Chapter Text
"Class, as you know, Mrs. Shin is out on maternity leave, so class 1C has been split up between us and class 1B. It'll be a tight squeeze but we should have room to welcome everyone."
Mrs. Moon stood at the front of the classroom beside several other seniors that would apparently be joining their class.
Of course, instead of hiring a substitute, the school would rather force students to practically share their desks for the rest of the year. Mrs. Moon went down the line of new classmates and introduced each one. One individual among them stood out the most.
"Kwon Soonyoung, you can sit with Lee Jihoon in the back."
With bleach-blonde hair and a bright orange sweatshirt, this 'Soonyoung' drew all the eyes in the room as he propped up from leaning against the chalkboard when his name was called. An indifferent smirk spread over his face as he walked between the other desks back to the last row of seats where Jihoon was sitting.
Upon hearing his name, Jihoon looked over to the front of the class from his previous state of daydreaming out the window. His eyes immediately fall on Soonyoung as he soon towered over him at his desk. Now, with a closer view, he could see his smirk is accompanied by a thin, silver ring at the corner of his bottom lip.
"Hey, deskmate."
Jihoon has to hold back a groan. He adjusts his glasses with his fingers and moves his chair over to make room. Soonyoung pulls an empty chair from the back wall, purposefully letting it scrape against the ground before sitting it uncomfortably close to Jihoon's seat. He plops himself down, legs spread wide apart, brushing against Jihoon, who clamps his own legs together and shifts to the side to avoid any more contact. Soonyoung notices this and huffs in amusement.
Once all the students were introduced and situated in their new assigned seats, Mrs. Moon addresses the class with a few more announcements then sits at her desk to let the class be open to homeroom - an almost mandatory study hall at the start of every day. At least in some ways the school seemed to be considerate. A few students take out their laptops or homework assignments while the majority spark up conversations with whoever will listen.
Soonyoung lounged in his chair. His arms stretched behind his head, ruffling the back of his hair. His elbows knock against Jihoon's shoulder, prompting an annoyed look from him through his lenses. After a yawn, he glances over at Jihoon.
"Can you talk?"
Jihoon's annoyance morphs into confusion, "Yeah?"
The smirk returns to Soonyoung's face, "Darn, I thought I'd lucked out and got the quiet corner so you'd be forced to just listen to me talk."
Jihoon holds back from rolling his eyes and just sighs, turning his attention back to his notebook.
Soonyoung leans even more on his desk, moving his elbow a bit against Jihoon's arm, forcing him to move even more to the side of his desk to avoid it.
"You can call me Hoshi. You know, like 'star'."
"Hm," Jihoon gives a faint hum as a response.
Hoshi studies him for a moment, "you like, a nerd or something?"
Jihoon sets down his pencil with a huff, "I'm trying to work on something."
"You didn't answer my question."
"No, I'm not a nerd."
"Uh huh, sure."
Jihoon looks at Hoshi again, eyes narrowed over the rims of his glasses. Seeing the devious smirk with that metal piercing looking back at him.
"That real?"
Jihoon finds himself asking, cursing himself for just blurting it out.
"My lip ring? Uh, yeah. Course it is."
"Hm," Jihoon responds simply again, turning back to his notebook. Hoshi doesn't take out any folders or books, instead he leans even more over towards Jihoon's side of the desk and looks over what he's writing. Jihoon does his best to ignore him but it's hard to focus with the orange glow coming from his peripheral.
"How come you write 'Woozi' at the top for your name when your name's Jihoon?"
Jihoon stiffens at the question, covering his notebook with his arm, pulling it closer to his chest.
"Can I help you with something?" He huffs, his usually soft voice shifting sharper with annoyance.
Hoshi bites the corner of his lip to keep his smirk from growing any wider.
"Yeah, you can. Answer the question. What's a Woozi?"
"It's nothing."
Jihoon knows he answered too quickly, and he avoids making any kind of eye contact with Hoshi's amused grin.
"Hey, I've got a nickname too. If we're going to be best friends now I should know yours."
"Friends?"
"Best friends," Hoshi corrects. His tone bordering on the line of serious and sarcastic.
"It's…just a name. I use it for my music."
This gets Hoshi's attention, "music? You some kind of rapper or something?"
For the first time since Hoshi sat down, Jihoon laughs, a brief chuckle under his breath.
"No. Nothing like that."
Hoshi raises his eyebrow and Jihoon wants to drop the topic, but with the way he's currently trapped physically at his desk and in conversation, he sighs.
"I write music. For piano, and other instruments."
The teasing demeanor fades from Hoshi's expression, "really? That's…cool."
Jihoon gives him a look. Trying to discern if he's just teasing him further. He sets his notebook back on the table and Hoshi sits back a bit more away from him.
"So, you play piano?"
Hoshi's tone is softer now, more calm. He folds his hands in his lap, giving Jihoon his full attention.
"Y-yeah. Also some guitar and clarinet and drums and…"
He starts to ramble off the various instruments he plays while Hoshi's eyes widen with each one listed.
"Woah…"
Jihoon gives him a curious look, doubting his look of amazement.
"That's so cool. I always wanted to play guitar or drums but my mom said it would be too loud."
Jihoon gives a small smile, just a brief upturn of his lips, "never too late to learn."
There's almost a minute of silence between the two of them as they each turn back to look at their own sides of the desks.
Then, Jihoon softly breaks the silence, "you can call me Woozi…if you want."
Hoshi glances back over at him, his smile stretching back into his signature smirk.
"Hoshi and Woozi. Partners in crime."
Woozi meets his glance, his eyebrow raised. His expression makes Hoshi laugh and nudge his arm.
"Oh, I forgot, you're probably too much of a teacher's pet to have any fun."
Woozi scoffs, "I have fun. Crime just doesn't sound like fun to me."
"Right, you're probably too good to get in any trouble."
There's a hint of something in his words that Woozi can't quite place, but it makes him feel something flutter in his stomach.
"This is going to be a long semester," Woozi groans, mumbling to himself.
The rest of first period goes by with Woozi having to ignore Hoshi's incessant tapping of his pencil in an off-beat and erratic rhythm on his desk or over his knees. He manages to jot down a few notes and lyric ideas in his notebook while Hoshi was distracted with watching the clock and not looming over his shoulder instead. As the class shifted into the first lecture of the day, Hoshi finally took out a spiral notebook, littered with more doodles than actual notes. The morning stretched on like it always does, moving from one lesson to the next. Woozi paid close attention when the teacher was talking, copying down everything she marked on the chalkboard. Hoshi laid his hand down on the page and traced around his fingers several times, his tongue sticking out a bit from his lips in concentration.
The bell rings to signal the shift to lunch and break time before the afternoon classes and Hoshi eagerly stands, grabbing his bag and slinging it over his shoulder. The zipper still wide open, leaving his other books and notes in danger of spilling out on the floor behind him. He starts to take off to the door to meet up with his friends stuck in the other classroom. Woozi glances over to watch him leave then starts to pack up his own bag, carefully placing his notebook next to his other folders.
Before racing down the hall, Hoshi glances back and stands in the doorway for a moment, watching Woozi zip up his bag and start to stand up. As he adjusts his glasses he glances to the door and Hoshi turns to head down the hall before they could make eye contact.
The lunchroom as already filled with a messy symphony of different voices all in various conversations by the time Woozi made it there. He knew he wouldn't need to rush since his friends would have made sure to save him a seat, like always.
Jisoo is the first to spot him, "Jihoon!" he waves, motioning for him to join their table. Woozi returns the wave with a small smile and heads over. His other friends, Seokmin, Jeonghan, and Seungkwan were all discussing their memories over winter break and plans for after school. They stop and greet Woozi as he sits down and takes out his packed lunch.
"Can't believe we're stuck with class 1C, they're all troublemakers," Jeonghan remarks.
"That's not how the classrooms work, it's all random," says Seungkwan.
"The girl sitting next to me from 1C is nice. She read most of class though, I don't think she took any notes," Seokmin adds.
Jisoo turns to Woozi, "did you get stuck with someone, Jihoon?"
Before he can answer, Jeonghan answers for him, "yeah, he's probably the most unlucky. You remember that kid who kept throwing the basketballs on the roof in middle school?"
"The one who would trip kids in the hallways freshman year?"
Jeonghan nods, "yeah that guy, our Jihoon is stuck with him as his deskmate."
The boys give Jihoon a sympathetic look and he just shrugs, "he said his name was Hoshi. He also didn't take a single note in class."
Jisoo rolls his eyes, "I bet your teacher put him beside you because she thought you'd rub off on him and be a good influence."
"He's fine as long as he keeps to himself. He has a major personal space problem."
The boys share a knowing look, aware of Jihoon's distaste for physical contact with strangers.
"Sorry Ji, maybe you can ask Mrs. Moon to switch spots?" Seokmin suggests.
Woozi shakes his head, "it's fine. I don't want to cause any trouble for her. If he becomes a problem I might think about it though."
They all nod in understanding and eventually shift the conversation to a new topic.
Several tables away sat Hoshi with his smaller group of friends. He was the loudest among them, aside from some of their laughter, and could be overheard over the other conversations around Woozi's table.
"I hate that I'm stuck in class 1A instead of B with you guys," Hoshi groans, "they split us up on purpose."
Minghao and Chan nod in agreement while Junhui playfully nudges Hoshi, "yeah, but there's gotta be a plus side, right? There's some cute girls in 1A."
"Oh! Are you sitting near Mia?" Chan pipes up, "she's pretty."
He leans on his hand staring off into space until Minghao nudges him with a disgusted look.
"Come on, spill it, I bet you're sitting next to a hottie," Junhui teases, poking at Hoshi's cheek.
Hoshi feels his face get warm and he covers it a bit with the long sleeves of his sweatshirt, "N-no they got me sitting next to some music nerd."
"A music nerd? Like a band kid?"
"I don't think so, he just writes music and can play like every instrument."
"Oh, so like, a super music nerd."
Junhui and Chan's laughs echo off the cafeteria walls and Hoshi joins them, "He's also like, two feet tall, I thought he was a freshman at first."
"No way, where is he?"
The boys look around the lunchroom until Hoshi spots a familiar pair of glasses. Woozi is laughing at something Seungkwan said at the table and the sight makes Hoshi's heart feel like it stopped beating for a moment but he shakes it off and points.
"He's there, the one with the glasses."
"Ah, of course he wears glasses," Chan teases, looking to see if any of his friends laugh at his remark.
Minghao sighs, brushing away his pastel colored hair from his forehead, "looks like he's with the theater kids."
Hoshi scoffs, "makes sense, although he's way too quiet to be on stage. Could barely hear him in class when he spoke, and he was right next to me."
The three boys laugh again and Minghao just pulls out his phone and starts scrolling social media, already bored of the conversation.
"Come on, Hosh, you should introduce us to him."
"Yeah!" Chan agrees with Junhui, "we can all be best friends."
Chan's words are obviously sarcastic, and Hoshi thinks for a moment, "I don't know, he looks like he's in a good mood. I don't want to annoy him."
The three boys give him a weird look, "Since when do you care about that?"
Hoshi blinked, realizing he had said that out loud, "I don't, I mean, come on…let's go say hi to the nerd and his little friends."
"Lead the way," says Chan as the boys stand up and start heading over to Woozi's table.
"So, have you decided?" Seungkwan asks, leaning closer over the lunch table to Woozi.
"Decided what?" says Woozi after swallowing his bite of food.
"What you'll be playing for the recital?"
At the reminder of the senior showcase recital Woozi's face turns a bit pink, "Uh, oh, no. I won't be doing it this year."
All eyes at the table widen.
"WHAT?'
"But Jihoon-"
"It's senior year!"
"You have to!"
They all speak in unison, making Woozi's face blush even more.
"Guys, please…I just don't want it to be like last year."
The boys soften a bit at the memory.
"Hey, everyone makes mistakes. Besides, it's not your fault they didn't tune the piano like you asked."
Woozi shakes his head, "It's not just that, it's the crowd of people. All of them watching me. I didn't know anyone there since you guys had a cast event that night and I just couldn't focus… I'm sure this year will be the same, so I just decided not to worry about it."
"But Jihoon…" Jisoo says again, "you're so good at playing. We've been looking forward to hearing what you've composed since last year. Not to mention Jeonghan is right, it's senior year, it's the last time you'll be able to perform."
Woozi nods, taking in his words, "I'll still perform in college, maybe."
Jeonghan shakes his head, "come on, we know you. As soon as classes start at university you'll be so busy with studying you'll hardly look at a piano let alone play."
"Don't look at is as another chance for things to go wrong, instead see it as a opportunity to do it better this time. To show the whole school the genius you are!"
"The…whole school?" Woozi's voice falters despite Seokmin's encouraging words.
"Not literally the whole school," Seungkwan is quick to correct, "but we'll do our best to be there this time! Promise."
They all give encouraging words and expressions and Woozi feels a warmth in his chest.
"Okay…I'll think about it."
They cheer and the ones closest to Woozi give him small pats on the back, "We'll let Mr. Choi know, it's not too late to reserve a spot and he'll want you to have first pick."
"I didn't agree to do it yet."
"You're going to, and it's going to be your best performance yet," Jeonghan insists.
"Hey, we should-"
"Best friend!"
Seungkwan is interrupted by the sudden appearance of Hoshi who slides in between him and Woozi, linking his arm around the boy's shoulder. Woozi stiffens at the contact, shrugging off his arm. The boys that accompany him stand over the others at the table, with small smirks on their faces.
Hoshi ignores the annoyed expressions on the other guys faces at the table, "Miss me?" He leans in closer to Woozi who does his best to avoid looking at him.
"What do you want?"
Hoshi laughs, "What? I can't come talk to my new best friend?"
"We're not friends," Woozi says stiffly.
Junhui and Chan chuckle while Hoshi pouts, "Aw, come on. I thought we had something special, Woozi."
Woozi gives him a stern look and the other boys at the table exchange glances.
"You told him your composer name?" Jisoo asks.
"I-"
"See? Told you. Hoshi and Woozi. Best friends."
Woozi moves over even more to try and escape his closeness.
"You guys practicing for your little plays?" Junhui teases, making Chan laugh.
"Musicals," Seokmin corrects.
"Whatever."
"We were just talking about the senior showcase for the music department," Jisoo answers, ignoring their teasing.
"You guys gonna all sing something? Everyone always sings…" Chan looks thoughtful, as if wondering why anyone would want to sing in front of a crowd.
"Not all of us, some of us play instruments, like Jihoon does."
Seokmin gives a cheerful smile to them, happy to share his friend's talents. Hoshi's grin widens.
"Oh, so you'll be playing a little something at this showcase, huh, Woozi?"
"Well, I-"
"You gonna play a little love song on clarinet?"
His friends laugh but no one at the table does.
"Jihoon is really good! He's even helped write the music for some of our shows."
Woozi was appreciative of Seokmin's praise, but it also made him want to bury himself in the nearest ditch.
"So he is a super nerd!" Chan jokes, making the boys laugh again, even Minghao snorts a bit of a giggle.
Jeonghan stands, his eyes narrowed dangerously but before he can say anything Jisoo grabs onto his arm and pulls him back down, shaking his head.
Instead, Jisoo says, "you guys should come see it, or even sign up. It's not just music or singing, they have an arts one too where you can show off your artwork."
Hoshi's eyebrow raises faintly but Minghao speaks first, "really?"
Seungkean joins, "yeah! They turn the gym into a whole art gallery!"
Minghao crosses his arms as if frustrated he wasn't made aware of this information until now.
"You guys are wasting your time on that stuff, where's the fun in paint and singing?" Junhui scoffs, putting a hand on Hoshi's shoulder and looking to him for reassurance.
"Yeah," Hoshi agrees, his voice less upbeat, "what a waste of time."
Woozi turns his head to look at him fully, an almost pained expression on his face. Hoshi falters for a moment, opening his mouth to say something else when instead he shakes his head, "we've got better things to do than play pretend in dresses."
This makes his friends laugh loudly, and a few heads of students around them turn to see what's going on.
"We don't wear dresses." Seungkwan and Seokmin say in unison.
Jeonghan stands again and this time Jisoo doesn't stop him.
"Shut up! Go be annoying somewhere else!"
They laugh again and Hoshi goes to say something else when the bell rings, signaling the students need to start heading back to their classrooms. Hoshi stands and joins his friends, "See you soon, deskmate." He gives Woozi a firm pat on the back, knocking off his glasses that crash to the floor. For a moment he hesitates and almost picks them up for him but is dragged off by Chan and Junhui down the hallway.
Woozi reaches down by his feet and picks up his glasses, inspecting them best he can with his limited vision for scratches or cracks before putting them back on.
"Those guys are real-"
"Assholes," Jeonghan finishes for Seungkwan.
"Yeah, exactly."
"Don't let him get to you Jihoon," Jisoo puts a soft hand on his shoulder then takes it away, "those guys only care about making themselves feel good by putting other's down."
Woozi sighs and nods, "yeah."
As they start to pack up and head into the hallways, Seungkwan speaks, "Hey, as I was going to say earlier, we should meet up tonight after school. We can meet at my place and go over our ideas for the showcase."
"Oh!" Seokmin smiles, "I got a karaoke machine for Christmas, I'll bring it over."
The boys nod excitedly and schedule a time to meet after school. Seungkwan's place was just a short walk from the school grounds, so they'd often chose to meet up there.
Woozi smiles as he agrees to meet them there after tutoring and then split from the group with Jeonghan to class 1A.
"Don't worry, if he tries anything with you I'll rip that stupid ring off his lip," Jeonghan says sternly but then smiles, "just ignore him. He'll get tired of you if he doesn't get a reaction."
Woozi nods, thankful to have a friend in class watching out for him, especially Jeonghan, who was fiercely loyal and hated anyone teasing his friends. Except for him, but his teasing was much more endearing.
"Yeah," Woozi nods, "he's not worth my time."