Kaisoo One Shots

Pebble Hearts

 Do Kyungsoo is an ornithologist, also known as someone who studies birds.

He specialises in Sphenisciformes Spheniscidae. To the uninitiated, that means: penguins.

He's also a geek, he's well aware of that fact and he also knows it's rather odd to love penguins as much as he does. He really does love penguins. Kyungsoo can't quite remember when the obsession started, but his parents tell him fondly that ever since he could walk he's been fascinated by the waddling creatures and his passion has simply grown over the years.

The only thing he adores nearly as much as his penguins is Jongin, but he won't admit that out loud, or to himself. Jongin is his best friend and only his best friend, nothing more. (Kyungsoo has been in love with Jongin for quite some time but unfortunately his life isn't a Disney movie. Jongin won't fall in love with someone knowing he'll be second best to a bunch of penguins.)

(He's also severely in denial, because Do Kyungsoo does not fall in love with anyone who doesn't have flippers and a cute little beak.)

Kyungsoo is now at the ripe old age of seventeen and a student at SM Academy slap bang in the middle of Seoul. It's a fairly prestigious school, but Kyungsoo admits the only reason he chose to come here was because there is a brass statue of an emperor penguin in the main lobby to celebrate some older students who went on an exploration trip to Antarctica. Despite his possibly dubious reasonings for selecting the academy, Kyungsoo's grades are naturally stellar and he's viewed as an asset to the school by many, even though he is just a little odd.

It's currently lunchtime and Kyungsoo has just been let out of his biology class with a smile on his face. The class itself hadn't been that great; Jongin had a hospital appointment for a dance injury he sustained a while ago, so Kyungsoo was left sitting alone. Jongin is his usual seatmate and Kyungsoo generally prefers his own company second to Jongin's.

His classmates aren't too bad actually, at least they've long gone past the stage of teasing him for his penguin notebooks and penguin pencil cases and penguin badges on his blazer lapel. They're all rather sweet to him, especially after he showed them pictures of the Little Blue Penguin; a species they all immediately said reminded them of Kyungsoo himself. He's since been the class' little penguin Soo, and Kyungsoo can't say he minds the name. He just loves penguins.

The reason there is a smile on Kyungsoo's face is because of what their teacher just told them.

Kyungsoo skips his way into the cafeteria, eyes crinkling behind his glasses and his grin broadening when he sees that his friends are all sitting at their usual table.

Chanyeol spots him from across the room and waves him over, enthusiastically showering poor Baekhyun beside him with mayonnaise from his chicken sandwich.

Kyungsoo winces in sympathy with Baekhyun, but quickly rearranges his features into a soft smile when he sees Jongin has returned from his hospital appointment.

Jongin is actually a year younger than Kyungsoo and most of his friends, but he got bumped up a year because he's secretly super clever. He and Kyungsoo first met when Kyungsoo was five and Jongin was four at nursery. Their friendship had begun when Kyungsoo had tried to make friends with the other children by telling them all about penguins, but they'd given him funny looks, pushed him away and not let him join in with their games. They told him he was weird and crazy and they didn't want weird people playing with them in case the weird rubbed off. Children can be surprisingly cruel sometimes.

Little Kyungsoo had cried on a damp wooden bench in the playground for a whole hour until little Jongin had toddled his way up brandishing a slightly moth-eaten stuffed penguin he found in the bottom of the toy box. They became the closest of friends and from then on out, Kyungsoo and Jongin have been a two-man, invincible team, never leaving each other's sides. When they reached high school age, they quickly became friends with Baekhyun, Chanyeol and Jongdae, and the five are regularly seen out and about together. They're a strange quintet, five often polar opposite personalities coming together but somehow it works, and although Kyungsoo's friends can be a nightmare he loves them all dearly and wouldn't swap them for the world. (He loves Jongin in a slightly different way of course, but Kyungsoo also can't remember how or why those feelings started appearing so he ignores that.)