[Fic] Buttons - Part 8
Nov. 1st, 2011 10:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lotus_beautyTitle: Buttons
Author: LotusBeauty
Type: multi-chapter
Rating: R for language
Pairings: Jaejoong/Yoochun
Genre: gen, college!fic, drama, humor, romance
Summary: Micky followed along, not because he wanted to. Sure, he liked being around Jae, but he went because, really, he hadn’t anything better or more interesting to do. And Jae definitely made things interesting.
Disclaimer: Characters not mine, never were, but it's just fiction. The base story, however, is mine. Shoo.
S:
“Suspicious.”
Jae looked up from his computer. “What?” He was lounging comfortably against the pillows on his bed, laptop balanced against his thighs and stomach.
“Why are you signing up for porn mailers?” Micky asked as he set his bag down on his bed.
“I am not signing myself up. I am signing Shiwon up,” he replied matter-of-factly.
Micky raised an eyebrow at him. “Isn’t he the guy who should probably be at a—wait, what are these?” he asked as he took the garbage bin that Jae shoved at him. It was filled with religious pamphlets that all seemed to have Jae’s name and dorm address on them. “I see.”
“Just doing a friendly favor.”
Micky chuckled and put the bin back as he sat at his desk.
“What?”
“No day goes by that isn’t made interesting by you.”
“I try. As for Shiwon, those days will be soon.” Jae stopped typing. “He’s lucky I don’t know his home address.”
Micky raised an eyebrow and looked back as Jae glanced up to catch his gaze.
“Yet.”
Micky made a mental note not to piss Jae off. Not that he’d done anything of the sort, because he’d spent his morning trying to help Jae feel better as he emptied the contents of his stomach (which was meager to be honest) in the bathroom. Micky didn’t do much, really, just kept Jae company, patted his back, etc. It was something at least. After that, Jae just wanted to be alone and said his head pounded with the fury of a herd of stampeding elephants, or something along those lines, so Micky called up Junsu and Changmin, and went out for lunch. He was even nice enough to let his friends read some of his poetry, which Junsu actually liked for once. He must have been having a good day; someone might as well.
And then this was what he came back to. Welcome to life with Jaejoong Kim.
“Head still hurt?”
“A dull ache.”
“Don’t want to stabbity anyone via video game?”
“No.”
Micky stopped and raised an eyebrow. The silence made Jae glance over, then back to his laptop.
“Not in the mood.”
Bad day. Bad entire weekend, in Micky’s opinion. He was probably seeing Jae at his worst—listless, uninterested, short answers—and it was kind of depressing.
“You’re not you.”
“I don’t want to be me.” Jae rubbed his face and growled as he messed his hair up. “Can we do something that doesn’t involve me being me?” Micky pointed at the console and Jae rolled his eyes as he closed his laptop and set it on the floor next to his bed. “Clever.”
“True.”
“Shut up.”
Maybe he was feeling better. “You asked me a question, and I gave you the most obvious answer. If you don’t like it, you can come up with something yourself.”
Jae smiled suddenly. “Are you standing up to me?”
“Excuse me?”
“You’re not going along with what I want.”
“So?”
“You always go along with what I say.”
Micky rolled his eyes and went back to his laptop.
“I suddenly like you more.”
Micky stared at one little spot on his screen as he digested that. He turned only to see Jae already reading a book. “What?”
“Hm?”
“You like me more because I disagreed?”
Jae shrugged and waved a hand. “You grew a backbone. Congrats.”
Micky rolled his chair back and grabbed one of the gray cats from Jae’s desk that was a plush and threw it at Jae, who just laughed as he tried to dodge it. Micky missed hitting his crotch, but the act made him feel better. “You’re evil,” he grumbled.
Jae only laughed in return before going back to his book, and Micky was left wondering what to think. And so, he pushed it away, refusing to think about it. He was supposed to be thinking about his grades, not about Jae, who was recently broken up and therefore, off limits.
For the rest of the week, Micky’s feelings flip flopped between liking Jae and hating him. It was a thin line that his mind kept hopping over without warning. And then there was hating himself, but that was normal. The things Jae did and said were confusing, though Jae didn’t even realize it, and Micky wished he had the courage to admit it out loud. Now that he knew Jae was single and that he was okay with dating guys, Micky tried to figure out how to turn his feelings into words. He didn’t exactly know what the appropriate time between one person breaking up with another, to getting together with someone new was. He didn’t want to approach Jae too soon, or offend Keita in some way, so he just kept his mouth shut and kept wondering if they would just end up being things he’d never say. What a waste.
The next week, the entire matter was forgotten entirely when Jae came storming into the room, completely and utterly livid. He threw his laundry basket on the floor in a huff and Micky sat up from the book he was reading on his bed to see Jae shaking in anger.
“What’s the matter?”
“THAT is the matter!” He pointed at the clothing and Micky looked down to see—
“Holy shit.” Micky just stared in shock as he reached into the mass, sifting through the clothing to see everything—everything—had gotten dyed. All of Jae’s clothing, regardless of size or type, was all green or green tinted. Even Jae’s underwear was tinted green. A couple of his lighter colored shirts were completely dyed, only the buttons escaping the fate, staying a bright white.
“This is a fucking disaster,” Jae muttered as he fell onto his bed, hands on his face.
“Did you do something wrong?” Micky asked, jerking back when Jae glared at him.
“I know how to wash clothing!”
“I never said you couldn’t!”
“Someone pranked me!” he snarled as he sat up and grabbed a handful. “Someone planned this, went through the time and effort to buy the supplies and then pulled it off. Someone knew that this would piss me off.”
“Jae, everyone knows you love your damn black clothing.” This time he only shook his head when Jae glared. “You’ll never know who did it.”
“I will find out,” he answered, and in a way, Micky found himself believing him. But then the glare was on him again. “Was it you?”
Micky snorted. “I’ve been in here the whole time. Besides, why would I prank you? I have to live with you!”
“You have a point,” Jae muttered thoughtfully.
“Did you piss off anyone lately?”
Jae’s eyes were sad for a moment before they went hard again. “Not that I know of.”
And then Micky decided to be bold. “I don’t think Keita would do something like this.”
Jae stared at him wide eyed. “How did you know about that?”
“Why were you hiding it?”
“I didn’t hide it,” he said with a confused frown. “I just didn’t want to bother you with my personal stuff.”
“I thought we were friends.”
“We are.” Jae sighed and tossed the clump of clothing in his hands back in the basket. “Sorry, I just… I don’t know what’s going on lately. I’m sorry about getting wasted that night and not telling you. And thank you for being so, you know… considerate about it.”
“Apology accepted. Good to know you appreciate me,” Micky said a bit teasingly as he laid back on his bed again.
“I’ll appreciate you more if you help me find out who did this,” Jae suggested slyly.
“Hell no. I refuse to get caught up in this whole thing. Maybe you shouldn’t have left your laundry.” Micky just shrugged when Jae huffed and gave in, claiming he would find out who it was on his own.
“I don’t need your help,” Jae grumbled, and Micky sighed.
“Maybe the prankster just took advantage when you weren’t paying attention,” he said as he sat up, realizing reading was going to be a fruitless effort. “Did anyone distract you?”
“Only Jessica, but she was really pissed when she saw what happened.”
Micky frowned. “Why would she be pissed?”
“She bought me some clothing when she was in Korea last time, and some of it got dyed. She was pretty angry about it since she went out of her way to do it,” Jae explained as he pulled out a pair of nice jeans and a shirt.
“I guess they’re one of a kind now.”
Jae snorted. “You could say that.” He sighed as he tossed the pants back into the basket. “Okay, well if you won’t help me find out who it is, could you at least keep me company in the laundry room for the rest of the afternoon?”
Micky sighed. “Fine.”
This plan went off without a hitch. Jae’s clothing came out spotless and everyone stayed away from the machine that had been dyed green on the inside. No one aroused any suspicions and Jae couldn’t figure out who might have done it. At one point he accused Yunho, thinking it was just a prank in general and that he should be suspecting people who knew him better. Yunho, fortunately, had an alibi and had been in class when the entire thing went down. This just meant Jae was back at square one.
Micky figured it was just a harmless prank and went about his business as usual. It wasn’t until sometime the next week that he was sitting at his laptop when Jae burst in and threw down his basket down again.
“Purple?” Micky said in disbelief.
“And it’s an entirely different set of clothing!” Jae whined as he fell onto his bed. “And I have no new suspects because it’s a completely different day, I didn’t see anyone who was in there last time, and Jessica is off campus right now.” He growled as he rolled around on his bed, having a temper tantrum of frustration. Micky didn’t blame him. This was getting ridiculous.
“Someone must really dislike you to be ruining something of value like that,” Micky pointed out as he rolled his chair over to sift through the basket. “Nice, you’ll have some fabulous underwear now.”
“Why, thank you,” Jae said, flopping a hand at him. “But seriously, I’ve got to figure out who did this. I don’t remember being distracted at any point in time.”
“Did you go to the bathroom?”
Jae cursed. “Yes.”
Micky made a face. “Bad timing.”
“You’re telling me.” He sighed dramatically and pulled his phone out.
“Who are you calling?”
“My parents.”
“Why?”
“Some of the clothing is actually ruined,” he said as he sat up and pulled out a shirt that had odd purple streaks all over it. “I think they put the dye in when it was close to draining and doing the spin cycle or something.”
“You could start a new trend.”
“Hilarious,” Jae replied before, “Hey, mom. No, I’m not in trouble. Well, I guess this might constitute as trouble, but I’m not IN trouble if that’s a better definition.”
Micky just shook his head and rolled back to his desk to finish typing up an outline. He tried his best to ignore the conversation, as he already knew the situation, until Jae tapped his shoulder.
“Mom says I should get you to do my laundry, that might deter them from putting the dye in and ruining your clothing too.”
“Nope, I’ll just end up being collateral damage.”
“He says no.”
Micky decided to see if Junsu or Changmin had gotten the pranking bug in them, but both (through text) denied having done it, though Junsu had heard about it and thought it was pulled off excellently. Micky found it amusing to find that Jae hadn’t even considered them as the pranksters, but Changmin told him that Jae had already figured out they were in class at the time.
Micky waved at Jae to get his attention. “Changmin says CONSTANT VIGILANCE, just like that, in capital letters,” he said in amusement as he showed Jae the phone.
“Tell him Mad Eye Moody doesn’t teach here, and stop typing like Junsu,” Jae replied with a grin and went back to his conversation as Micky sent the reply.
Later that week, Micky helped Jae haul some of the clothing to the goodwill center before going out with him to buy some new stuff. He’d managed to convince Jae to keep some of the clothing, telling him it would do him good to have a slight change of wardrobe color, but some of the ruined bits got the axe.
“Why black?” he asked as Jae stood in front of a mirror, considering a shirt and jacket combination.
“Because I look damn good in black.” Jae glanced back. “Right? I mean, I’ve thought about it and I don’t really look very good in many colors.”
Micky tilted his head. “Maybe bright colors or dark ones? Muted colors might wash you out. Like, the green looked okay on you.”
“True,” Jae said as he turned and held his arms out, waiting for an opinion. “Yes?”
“Yes,” Micky replied with a nod, and Jae went to put the clothing on his ‘to buy’ pile.
“You didn’t have to come with me,” Jae said through the door of the dressing room.
“Had nothing better to do.”
“Oh, thanks.”
“I mean, I’d rather spend time with you than alone,” Micky said, blushing as he realized it was true.
“How flattering!”
Micky just grinned, amused. “I’m glad to see you’re adding color into your wardrobe.”
“Fuck you,” Jae replied, with a hint of amusement to his voice. “Ever figure out your favorite color?”
“No,” he answered as Jae appeared from the dressing room. “It still weirds me out that people don’t see letters like I do.”
“Tell me about it,” Jae said as he headed toward the counter to pay, a small stack of clothing on his arm. “I never told you that I have synesthesia too, did I?”
Micky stared at him. “What, really?”
“Yeah, but I have the sound kind. I see colors and stuff when I hear things. Mostly music and voices.”
“Wow. Isn’t it distracting?” Micky asked when they stopped at the cashier.
“Actually,” Jae smiled to himself as he set the clothing down and greeted the cashier. “I honestly can’t understand how people function without it.”
Micky stayed silent through the transaction, wondering how the world looked to Jae. Did he see splashes of color like fireworks or watercolors across his vision? Was that why Jae liked music so much? What color did his voice appear as in Jae’s vision?
“I never thought about it,” Jae finally said as they walked away from the counter. “I thought everyone saw the colors like I did, until I started trying to describe how a song at a concert was afterward to Yunho. He was so confused and I was shocked to find out he couldn’t see what I was seeing.”
“It just sounds so confusing,” Micky admitted. “Though I can understand since Junsu thinks I’m a nutbar because of the letter thing.”
“Exactly!”
“How about the jingling bell?” Micky asked, glancing at Jae’s phone.
“That one is actually kind of annoying.” He stopped as he thought. “It’s really hard to describe because the color moves and has shape and…”
“Words just don’t describe it right, do they?”
“No.” Jae shook his head with a smile. “And anyone who has it experiences sounds differently anyway, so it’s hard even for people with the same thing to tell one another.”
Micky sighed, wondering what to think of this new piece of information and decided to change the subject to something he might understand better. “Any new suspects?”
“No. And I’m sick of being paranoid.”
“I’m sure they’ll make a mistake soon.”
And they did.
And it was then Micky’s turn to stomp into the dorm—LIVID.
“WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?” he snarled at Jae, shoving his basket into Jae’s face at his desk.
Jae’s eyes widened. “You’ve got to be shitting me,” he muttered as he pulled out one of Micky’s shirts. “ORANGE?”
“I didn’t even do anything!” Micky dropped the basket and pointed at him. “SO HELP ME GOD, IF I FIND OUT YOU DID THIS IN AN EFFORT TO TRY TO OUT ME AS THE SUSPECT—”
“I didn’t do anything! I’ve been in here the whole time you were gone!”
“—I WILL DESTROY YOU.”
“Jesus, Micky! It wasn’t me! I don’t have time for these shenanigans!” Jae snarled as he threw his hands up and began to pace.
“Then why am I being dragged into your prank!?” He growled and tugged on his hair with both of his hands. “I don’t have the money to buy more clothing!”
Jae looked apologetic. “I’ll pay for it.”
Micky cursed before growling, “No you won’t. The prankster will.”
“We need to figure out who this is,” Jae muttered as he sat again and let his head fall onto the desk.
“I asked around the laundry room. Someone saw a brown haired girl at my washer when I was out talking to Keita,” Micky told him as he sat on his bed, rubbing his face with his hands. “But there are so many brown haired girls out there, I can’t even think of who it might be.”
“Why were you talking to Keita?” Jae asked.
Micky shrugged. “I went to get a drink of water and happened to walk into him. He’s also in my Humanities class. I don’t think he’s a suspect.”
“Oh.” Jae deflated. “Did the washer get dyed?”
Micky snorted, the sound turning into a chuckle. “Yeah. You should see it.”
“Better than the green and purple?”
“Oh yeah.”
Jae grinned and soon they were making their way down to the laundry room to check it out. Finding some sort of humor in it made them feel better. Halfway there, Keita blocked their way with a very serious look, holding his sister Mio by the shoulder.
“My sister has something to say to you,” he told them as they looked at one another in bewilderment.
Mio’s eyes went to the floor before Keita gave her a little shake and she muttered, “I’m sorry for dyeing your clothing.”
Jae sucked in a breath and Micky grabbed him as he lunged toward her and she hid behind Keita. “You little shit! You’re lucky he’s holding me back!”
She narrowed her eyes at them as Keita crossed his arms. “She apologized, what more do you want?”
“She damn well better pay for Micky’s clothing!” he snapped.
“She’ll pay for it. All of it,” Keita assured them.
“I’m not paying for his!” she exclaimed as she pointed at Jae.
“You ARE paying for it!” Keita told her angrily.
“But he’s a jerk! He was screwing with you!” she retorted as Jae tried to reach for her again and Micky held him back. It was turning into a disaster and people were peeking out of their rooms, wondering what was going on.
“I never asked you to do this!” Keita hissed.
“At least I was honest with him!” Jae defended himself quietly as he pulled out of Micky’s grip. “What, did you want me to lie to him and use him instead?”
“You did use him!”
“No, he didn’t!” Keita told her, his hand on his face in embarrassment. “Can we just call a truce?”
“Hell no,” Micky said, surprising them all. Now he didn’t care if she paid for his clothing or not. He was going to get her back for talking about Jae like he was some sort of evil villain. He’d been there the day Jae broke it off with Keita and was pissed Mio had some sort of twisted version of events in her head. “Shove your truce,” he growled as he turned on his heel and stomped away.
“Whoa whoa!” Jae caught up with him just as he was getting back to their room. “What was that display of complete and total disregard for civil relations? I loved it!” He put an arm around Micky as he laughed. “You’re on a roll lately.”
Micky snorted. “Learned from the best.”
“I’m glad you’re on my side.” Jae grinned evilly. “Let the shenanigans begin!”
~***~
Bluh, trying to do this from Starbucks and their wifi is down. Replying to the comments from last week will be sporatic~
Part 9
Author: LotusBeauty
Type: multi-chapter
Rating: R for language
Pairings: Jaejoong/Yoochun
Genre: gen, college!fic, drama, humor, romance
Summary: Micky followed along, not because he wanted to. Sure, he liked being around Jae, but he went because, really, he hadn’t anything better or more interesting to do. And Jae definitely made things interesting.
Disclaimer: Characters not mine, never were, but it's just fiction. The base story, however, is mine. Shoo.
S:
“Suspicious.”
Jae looked up from his computer. “What?” He was lounging comfortably against the pillows on his bed, laptop balanced against his thighs and stomach.
“Why are you signing up for porn mailers?” Micky asked as he set his bag down on his bed.
“I am not signing myself up. I am signing Shiwon up,” he replied matter-of-factly.
Micky raised an eyebrow at him. “Isn’t he the guy who should probably be at a—wait, what are these?” he asked as he took the garbage bin that Jae shoved at him. It was filled with religious pamphlets that all seemed to have Jae’s name and dorm address on them. “I see.”
“Just doing a friendly favor.”
Micky chuckled and put the bin back as he sat at his desk.
“What?”
“No day goes by that isn’t made interesting by you.”
“I try. As for Shiwon, those days will be soon.” Jae stopped typing. “He’s lucky I don’t know his home address.”
Micky raised an eyebrow and looked back as Jae glanced up to catch his gaze.
“Yet.”
Micky made a mental note not to piss Jae off. Not that he’d done anything of the sort, because he’d spent his morning trying to help Jae feel better as he emptied the contents of his stomach (which was meager to be honest) in the bathroom. Micky didn’t do much, really, just kept Jae company, patted his back, etc. It was something at least. After that, Jae just wanted to be alone and said his head pounded with the fury of a herd of stampeding elephants, or something along those lines, so Micky called up Junsu and Changmin, and went out for lunch. He was even nice enough to let his friends read some of his poetry, which Junsu actually liked for once. He must have been having a good day; someone might as well.
And then this was what he came back to. Welcome to life with Jaejoong Kim.
“Head still hurt?”
“A dull ache.”
“Don’t want to stabbity anyone via video game?”
“No.”
Micky stopped and raised an eyebrow. The silence made Jae glance over, then back to his laptop.
“Not in the mood.”
Bad day. Bad entire weekend, in Micky’s opinion. He was probably seeing Jae at his worst—listless, uninterested, short answers—and it was kind of depressing.
“You’re not you.”
“I don’t want to be me.” Jae rubbed his face and growled as he messed his hair up. “Can we do something that doesn’t involve me being me?” Micky pointed at the console and Jae rolled his eyes as he closed his laptop and set it on the floor next to his bed. “Clever.”
“True.”
“Shut up.”
Maybe he was feeling better. “You asked me a question, and I gave you the most obvious answer. If you don’t like it, you can come up with something yourself.”
Jae smiled suddenly. “Are you standing up to me?”
“Excuse me?”
“You’re not going along with what I want.”
“So?”
“You always go along with what I say.”
Micky rolled his eyes and went back to his laptop.
“I suddenly like you more.”
Micky stared at one little spot on his screen as he digested that. He turned only to see Jae already reading a book. “What?”
“Hm?”
“You like me more because I disagreed?”
Jae shrugged and waved a hand. “You grew a backbone. Congrats.”
Micky rolled his chair back and grabbed one of the gray cats from Jae’s desk that was a plush and threw it at Jae, who just laughed as he tried to dodge it. Micky missed hitting his crotch, but the act made him feel better. “You’re evil,” he grumbled.
Jae only laughed in return before going back to his book, and Micky was left wondering what to think. And so, he pushed it away, refusing to think about it. He was supposed to be thinking about his grades, not about Jae, who was recently broken up and therefore, off limits.
For the rest of the week, Micky’s feelings flip flopped between liking Jae and hating him. It was a thin line that his mind kept hopping over without warning. And then there was hating himself, but that was normal. The things Jae did and said were confusing, though Jae didn’t even realize it, and Micky wished he had the courage to admit it out loud. Now that he knew Jae was single and that he was okay with dating guys, Micky tried to figure out how to turn his feelings into words. He didn’t exactly know what the appropriate time between one person breaking up with another, to getting together with someone new was. He didn’t want to approach Jae too soon, or offend Keita in some way, so he just kept his mouth shut and kept wondering if they would just end up being things he’d never say. What a waste.
The next week, the entire matter was forgotten entirely when Jae came storming into the room, completely and utterly livid. He threw his laundry basket on the floor in a huff and Micky sat up from the book he was reading on his bed to see Jae shaking in anger.
“What’s the matter?”
“THAT is the matter!” He pointed at the clothing and Micky looked down to see—
“Holy shit.” Micky just stared in shock as he reached into the mass, sifting through the clothing to see everything—everything—had gotten dyed. All of Jae’s clothing, regardless of size or type, was all green or green tinted. Even Jae’s underwear was tinted green. A couple of his lighter colored shirts were completely dyed, only the buttons escaping the fate, staying a bright white.
“This is a fucking disaster,” Jae muttered as he fell onto his bed, hands on his face.
“Did you do something wrong?” Micky asked, jerking back when Jae glared at him.
“I know how to wash clothing!”
“I never said you couldn’t!”
“Someone pranked me!” he snarled as he sat up and grabbed a handful. “Someone planned this, went through the time and effort to buy the supplies and then pulled it off. Someone knew that this would piss me off.”
“Jae, everyone knows you love your damn black clothing.” This time he only shook his head when Jae glared. “You’ll never know who did it.”
“I will find out,” he answered, and in a way, Micky found himself believing him. But then the glare was on him again. “Was it you?”
Micky snorted. “I’ve been in here the whole time. Besides, why would I prank you? I have to live with you!”
“You have a point,” Jae muttered thoughtfully.
“Did you piss off anyone lately?”
Jae’s eyes were sad for a moment before they went hard again. “Not that I know of.”
And then Micky decided to be bold. “I don’t think Keita would do something like this.”
Jae stared at him wide eyed. “How did you know about that?”
“Why were you hiding it?”
“I didn’t hide it,” he said with a confused frown. “I just didn’t want to bother you with my personal stuff.”
“I thought we were friends.”
“We are.” Jae sighed and tossed the clump of clothing in his hands back in the basket. “Sorry, I just… I don’t know what’s going on lately. I’m sorry about getting wasted that night and not telling you. And thank you for being so, you know… considerate about it.”
“Apology accepted. Good to know you appreciate me,” Micky said a bit teasingly as he laid back on his bed again.
“I’ll appreciate you more if you help me find out who did this,” Jae suggested slyly.
“Hell no. I refuse to get caught up in this whole thing. Maybe you shouldn’t have left your laundry.” Micky just shrugged when Jae huffed and gave in, claiming he would find out who it was on his own.
“I don’t need your help,” Jae grumbled, and Micky sighed.
“Maybe the prankster just took advantage when you weren’t paying attention,” he said as he sat up, realizing reading was going to be a fruitless effort. “Did anyone distract you?”
“Only Jessica, but she was really pissed when she saw what happened.”
Micky frowned. “Why would she be pissed?”
“She bought me some clothing when she was in Korea last time, and some of it got dyed. She was pretty angry about it since she went out of her way to do it,” Jae explained as he pulled out a pair of nice jeans and a shirt.
“I guess they’re one of a kind now.”
Jae snorted. “You could say that.” He sighed as he tossed the pants back into the basket. “Okay, well if you won’t help me find out who it is, could you at least keep me company in the laundry room for the rest of the afternoon?”
Micky sighed. “Fine.”
This plan went off without a hitch. Jae’s clothing came out spotless and everyone stayed away from the machine that had been dyed green on the inside. No one aroused any suspicions and Jae couldn’t figure out who might have done it. At one point he accused Yunho, thinking it was just a prank in general and that he should be suspecting people who knew him better. Yunho, fortunately, had an alibi and had been in class when the entire thing went down. This just meant Jae was back at square one.
Micky figured it was just a harmless prank and went about his business as usual. It wasn’t until sometime the next week that he was sitting at his laptop when Jae burst in and threw down his basket down again.
“Purple?” Micky said in disbelief.
“And it’s an entirely different set of clothing!” Jae whined as he fell onto his bed. “And I have no new suspects because it’s a completely different day, I didn’t see anyone who was in there last time, and Jessica is off campus right now.” He growled as he rolled around on his bed, having a temper tantrum of frustration. Micky didn’t blame him. This was getting ridiculous.
“Someone must really dislike you to be ruining something of value like that,” Micky pointed out as he rolled his chair over to sift through the basket. “Nice, you’ll have some fabulous underwear now.”
“Why, thank you,” Jae said, flopping a hand at him. “But seriously, I’ve got to figure out who did this. I don’t remember being distracted at any point in time.”
“Did you go to the bathroom?”
Jae cursed. “Yes.”
Micky made a face. “Bad timing.”
“You’re telling me.” He sighed dramatically and pulled his phone out.
“Who are you calling?”
“My parents.”
“Why?”
“Some of the clothing is actually ruined,” he said as he sat up and pulled out a shirt that had odd purple streaks all over it. “I think they put the dye in when it was close to draining and doing the spin cycle or something.”
“You could start a new trend.”
“Hilarious,” Jae replied before, “Hey, mom. No, I’m not in trouble. Well, I guess this might constitute as trouble, but I’m not IN trouble if that’s a better definition.”
Micky just shook his head and rolled back to his desk to finish typing up an outline. He tried his best to ignore the conversation, as he already knew the situation, until Jae tapped his shoulder.
“Mom says I should get you to do my laundry, that might deter them from putting the dye in and ruining your clothing too.”
“Nope, I’ll just end up being collateral damage.”
“He says no.”
Micky decided to see if Junsu or Changmin had gotten the pranking bug in them, but both (through text) denied having done it, though Junsu had heard about it and thought it was pulled off excellently. Micky found it amusing to find that Jae hadn’t even considered them as the pranksters, but Changmin told him that Jae had already figured out they were in class at the time.
Micky waved at Jae to get his attention. “Changmin says CONSTANT VIGILANCE, just like that, in capital letters,” he said in amusement as he showed Jae the phone.
“Tell him Mad Eye Moody doesn’t teach here, and stop typing like Junsu,” Jae replied with a grin and went back to his conversation as Micky sent the reply.
Later that week, Micky helped Jae haul some of the clothing to the goodwill center before going out with him to buy some new stuff. He’d managed to convince Jae to keep some of the clothing, telling him it would do him good to have a slight change of wardrobe color, but some of the ruined bits got the axe.
“Why black?” he asked as Jae stood in front of a mirror, considering a shirt and jacket combination.
“Because I look damn good in black.” Jae glanced back. “Right? I mean, I’ve thought about it and I don’t really look very good in many colors.”
Micky tilted his head. “Maybe bright colors or dark ones? Muted colors might wash you out. Like, the green looked okay on you.”
“True,” Jae said as he turned and held his arms out, waiting for an opinion. “Yes?”
“Yes,” Micky replied with a nod, and Jae went to put the clothing on his ‘to buy’ pile.
“You didn’t have to come with me,” Jae said through the door of the dressing room.
“Had nothing better to do.”
“Oh, thanks.”
“I mean, I’d rather spend time with you than alone,” Micky said, blushing as he realized it was true.
“How flattering!”
Micky just grinned, amused. “I’m glad to see you’re adding color into your wardrobe.”
“Fuck you,” Jae replied, with a hint of amusement to his voice. “Ever figure out your favorite color?”
“No,” he answered as Jae appeared from the dressing room. “It still weirds me out that people don’t see letters like I do.”
“Tell me about it,” Jae said as he headed toward the counter to pay, a small stack of clothing on his arm. “I never told you that I have synesthesia too, did I?”
Micky stared at him. “What, really?”
“Yeah, but I have the sound kind. I see colors and stuff when I hear things. Mostly music and voices.”
“Wow. Isn’t it distracting?” Micky asked when they stopped at the cashier.
“Actually,” Jae smiled to himself as he set the clothing down and greeted the cashier. “I honestly can’t understand how people function without it.”
Micky stayed silent through the transaction, wondering how the world looked to Jae. Did he see splashes of color like fireworks or watercolors across his vision? Was that why Jae liked music so much? What color did his voice appear as in Jae’s vision?
“I never thought about it,” Jae finally said as they walked away from the counter. “I thought everyone saw the colors like I did, until I started trying to describe how a song at a concert was afterward to Yunho. He was so confused and I was shocked to find out he couldn’t see what I was seeing.”
“It just sounds so confusing,” Micky admitted. “Though I can understand since Junsu thinks I’m a nutbar because of the letter thing.”
“Exactly!”
“How about the jingling bell?” Micky asked, glancing at Jae’s phone.
“That one is actually kind of annoying.” He stopped as he thought. “It’s really hard to describe because the color moves and has shape and…”
“Words just don’t describe it right, do they?”
“No.” Jae shook his head with a smile. “And anyone who has it experiences sounds differently anyway, so it’s hard even for people with the same thing to tell one another.”
Micky sighed, wondering what to think of this new piece of information and decided to change the subject to something he might understand better. “Any new suspects?”
“No. And I’m sick of being paranoid.”
“I’m sure they’ll make a mistake soon.”
And they did.
And it was then Micky’s turn to stomp into the dorm—LIVID.
“WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?” he snarled at Jae, shoving his basket into Jae’s face at his desk.
Jae’s eyes widened. “You’ve got to be shitting me,” he muttered as he pulled out one of Micky’s shirts. “ORANGE?”
“I didn’t even do anything!” Micky dropped the basket and pointed at him. “SO HELP ME GOD, IF I FIND OUT YOU DID THIS IN AN EFFORT TO TRY TO OUT ME AS THE SUSPECT—”
“I didn’t do anything! I’ve been in here the whole time you were gone!”
“—I WILL DESTROY YOU.”
“Jesus, Micky! It wasn’t me! I don’t have time for these shenanigans!” Jae snarled as he threw his hands up and began to pace.
“Then why am I being dragged into your prank!?” He growled and tugged on his hair with both of his hands. “I don’t have the money to buy more clothing!”
Jae looked apologetic. “I’ll pay for it.”
Micky cursed before growling, “No you won’t. The prankster will.”
“We need to figure out who this is,” Jae muttered as he sat again and let his head fall onto the desk.
“I asked around the laundry room. Someone saw a brown haired girl at my washer when I was out talking to Keita,” Micky told him as he sat on his bed, rubbing his face with his hands. “But there are so many brown haired girls out there, I can’t even think of who it might be.”
“Why were you talking to Keita?” Jae asked.
Micky shrugged. “I went to get a drink of water and happened to walk into him. He’s also in my Humanities class. I don’t think he’s a suspect.”
“Oh.” Jae deflated. “Did the washer get dyed?”
Micky snorted, the sound turning into a chuckle. “Yeah. You should see it.”
“Better than the green and purple?”
“Oh yeah.”
Jae grinned and soon they were making their way down to the laundry room to check it out. Finding some sort of humor in it made them feel better. Halfway there, Keita blocked their way with a very serious look, holding his sister Mio by the shoulder.
“My sister has something to say to you,” he told them as they looked at one another in bewilderment.
Mio’s eyes went to the floor before Keita gave her a little shake and she muttered, “I’m sorry for dyeing your clothing.”
Jae sucked in a breath and Micky grabbed him as he lunged toward her and she hid behind Keita. “You little shit! You’re lucky he’s holding me back!”
She narrowed her eyes at them as Keita crossed his arms. “She apologized, what more do you want?”
“She damn well better pay for Micky’s clothing!” he snapped.
“She’ll pay for it. All of it,” Keita assured them.
“I’m not paying for his!” she exclaimed as she pointed at Jae.
“You ARE paying for it!” Keita told her angrily.
“But he’s a jerk! He was screwing with you!” she retorted as Jae tried to reach for her again and Micky held him back. It was turning into a disaster and people were peeking out of their rooms, wondering what was going on.
“I never asked you to do this!” Keita hissed.
“At least I was honest with him!” Jae defended himself quietly as he pulled out of Micky’s grip. “What, did you want me to lie to him and use him instead?”
“You did use him!”
“No, he didn’t!” Keita told her, his hand on his face in embarrassment. “Can we just call a truce?”
“Hell no,” Micky said, surprising them all. Now he didn’t care if she paid for his clothing or not. He was going to get her back for talking about Jae like he was some sort of evil villain. He’d been there the day Jae broke it off with Keita and was pissed Mio had some sort of twisted version of events in her head. “Shove your truce,” he growled as he turned on his heel and stomped away.
“Whoa whoa!” Jae caught up with him just as he was getting back to their room. “What was that display of complete and total disregard for civil relations? I loved it!” He put an arm around Micky as he laughed. “You’re on a roll lately.”
Micky snorted. “Learned from the best.”
“I’m glad you’re on my side.” Jae grinned evilly. “Let the shenanigans begin!”
~***~
Bluh, trying to do this from Starbucks and their wifi is down. Replying to the comments from last week will be sporatic~
Part 9
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Date: 2011-11-01 11:53 pm (UTC)Omg, pissed!JaeChun made my day. x'D
I especially Lol-ed at:
“I WILL DESTROY YOU.”
xDDDD Oh, Chunnie~
Indeed, let the shenanigans begin!