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part two hundred and twenty one
chiyu chiyu
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world cup: exomeme edition: prelims | round one | round two | round three | finals
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team zyx social dance au
(Anonymous) 2014-07-24 03:09 am (UTC)(link)wc 2213
(Anonymous) 2014-07-24 03:11 am (UTC)(link)Re: wc 2213
(Anonymous) 2014-07-24 03:13 am (UTC)(link)It’s a discussion they’ve had, fortunately or unfortunately, several times before and Jongin rolls his eyes. He sets his burger down, wiping the ketchup on his finger off with a napkin. “Dude, seriously? Forget that she’s my sister. She’s your TA for biology, which is already way off limits.”
“Technically yes, but what if I needed to pass a paper,” Sehun says slowly and despite his tone, Jongin knows he’s not being serious. He leans over the table to steal a fry and says, “Noona would pass you just on account of your endearing stupidity- no aegyo necessary.”
Sehun scoffs and turns back to his own burger thoughtfully. “A little bit of aegyo couldn’t hurt.”
Jongin remembers sort of nodding off and flipping idly through his intro to microbiology syllabus. Sehun rambles on about extracurriculars as a squirrel comes up to them to beg for food, scampering to and fro. Jongin flicks it a piece of carrot when Sehun snaps a finger in front of his face.
“Oh yeah, I also signed you up for social dance,” Sehun says, “Chanyeol-hyung suggest it. I mean, I wanted to take it too, but it doesn’t fit in my schedule.”
“What is that?” Jongin asks, flipping his schedule out to display on his phone.
Dance classes always fill up the fastest and being a freshman meant that Jongin and Sehun were last in line for registration. Contemporary ballet, jazz dance, and even tap dance of the 1930s had closed long before the freshman registration period even started and Jongin remembers the disappointment thrumming through his veins. Yet when he pulls up his schedule now, the pink block that wasn’t there two nights ago blinks up at him brightly.
He puts the device down. “Oh… Sehun. What the hell.”
Sehun kindly, takes the hint, bolting up and running across the cafeteria with his lunch tray on top of his keyboard and his laptop cord trailing after him. Jongin clenches his teeth as he presses down on the block on the screen to pull up the class info.
PED 103L 12:30PM-2:00PM SME 2.124
He looks at the map, locating the building with a finger. It’s off campus, past the dormitories on the corner of the map and probably requires a bus to even get to.
He checks his watch.
“Fuck.”
---
He ends up sprinting across campus to SME in the sweltering summer heat. His shirt feels soaked and the Macbook bouncing on his back only serves to enhance the damp cotton glued to his skin.
He jogs up the stairs and makes a turn down the corridor, counting down the room numbers.
2.118 is an empty classroom, 2.120 is the women’s bathroom… and 2.124 turns out to be a moderately sized gym.
Sighing and cursing Sehun’s name in the same breath, Jongin pushes open the double doors and finds himself among a buzzing crowd of students. He walks forward hesitantly, setting his backpack down on one of the benches on the edge of the room.
“Yo,” someone hisses behind his ear and Jongin sends an elbow back on instinct. It’s been a while since he’s had this privilege. On a list of things Jongin had been looking forward to in college, Park Chanyeol simultaneously held spots on both ends.
“What the hell?” Chanyeol coughs clutching his chest in mock agony. “I haven’t seen you in two years and this is the first greeting I get?”
Someone to the right offers Jongin a high-five and he turns around to see Jongdae, one of Chanyeol’s friends.
“It’s nice to see you again Jongin,” Jongdae says and Jongin doesn’t remember him being that short two years ago, but maybe Jongin was the one who grew instead. For Jongdae’s sake he makes no mention of it.
The last Jongin had seen of Jongdae had been graduation two years ago when Jongdae performed the school anthem lulling the crowd into a false sense of security while Chanyeol released pigeons in the auditorium. Jongin tries not to associate with Chanyeol’s crew for a reason.
“Nice to see you too,” he mumbles back, struggling to push Chanyeol off of him as Jongdae watches in bemusement.
“It’s not like you learn after the first six times either,” Jongdae laughs, shifting his hand from Jongin’s upward to ruffle Chanyeol’s hair.
Jongin shrugs, eyeing the growing crowd. There’s a drastic skew in the gender ratio, almost two guys to every girl, which is surprising to say the least.
Chanyeol swings an arm melodramatically over him before he realizes that Jongin is practically dripping.
“Gross dude,” Chanyeol wrinkles his nose, “how the hell are you gonna dance with a girl like this?”
Jongin blanches, the words not quite processing. “Dance with a girl?”
“Yeah,” Chanyeol laughs, “why else do you think this class is so hard to get into?”
“I wouldn’t know?” Jongin shoots back, “I don’t even know what this class is about.”
“It’s a really hard class to get into,” Chanyeol continues, “how did you manage it? I couldn’t even get in my freshman year.”
“It seems like a pretty big class though,” Jongin notes and that’s when he realizes that the lines have broken down into a group of girls and opposite of them a disproportionately larger group of guys.
“Well some of them are TAs,” Chanyeol says, “and the rest of these people are just trying to get on the waitlist for next semester.”
“Wow,” Jongin breaths and Chanyeol grabs his arms suddenly. He stands up straighter, running a hand through his hair and mumbles,“Shit, I hope she makes the class.”
Jongin whirls around to see two girls, both petite and pale. One of them is chattering excitedly to the other, lashes fluttering animatedly while the other girl smiles. It’s hard to tell which one is Chanyeol’s type, but Jongin chooses to scoff instead. “Of course you picked a dance class to showcase your unending charms.”
Chanyeol slaps at him. “I’m gonna be so dope by the end of the year. Your pirouettes aren’t going to stand a chance” Chanyeol crows and then proceeds to trip over his untied shoelace.
---
Once the class starts, Chanyeol ditches him in favor of chatting up the girls he saw earlier.
Jongin stands awkwardly to the side and locks gazes awkwardly with another girl off to the side as well. It takes him a second to recognize her as one of the girls that Chanyeol had been eyeing earlier. She’s quite cute, round eyes and full lips and she looks just as nervous as Jongin feels.
“Would you like to-“ he starts and realizes that they’ve both spoken at the same time. The girl breaks off to giggle nervously before replying, “sure. I’m Kyungsoon, it’s nice to meet you.”
“Jongin,” he says and out of the corner of his eye, he sees Chanyeol shoot him a wounded look.
He reaches out a hand, palm sweating and blushes
“It’s umm,” he starts, avoiding eye contact at all costs, “it’s quite hot outside.”
“I see,” Kyungsoon replies and out of the corner of his eye, Jongin sees her smile. “I can’t believe I got in this class to be quite frank. It’s really hard to.”
“So I’ve heard,” Jongin answers, sweating bullets when he puts his arm around her waist to lead her in to the beat.
“Now don’t be shy,” the female TA calls and now Jongin can see why the practically the entire male population has been scrambling to take the class.
“She’s hot,” Jongin whispers over to Chanyeol, surprised when Chanyeol shakes his head swiftly.
He shoots a quizzical look over his shoulder and Chanyeol mouths back, “she’s crazy.”
“Crazy hot,” Jongdae interjects between them and beside Jongin, Kyungsoon shifts uncomfortably.
“Ignore them,” Jongin says and Kyungsoon smiles back wryly.
“Don’t worry,” she says, “Baekhee dragged me here to check out this one TA too. To be quite honest, he was better in photos.”
She pauses, looking out across the gym and Jongin follows her gaze- landing on a guy near the entrance of the gym wearing a crisp, expensive looking dress shirt that Jongin can’t help but feel is rather out of place with the rest of the students and TAs in jeans and t-shirts.
He’s good looking enough though, but nothing about him really strikes Jongin as memorable.
In fact, as soon as he turns away to talk to who Jongin presumes to be the class instructor, Jongin can’t for the life of him remember what he looks like.
---
“Baekhee,” the girl introduces herself. “I’m here to tell you to tell your friend Chanyeol to back off of Kyungsoon. It’s getting creepy.”
Jongin glances over to see Chanyeol sprint across the gym to offer a hand to Kyungsoon, almost bowling over the row of boys crowded around her.
“Yeah,” Jongin says uneasily scratching the back of his head, “but I mean, he’s not the only one.”
“That’s not the point,” she huffs out and from a distance Jongin sees Chanyeol practically yank Kyungsoon out of the crowd of leads to a more open corner of the gym. Chanyeol looks ridiculously pleased with himself and Kyungsoon doesn’t look too miffed. Jongin might actually say she looks relieved.
Beside him, Baekhee frowns, “he’s a pervert.”
Jongin winces, remembering the incident last week. “It was an accident though,” he reasons, “and-“
Baekhee cuts him off with a glare and Jongin sighs. Her eyes are still locked across the gym as Chanyeol places a large hand on Kyungsoon’s petite waist and leads her over to the center.
“Would you like to dance,” he asks, trying a different approach, and Baekhee gives him a reproachful look. He gives her a lopsided smile in return and she takes his hand with a shake of her head.
“Don’t drop me,” she warns and Jongin gulps down a breath of air, half choking.
“Why in the world would I-“he starts stopping as Baekhee glares back at him. “The tango dip,” she says a little worriedly, “have you even been coming to class?”
Jongin tries nodding, but Baekhee rolls her eyes with an exasperated sigh.
“Just,” she says, offering Jongin her hand, “please try not to drop me.”
---
“Well,” Joonmyun says off to the side as Jongin leads Baekhee through an outer-turn without casualties, “you’re definitely improving.”
“Thanks,” he says lightly, mind still focused on the way Baekhee felt pressed up against his leg. This class was not for the weak hearted.
“Leading and following is all about having a conversation,” Joonmyun continues explaining and Jongin nods, stifling a yawn. He had a quiz earlier this morning in microbiology and the cell types under the microscopes had looked irritatingly similar- the spindle cells on slide C could have easily passed as epithelial cells.
“The lead is responsible for guiding the follow, not just instructing her,” Joonmyun continues and Jongin is beginning to wonder if this is some textbook excerpt all TAs have to memorize. “Both of them are responsible for following the music and each other’s movements.”
“I want you to lead me,” Joonmyun says and that finally jolts Jongin out of his daydream. He's used to dancing solo, this entire social dance is out of his comfort zone.
“Huh?” he says, blinking rapidly. Joonmyun looks back at him expectantly.
“Lead me,” he says, “that way I can feel what you’re doing wrong. I’ll be able to tell if your cues are working or not.”
He walks towards Jongin suddenly, close and offering a hand to Jongin’s sweaty palm.
“Wait,” Jongin says, “I’m not uh...I don’t know how?”
“It’s just a dance. Don’t be shy,” Joonmyun laughs, and then suddenly, his hand is on Jongin’s shoulder, spinning them around to face line of dance. His hand is warm, muffling, against Jongin’s shoulder and Jongin jerks away on instinct, discomfort overriding awkward proximity.
“That’s it,” Joonmyun interrupts, swinging Jongin back around to face him squarely. “You need to keep your shoulders parallel to mine. Keep your arms still and keep your frame solid.”
Jongin swallows, suddenly very out of his comfort zone.
“Okay,” he says, wrapping an arm around Joonmyun to lead him around the dance floor. “Okay.”
“We have an outing tonight,” Joonmyun says, “I mean a dance outing of course. Not a, umm, a date outing kind of thing.”
Jongin blinks, watching as Joonmyun fiddles with the flyer in his hand, creasing it back and forth. Jongin reaches out his hand to take the paper.
“I’ll see you there?” Joonmyun asks, shifting back and sliding his hand back from Jongin’s waist to his pocket. The uncertainty in his voice is what grounds Jongin back in
“Yeah,” Jongin breaths, “I’ll be there.” And the smile on Joonmyun’s face is genuine.