Now that it was the second time that this was happening, it wasn't too awkward as he and Seokju followed his sister and Yeona around the store. This time around, he and Seokju knew each other better, and could actually keep up a conversation instead of staring at each other like two awkward teenagers. Now instead of staring at Yeona and Dayeon awkwardly the entire time, they just had stupid conversations.
As teenagers do.
"I think that's too big."
"There's four of us," Ijin held up the English cucumber, the vegetable easily being two feet long," And she probably wants enough for leftovers. I think it might be too small."
Seokju scrunched up his nose as he looked at the cucumber stand, at the cucumbers that were somehow bigger than the one Ijin was holding. He didn't know much about cooking, but he knew that there was no way in hell that cucumber wouldn't be enough," I think it's too big, but ok." If anyone was going to know, it would be the brother of tonight's cook.
Ijin hummed as he put the vegetable down into the cart," I don't know what you're comparing it to," Ijin drawled out, the corner of his mouth twitching," but it's kinda small." As he thought, Seokju did not miss the insinuation in his words, and the only thing he did was grin when Seokju punched him. Especially when Seokju flushed because an older woman gave them an odd look.
"Shut up." There was no animosity in his voice, but he could tell that he had irritated his friend once again.
Unless he wanted to make Seokju upset, Ijin had to keep his comeback to himself. And considering the fact that he had really been annoying Seokju recently, Ijin was going to give him a break for once. When Seokju put the potatoes into the cart with a little bit more force than necessary, he knew that he had made the right choice.
Silently, they walked back to the girls, where, surprise surprise, Ijin's suspicion was confirmed.
Dayeon looked into the cart and her face fell in disappointment," Oh." reaching into the cart, she pulled out the cucumber. Her hands reflected her smaller stature, only making the cucumber look bigger," This is really small, why did you get such a small one?" And before he could send an 'I told you so' look over to Seokju, to gloat over the fact that he was right.
The absolute fucker sighed as if he wasn't the one that stopped Ijin from getting a bigger cucumber. He even made a show out of it, his head falling back in time with the sigh as if he was exasperated. "That's what I tried to tell Ijin." Seokju was apparently an actor because if he didn't know better, Ijin would have thought that he was telling the truth," But he was adamant that it was too big." Considering that he had just made the same insinuation a few minutes ago, Ijin caught onto it immediately. Dayeon and Yeona just watched as he smacked the back of Seokju's head, much to his friends' amusement. It wasn't hard, but it was enough to get his point across.
This time, it was Seokjus' turn to grin, and Ijins' turn to frown.
"Um," Seokju moved just in time to avoid Ijin's next swipe," are we missing something?" The resulting snort made it the perfect time for Ijin to get another hit on him. The fact that Seokju didn't put any serious effort into avoiding the hits just annoyed him even more.
The fact that Ijin didn't give a single shit about the stares they were getting, only made it funnier. Seokju blocked a few of the hits, resisting the urge to laugh each time he successfully blocked Ijin's hand, "I have no idea why he's doing this either." Seokjus' fiend innocence was just annoying Ijin even more, and he got a front-seat view as Ijin's annoyance became more and more apparent," Would you care to explain Ijin?" He gave Seokju another solid punch for asking that question. Since that had only prompted Yeona and Dayeon to look at him with expectant looks, clearly waiting for an explanation for everything.
Alright.
Ijin was comfortable with his sister. They lived together, and they got along rather well. They could joke around and was close enough to share a bed with her when there was a bad thunderstorm.
But there was no way in hell he was going to explain a dick joke to her. Dayeon was still somewhat innocent in that aspect, the fact that she didn't get the joke, only emphasized it. Yeona's just being there only increased his desire to say nothing. He would rather do anything, anything that had to explain a dick joke to the two of them.
He punched Seokju one more time, causing Seokju to just sigh before saying," You are such an abusive friend. You know that right?" Despite the blank look on his friend's face, Ijin just knew that he was enjoying making him look like an idiot.
This asshole.
"Okay…" Yeona slowly said, looking thoroughly uncomfortable at the little scene the boys were having," We're going to go get some rice vinegar." She eyed the two of them, the way Ijin looked annoyed as he stared at the indifferent Seokju," We'll be right back."
"Yeah." Dayeon agreed slowly, always watching the way her brother was staring at Seokju," Stop hitting Seokju." Dayeon said firmly as she walked off, annoying Ijin even more since now Dayeon thought he was hitting Seokju for no reason.
Seokju snorted a shit-eating grin on his face, "Yeah Ijin. Stop hitting me." He snarked out, enjoying the way Ijin was scrunching up his nose in annoyance.
Ijin huffed," I hate you."
Seokju was starting to understand why Ijin and the others liked poking fun at him, "You love me."
"Gross."
"Rude. Anyways, now that you're done," Seokjus' teasing tone still hadn't left with that sentence, but at least, his tone returned to normal with the next sentence," The baseball team is going to have a scrimmage this weekend, but they need a pitcher and catcher. How good are you at pitching?"
Considering that he wasn't even sure what Seokju was talking about, he was going to assume that he wasn't good at pitching.
Seokju must have seen the confusion on his face because he quickly followed up his sentence," the pitcher is the person who throws the ball. The catcher is the person the pitcher throws the ball to."
Ah.
Yeah, that made sense. Hm…
Well, he wasn't sure how good he was at throwing a ball, but he was rather good at throwing knives. Throwing a ball shouldn't be too different, or any harder.
"I can throw knives?"
Apparently, that was enough for Seokju.
"Fair enough."
And that was how he found himself pitching for the baseball team Saturday morning.
Damn near losing his absolute fucking mind.
Seokju groaned loud enough for him to hear from the pitching mound as he threw the ball back," You can throw knives but not a ball?"
Wow, that comment really pisses him off.
He caught the ball, and resisted the urge to just throw it at Seokju's head," This isn't a knife." Because as he had long discovered, it was harder to throw a ball as hard and as fast as he could while being accurate.
He threw the ball again, and although he was able to get it into the imaginary box the others had told him about, apparently that wasn't good enough for Seokju," How is it harder to throw a ball than a knife?"
It has been a real long time since someone pissed him off like this.
"Keep it up, and I'll show you how good I am at throwing knives."
If Seokju kept on giving him shit for throwing 'bad' balls, he was going to make that threat become a promise.
He threw the ball again, twisting his hand just like the other baseball players had taught him so it could be a curveball. While it didn't curve as much as he thought it would, Seokju still somewhat struggled to catch it. Yet, he still had the audacity to say," I have seen you throw a knife at someone across the room and you can't throw the ball right?"
…
Ok.
That was the last straw.
"Alright," He threw the glove down and cracking his knuckles, he damn near gritted out," Come here." He was going to show Seokju just what he was capable of outside of baseball and its shitty pitching.
Seokju scoffed, and somehow, that pissed him off even more. He could feel a vein throbbing on his forehead as Seokju said," Or what? You'll miss me with the baseball?"
He stopped halfway to the plate, and for a few seconds, it was completely silent as he and Seokju stared at each other. He could feel his eyebrow twitching as he glared daggers at Seokju.
Slowly, Seokju stood up without breaking eye contact with him, and just as Hyeokjin started to say something to break up their little spat.
The little fuck started running.
Without a single ounce of hesitation, Ijin threw the ball, aiming for the back of Seokju's leg.
Either he was being too obvious, or Seokju knew him rather well because all it took was a simple sidestep to avoid the ball.
Great, of course, he fucking missed.
And now he had to catch up.
Seokju was surprisingly agile in the catcher's gear, and Seokju was able to easily jump the shoulder height fence, flipping over it. Ijin followed him, clearing the fence just as easily as his target had done.
Hyeokjin, Jaehyung, and the visiting team just stared at the two idiots as they ran around the bleachers. Hyeokjin and Jaehyung looked utterly fed up with Ijins and Seokju's antics," Just…just ignore those two," Hyeokjin said as he ran his hand down his face, looking thoroughly done with life as he did so," fucking idiots."
Jaehyung just hoped that their conversation about Ijin and his ability to throw knives wouldn't freak them out too much. But by the look on everyone's faces, they had heard the conversation and were thoroughly disturbed by it.
Oh well, sucks to suck.
Seokju ran behind the bleachers, internally freaking out, but still laughing that he had really pissed off Ijin by merely speaking the truth. He knew that he was annoying Ijin, but he didn't think that he was annoying him this much.
Either way, it was funny. He was actually somewhat proud that he, out of all people, had managed to annoy the ever-so-stoic teenager for once in their lives.
There was a flicker of camo out of the corner of his eye, and although he had no idea what the man was doing there. He was thankful either way.
He made a beeline to the Major and skidded to a stop behind the exceedingly confused man," Uh, hi?" Understandably, there was a tone of confusion in his voice, especially since he could see Ijin running toward them.
"Hi," Seokju quickly replied, hiding behind the soldier as Ijin also skidded to a stop," tell Ijin not to hit me." He just knew that his hiding behind Major Kang pissed Ijin off even more. With Kang in between them, every time Ijin would go right, Seokju would go left and vice versa.
They repeated it a few times, the two teenagers circling around the soldier as if they were a pair of kids chasing each other around a table. The entire time, Seokju made sure that he didn't stray too far from the Major.
Who knew that the Major would be a good shield.
After the third time, he cut in, "Alright," Kang sighed in annoyance as Seokju used him as a shield once again," You guys are being idiots." Ijin tried to lunge for him again, but Kang grabbed him, and Seokju couldn't help but laugh when he saw the look on Ijins face as Kang gave him a bear hug. He knew full well that Major Kang was the one person that Ijin wouldn't hurt, and that was evident with the way he was letting the Major restrain him. Not making any real effort to escape," I came to watch you two fai-play and you guys are being dumbasses. What's the problem?"
Making sure that he was at least three arm lengths away, Seokju said," We were warming up, but then we realized Ijin couldn't throw for shit."
Ijins eye visibly twitched.
Kang looked confused, and very innocently asked," what do you mean? If the kid can throw a knife, he can throw anything."
"Yeah you would think that." Seokju snarked out, and he had to push down the laughter that threatened to bubble out when he saw Ijin throw caution to the wind and actually start trying to escape the bear hug the man had put him in.
"Hey!" He perked up when he heard Jaehyung's voice," If you guys don't come back, me and Hyeokjin are going to take over pitching!"
Seokju already started to back away as he yelled back," Good! Maybe we'll actually get something out of the first inning!"
When he heard a growl of anger, he decided to pick up the pace and run back to the dugout before Ijin could escape the Major's hold, especially when he heard," Ijin…Iji-Ijin NO! He's your friend!"
"Yeah," oh Ijin did not sound happy," and he's pissing me off."
Alright.
Maybe he overdid it by making fun of and annoying Ijin.
Maybe.
It was still funny as shit though.
Major Kang was some type of miracle worker because by the time Ijin actually returned to the dugout, he no longer looked murderous. Instead, he looked like he was in the mood to knock someone out.
Hey, it was still a step up from murder.
It was clear that Ijin wanted to say something, probably to curse him out under his breath. But hilariously, before he could say a single thing to Seokju in an attempt to express his frustration, the game started.
Seokju swore that he could hear Ijin gritting his teeth despite the way the ump was yelling next to him. Though oddly enough, the batter did give him and Ijin an odd look before he set himself to bat.
Ijin winded up and threw the ball just perfectly . The ump called a strike, and the batter muttered something under his breath before he set himself up again. There was a clear difference between the way Ijin had been pitching before and after Seokju had pissed him off. Despite the glove, his hand stung from the impact of the ball hitting his glove.
Looks like Ijin was the type where he could only pitch well when he was on the verge of being livid. Seokju grinned under the helmet.
He could definitely make this work.
Despite the fact that somehow Ijin was striking out all if not most of the batters, he took every chance he got to piss off his friend. Funnily enough, when Ijin was this upset, it was the simple things that got him riled up. Just him giving Ijin a 'give' motion was enough for Ijin to throw the ball hard enough that it felt like his palm was going to bruise.
Though the straw that broke the camel's back was probably the snide comment 'With how hard you hit, you really can't throw that hard.' That Seokju told him during time out. That time, one of the team's regulars had to grab Ijin by the shirt to keep him from getting any closer.
Maybe.
Possibly.
If he had to go off anything, the way Jaehyung and Hyeokjin had to keep Ijin on one side of the bench to keep him from strangling him was a pretty good tell.
Seokju would say that he managed to piss off Ijin to the point of no return.
The way he kept on laughing definitely didn't help.
But it did make everything funnier.
Sure, he was getting a little bit nervous with the way Ijin had managed to stay annoyed for the rest of the game. But all that mattered was that they did their job, and helped their school's team win the scrimmage. All that goes well ends well as they say.
"Hey," It was just the two of them in the dugout, the others waiting for them by the bleachers. Ijins head snapped over to Seokju, and just as Ijin started to frown, he simply said," Good job. Let's get you to do that on purpose now."
He had to bite his lip to keep himself from bursting out loud when he saw the look Ijin gave him. He didn't know how, but Ijin had managed to combine the look of incredulous and lividness into one.
"What the fuck did you just say?" he almost failed to keep his snort contained as he finished up taking off the catcher's gear.
"You did a good job," The more he talked, the more Ijin was getting upset. Thinking quickly, he grabbed his stuff and kept on talking as he walked out of the dugout," I noticed that you didn't throw good until you were mad. But hey," Ijin followed him out of the dugout, a murderous look on his face as he left his stuff behind in favor of following Seokju," all that goes well ends well right?"
Ijin damn near snarled out something in that second language of his, and just as he was about to grab Seokju, Major Kang stepped in, stopping Ijin from doing anything.
This was all still funny as shit.
"Seokju," Ijin's voice was low, and hey look at that, Ijin has a light accent when he's livid," I'm going to fucking strangle you if you do this again." Now that made him a little bit nervous, but if Ijin was anything, he was a man of his word. He didn't make threats, he made promises.
"That's kinky Ijin." But it was Jaehyung's comment that made the dam burst, and despite his best attempts, Seokju just couldn't stop laughing.
" Alright!" Kang cut in nervously, easily picking up Ijin to take him away, ignoring the way Ijin was still snarling out curses to no one in particular," Its was good to see you all, but for health and safety reasons, I'm going to take Ijin out for dinner."
The way Seokju and the others were laughing just pissed him off even more, and he didn't hold back from flipping all of them off with a few choice words. Even as Kang carried him away to the parking lot, he didn't stop flipping off Seokju in particular until Kang groaned out," I saw that. Stop it."
"If you're feeling left out," Ijin snapped back, barely keeping the annoyed tone out of his voice in favor of a monotonous tone," I'm happy to help."
Kang finally set him down onto his feet, though they were in the parking lot by that point. With his hands on his hips, Kang firmly said," That's not the point Ijin." When Ijin didn't give into him and look bashful as he wanted, Kang sighed," I was going to take you to your favorite place, but now we're going to mine."
"We like the same place, Major."
"But now we're going there for me."
