Pfft, what the hell is Minseok-hyung thinking?
The people around Chanyeol look constipated as they hold their stomachs and scrunch up their faces from laughing. It makes Jongdae curious.
Is he that funny? He looks dumb, smiling so happily, with his stupid straight, white teeth and long limbs. Unconsciously, Jongdae tries to imagine how his laugh would sound like.
From how it looked like, it seemed like it would be a boisterous, obnoxious guffaw. Would it be high-pitched? Scratchy? Grating on the ears? Would it be—
“Fifteenth!” Jongdae shouts out indignantly as Chanyeol performs yet another rotation of his lanky body.
He hears another shout from behind the fridge and turns towards the couple behind it.
“Dude, what the fuck. Could you keep it down?” The guy of the pair pokes his head and gives Jongdae a hateful staredown.
Jongdae scoffs at him, “Oh, so what? You guys can continue having public sex? Get a fucking room, man.”
“Dude, what the heck. We’re just playing Uno.” This time it’s the girl who pops out and shows Jongdae a stack of Uno cards.
Jongdae can’t contain his bewilderment from showing on his face as the couple leaves him alone in the kitchen, offended by his presence.
What the heck is wrong with today?
He shakes his head and stands up from the stool, deciding he needs a drink. He walks the small distance to the fridge, hoping not all the drinks were brought out for the party.
As he contemplates his choices of water and beer, he looks down and sees a pile of Uno cards on the floor.
So they really were just playing Uno. What the fuck.
“Woo!”
Jongdae jumps in surprise at the sudden holler from the kitchen entrance. He snaps his head to the source and lo and behold, it’s Mr. I’m-too-cool-to-walk-so-I-cartwheel man.
“Damn, I’m parched.” He states to no one in particular with that dumb grin of his.
“Yeah, of course you are.” Jongdae winces after he realises he said that out loud and scathingly.
The guy blinks innocently at Jongdae, as if just noticing there was someone else in the kitchen, then proceeds to give Jongdae a blinding, bright smile and walks towards him and the fridge.
He continues smiling at Jongdae, almost nervously, and grabs a bottle of water, but it slips from his hand and almost drops to the floor if it wasn’t for Jongdae’s fast reflexes.
He passes the bottle to Chanyeol with a raised brow, eyes sizing the tall man before him. Chanyeol forces out a laugh, “Thanks.”
There’s a moment of awkward silence as Chanyeol chugs down the bottle of water away from Jongdae. Jongdae continues to size him up.
This close with Chanyeol standing still and not cartwheeling, Jongdae can finally get a good look at him.
And he’s. Cute. Ugh. He’s actually fricking cute, what the heck.
After a while, Chanyeol exhales in delight after drinking almost half the bottle, “That was very much needed.”
Jongdae lets out a mocking puff, “You brought this upon yourself, doing all those cartwheels.”
“Oh! Uh, haha! I was just having fun and celebrating. End of mid-terms joy, am I right! Haha…” Finally, the wide smile is wiped off Chanyeol’s face and is replaced by a flush of awkwardness when Jongdae doesn’t respond to his sentiments.
His voice is loud and boisterous just as Jongdae had suspected. But it was surprisingly deep and not at all obnoxious. It was almost… soothing .
“And it seems to make people laugh y’know, haha,” he fidgets and Jongdae stares at him more closely, interest piqued at this display of polar demeanour which only worsens Chanyeol’s flustered state.
“You almost hit me in the face.” He snaps back, a lil bit too harshly.
Chanyeol jerks at his small outburst and starts backing away, apologising, “Oh, I’m so sorry, umm, I didn’t mean to— Sorry—”
Jongdae waves him off, feeling bad for the surprisingly timid guy, “Sorry, I didn’t mean it that way. Just be more careful you know. You could hurt yourself or the other people around.”
Chanyeol stares at him for a short while before replying, “Oh, yeah. Sorry ‘bout that, thanks.”
He brings the bottle back up to his mouth and takes a few awkward gulps.
Jongdae thinks the bottle contains a special, magical liquid that gives its consumer a boost in morale or something, that or Chanyeol is just really good at picking himself back up as a broad grin creeps back onto his face.
“Um, I’m Chanyeol by the way. Park Chanyeol!” Again, that overbearing, overly bright smile makes Jongdae a bit uncomfortable. Why is he always so damn happy?
“Erm, yeah I know.” Jongdae grimaces in a poor depiction of a smile.
Chanyeol asks, voice tinged with pleasured excitement, “You do?”
“Yeah, Minseok-hyung told me.”
“Oh.” He seems disappointed which Jongdae doesn’t understand.
“I’m Jongdae. Kim Jongdae.” He introduces himself to fill the sudden silence.
Chanyeol perks up and bashfully ruffles his hair, “Yeah. I know.”
“Uhh, you do?” Jongdae stares at him quizzically.
“Oh, uh, yeah, we were,” he coughs firmly and finds his voice, “We were in the same class for Intro to Music. That basic module every Music kid had to take in Year 1.”
Jongdae tries to remember but doesn’t, and he feels kinda bad at the almost expectant look Chanyeol is giving him.
“Oh,” he replies unintelligently. Chanyeol deflates at his reply, his shoulders drooping towards his chest.
A pang strikes Jongdae’s conscience as guilt overcomes him.
“So what’s your major?” He asks, hoping to direct the conversation elsewhere.
It seems to work well enough, Chanyeol answers Composition shyly and Jongdae nods back with exaggerated wide eyes, trying to be impressed. It’s not that he’s not, but just being in a course doesn’t automatically make someone impressive.
That aside, Chanyeol has already impressed him enough with his cartwheels anyway.
Though it leans more to a bad impression , is what Jongdae likes to think.
“And you’re in Vocal right? Not—! Not that I stalked you or anything like that! I just happened to uhh find out.”
Jongdae stares at him blabbering about—trying to explain himself. Jongdae doesn’t really care how he knows about Jongdae being in Vocal.
They were in the same class, Chanyeol must have found out through introduction or something.
There’s a momentary standstill, Chanyeol awkwardly looking around except at Jongdae while the latter purposefully stares at him while wondering why he’s still sticking around.
Chanyeol gives in to the pressure after a mere nine seconds, “ Ummmmm .”
Jongdae raises a brow in question teasingly.
“Umm, I guess I’ll just leave then,” he smiles bitterly in forlorn, again; an emotion Jongdae doesn’t understand the reason for.
“And go around cartwheeling again?” Jongdae asks, chuckling in amusement.
Chanyeol takes this positively albeit a tad hesitantly, his smile slowly turning genuine again, “Haha, maybe?”
“Take a rest, have a seat.” Jongdae takes a seat himself nonchalantly. Even as he’s screaming internally.
Okay, what the fuck did you just do, Kim Jongdae.
Whereas Chanyeol looks like he could burst with excitement at any moment. He follows after Jongdae, occupying the stool Minseok occupied minutes ago. Though he slides onto the seat more seamlessly than Minseok or Jongdae could ever do.
Jongdae wonders what to do next. He’s the one who invited Chanyeol to stay. He just can’t not say anything.
Lucky for him, Chanyeol seems like a natural chatterbox, already making the move to progress the conversation.
“I don’t think I’ve taken a proper seat since I arrived to the party,” he laughs but his declaration actually worries Jongdae.
“Have you really been cartwheeling the whole time? What time did you even arrive?” Jongdae raises his voice indignantly.
“Hahaha, not the whole time. I was just walking around at first. But the party seemed kinda dull, so I started cartwheeling.”
Jongdae gawks in disbelief, brows furrowed with a hint of amusement, giving his lips a slight curl.
“I like to think I boosted the mood up in here,” Chanyeol states surely, a soft pink dusting his face.
Jongdae doesn’t think so, but if that’s what makes Chanyeol smile like that, then he’ll silently agree with him.
He stares at Chanyeol for a short while, just taking in the view.
“You said mid-terms joy,” he starts, not breaking eye contact, “Compo kids have exams in sophomore?”
“Oh! All our modules in second year are all project based so no exams. But I’m kind of an overachiever, so I applied for extra modules.” Chanyeol explains modestly, ruffling his hair again.
“Wait a minute,” Jongdae raises his hand to stop the other, “Extra modules? Don’t you need like a really high GPA in Year 1 to be able to even apply for those?”
Chanyeol drops his hand and gaze bashfully, “Uh, yeah.”
Okay, now Jongdae’s impressed. Every student in the Department of Music takes almost the same subjects in their first year. Only either 1 or 2 are solely focused on their specific course of study.
Jongdae’s not a slacker by any means nor is he a very studious guy, but he barely managed to get a GPA of 3.4, which wasn’t even enough to apply for extra credits.
“Wow,” he exclaims, eyes wide and genuinely in impression this time, “Overachiever indeed.”
The blush on Chanyeol’s deepens, his gaze still not meeting Jongdae’s.
“Why would you apply for extra modules though? No offence here, just genuinely curious, but you don’t really look like the type to study as a hobby.”
Chanyeol laughs at that, deep and full.
“You’re right. Totally hate studying. Can’t keep focused on a textbook long enough to remember a complete sentence.”
This time he looks at Jongdae, “But I don’t know… When it comes to music, I just want to do something with it all the time.”
The gaze he sends Jongdae is immersed with passion. His iris seeming darker than they are with the glow of hazel around them. Expectation. For Jongdae to understand.
And he does. Oh , Jongdae understands. The call of sound. To listen. To create. To feel. To share. Yes, when it comes to music, Chanyeol is a familiar.
Their passion takes over from there. They talk about their first year, the classes they took, are taking, will be taking. What they’ve done. And before they know it, almost two hours has passed just sharing their love for music with each other.
They only realise when Minseok saunters over to them.
“Hey Chanyeol. Jongdae.” He smiles at the both of them, but Jongdae could swear he saw a hint of smugness at the one directed at him.
“Hi Minseok-hyung!” Chanyeol shouts out. Minseok has minute wince, which Jongdae smirks at. Serves him right.
“Just came by to tell you guys I’ll be going off first. I’m kinda tired tonight.”
“Hyung, come on. It’s just like 11PM,” Chanyeol pouts, “But I guess fourth year is a real pain in the ass, huh? Have a good rest, hyung.”
“Pfft, please. He’s probably just getting old.” Jongdae grins and Minseok grabs him by the neck and starts rubbing his head.
“Say what you want Kim Jongdae. You’ll reach my level soon enough. Just you wait.”
He lets go of Jongdae, “Don’t be out too late. I’ll see you guys around.” He says his last goodbyes as Jongdae teases him again with a ‘ Yes, dad ’ and they leave each other giggling.
“Wow. I didn’t know that much time passed by!” Chanyeol exclaims, looking at his watch. Jongdae nods his agreement.
Chanyeol suddenly looks flustered, “Sorry, did I kept you from the party?”
“Oh, no. It’s okay, I don’t really know many people here. I would have left with Minseok.” He shrugs it off so easily, but had it been a few hours ago, he’d have been ready to high tail it out of here.
Jongdae sees Chanyeol gearing to apologise, his mouth open and ready to vocalise, and Jongdae continues before he could.
“Plus, I had fun talking to you.”
It comes to a surprise to Jongdae not about meaning it, but about how he doesn’t feel unpleasant admitting it.
Yeah, he’s misjudged Chanyeol without even getting to know him. However, rather than asking why Chanyeol was doing cartwheels in the first place, the new question echoing in Jongdae’s mind is why was he so bothered?
He almost hit me in the face. Jongdae imagines Minseok’s disbelieving grimace.
It was an exaggeration. Chanyeol was a safe enough distance from the doorway from which Jongdae entered. So why?!
Chanyeol flushes coral once Jongdae’s sentence seems to have finally processed in his head.
And, oh .
Jongdae’s face imitates Chanyeol’s and they both stare at each other’s pink-tinted cheeks.
Oh, fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Jongdae repeats like a mantra in his head.
So that’s why.
Jongdae suddenly laughs at the ridiculous situation. Seriously, how did he end up liking a guy for cartwheeling around?
Chanyeol casts him a confused look, but he slowly starts grinning along—Jongdae’s laugh contagious.
“I really did have fun talking with you, Chanyeol.” Jongdae gives him a soft smile, hoping to convey sincerity and apology for his unbeknownst judgement.
Remarkably, Chanyeol doesn’t shy away from Jongdae’s advances and his eyes sparkle as he sends Jongdae another of his dazzling smile. But this one’s soft and has a long history behind it. A history Jongdae would like to explore.
“Hey, what’s your number?”