im changkyun | "I’m up to the challenge.” rival!au. | 3k words. | fluff, suggestive. requested. you can thank my evil elders @minsugadotcom and @seoulscapes for making me bias this demon in the first place and then request this :)
a/n: loosely based off of blood by day6.
Surely, there is no emotion stronger than hate. There is no feeling in the world that could rival the pleasure of prevailing against someone you despise, there couldn’t possibly be a better moment than the one where you come out on top once more. There could not be, in your mind, an emotion stronger than hate. Hate drove you, woke you up every morning and put you on the path to success. Hate was dominant. It was powerful. It felt good.
It took only one week for you to realize hate was not what was driving you anymore. It had taken five days for you to realize that it was love instead.
You weren’t sure what did it for you the first day you walked into class, books in hand and otherwise dead to the world because you just had to sign up for an eight a.m. class, didn’t you? Screw that “productive” mindset you had planned on keeping up with at the beginning of the year. Now you were just cranky and mad, not a productive thought in sight.
You had just barely slid into a seat in the surprisingly large lecture hall that’s filling up quick, body sighing in relief at finally being able to stop moving (not only was this class early in the morning, it was also all the way across campus!), when someone’s pale hand came slamming down on top of your books. The sound it made was loud enough to startle a few people nearby you (including a crimson haired giggle box), but when you looked over at them, realization simply flickered in their eyes before they started to laugh and murmur “there he goes again”. There who goes again? And why was he bothering you so early in the morning? Did he have a death wish?
You look up, and find that you’re much closer to this stranger’s face than you would have originally liked. You also head-butted him in the chin too, and you only feigned concern for a moment when he grabbed at his mouth, moving his chin back and forth to check that he still had full function of his jaw before he looked at you with a fire in his eyes that you really couldn’t comprehend. “Did you just head-butt me?” “You were hovering. That’s your fault.”
He seemingly opens his mouth to protest, then shuts it. Then opens it again, “That’s my seat.”
“This is a lecture hall,” you deadpan, pointing to the several few seats that still hadn’t been filled up yet, “this is first come first serve. If you want a seat so bad, go find another.”
“I need to sit here.” He says, and the tone in his voice is almost laughable, as if he was trying to intimidate you. On any other given day, you might’ve entertained this, maybe even challenged him for a little bit just to see what you were working with. You were always too competitive for your own good.
The redhead beside you stops that train of thought however, with a gentle smile and a soft I know look, “Actually, this is his seat. We decided to sit together in this class because I’m shit at calculus and I’ll need his help. I’m really sorry about this.” The redhead is eons more polite than the other one, and even though you want to stay seated out of spite, you also don’t want to deprive another student of easy learning if he’s got the chance. You’re not an asshole like this other guy, after all.
So, today is not any other day, and you’re getting more annoyed by the second. All you can do is shove your books into your bag and push yourself up from the chair, the chair squeaking against the floor with exaggeration (just to bring more light to the stupidity of your situation right now), and then you shove past the light haired boy currently smirking like he’s just outsmarted you. The shove to his shoulder knocks him back a step or two, and you snort under your breath before you make your ascension up the stairs on the side of the lecture hall to another seat between a booger-picker and someone literally asleep.
Once settled into your new seat, the lecture begins a few minutes later, and you find your eyes glued to the back of your offender’s head as he answers every question with ease and speed, sounding none too challenged at all. Even when you try to focus on the notes on the board or the discussion that takes place on the properties of blah blah blah, you can’t help looking back at that guy every few seconds, almost like your mind can’t believe he had the audacity to try you like that.
A new feeling begins to burn in the pit of your stomach; there is a warning sign on your head when class ends but the jerk completely ignores it when he sends you a snooty grin your way before you exit class, his back pressed up against the door. It’s obvious he’s going to talk to the professor afterwards too, as if to further prove his point of being the teacher’s new pet.
“Careful,” you slyly grin, stopping by him to whisper near his ear, and you find yourself giggling when goosebumps appear by the skin of his neck, “your lips are gonna hurt from all that ass kissing.”
Something flares in between the both of you in that moment, something that neither of you had experienced to that extent before. It was rivalry at its finest, with you daring to overstep a self-proclaimed genius in that moment being a choice of impulse. Fire burns in the pit of your chest when his dark eyes lock with yours, his cocky smile being replaced with a frown that excited you more than deterred you. And from that moment on, you and Im Changkyun are enemies.
You soon learn that the red haired boy is named Minhyuk, and he’s got five other friends aside from he-who-shall-not-be-named: Jooheon, a sweet lacrosse player who was more often than not spending his cram time in the gym instead of the library. Kihyun, an even more self-proclaimed genius (but with the credentials to back all of it up, unlike Changkyun) that had promptly taken to fishing Changkyun away from you by the ear whenever the three of you happened to cross paths. Hyunwoo, another lacrosse player that looked far too sweet and doe-eyed in the face to be paired with such an astounding body. Hyungwon, the sleepy nursing major with too many things on his plate to ever stay completely rooted in the conversation. And finally, Hoseok, the ever so pretty swimmer that would kindly reprimand Changkyun whenever he got too full of himself.
They had somehow become your friends, which you didn’t have too many qualms over, save for the fact that Changkyun was also one of them. But, so long as Changkyun and you were seated as far away from each other as possible, and so long as neither of you said anything to piss each other off, it was fine.
Thing was, things never went exactly according to plan.
You’d often find yourself in a quarrel with the boy everyday, and if you didn’t, it most likely was because you didn’t see him that day. The boy barely let you live for anything, and neither did you, which left a lingering tension between you two even when you both weren’t near each other. Many times, Minhyuk had attempted to satiate the situation between the both of you, but your rivalry had gone far past just dislike. No, there was something between you and Changkyun that you had to prove. And you’d be damned if you ever let him gain the upperhand.
For a while, it really was just pure hatred between the both of you and nothing more. The both of you were notorious for trying to outdo each other in everything. If it wasn’t the classes you shared, it was the title of being Jooheon and Hyunwoo’s biggest supporters during their games, or it was the one who could stomach the cafeteria tuna salad more, or it was who could sprint fastest around the track in the gym. There was always some way you two were trying to one up one another, and it was starting to get serious. You hadn’t rested since the day you met Changkyun, and neither had he. The point both of you had to prove to each other (which had honestly been marred and all over the place since the get-go) had yet to be proven.
Only now, there was a bit of a… roadblock in the way, if you will. You liked him. Scratch that, loved him. It wasn’t even a stretch at this point; after months of antagonizing each other and trying your best to defeat the other in… whatever presented itself as a challenge for the both of you, you had somewhere, along the way, fallen for the asshole. As much as you had assured yourself that wouldn’t happen, it seemed your feelings had other plans.
Smartly, you let the feelings sit for a while instead of letting any of the other boys know. Not that you didn’t trust them, but if word did happen to get back to Changkyun somehow, you’d be ruined. As long as Changkyun or any of the boys stayed oblivious, you could quietly sort out how you felt and find that it wasn’t love, but rather confused affection. Right? Right. Of course. There was no way that such strong hatred had turned into love… of course not.
You waited a week. You felt the same.
Then two weeks. Still the same.
By the time a month had passed, you were less argumentative and just plain drained every time you saw him. Him, Im Changkyun, being the snarky boy of 175 centimeters and zero tolerance for you. However, after you had settled into half-hearted insults and grunts of disapproval instead of indulging him in overblown arguments about this and that. He’d since been less impassioned to keep up the feud, and soon, it was more awkward silences than there were brawls in the hallways of your school.
Changkyun felt awkward now every time he saw you, because instead of having a reason to insult you or negate everything you said, he now was left to come up with some other means of keeping himself occupied. It did not become apparent to him until that very moment just how much time he spent talking about or at you. Only when you refused to speak to him did he realize just how much you influenced his day to day life. Needless to say, he was dying without the attention.
Much to the other boys’ amusement, though they didn’t verbally say so.
All of the tension between the two of you had seemingly boiled to a head when Changkyun had promptly and openly challenged you to play against him in a game of basketball with the boys when you had answered with an unenthusiastic, “No thanks.”
No, now this was really getting ridiculous. You never turned him down when a chance arose for you to win against him. Him, who couldn’t even play a game of mini-basketball at the arcade without getting hit smack dab in the face by his own throw. You would never in your right mind pass up a moment like this.
“Kihyun, take my place in the game,” Changkyun huffs, throwing the idle pink haired boy in the stands the ball with such force that Kihyun nearly calls him a punk, but Changkyun past listening at this point. Instead, he’s striding up to you, your head in your hands as you look on, uninterested, “can we talk?” He asks, eyebrows furrowed into something you’d think was worry. It strikes something in you, and you’re quietly nodding along, following after his form as it passes through and disappears past the gym’s doors.
You struggle a bit to keep up with the taller boy, mind running a mile a minute to discern what exactly he’d call you out of the gym for. Changkyun rarely spoke to you one on one, unless of course, he was pissed. And while he looked frustrated, he didn’t really look like he was about to corner you with a debate on the advantages of soda cans to soda bottles here.
When you two are safely in the nearly abandoned hall, he suddenly twists on his heels and looks back at you, “You can’t be the real (Y/N), can you?”
“What?” You’re even more confused, hands shoved into your pockets to hide their minute shaking. Being alone with Changkyun was not a good idea right now.
The boy throws his head back with a look of disbelief, “You- You’re not even trying to roast me when you see me anymore! I walk by and you don’t even acknowledge me. I give you several chances to smoke my ass and you miss them all, and when I try to start a conversation with you, it’s like I’m talking to a wall all of a sudden. What happened to the girl that used to jump at every chance to belittle me? I miss her.”
Missed you? Was he being serious right now? “Changkyun, you don’t know what you’re talking about right now.” “Like hell I don’t. I’d rather have the real you, shoving me into lockers and calling me names than whatever this shell of the real (Y/N) is. What’s going on that has you like this?”
“Are our debates not stimulating enough? Do I bore you now?”
“Did I go too far one day, is that it? Tell me what it was that I said and I’ll apologize.”
“And there you go, calling me kid. Come on, I know you have more in you than-” It’s your turn to cut Changkyun off this time, your hand shoving into the space between his abdomen and chest. All he can feel is his body stumbling backward before he’s enveloped into darkness, and soon, the both of you are in a pitch black room with only a sliver of light coming in from a small window in the top half of the wall behind the both of you. That block of sunlight is the only thing illuminating the shock on Changkyun’s face and the irritation on yours.
The door shuts behind you with a soft click, “People were watching, you idiot. They probably think we were in the middle of another ‘lover’s quarrel’.”
Changkyun freezes, “L-lover’s what?”
It takes you a moment to realize how you’ve got Changkyun. His back is pressed firmly to the cold concrete wall, his hands raised on either side of him in submission, and his eyes were blown wide, taking in every move of yours to better discern his level of safety at the moment. Your hand is still firmly pressed into his stomach, and he doesn’t dare to breathe too much around it. After a few seconds of the both of you staring each other down, you huff, “Everyone thinks we’re dating you know. And you really weren’t helping our case out there.”
“But… shoving me into a janitor’s closet in the middle of a fight helps more?”
You only realize your mistake when the undeniable smell of bleach and other chemicals make their way into your nostrils, and you let out a quiet hiss in disbelief. You had singlehandedly chosen the worst place to disappear to with several onlookers watching. You were screwed. News would spread about this faster than a bullet. “I wasn’t thinking about that part.” “Who’s the idiot now?”
You glare as Changkyun’s frown erupts into a full blown grin, glad to have somehow snatched the upper hand with you. “You missed me that much, huh?” You grumble.
“More than I thought I would… surprisingly, you kind of mean something to me, you know.” His admittance makes your cheeks burn and in turn, you have to look away to hide the blooming smile coming to your face. It really wasn’t a good idea for you to be alone with Changkyun right now.
But then again, you didn’t particularly care anymore either. I mean, if the moment presented itself, who were you to deny yourself?
“It’s probably been too long to just walk out and pretend nothing happened, right?” You ask with a hint of amusement in your voice. Changkyun lets out an over-exaggerated sigh, letting his hands glide down the wall and toward your sides instead. Your first instinct is to shove him away, until his fingers begin to rub along your hips in a pleasurably sweet way that has you inching a bit closer to the boy.
“Yeah, I think you’re right. And I mean… it’d be kind of lame if we were seen going into a janitor’s closet and had nothing to show for it.”
The tension between you had melted into something a lot more passionate, and instead of the once familiar need to put Changkyun into his place, you longed to do so in an entirely different way. Your hands shot to his that were stationed at your sides, and you pushed his wrists back into the cold wall with a little force, making the boy hiss a little at the contact, but otherwise simmer under your touch. His eyes fluttered shut as you pushed against him, a teasing smile on your face. It seemed, too, that Changkyun was feeling your need to dominate him, only this time, he did nothing to fight back.
He was putty in your hands, much like how you’d always wanted him to be at the end of every debate and quarrel. God, you two really were quite the pair, weren’t you?
“I’m going to win this time, Changkyun. But don’t make it too easy on me.”
There used to be no feeling in the world that could rival the pleasure of prevailing against someone you despised. You realized very quickly in that janitor’s closet that day that you had been monumentally out of your mind.
“Don’t worry, darling. I’m up to the challenge.”
dededos
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