#its wild to me that nobody told team na that they had to win in regulation to advance like what!! the heck is that

[sidsthekid]

nate out here cheesin cause he thought scoring in ot would mean going on to play team canada (sid) in the wch semi finals. but alas, it was not to be…

[hailene]

Perfect Imperfection

Perfect Imperfection| part one

Characters: Jaemin x female lead, Chenle x female lead (the girl will go by the name of Aeri)

Genre: fluff, angst, writer!au, highschool!au

Word count: 2.8 K

Summary: Aeri is the teenager who writes. Finding inspiration in anything surrounds her, her ideas go wild once she meets the perfect character, Na Jaemin. As a writer becomes obsessive with their favourite character, Aeri grows a weird passion for the bright boy. However, she's so focused on painting Jaemin as perfectly as possible, that she ignores the furry of fiery hair that takes her to night walks and shows her secret places around the town. Despite knowing everything, she forgets that playing with fire means getting burnt. And that sometimes, when we remember to stop, it's too late.

part one》 part two》 part three

"You can't possibly expect me to accept your chocolate milk as apology for hitting me with a basketball, Hyuck." I sigh as try to figure out my time table.

"Oh c'mon, I didn't even hit you that ha-..."

"What was your name again?" I tease him, furrowing my eyebrows as soon as I realize that tomorrow I literally had two classes at the same time. "What the hell?"

"What's wrong?" Jeno asks me, peaking over my left shoulder to look at the paper in my hands. "Wow, sociology and physics at the same time? I knew you were an ace but that's a bit extra terrestrial."

I sigh.

"Tell me about it." I say. "I didn't even want to take physics this year but apparently, the principal made the other choice be chemistry."

I turn around to face Jeno with clear despair written across my face. Dramatic as I absolutely adored to be.

"And I hate chemistry."

"I know, hun." He sighs, knowing about my absolute lack of desire to study chemistry. "You should go to the secretary so you can solve this. I'll ask Jeongin to cover this class for you."

I smile and hug him tightly.

"Thanks, Jen, you're the best." I say and run towards the other end of the school hall, ready to get my shit together for the first time during the new school year.

As I was preparing myself to enter the office, the door suddenly opened, making me step back in bewilderment. A hazelnut-haired boy stepped out of the room, a sweet smile plastered on his lips. His puppy-like eyes made him look young, maybe even younger than me, but his body figure was saying something else. He was definitely new, judging by his clothes. Really, nobody bothers to dress fancy around here, unless they want to prove something. And this boy was too good-looking to have anything else to prove, except the fact that he's willed to study and be nice to everyone.

Fun.

All my thoughts vanished when we made eye contact, finally making me aware of my physical presence there, reminding me that I am not some ghost that he can't see and I can't keep staring at him forever.

However, he simply nodded his head in apology for startling me and left. I shruged it off and entered the office, ignoring that spark deep inside that was telling me he was perfect.

By the end of the school week, I actually manage to realize I wasn't missing it that much. The one and only thing that I was missing about school was the incredible desire to write that it was giving me. I could write novels and novels... just so I don't have to do my homework. I would write wherever, whenever. During classes, during lunch, with my friends or alone. It didn't matter. If I was getting stroken by some heavenly idea, there was nothing that could stop me.

The perfect character.

That's what I was doing too when Renjun came to me this evening, while I was sitting on the edge of the basketball court. He sat near me in silence for a few minutes, before actually voicing out the actual reason why he came in the first place.

"The writing contest is starting again soon." He says and I nod. "But miss Kang told me she doesn't want you to participate."

I turn around to face him, my eyes wide in disbelief. This contest has been one of my greatest motivations ever since middle school and I can't let her take this away from me. Why would miss Kang even do that? She loves me. Or at least so I thought? Have I done something wrong? Did I annoy her with my infinite questions regarding the use of tenses or anything of this kind? Hell, I knew I should've kept it lowkey...

"What? She can't do tha-..."

"I'm not done yet." Renjun says calmly. "She doesn't want you to participate because you'd win anyway."

I smile softly and sigh. Renjun has always been somehow gentle but ruthless at the same time. And he's my only friend who truly understands my passion for writing. Not necessarily because he'd be passionate about this too, but because he's interested in understanding the people around him. And honestly, that's one of the things that make him such a great blessing.

"So she told me to ask you if you'd like to be one of the judges." He continues and I look at him bewildered once again.

"She what?" I ask surprised.

"I know you heard it the first time." He smiles. "Is that an yes?"

"Oh my God, Renjun, this is... this is..."

My dream ever since I was like 12.

"Insane." I finish my sentence.

Renjun smiles in response as I close my eyes and sigh, trying to collect myself.

"So I think you accept the offer-..."

"Of course I do!" I say maybe a bit too loud.

I smile awkwardly, telepathically apologizing for startling him with my loud voice. He shrugs.

"Cool then." He says standing up. "I'll see you around."

***

"The try-outs for the basketball team are on Thursday and I barely heard anybody being interested in coming." Jeno sighs while sticking a poster on the notice board.

"Don't worry, I'm sure people will come." I say as I hand him another poster. "The basketball team is pretty cool after all."

"Because I'm part of it." He smiles sheepishly and I punch his arm. "Didn't hurt at all."

I stick my tongue out to him but he doesn't seem to notice.

"Why doesn't Renjun want to join?" I ask him and he shrugs.

"He's actually doing a pretty good job as unofficial manager so I can't really mind." My bestfriend says, looking at the posters he has pinned so far. "How many do we have left?"

"About ten." I say looking at the posters in my hands.

Jeno sighs. I wish I could do something to lift his mood. I wish I could make him believe the try-outs aren't going to be crappy, but I am not too sure about it myself. He loves the basketball team so much and he would certainly do almost anything for it. The passion that he has is inspiring, but sometimes, it's too much for his own good. However, I guess it doesn't really matter as long as he loves his job, does it?

"Let's go and stick those at each of the entrances and the notice board from outside." He says and I head towards the entrance of the building.

As I prepare to go around the corner, heading to the entrance hall, I suddenly bump into somebody, making me fall on the ground with all the posters that I was initially holding flying around me.

"Crap, I'm so sorry!" I hear somebody saying and the next thing I know is that somebody helps me stand up.

The hazelnut-haired boy I met on the first day of school at secretary's office.

Looking even finer than back then.

"Are you okay?" He asks me, waking me up from my thoughts once again.

I nod as I bend down to gather the posters. The hazelnut-haired boy rushes to help me, handing me the posters that he's gathered when we're done.

"Aeri, what ha-... oh, Jaemin? What are you doing here?" I hear Jeno asking as soon as he approaches us.

Jaemin? So that's the name of the hazelnut-haired boy?

But how does my bestfriend know him?

"I realized I'd left in my locker some books that I need so I came to take them." The boy in front of me answers with a bright smile on his lips.

God, he's gorgeous.

"Oh, the try-outs for the basketball team?" Jaemin asks pointing towards the posters in my hand. "I'm thinking of giving it a chance, to be honest..."

"Really?" Jeno says. "That would be awesome, we're actually pretty much in need of people at the moment."

"I guess I'll come then." Jaemin says happily. "Ah, do you guys need help with sticking these?"

"Well, unless you have anything else to do, sure, why not?" Jeno smiles, looking at me and reassuring me it's fine.

Fine.

"I'm Jaemin, by the way." He says, extending his hand in front of me, a charming smile plastered on his lips.

"Aeri." I say, shaking his hand.

"Wait, you're the girl from the secretary office, right?" He asks and I feel my face heating in embarassment.

"Uh... yeah..." I say and he chuckles.

"I was in a rush back then, I didn't even realize that I hadn't stopped to apologize for bumping into you." He says and a small smile makes its way up to my lips.

"Nah, that's alright."

We finish pinning up the posters while having small talk and Jaemin proves himself to be an actual kind and funny guy, which didn't surprise me that much. I could tell by his bright smile and the sparkles in his eyes that he had something special. That he would be somebody worth writing about. But there was a part of me that couldn't believe him. It couldn't believe his perfect fit for a prince from the fairytales. There had to be something twisted about him. A hidden side of him. And I was ready to find out what that was about.

***

I try to gather up my things as fast as possible after the physics class, pretty bothered by the fact that I didn't understand half of today's lesson. Well, true, that might also be because I was sketching out some ideas on my writing notebook rather than paying complete attention to the class. As I try to make my way out of the class, I bump into somebody. Why do I have to bump into somebody everyday lately? I drop my books like a loser and mentally slap myself for not taking time to put them in my backpack instead of deciding to carry them in my hands. I rush to gather them all and my eyes meet a furry of firey hair and I feel myself smiling.

Zhong Chenle. The actual sun of my year. And not just because of his newly dyed orange hair, but also because of his blinding-bright personality.

I've never been close to him, to be honest. We have never been closer than classmates are supposed to be because I simply couldn't find any reason for me to do otherwise. He was smiling to everybody, friends with everybody and nice to everybody. But at the same time, he belonged to no one, which is why I personally thought his new hair colour suited him perfectly, he was like the sun: warm but at the same time, far, far away.

He lifts his head to look at me while gathering his books and gives me a small smile that, if I didn't know him at all, I would take as a playboyish smirk. But no, that's simply his natural smile.

"Haven't seen anybody rushing so much out of the class lately." He chuckles. "You okay?"

"Just trying to leave the bad energy behind as soon as possible." I say and his loud laugh echoes in the class, some of the other kids throwing him annoyed glares. But he didn't care.

"People use to tell me all the bad energy dissappears when I step into the room." Chenle says and it's my turn to chuckle.

"Well, I guess the level of bad energy from this specific class is too much for you to handle."

I stand up and he does the same. I look at him and smile without being able to hold back. Then, I leave. But if I had looked behind me just once, I would have seen him looking back.

That evening, Jeno and Donghyuck came over with a box of cookies freshly baked by Jeno's mom. She loves me and Hyuck loves her cookies, therefore the combination. Despite the fact that it was supposed to be a study night, we end up talking about random things while emptying the cookie box.

"So, are you still writing if you're not in the writing contest?" Donghyuck asks me, his chipmunk cheeks stuffed with cookies, crumbs around his mouth.

"Of course." I say smiling. "I'm not writing just for contests."

"A mundane like you wouldn't understand." Jeno adds and I laugh at the sight of Hyuck's frown which made him look like an annoyed squirrel.

"As if you're not a mundane too..." he mutters.

"I am one of the chosen mundanes." Jeno smirks and Donghyuck rolls his eyes, making me roll back on my bed in laughter.

"Maybe... I would understand better if I saw..." I hear Hyuck saying and before I can react, I hear him standing up and heading towards my desk.

Heck no.

"Don't you dare, Lee Donghyuck!" I shout as I stumble towards him.

But I'm not fast enough. He picks up my notebook from my desk and opens it with pure curiosity on his face.

"Hyuck, Hyuckie, please just don't, it's really personal-..."

"Newton's first law of motion predicts the behavior of objects for which all existing forces are balanced." He reads and I stop in the midst of my action. "I mean... it's truly personal. So personal that I think I have written the same thing in my physics class last year."

He shrugs.

"Did you change the covers so I couldn't recognize which of these is your writing notebook?" He asks, searching through the tower of books and notebooks that was sitting peacefully on my desk. "That's actually really smart!"

However, all I can do is stare at the notebook in horror. I have certainly never written anything related to my school subjects in that notebook so how did that de-...

Wait a second.

I pick up the notebook Donghyuck originally opened and I flip its pages, searching for anything familiar. Anything that might assure me this belongs to me.

This is not my handwriting.

The physics class. The physics class. The physics-...

I freeze.

Class.

"Crap!" I mutter and both Hyuck and Jeno look at me confused.

"What's up?" Donghyuck asks. "Look, I mean... it's cool that you write about Newton's second law in your writing notebook but-..."

He stops when he sees me franatically shaking my head.

"That." I point towards the foreign notebook sitting on my desk like a cursed thing. "That isn't mine."

"Then whose is it?" Jeno asks confused. "It looks exactly like your notebook."

I know, right?

"It's Chenle's." I say but my voice comes out as a terrified whisper.

"Wait what?" Hyuck says, almost choking on his cookie. "Chenle? As in Zhong Chenle? That carrot head in your year who laughs louder than the fire alarm?"

I nod, too shocked to laugh at his funny but accurate description of my classmate.

"Why do you have his notebook?" Jeno asks.

I cover my face with hands and sigh, then take a deap breath to explain the situation to them as shortly as possible.

"We bumped into each other and I think we accidentally took each other's notebook." I say as the realisation hits me. "Guys, he has my writing notebook!"

I fall on the floor of my bedroom.

"I am screwed." I cry. "If he reads it, my life is over."

"Why?" Donghyuck asks confused. "Did you write about him-...?"

"No, you don't understand!" I shout. "Those ideas, those words, anything that I write there, all of it is... it's... it's personal! It's a piece of my that I wouldn't give to anybody-..."

I break off.

"Hey, it's alright, ask him to return it to you tomorrow." Jeno says, trying to calm me down but for the first time, it's useless.

"No no no, if I tell him that, he'll be fully aware of the fact that the notebook doesn't belong to him and his curiosity might make him read it-... DAMN what should I do?" I say as I pace around my room, massaging my head.

Suddenly, an idea pops in my head.

I turn towards my friend.

"Hyuckieee, my favourite friend... you know I love you so dearly..."

"Okay, what's up with that cringey smile and disgustingly fake affectionate words?" He asks, taking a step back.

"You'd help me right? I'm your friend and you love me so you'd help me, right? Right, Hyuck?" I ask, stepping closer to him.

His eyes widden in terror.

"For fuck's sake, Aeri, just say whatever you need, you know I hate when you do this."

I chuckle. That was the point after all.

"Give me Chenle's address." I demand. "As soon as possible."

"I don't know it." He shrugs.

"But you can find it out." I smile sweetly and he rolls his eyes.

I put on a dark hoodie while Donghyuck taps something on his phone. Jeno watches us patiently, moving his gaze between me and Hyuck occasionally.

"I texted you the address." He says, putting his phone back in the pocket of his black jeans. "But what are you gonna do? Break into his house?"

"Wait, Aeri, you're not gonna break into his house, are you?"

He chuckles and I say nothing as I take Chenle's notebook and my phone and head towards the door. When Hyuck realizes I haven't answered his question, his chuckles suddenly stop.

"Of course not." I say smiling. "Just surprise him. See you guys later!"

I close the door behind me, leaving them alone in my room.

"Was that really Chenle's address?" Jeno asks after some time.

"Nope." Donghyuck answers shifting.

Jeno looks at him expectantly.

"Jaemin's." He continues, an innocent smile on his lips.

Jeno sighs but smiles shortly after, shaking his head, amuzed by the whole situation.

"C'mon, man." He says standing up. "We have to visit the Zhong ressidence tonight."

A/N: Hello, everybody! This is my first tumblr fic, did you enjoy the first part? How do you feel about it so far? I'll update soon!

hailene x