Clueless
Chapter Two.
The next day, Jongup sat in his seat in the Science Lab, waiting for Youngjae to show up and the class to start. He pulled out his book and notebook, getting ready for class. After a few moments, Jongup pulled out his iPod and Beats headphones, listening to some music.
Not long after the second song ended, Youngjae appeared above Jongup, wrapping his arm around the younger male.
“Jonguppie, you saved me a seat,” he cooed, squeezing the other male a bit.
“Ah, Youngjae.” Jongup greeted him calmly, taking off his headphones. “You ditched me yesterday, so I hate you today.”
Playfully pushing Jongup, Youngjae sat down next to him and smiled, “So you went to the café? Isn’t it fantastic? Did you get the sandwich I was talking about?”
“The café was nice, and the sandwich was pretty good, but…”
“But what?”
“I don’t know if I’d want to go back any time soon.”
“Why not?” Youngjae questioned.
Jongup smiled, a blush hovering over his cheeks, and hesitated, “Well, uh, an employee there…Well, it’s weird. He gave me his number. I think I’m gonna avoid that place from now on.”
“Wait, ‘He?’ As in male? He’s a guy? Have you called him? Are you going to?” Youngjae gushed.
Jongup nudged him away with his elbow, saying, “What’re you getting so excited for? Of course I haven’t called him, and I don’t plan to.”
“And why shouldn’t you? He already sounds like a nice guy, giving you his number. Most guys try to force you into giving yours.”
“What?”
“My Daehyunnie wasn’t like that.”
Jongup rolled his eyes immediately. “Can you not talk about Daehyun right now?”
Ignoring Jongup’s comment, Youngjae continued, “My Daehyunnie was so sweet when he first hit on me. It was at a BIG BANG concert and he bumped into me; he was so suave as he—”
“Yeah, yeah, I know how you met him. I was there. Don’t tell me again; I’ve heard this story so many times.”
Youngjae clicked his tongue, saying, “Ah, you’re no fun… What’s his name?”
“It’s Chris.”
“Huh… I wonder why he wants you.”
“I don’t know. He sure has a weird way of making friends.”
“Making friends?” Youngjae asked in disbelief. “You think he wants to be your friend?”
“What else would he want?”
Youngjae smirked, leaning in close to his innocent friend. “Obviously he wants your bod.”
“What?!” Jongup exploded, standing up from his seat, his cheeks on fire.
Every other student in the room turned to look at him.
Youngjae laughed nervously, pulling Jongup down to sit back down and stop embarrassing them both.
“What is wrong with you?” Youngjae hissed to his friend quietly.
“What’s wrong with you?!” Jongup hissed back, blush still present. “How could you even say something like that?!”
“What? He probably does. He didn’t give you his number so you could hang out.” Youngjae exaggerated his body language with the last two words, using air quotes to emphasize.
“Well he certainly doesn’t want me like—like that!”
“Alright, alright settle down class,” the teacher announced, walking in the room 10 minutes late. He put his stuff on his desk and turned to the class. “Yes, I’m late, and no, I’m not going to cancel class. Let’s get started.”
“Call him,” Youngjae whispered when the teacher turned his back to write some Biology terms on the board.
“Why would you even suggest that?” Jongup hissed back, hitting Youngjae with his elbow.
“Shut up,” Youngjae elbowed him back.
“But it’d be weird; I shouldn’t ca—”
“You definitely should call him.”
• • •
“I definitely should not call him.”
Jongup sat at his desk at home the next day, staring down at his cell phone and the little note Chris had left him on his plate. He had just finished his homework for the night and found the note on his desk, having thrown it there two nights ago when going through his pockets. It had been hidden underneath his IB Literature book, which he put on the desk before he went to bed on Tuesday, and having finished the work for that class that night, it wasn’t necessary to have it on his desk anymore.
“I should definitely not call him,” Jongup reassured himself.
If anything, he should call Youngjae. The bastard still hadn’t apologized for ditching him on Tuesday. At school that day, he just kept going on and on about how “Daehyunnie” took him out for that “romantic evening” of dining, paddle boating, and more stupid shit Jongup didn’t care about. He barely even brought up Chris, he was so stuck on Daehyun. Maybe if he called and complained, he’d get an apology.
Jongup leaned back in his chair with a loud sigh and stared up at the ceiling.
So, what if he did call Chris? It wasn’t like anything bad would happen or anything. If push came to shove, he could always just hang up on him. Which he doubted would happen anyway. Chris seemed like a nice guy. But what did he want with Jongup?
Picking up a pen, the male continued to lean back in his chair, idly balancing the pen on his upper lip.
There was no way Youngjae was right; Chris couldn’t possibly want Jongup, let alone be gay. Maybe he just wanted a friend. Yeah, he wanted to be friends with him. That was all. And who was Jongup to reject another possible friendship?
Sitting up quickly, he reached for his cell phone as the pen fell to the floor. He dialed the number on the paper quickly, but hesitated before he hit the call button.
It only rang one and a half times before it connected.
“Hello?!” an excited voice spoke through the receiver.
“A-ah, this is Jongup.”
“I was hoping you’d call. I’m glad you did.”
He could hear the smile on Chris’ face.
“Yeah,” Jongup said, waiting for Chris to say something.
After a few moments of waiting, it became evident that Chris wasn’t going to.
“So, why’d you tell me to call you?”
“Oh, right, yes. I wanted to spend some time with you.”
What.
Jongup said nothing.
“Uh, you know, hang out?” Chris quickly corrected.
“O-okay,” Jongup complied hesitantly.
“Sweet,” Chris chuckled. “So when do you want to g– uh, hang out?”
“Why?”
Jongup couldn’t figure out why he went through all of this just to hang out with him. Why didn’t Chris just ask him at the café? Why’d he have to get his number like that? What was his real motive?
“Well, uh, you seem like a pretty cool guy. You were alone the other day, but you seem nice to talk to. And I think you were studying or doing homework or something like that. I thought that was pretty hipster of you to study in a café. And I can tell you know a good shoe design when you see one.” He could hear Chris’ smirk through the phone.
“Thanks, I gue—shoe design?”
“Yeah, you see I—huh? Right now? Ugh, okay. Hey, Jongup?”
“Uh, yeah?”
“I gotta go. I’ll text you when and where. See you soon!”
Click.
“H-hello? Chris?”
He hung up.
Well then.
“Jongup!” called a voice from downstairs, “Dinner’s ready!”
“Okay!” Jongup called in answer to his mother. “Be right down.”
He stared at his phone for a few seconds more before saving Chris’ number, placing it down on his desk, and heading downstairs for dinner. Picking at his food absently, his mind wandered to Chris and why he wanted to hang out with him so much. It was a bit weird, right? Chris was handling this situation a bit too… differently just because he wanted to be friends with Jongup… Right?
“Jongup, are you alright?” his mother asked, a concerned expression on her face.
He smiled at her, as he usually would, answering, “Everything’s fine, Umuni.”
She smiled back at him, her own matching his, and went back to eating. His father made a small grunting sound, but said nothing the entire dinner.
Jongup finished his dinner in silence.
Once back upstairs, Jongup planned to take a shower and head off to bed early, maybe wasting some time in front of the TV in between. But then he saw his phone sitting on his desk, just begging to be checked for texts.
He rubbed the back of his neck, slowly walking over to the desk before picked the cell phone up and clicking the lock button.
One unread text from Chris.
His face warmed up slightly as he slid his fingers across the screen, unlocking the phone and pulling up the text.
- 2748 Lexington @ 3, Saturday ;)
2748 Lexington? Where was that?
And what was that smiley face about?