Chapter Text
Despite what others may think, Jake Ji is a perfectly normal human being. That means he has his beef, crushes, and unhealthy obsessions just like everybody else.
But people don’t think he’s a perfectly normal human being. Or, if they do, they don’t treat him like one.
“Learn the piano,” they tell him. So he does.
“Do debate,” they demand. So he does.
“Work harder. Get into nationals.”
So he does everything to meet their expectations. Everything. Everything if it means he can continue the legacy his brother left him.
A few years ago, he asked his debate coach, Donald Na, a crazed-looking vampire of a man, “What should my goals be for this year?”
Donald took one look at him and laughed. “Get into nationals, of course. What else?”
“You’re a talented young man,” Donald continued. “You will be able to do it. Plus, you will make a name for our debate club!” Then, the coach thought a bit and quickly added, “And for yourself.”
“Yeah, but…” He tried to come up with some excuse. Some excuse to take the pressure off of himself. Anything. It wasn’t like he liked debating all that much anyway. “What if, what if I don’t have a good debate partner?”
“You do not even need to worry about that! Wolf will be your partner.”
“Wolf already has a partner.”
“Not anymore.”
…
“The great Jake Ji never gets 5-1’ed,” Jimmy huffed, hands pulling at his hair until the strands strained painfully against his scalp.
“Ow,” Hwangmo said unhelpfully, “you’re blasting my eardrums.”
They were on a call together. For debate debrief. What was supposed to be a debriefing session had quickly turned into a gossip session. Led by Jimmy Bae himself.
“It’s true, though. Either they flopped so hard the judge couldn’t help but dock them points, or–”
“Or they encountered a novice team whose only charm is the fact that their voices crack when they talk,” Hwangmo cut him off. “Both are possibilities. Because that’s what they are: possibilities.”
“Or that,” Jimmy sulked, finding the nearest seat and sinking into it. “How strange. Oh, the high and mighty Jake Ji has fallen from his throne of endless glory to a cradle in the dirt like the reenactment of the entire fucking birth of Jesus Christ.”
Hwangmo snorts in amusement from the other line. “Losing is a normal thing.”
Jimmy hangs up.
“It’s true,” came the text message from Hwangmo a few seconds later.
“Fuck you,” came Jimmy’s reply. “Also I’m coming over.”
It was a completely normal thing to have Jimmy just waltzing around in Hwangmo’s house. Or at least Jimmy tries to gaslight Hwangmo (unsuccessfully) into thinking that way.
“What if I dye my hair blond, like just bleach it?” Jimmy stuck his hand into the bag of chips that he stole from Hwangmo’s cabinet. “Do you think that’s big enough of a change for him to notice me?”
“Hm, I dunno,” Hwangmo intoned.
“Maybe I shouldn’t dye my hair,” Jimmy concluded, examining his hair again.
Hwangmo hummed. “Maybe not.”
After a few moments of comfortable silence, Jimmy decided to speak again. “Do you think Wolf and Jake are dating?”
Hwangmo didn’t even look up from his phone. “No, why.”
“I dunno,” Jimmy shrugged, suddenly feeling very stupid. “Just…opposites attract and all that shit. And successful people attract successful…yknow.”
“Mn.”
…
The first time Jake Ji met Ben Park, he was paralyzed. Not literally paralyzed, but not so figuratively either. It was on the same day that Jimmy returned to the debate world. Jake still felt somewhat guilty about all of it. For some reason, Jimmy’s return with a completely new partner instead of Jack from last year, weighed something heavy on Jake’s heart, as if he were the cause of it. It felt strange, especially since Jimmy’s new partner, Hwangmo, was Wolf’s old friend. Wolf had told him such after the four of them had interacted during the most recent debate tournament.
“Who is that?” Jake had asked.
“Hwangmo,” Wolf replied, nonchalant as ever. The purple-haired boy was straightening his tie, looking somewhat murderous. Has he always looked so murderous? Jake reasoned that it was probably just Wolf’s face, though that’s a scary resting face to have.
“Alright.”
That weight, that sinking feeling, plagued him all day. To make matters even worse, someone in his friend group (probably Timothy) had convinced him to put gorilla glue on his shoes so that he could climb a wall. Unsurprisingly, it had dried too quickly and left Jake stuck in the middle of the hallway of a tournament location like an unfortunate sapling.
The moment Jake found that he couldn’t move, all of his friends abandoned him, running snickering around the corner and out of sight. Which was just great.
The downsides of finding yourself in this kind of situation is that anybody and everybody is able to find you at any time, and you would have no way to run away or escape their prying eyes. It’s also incredibly embarrassing and a terrible position to be stuck in, especially if a very hot and buff and handsome guy were to walk by. Seeing Jake’s usual luck, you can probably infer what happened.
“Timothy! Guys?” Jake was calling. “This isn’t funny anymore.” Then, Jake heard footsteps.
“Unstick me!” Jake called again, hoping that the footsteps belonged to his kinder friends, who were there to save him.
When the footsteps began sounding right around the corner, Jake’s hopes went up. Maybe the people he hung out with often did have mercy on him, after all.
Then, the person rounded the corner and Jake felt all of his blood rushing from his face, then back to his cheeks specifically.
The guy that stopped at the end of the hallway, staring at Jake inquisitively, was probably the most gorgeous man Jake had ever seen. Tall, red-haired, buff, gentle-eyed, and Good Lord those biceps–
“Are you alright?” The guy’s voice broke through Jake’s thoughts.
“Oh…yeah…wait huh?” Shortly afterward, Jake’s fumbling mouth managed to wrap itself around some incoherent vowels and consonants.
‘He’s asking if you’re okay, idiot,’ Jake’s unhelpful brain supplied.
“Yeah I’m good!” Jake finally said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’m just a bit…stuck.” He gestured to his shoes, which were still glued to the floor.
“Right,” the guy laughed. His laugh sounded so sweet, so charming. This hot, red-haired, menace of a man was enough to give Jake three cardiac arrests.
“I’m Jake,” Jake finally found the words to introduce himself. “Jake Ji.”
“I’m Ben Park,” Ben said, smiling. “Nice to meet you, Jake Ji.”
They chatted and took turns prying Jake’s shoes off the ground. “What made you think that this was a good idea?” Ben’s smile lit up the entire dingy hallway.
Jake couldn’t help but laugh. “I don’t know. Maybe three hours wasn’t enough time for sleep.”
“Maybe not,” Ben agreed, looking at Jake with those warm copper eyes that made him want to kiss Ben and run away at the same time.
Later that day, Jake was obliterated (in debate) by Ben and his partner, Gerard. But, for the first time in a long time, Jake didn’t feel that angry about the loss. In fact, it was almost freeing, alluring, addicting. Perhaps it was because it was such a good fight. Perhaps it was because it was against Ben.
The entire rest of the night, even when he was supposed to be discussing debate strategy with Wolf, his mind was on the boy with the copper-red hair and glowing eyes. The next day, after a very uncomfortable sleep plagued by that handsome face, Jake did the only thing he knew how to do: research. And of course, he looked at the most credible website in the entire world, Wikihow.
…
“What in the world are you reading, Jimmy?!” Hwangmo shrieked when he saw Jimmy’s screen.
“There’s a hater in the house,” Jimmy muttered with an annoyed tone, though his ears flushed red.
“I’m not hating,” Hwangmo clarified, “I’m just wondering why you have an article open titled ‘What to do when your debate opponent is strikingly hot.’”
“It’s a common question,” Jimmy defended, popping a chip into his mouth.
“I’d like to disagree with that contention.”
“I don’t need to debate with you. You’re in my house.”
“It’s a good practice to always be debating,” Hwangmo argued. “It adds to the 10,000 hours that it takes to master a subject.” Jimmy hated that it was a good argument.
“Heaven knows I’m never mastering debate,” Jimmy said finally, a little salty. It was true. He was never going to master debate. Or, at least, that was what his coach implied when his original partner was taken away after his freshman year of uni.
“What is that supposed to mean?” Hwangmo asked, completely clueless.
Jimmy huffed, feeling more annoyed by the minute. “Do I need to spell it out for you?” He pointed a finger in the air. “I suck. I’m never getting much better than I am now.” At each word, he jabbed the finger as though poking the air would emphasize his point.
“That’s not true. But we’re getting distracted. Your concern is about Wolf, is it not?”
“Stop interrogating me.” ‘I hate how well you can read me,’ was left out.
“So it is.”
“No.”
Jimmy’s words were few, and vague, but they told Hwangmo everything he needed to know.
…
“What to do when your debate opponent is strikingly hot,” Jake read aloud. “What the hell?”
Dean, Jake’s roommate, crossed the room to peer at Jake’s computer screen. After scanning the words, he sighed and turned away. “Must have been written by someone with too much time on their hands.”
“What!” Jake exclaimed. “You’re telling me it’s not going to be helpful?”
“Did you think it would be helpful?”
“That doesn’t answer my question, Dean.”
“It’s–”
“You should have just been named ‘mean,’” Jake continued. “It sounds close enough to ‘Dean’ anyway.”
“Hello? I genuinely thought you would use some perception while you read articles online,” Dean said, looking quite affronted. “Who even took the time to write this kind of article? It’s basically useless.”
“Wow. Why am I catching strays from my beloved roommate? I thought we were friends–”
“You can’t catch strays from someone who is directly shooting at you,” Dean replied. “Which is true for this scenario, and is called getting roasted.”
Jake opened his mouth, then closed it. “You should join our debate club,” Jake said finally.
“No thank you. Y’all are sweaty as fuck.” Jake felt positively offended at this statement. They were not ‘sweaty,’ thank you very much!
“Does this count as catching strays now?”
“Educate yourself on pop culture, please.”
Jake frowned. “You know what? I will do that, actually. I’ll start by informing myself with a few more WikiHow articles.”
Dean just let out a long-suffering sigh. “Please stop reading Wikihow articles.”
…
“How to beat an ostrich,” Jimmy read aloud. “Seems interesting enough. Use–”
“Use a long weapon.” Hwangmo’s voice boomed from the other room.
““What-” Wayhem was shocked. “How did you know-”
Hwangmo cut him off. “Keep to the ostrich’s side!” he announced dramatically as he crept slowly out of the room. “Consider yourself most at risk when the two of you are FACE TO FACE!”
“Hwangmo, do you need help-”
Jimmy’s concerns were once again ignored. Hwangmo continued to dramatically recite the wikihow article by memory, this time adding body movements to accentuate the point that he was making. “Stay behind or to the side of the bird as much as possible to keep clear of its most POWERFUL WEAPON!”
If only Hwangmo were this dramatic when they debated, maybe they would have gotten 6-0 instead of 5-1. Or perhaps, Hwangmo should sign up for an interpretive speech competition? “AIM FOR THE NECK!” Hwangmo exclaimed. “Consider this to be the ostrich’s weakest body part! Strike it where it is most vulnerable and least protected to defeat it quickly.”
…
“Aim for the neck? Where did that come from?” Wolf questioned, looking a bit insulted at the article Jake had sent him during their partner research meeting.
“I’m trying to educate myself on pop culture.”
“The fuck?”