Sunbaenim

His first day at a prestigious boarding school, Oh Sehun manages to arrive late to class, get lost on his way to the bathroom, and fall madly in love with a chubby-cheeked sixth-year inferiority complex with shockingly strong arms.

Sehun just has a knack for such things, he figures, huffing softly as he picks himself up along with the aforementioned sixth-year’s papers. The boy, who’s all sharp eyes and a childish grin, is already standing, and grabs his papers back, offering his hand to Sehun. Sehun takes it hesitantly and is hoisted up instantly, nearly falling over again in shock.

The boy has soft hands and a strong grip and nearly flips Sehun over. His heart certainly flips, at least, as they meet eyes, and even though he still hates his father for sending him in the middle of second year, he decides that maybe an all-boys school wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

He’s distracted all through the rest of his classes, doodling hearts on his class syllabi and similarly sharp eyes on his planner pages. He really desperately wants to know the guy’s name, and, in a moment of something between madness and genius, he chats up this vaguely familiar pretty boy called Jongin who he remembers from his art class to get the details on the boy on his mind.

Evidently his name is Kim Minseok. He’s third in his class in academics and second in the school in martial arts, a great soccer player, resident advisor in his dorm hall, and he just spent a year abroad in China. Apparently he’s got a stick up his ass and only talks to this other sixth-year, a doe-eyed Chinese kid named Lu Han, and some fourth-year named Jongdae who never really talks but has nice cheekbones and is really smart.

Sehun dismisses half of the information but enlists Jongin’s help that afternoon to help him learn everything there is to know about Kim Minseok. Jongin mostly just agrees because he likes Sehun’s pout and the way his regulation bowl cut always manages to mess itself up. Sehun’s idea of a thank you also involves a lot of hugging, and Jongin is kind of sick of the brooding loner image he’s cultivated. He takes quite a liking to the wild younger boy and agrees to help him stalk this sixth-year even though he knows it will end in tragedy. He’s selfish like that, but nobody seems to mind.

Sehun takes the most obvious routes in showing his affections for the eternally amazing Minseok-sunbae, but Minseok is eternally oblivious. A busy sixth-year with an inferiority complex in the middle of a raging sexual identity crisis at the hands of his stupid Chinese best friend and preparing for a wushu tournament isn’t much one to notice a lanky kid’s advances. He sleepily steps into the clean uniform Sehun secretly set out for him after practice, not noticing its relative cleanliness in his sore stupor, and he slams his door so hard that the notes Sehun posts there fall right off.

Jongin suggests flat-out telling him so that they can get this stupid waiting business over with and he can get to the part where he comforts Sehun so that the lisping idiot will understand what he’s doing wrong, but Sehun refuses to give up.

He scoops Minseok’s chestnut warmblood gelding’s shit in the school stables, stammering out excuses in a sickly-sweet voice when Minseok shows up with a crop and boots before all but dropping to the ground and kissing the spots where Minseok walked. Jongin rolls his eyes and leads Sehun to the old gray mare he’s been assigned. Minseok raises his eyebrows in the direction of Sehun’s back. Jongin offers him a shrug – okay, he’s not helping at all, but can he really be expected to? – and hands Sehun a hoof pick.

This is going to be a long and painful experience.

Sehun tries his hand at everything. He asks Minseok for math help, which Minseok passes onto his little crony Jongdae, though he apologizes with a thousand really adorable bows, and Jongdae’s not that charming or good at geometry, but Sehun finds him a pretty decent resource as far as gossip goes. He relays everything he knows about Luhan and Minseok and how he thinks they spend way too much time in the locker room and darkroom together. Sehun thanks him softly and starts staring daggers into the pretty Chinese boy whenever he sees him and Minseok together.

Minseok is growing more and more tired of his own existence. The wushu tournament is done, but now soccer practice is happening more and exams are approaching and he’s up until three every morning studying, his hair peaked up from continuously running his hands through it and his sharp eyes dull. Sehun sees his light on one night when he’s going to the communal dormitory bathroom and a million more plans pop up in his head.

Not long after that, Minseok does get one of the love notes. It’s tucked into his stupid, childish rilakkuma pencil case, the one Jongdae brought him back from Japan. The note itself is written on similarly cutesy stationery and it’s got the lyrics to some pop song written on it, saranghae minseok sunbaenim! fighting! and a few lopsided hearts. Minseok assumes it’s a joke, Luhan fucking with him like he has been lately, or maybe Zitao, the cute little martial arts champion who likes throwing Minseok on his ass and laughing about it in Mandarin that he doesn’t know Minseok understands, trying to get him off his game.

He doesn’t even really remember the boy who he ran into in the hallway halfway through the semester.

Sehun is sitting behind him in the common room when he gets the note, and even though his heart soars for a few moments, Minseok just rips it up in bitterness and stress and anger. Jongdae comes by and pats him on the back, glancing over his shoulder at the numbers he’s trying to arrange, and frowns at the tears of frustration in Minseok’s eyes.

Jongin sighs, patting Sehun’s thigh as tears threaten to spill from the lanky second-year’s own eyes. He totally thinks his friend is a selfish idiot, but he’s a cute little selfish idiot, so he keeps up the supportive charade.

“Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be,” he murmurs, tousling Sehun’s hair.

And Sehun sets his head on Jongin’s shoulder and sniffs, ready to give up on love for once and for all, until Jongdae leaves Minseok’s side and leans over the back of the couch where Sehun’s sitting, whispering a few magical words in Sehun’s ears in his usual charmless deadpan.

Sehun bolts up. Sixteen and a half minutes later, he’s back in the common room, double-shot vanilla macchiato and blueberry scone in hand and his heart dangling off his sleeve. This is the dumbest, bravest thing he’s ever done, and Jongin and Jongdae both give him vaguely skeptical thumbs-ups as he walks over to the desk where Minseok is working and taps on his shoulder.

Minseok turns, obviously frustrated. He can’t afford the distraction. Sehun inhales.

“M-minseok-sshi, I saw you were stressed and I brought you some coffee and a scone. I hope it helps make your work easier. Minseok hyung fighting!” Sehun exclaims, arms shaking and voice cracking as he sets the food down and makes a break for it. Jongdae came up with the master plan for him once he recognized Sehun's handwriting on the torn-up note – Minseok’s favorite things on earth, apparently, are vanilla coffee and blueberry scones, and Sehun’s number is written on the napkin.

Jongdae huffs a you owe me one at Sehun before retreating back to his dorm room.

Jongin sighs, half-hoping this whole thing doesn’t go through.

Sehun keeps glancing over as Minseok wipes crumbs off his face and gulps down coffee. He’s so cute when he’s distracted. Sehun would’ve gotten him regardless of whether or not Jongdae helped him.

Or not.

Time passes and Sehun’s phone remains silent as ever. Jongin is more touchy-feely and comforting and Jongdae sometimes sits with them because all of the sixth-years are holed up in their rooms studying for exams all the time. They form a nice little friendship, but Sehun’s love remains painfully absent.

The term ends and Sehun returns to his father’s house. He’s glum all through the beginning of his break, but three days in, sometime around midnight, his phone lights up.

rcvd from unknown number: not sure if this is the right number, but i don’t think i ever got around to thanking you for the scone and coffee, so thanks! hope you have a good break & see you next term. – kim minseok

Sehun’s heart soars and he’s suddenly pretty sure he could bake a million blueberry scones himself because he has fallen deeper in love than he even knew was humanly possible and, more importantly. Kim Minseok, the incredible and beautiful sunbaenim, is aware and thankful of his existence.

And Sehun knows that everything will be all right because he forwards the message to Jongin and Jongin replies with a picture of himself and Jongdae at some fancy ski resort. They’re both assholes and Sehun knows that they’re perfect for one another.

More importantly, though, Kim Minseok knows that Oh Sehun exists, and Oh Sehun knows that Kim Minseok is destined to love him back someday, and everything will turn out for the better thanks to a double-shot vanilla macchiato and a blueberry scone.