like two pieces of a puzzle

  also she gave me this
  

Kris and Jongdae like each other, but they’re not dating.

Kris, who is perhaps a little overly affectionate and a bit zealous about his affections, thinks that it’s pretty disappointing. Jongdae, for all his book smarts and thinking capacity, is just kind of an idiot who believes, with all the rigor of a priest, that his crush cannot possibly like him back. “It goes against all the laws of the universe,” he explains to Joonmyeon when the elder brings it up.

“Uh huh. And what laws would that be?” he asks skeptically.

“The laws that pretty people don’t date ugly people,” he states matter of factly as he makes a cup of coffee for his roommate. This is their morning routine. Jongdae always wakes up early - because he used to have swimming practice in the morning for high school - and brews a pot of coffee which in turn wakes Joonmyeon up, luring him to the kitchen for a nice cup of sugar laden coffee.

Joonmyeon pauses, the rim of his cup at his lip while he stares at his roommate. With a sigh, he sets the cup down and folds his arms on top of the counter. “You’re not ugly,” he says. “How many times do I have to tell you? You just have very...strong features.”

“Your stupid app says I’m ugly,” Jongdae sniffles bitterly as he drops off his half full cup of coffee in the sink.

Joonmyeon rolls his eyes. “It’s just an app. I swear it probably picks the scores at random. Besides since when should you allow a piece of technology to determine your beauty? You’re overreacting.”

“I don’t believe your phone per se, it’s just adding evidence to a fact I already know to be true,” he says simply, nonchalantly as if nothing in the world bothered him.

It does though. Joonmyeon knows it does because he knows everything about Jongdae. And while it doesn’t always bother him, Jongdae will occasionally fall into a fit like this -berating his appearance and bemoaning his lack of any good genes. Jongdae has never dated anyone (well apart from that weird two-week thing from his sophomore year in high school, but that hardly constituted as dating) and constantly blames it on his not-so-good looks. Joonmyeon tries to tell him that he looks fine and he’s just a bit too quiet is all, but Jongdae always brushes him off about it.

It also doesn’t help that his other best friend is Do Kyungsoo who is, to put it simply, like a bundle of joy and cuteness. He gets hit on quite often. And while not particularly outgoing, he’s always ready to respond to any sort of conversation. He doesn’t really have a boyfriend or anyone in his life, but there are plenty of people who seem to believe they are his boyfriend anyways.

Jongdae both envies and pities him.

“Okay, but I’m telling you that he likes you,” Joonmyeon says. “I mean, you can’t tell me that you haven’t noticed.”

“Thanks for trying to make me feel better, but you really suck at it.” Jongdae quickly gathers up all his school materials and stuffs them into his abused backpack before leaving Joonmyeon behind, sputtering in the kitchen.





Kris and Jongdae met by pure luck really.

The younger had been in his first year of college, taking a chemistry course right off the bat since it was a required class for his physiology major. Kris was a junior who had tried for too long not to take chemistry. His actual major was political science, but due to his mother’s insistence on medical school, he promised to fulfill all the prerequisite classes for the exam which included, unfortunately, chemistry.

Physics wasn’t so bad as long as he had a calculator and biology was a cinch - he knocked those two courses down right away - but chemistry was forever his mortal enemy. He hated it with a burning, fiery passion because it was just too difficult a concept to grasp, so he chose to ignore its existence instead.

It had been easy to do in high school. He signed up for regular chemistry which more or less meant that his first period was a free period since all he ever did was sleep and then laugh at Luahn and Minseok while they moaned about their Bs in AP chemistry. In college though, classes were not that easy to avoid.

On the first day of class he sat somewhere in the middle of the lecture hall hoping that if he sat quietly and paid attention he might just absorb all the information and life would be all dandy. Sadly, all the information his brain attempted to sponge up became so jumbled in his mind that by the end he could barely remember what the lecture had been about. On the second day he sat way in the back, silently mourning the death of his 3.4 GPA.

It was on the first day of the lab that Kris and Jongdae finally met. They needed to pick out lab partners for the semester and everyone was looking around the room, eyeing each other to gauge who would make the best lab partner. Someone smart, Kris thought to himself as his eyes immediately fell on the girls of the class. He just needed to pick out the smartest girl.

In his search he overheard a group of freshmen girls whispering amongst themselves while eyeing a guy sitting in a corner of the room.

“Remember Kim Jongdae from high school? He’s like a mega math and science geek. If one of us can get him as a lab partner we’re all pretty much guaranteed an A.”

Oh. Kris liked the sound of that. He turned his eyes to this Jongdae fellow, sitting uncomfortably in his seat as he listened to all of the instructions. He was going to be Kris’ lab partner; he wanted that A.

They did end up being lab partners and the rest is history. Sort of.





Half-way through Jongdae’s cell biology class they make plans to meet up for lunch because Kris wouldn’t stop texting. They always go to the same place: a small little Vietnamese place near the campus because it’s super cheap and Jongdae firmly believes that you can never go wrong with noodles.

“So what are you going to do?” Jongdae asks as he hands his menu along with Kris’ to the waiter, who gives a slight nod of his head and leaves. The elder’s graduation is approaching next semester and he hasn’t really mentioned any solid plans yet. “Are you going to go to graduate school or try to land a job...?”

Kris links his fingers together in front of his mouth, elbows on the table and a thoughtful expression on his face. “I’m not really sure. I was thinking about taking the MCAT though.”

Jongdae nearly spits out his water, but he forces the liquid down his throat with much effort. He takes a moment to just breathe since he almost choked himself on water before he looks at Kris weirdly. “MCAT? I thought you were a political science major.”

“I am,” Kris acknowledges, “but I took all the classes required to get into med school.”

Jongdae’s expression borderlines surprised and impressed. “Wow. You want to be a doctor?”

“I don’t have to be a doctor. I could do like pharmacy or something.” He grins at Jongdae across from him. “Become a licensed drug dealer, you know?”

Jongdae snorts at that, lifting his glass of water to his mouth to hide his amusement.

“Why? What do you think I should do?”

The younger shrugs his shoulders, his lips still curled up into a smile. “I think that you should do whatever you like.”





“He takes you out on dates like all the time,” Minseok argues as they sit in front of one of the library computers, writing up a lab report together. Jongdae pauses in his typing to wonder what it is with everyone trying to set him up with Kris.

It’s not that the whole thing bothers him - of course it doesn’t. After all, Kris is a very attractive man - but it feels like everyone is out to get him because Kris is a very attractive man. The whole thing smells super fishy to him, like one of those dumb, cliche high school movies. He’s pretty sure everyone is lying to him and he’ll end up that poor nerd who gets completely played and he’s not too keen on that.

“We go out to eat lunch sometimes,” Jongdae corrects his friend. “That hardly counts as a date. Friends do that all the time.” He motions to Minseok suddenly. “You and Tao do it all the time. What’s the difference?”

The elder places his hands on his hips in a huff and glances at his friend. “The difference is that Zitao and I are dating now,” he informs rather bluntly.

Jongdae makes a strange gurgling sound in the back of his throat and he just stares at Minseok as if they were perfect strangers. “You what? I mean, you are? Since when? How come I didn’t know?”

“Since a couple weeks ago,” Minseok replies blandly, obviously disappointed by Jongdae’s lack of insight into his personal life. “And you didn’t know because you never pay attention to anything that isn’t school, nor do you use facebook.”

“Facebook is overrated,” Jongdae argues meekly.

“Did you know Luhan and Sehun broke up again?”

Jongdae sputters, his lab report long forgotten by now. “They broke up?” he squawks. “And what do you mean ‘again?’”

The elder sighs and pats Jongdae on the head like he feels sorry for him. “It was on facebook last night,” he informs pointedly. “And they’ve done this like a hundred times now. Give it a week or so and they’ll get over it.”

“All this time I thought they were always together,” Jongdae sniffs.

“You probably never brought it up while they were on one of their breaks. They’re really on and off lately. You’ve got quite a bit of catching up to do I see.”

“I guess so.”





Kris and Zitao have this thing they do where every two weeks the younger forces Kris to go on a shopping trip with him on Friday evenings. It’s an old habit from when they had experimentally dated each other. Why every two weeks? Because Zitao is paid on a bi-weekly basis and he is evidently horrible at not blowing off his paycheck in one night. A habit Minseok tries in vain to break.

Since the apartment becomes lonely and deserted when Zitao is off with Kris, Minseok likes to barge over to Jongdae and Joonmyeon’s tiny flat uninvited to stuff popcorn in his face while they watch whatever stupid show he feels like watching on the TV. Jongdae doesn’t really care that much except that Minseok spends more time texting Zitao then actually watching the television and when he isn’t texting he’s moping about how his boyfriend won’t text him back thirty seconds later.

“He’s out shopping,” Jongdae points out, trying to push Minseok off of him because the elder is leaning a little too heavily against his side. It’s weird, he thinks, because he and Minseok have never been particularly close until the elder let it slip that he was dating Zitao. Now he suddenly hangs off of Jongdae whenever his boyfriend isn’t around to entertain him.

Jongdae thinks it’s a most unfortunate arrangement.

“What about you? Are you talking to Kris?”

Jongdae tries to keep his attention on the television screen even though he doesn’t particularly care what they watch ever. He’s not much of a TV person. “No. I don’t have to talk to him twenty-four seven unlike some people.”

Minseok doesn’t even take note of the spiteful comment. The timing of his comment is just perfect too because his phone vibrates on the arm of the couch and he glances over at it. He can feel Minseok’s eyes boring into his head, pressuring him to see what it is, so Jongdae gives in and picks up the phone.

It’s Kris.

Jongdae tries to put his phone away discreetly, but Minseok has one hell of an intuition. That or he’s secretly a telepathic. “It’s Kris, isn’t it?” He looks at his own phone angrily. “Why hasn’t Tao texted me then?” he pouts leaning even more heavily against Jongdae now as if his goal was to crush him out of jealousy.

The younger squirms underneath his wait and tries to push him off. “Go home already!” he whines.

“No!” Minseok puts all his dead weight against his friend who promptly gives up, resigning himself to being crushed for the rest of the night.

Lifting his phone up again, he struggles to find a uncomfortable position to type on his phone. It’s decidedly better to sit there and text Kris as a way to ignore Minseok’s weight on him rather than slowly suffocating under the elder with no distractions whatsoever. Finally he settles with one elbow on the arm of the couch and the other on top of Minseok’s head. This works, he thinks as he types back a half-hearted reply.





“He texts you too much to be just a friend,” Luhan says as he stabs his fork into his salad, failing to spear anything. He sighs in frustration.

Jongdae thinks he’s having a one-sided fight with his salad more than he’s actually eating it. He nods along to the words Luhan spews out as he discreetly checks his facebook from his phone from under the table. Looks like he and Sehun are still on their “break” if that’s what it really is. He supposes that would explain Luhan’s need to destroy his salad.

“If you say so...”

“It’s true,” Luhan insists. “That’s totally how you tell if someone likes you. They text you incessantly when they’re into you and when they’re not anymore the texts just stop. Trust me. I know from personal experience.”

“Huh.” Jongdae looks up at him. Somehow he gets the feeling that Luhan is referring to his own relationship rather than Jongdae’s. He stirs his soup in his bread bowl lazily before lifting up a spoonful to take a sip.

Luhan isn’t even trying to eat anymore. Instead he keeps bringing his fork down repeatedly into the plastic bowl, a scowl set in his pretty features. “He likes you,” the elder insists. “And you’ve been crushing on him forever. You guys should just go out already.”

His phone vibrates in his lap and Jongdae jumps at the sensation, caught off guard. He drops his spoon into his bread bowl before reaching down for his phone. It’s Kris.

Wanna go see a movie tonight?

“I don’t even know why, but you guys seem perfect for eachother. It’s not fair,” Luhan whines, giving up on his offensive against his salad finally. “I never would have guessed, but...” he sighs and stares at the table for a good minute or so while Jongdae responds to Kris. When he looks up, Luhan’s head falls forward, smacking the table with a rather loud bang.

Jongdae sighs and shakes his head. This “break” needs to end soon. Luhan is fucking annoying.





“He dotes on you more than necessary,” Zitao points out to him. “You know, a pat on the head here, an arm around the waist there. It’s all very obvious.”

Jongdae really doesn’t know why or how Zitao ended up here talking to him. He and Minseok were working on something for a lab again and then his boyfriend had shown up and where the hell did Minseok disappear off to anyways? Oh, right the bathroom. Which left Jongdae alone with his boyfriend who proves to be one of the biggest distractions ever.

In his head Jongdae determines that there will forever be a ban on boyfriends accompanying them when they have to work. It’s too distracting and Jongdae has never been particularly close to Zitao anyways.

“Is that so?” he asks, forcing his eyes to stay on his lab notebook as he taps the end of his pen against his temple. One especially hard tap has him wincing and setting his pen aside before he puts himself in a coma.

Zitao cocks his head to the side at the question before he leans over to knock Jongdae on the head. “Jesus, I heard you were smart and all that but are you sure you’ve actually got a brain in there? Sounds pretty hollow to me.”

It doesn’t take a genius to deduce that the younger is making fun of him and Jongdae definitely does not appreciate that. He’s smart damnit! As Minseok is walking back into the library when he’s finished with his bathroom break, he runs into Jongdae who is storming out of it. Out of pure confusion, Minseok almost allows the younger to pass him before he blanches and backtracks to grab his lab partners arm.

“Wait, we’re not done yet are we?” he asks.

“No, but your boyfriend is pissing me off,” Jongdae grinds out. “I’m trying to resist the urge to murder him. And from now on, by the way, he’s not allowed to be within a 20 foot radius of you when we’re working.” He pulls his arm out of Minseok’s grasp and departs, still grumbling under his breath about annoying boyfriends and how they make all his friends unbearably difficult.

Boyfriends suck.





Jongdae is, quite simply, exhausted after midterm testing. Between helping a panicky Luhan study for his finals and attending various study groups which ended up more like party groups and then actually studying for his tests, Jongdae found very little time to rest up until the day of the exams. Needless to say by the end of everything, Jongdae is just about ready to collapse.

Kris happens to run into him on his way back to his flat, caught between being amused or concerned when Jongdae stumbles and nearly falls to the ground. “You look like a zombie,” Kris remarks as he steadies his friend with his hands on his shoulders. “Did they finally manage to eat that brain of yours?” he jokes.

If Kris is referring to the tests then yes they had very much eaten his brain.

“Home. Bed. Now,” he mumbles incoherently, but Kris gets the message. He wraps an arm around Jongdae casually and offers to take him back home.

“I’m not a baby. Stop babying me,” Jongdae whines petulantly before he suddenly becomes hyper aware of the fact that Kris has an arm around him. He tenses when that realization smacks him in the face. He can feel Kris’ hand on him and goosebumps prickle all over his arm.

“What are you doing?” he squeaks out as he stares down at the offending hand.

The elder removes his hand from Jongdae’s shoulder, surprised by his reaction. “Uh, sorry,” he apologizes. “I didn’t realize it bothered you. I do it all the time.”

Jongdae doesn’t feel all that tired anymore. All the time. Since when did Kris touch him “all the time?” Sure, maybe sometimes because Jongdae does remember the few hugs they’ve shared and the occasional times when Jongdae felt exceptionally lonely which then translated to him being exceptionally clingy, but that definitely does not constitute as all the time. It can’t.

They walk the rest of the way back in silence. Kris shoves his hands deep into his pocket and Jongdae finds that he rather misses the touch on his shoulder. He doesn’t voice this particular opinion out loud though. It’s too embarrassing and he’s afraid of how Kris will respond if he asks.

They reach his flat just as Joonmyeon is leaving for work. Jongdae can tell by the way that his roommate is dressed. The elder doesn’t usually dress in dark colors unless it’s for work. Being a waiter kind of suits him. Joonmyeon has always been the eager to please type of person and he’s not quick to anger. Jongdae is perhaps more fit for the job though what with his roll over and allow everyone to stomp all over him kind of disposition.

Joonmyeon pauses when he spots the two of them and he stands there conveniently blocking the door. He looks at Jongdae and then Kris and then back to Jongdae, giving him a pointed look before finally moving his ass so that he’s no longer blocking the door. “I’m working until closing tonight,” he tells his roommate before he leaves.

Jongdae barely acknowledges him, too busy stumbling into the apartment. All he really wants is to curl up in bed and hibernate until the end of time. He kicks off his shoes and only manages to make it to the couch. He hears Kris snort at him, but he’s too tired to care.

“Do you want me to get you a blanket and pillow?” the elder offers politely.

Jongdae makes some sort of noise that means neither yes nor no and only signifies that he heard the pointless question. Pointless because Kris would retrieve those items either way so there really isn’t a point in asking in the first place.

Jongdae hadn’t realized he was slowly drifting off until the pillow and blanket he requested for are dumped on top of him and Kris’ laughter travels through all those sheets and into his ears. With his mind all worn out it’s a struggle to emerge from the many layers his blanket makes but when he finally manages to poke his head out, he glares at Kris in annoyance.

“Not funny,” he grumbles, arranging everything so he can settle down comfortably on the couch. When he’s all situated, Kris takes the time to tuck him in as a way of apology for earlier.

“I’ll let you rest for now,” he speaks with mock chivalry and turns to go.

“Wait, you’re leaving?” Jongdae asks as he lifts his head up just enough to look at him. He was under the impression that they would hang out or something else along those lines.

Kris quirks a brow at him. “Well what am I supposed to do?”

The younger is silent for a moment while he thinks the question over. Finally he looks over to Kris again and says, “Order a pizza.”

Despite the fact that Kris rolls his eyes at the demand, he pulls his phone out of his back pocket and goes off to search for the phonebook he knows is kept somewhere in the kitchen.





When Jongdae wakes up the sky is semi-dark and Kris is sitting on the floor in front of the couch with his eyes glued to the evening news on the TV. A box of half-eaten pizza sits on the tiny coffee table and he scrunches up his nose at the sight. “Pig,” he grumbles weakly before pressing his face into his pillow. He would still like to sleep some more.

Kris laughs at him and reaches back to pull down the blanket. “I tried to wake you up,” he explains when he manages to pull it down enough for him to uncover Jongdae’s face. “But you were sleeping like a log. It was impossible to wake you up.” He motions towards the half a pizza still left, inviting him to eat it. “Look, I even got you your favorite: Hawaiian pizza.”

With a groan and great effort on his part, Jongdae pushes himself to sit up on the couch, rubbing lazily at his eyes as he yawns. He moves his legs so they’re dangling off the side of the couch and his shins bump into Kris’ arm.

Wordlessly, the elder takes the box and passes it back to Jongdae who balances it on his lap. He picks up a slice and bites into it. It’s not nice and warm like a pizza should be, but it’s not too cold either and Jongdae is not yet fully awake enough to be complaining about it.

He eats his pizza quietly as the two of them watch the overly dramatic news playing on the TV screen. Kris moves a hand up to touch Jongdae on his calf, but neither of them seem to notice. They barely react. The fingers move up to the back of his knee, tickling and touching, but again Jongdae doesn’t respond.

Eventually, Jongdae moves down from the couch to the floor. Their shoulders bump together but they don’t shift away. Some minutes later, Jongdae finds his head on Kris’ lap, the blanket pulled down to their level so that Jongdae can cocoon himself in it. The coffee table blocks his view of the TV but he doesn’t mind. He’s more focused on the hand running down his side. It feels really nice.

And like something he’d never feel comfortable doing with anyone else.

But with Kris it feels comfortable, natural.

Jongdae bites his lip as he thinks back on all the conversations he’s been having recently with various people. “Do you...” he begins before trailing awkwardly.

“Hm?”

Jongdae tries again. “Do you want to go out with me sometime?” he asks a bit meekly, because he’s Kim Jongdae. Kim Jongdae who has never been kissed let alone dated anyone. Kim Jongdae who has many friends but still feels hopelessly alone. He’s that Kim Jongdae.

“Sure,” Kris responds easily. So easily that Jongdae thinks that his friend doesn’t understand what it is he’s just asked.

“I meant go out like go out on a date,” he clarifies as if he’s urging Kris to reject him.

“I know what you meant,” Kris assures him. “And I said yes.”

Jongdae relaxes his body again, not having realized how tense he was before. “Oh. What do you want to do then?”

Kris grins ridiculously at the question, but Jongdae doesn’t notice it as he continues to stare at the legs of the coffee table. “Why don’t we go get a bowl of pho and then watch a movie?”

Jongdae scrunches his nose up at the suggestion and bolts upright to give Kris a look. “But that’s what we do all the time,” he protests. Aren’t dates supposed to be romantic? Jongdae couldn’t see anything romantic about that particular plan.

“Yes,” Kris agrees because it is true. He raises a brow at Jongdae like he’s mocking him. “And your point is?”

It takes Jongdae much longer than it should have for his mind to catch onto that implication, but when it does his expression quickly turns sour. “Are you calling me stupid? Because if you are, you are treading on some thin ice here, Wu Yifan.” It’s not often that Jongdae throws around Kris’ real name and it causes the elder to grin.

He leans in towards Jongdae, grin still on his face and presses their foreheads together. “You are one stupid so-called genius,” Kris confirms and his smile only widens when Jongdae pouts in response.

“I’m offended.”

Kris snorts and tugs on the front of Jongdae’s shirt. “I guess we’re even then.” He tries to lean in even closer for a kiss, but Jongdae squeals rather unattractively and falls backwards just to avoid it. “What’s up with you?” Kris asks, staring at Jongdae oddly.

“Well, I mean it’s just -” Jongdae clears his throat as he sits himself upright again with perfect posture and he lifts his head up though he looks just over Kris’ shoulder to try and give off the illusion that he’s looking at him. “I’ve just never...you know.”

“You’ve never kissed someone,” Kris finishes for him.

“No!” Jongdae denies out of habit before swallowing thickly. “Well, yes, but it’s embarrassing.”

Kris reaches out and wraps his fingers around Jongdae’s forearm, pulling him close again. “It’s okay. I’ll teach you.”

Jongdae reddens at those words and he tries to pull away again, but Kris is stronger and keeps him still as he leans in and pecks him on the cheek. It’s as innocent as he could get really.

Sometime later they both manage to somehow make themselves comfortable lying on the couch together. The TV is still on in the background, illuminating the dark room with a quiet sort of light, with the news still playing. Neither of them are paying attention anymore though. Jongdae fists the front of Kris’ shirt, his lips moving awkwardly against the elder’s, but still far more confident than his previous first tries which ended with Kris snickering at him.

It’s a little bit strange trying to learn and piece together how they fit, line up with one another, but they know that they do. Just like two pieces of a puzzle, it’s not always clear what piece fits with what, but they’re learning at their own pace, waiting until the pieces fall together in a way that they fit perfectly.