Take Note | 주의 깊게 살펴

Hyungwon

you’re going to be late, you know

changkyun

chankgyun seriously I don’t give enough of a shit to keep texting

omfg CHANGKYUN

C

H

A

N

G

K

Y

U

N

oh fuck it be late see if I care

Changkyun

shhh i’m sleeping

Hyungwon

Exactly, you’re going to be late

get the fuck up

Changkyun

why u vibratin im gonn turn u off

Hyungwon

oh dear god

I give up

Changkyun

I hold u I love u why you play me like this

Hyungwon

WTF

oh my god

Changkyun I’m not your damn pillow

Changkyun

ye I know ur the devil

ugh fine I’m up class is only at like 10 tho chiiiiill

Hyungwon

it’s half past nine

Changkyun

…

fuck

---

All the buildings looked alike. All the fucking buildings looked alike. How on earth was he going to find his English Lit class when all the buildings looked alike. Sure, he could ask someone but he could also, like, not that obviously be such a first year. He had his pride. Maybe not enough to admit that he should probably have attended orientation, but still.

Glancing at his watch, he realised he was already five minutes late and after sucking in a tiny, panicked little breath, he ran his eyes wildly across the buildings in front of him again.

There. It said West Block in big fat black letters across the front and Changkyun sprinted towards the entrance, mentally cursing the fact that his class was on the third floor (it was, right?) and that exercise ranked very, very low on his list of priorities.                        

By the time he made it to the third floor--his lungs having gone straight to hell--it was two minutes later and Changkyun was pretty sure he was going to die. Nevertheless, he slid into the classroom just as the lecturer approached the door, obviously intending to close it. Shooting what he intended to be an apologetic smile, but Changkyun was pretty certain was really a pained grimace at the lecturer, he slid into the first available seat, searching through his backpack for his book.

At least he had made it to class on time. At least he wasn't missing his first class on the first day. Because that would've been just awkw--

"Good morning, and welcome to Programming and Problem Solving, part one," the lecturer began.

Changkyun froze, his prescribed anthology of Shakespeare’s Sonnets readily at hand, eyes wide, and voiced a small, extremely heartfelt, "Fuck."

The boy next to him looked at Changkyun with ill-disguised irritation at being a disruption. That is, until he glimpsed the book held in Changkyun’s slack hands. The boy looked at the flowery, dated cover of Changkyun’s book, took in the sweat on his forehead, the absolutely miserable expression on his features and let out an abrupt snort of laughter that he tried, a bit unsuccessfully in Changkyun’s completely unbiased opinion, to hide with a fit of coughing.

“Is something funny to you about the WriteLine method Mr...?”

The boy immediately sat up straight, face still a bit pink, shaking his head. “No, sir. Sorry, sir. Er, Yoo, sir.”

“Good,” the lecturer said with a raised brow. “I trust there won’t be any more disruptions in this class or I will lose my shit. Is that alright with you, Mr Yoo?”

The boy nodded adamantly, before the lecturer continued talking in Computer Nerd Language that just...

Changkyun, meanwhile, put his book back in his backpack, took out a pencil case, his notebook, and simply hoped the lecturer wouldn’t notice him.

Ten minutes into whatever Hell Class he’d accidentally walked into, Changkyun could actually feel himself mentally ascend the extreme panic and agitation at missing his first class and enter the serene, soothing state of nihilism he had last experienced with his final exams.

Changkyun looked longingly at the door. Near… far…

He was stuck now. At least until the end of class. Because god knows he did not have enough belief in his own ability not to make some inane comment if he tried to leave the class beforehand and thereby embarrassing himself for all eternity.

The exam pad jabbing into Changkyun’s side snapped him out of his thoughts, and he looked up to see the boy next to him studiously taking notes with his one hand and seemingly paying complete attention to the lecturer while his other hand pushed the exam pad into Changkyun’s side even more persistently.

Changkyun frowned at the note, giving the boy a look that clearly read ‘no shit, Sherlock’, but of course, he was looking at the lecturer and not him and it wasn’t like Changkyun had anything else to do, so he wrote back;

Changkyun paused, before smiling to himself. Might as well have fun, right?

Changkyun jabbed the exam pad right back into the boy’s side, taking a vindictive pleasure in the way the boy gasped and squirmed away from him. The boy still didn’t look at him though, merely frowned and took the offending notepad from Changkyun.

Changkyun stared at the boy, waiting to see what he would do. It’s not like he had anything else to do. Besides, the boy wasn’t too bad to look at, if he was honest. He had a small pointy nose, full cheeks and light pink hair. He was pouting and it seemed almost unconscious, and Changkyun idly wondered if it was a habit of his.

He didn’t know what the lecturer was talking about anyway, so he might as well try to make this awful moment into something he could at least look back at later as something other than: ‘that one time I walked into a class that was obviously not English Lit and didn’t notice until the lecturer started talking but I’d already whipped out my Willy Shakespeare.’

The boy, as he looked up to follow along to the piece of code the lecturer was demonstrating on the screen, caught Changkyun staring at him, and his ears turned red at a truly impressive rate as he frowned slightly and looked away, before grabbing the exam pad and scribbling something down quickly before forcefully shoving it at Changkyun.

Changkyun hid his grin behind his hand. Who was this guy? Jeez.

Changkyun tried not to laugh when Kihyun silently spluttered, ears turning even redder.

Changkyun watched him for a minute, as he furiously took notes, refusing to even acknowledge his existence though he could hardly ignore it. It was adorable. He smiled, wrote, and innocently slid the exam pad over again.

Kihyun’s eyes widened almost comically before shoving the exam pad into his bag and resolutely staring at the lecturer for the rest of the lecture. Changkyun did notice, however, that his ears remained a blazing, fire-engine red and that he didn’t take another note for the whole rest of the class.

---

Hyungwon

I wake you up

Out of the goodness of my heart

And then you

You absolute shit

Decide to not show up anyway

Changkyun

I know Internets now

You could say I was on router class

Hyungwon

Speak human, please

Changkyun

Aaaaaaaand got lost and may have sat through an entire programming class

Fascinating, truly

Hyungwon

You’re a literal human  disaster and I give you a literal week before you crash and burn

Changkyun

Love you too, hyung

ON THE PLUS SIDE

I met a rude boy

Hyungwon

how is that a plus side

Changkyun

His ears turned red

He got insulted when I called the nonsense they were doing html

Did you know it isn’t really coding?

I’ve got some very disappointing news for our resident ‘hacker’ Minhyuk

He was so proud

He made a website, remember? It sparkled

So many pictures of various puppies

Are you ignoring me

Hey. Hyungwon.

Hey you look really ugly today

Hyungwon pls

I’m sitting alone outside if I’m not texting someone I’ll look like a weirdo

Feel free to say I’m already a weirdo

Hyungwon pls

Hyungwon

I told Minhyuk

He cried

You have a lot of chocolate to buy

Changkyun

You turn my friends against me

And my limited budget

You monster

Hyungwon

lol

Changkyun

Where the fuck am I

Hyungwon

Repeat after me:

This is why I should’ve attended orientation

Changkyun

No orientation, we get lost like men

Hyungwon

Follow the sound of exasperation and mild disgust

You’ll find me

Changkyun

you just can't handle my selfie game

Do you think I would be allowed to just like, sit in the class

To stare at the pretty rude boy

Do you?

Hyung?

Hyungwon

Do you mean by, like, law

Or socially

Cos both is no

Changkyun

Why do you hate love, hyung

Hyungwon

Why are you a literal disaster whoops guess we’ll never know

Changkyun

At least I’m human

with a beATING HEART

Hyungwon

You think you’re insulting me but you’re really not

Changkyun

Hyungwon

I think I can see your head

Follow the sighs

Changkyun

Don’t need to, you’re like a beanpole that beckons

In a sea of people, there was He

Majestic. Oddly Pepe-like.

Glaring?

Yeah, glaring.

Hyungwon

You are about quarter my size

I can squish you with my thumb

Changkyun

A stiff wind would snap you like a twig, hyung, come on

Hyungwon

And I would look fabulous while breaking and the people would mourn

You, on the other hand

I’d be surprised if your dog noticed you were gone

Changkyun

I love our friendship

Such support

Such mutual respect and love

#goals

(look hyung I’m coding already)

Hyungwon

Stop sending me horrible memes and I might not eat this cheeseburger I bought for you

(no you’re not)

Changkyun

I agree to that as long as you know we’re both probably #lying

Hyungwon

Naturally

---

“There’s about a half of this cheeseburger left, I’m actually impressed,” Changkyun said, turning the food item over in his hand before taking a large bite.

“I restrained myself,” Hyungwon deadpanned, looking at bit mournfully at the cheeseburger. Changkyun was about eighty percent sure he was bemoaning the fact he didn’t eat faster.

“So gooood,” Changkyun moaned obscenely around the food in his mouth (like an uncultured, manner-less animal) lying back on the grass like it was a king sized bed.

Hyungwon, mid exaggerated eye-roll, spotted a familiar face. Familiar, but uncharacteristically red. He frowned, amused as the photographer he’d become acquainted with not too long ago, choked on thin air after being exposed to Changkyun’s lewd food appreciation.

Hyungwon laughed, because seriously? Changkyun? His dongsaeng? Really?

“Don’t laugh at me when I’m being sexy!” Changkyun whined with a pout, pushing himself up on his elbows.

Hyungwon, then, proceeded to laugh even louder, because Kihyun had literally run away. He’d read the situation, and noped the fuck out. What the hell? Kihyun didn’t seem like the type of guy to be so easily embarrassed by some kid moaning about food. And, really, Changkyun was more of a ridiculous sight than an attractive one in Hyungwon’s quite literally professional opinion.

“I’m glad you’re so amused at my display of wantonness. Next time I won’t waste it on someone as unappreciative of it. I’ll find a willing and appropriately appreciative audience who--“

“Do you even know how to spell ‘unappreciative’,” Hyunwon snorted, still recovering from the sight of seeing the normally unflappable photographer literally run away.

“I’m a language major, you frog. I know how to use a dictionary.”

“I’m a turtle, excuse you very much.”

“Because you’re so slow?” Changkyun grinned.

“For your information turtles are incredibly intelligent animals,” Hyungwon huffed, crossing his arms. “Now hurry up and finish that burger or you’re going to miss your second class as well.”

“Will you show me where it is?” Changkyun asked, laying the sweetness on thick, before taking a large bite of the burger.

“Now why would I do that? Don’t you want the riveting experience of walking into a programming class again? You might be able to teach Minhyuk how to actually code then.”

“Oh god,” Changkyun groaned, already imagining the crushed face of the literal sunshine that is Minhyuk. “Don’t give him ideas.”

Hyungwon only grinned and started walking off, leaving Changkyun scrambling around to pick up his bag, throw away the wrapper (because he’s not a fucking animal) and run after Hyungwon before the fucker disappeared from his sight.

---

Changkyun

BRO

Jooheon

BRO

Changkyun

BRO YOU GOTTA HELP ME BRO

Jooheon

WHATCHA NEED BRO I HAVE TWO FULLY FUNCTIONING KIDNEYS AND ADEQUATE EYESIGHT

Changkyun

I’m so fucking lost, my guy

Hyungwon just left me in a field

Jooheon

He drove you twenty miles outside of campus and left you in a field?

Changkyun

Well no I guess there’s like buildings and shit

Listen I already monumentally screwed up once today you gotta help me out

Jooheon

I GOTCHA M’DUDE

What do you see??

Changkyun

Big building. Statue thingy. Pigeons???

Jooheon

Cool I’m on my way

Changkyun

Shit you really got something from that

Colour me fucking impressed

Jooheon

I speak Daniel

Changkyun

DAAAAMN

Jooheon
DAAAAAMN DANIEL

Changkyun

For realsies I’m gonna be fucking late

Hurry your ass up

Jooheon

Im runni ng

Changkyun

My hero

My man

The one who went to orientation

Jooheon

Only an idiot wouldn’t go to orientation dude c’mon

Changkyun

I take back everything I said

Jooheon

Not running anymore fu

Changkyun

I’m sorry plz save me

You’re right I’m so dumb

M’dude I was in a programming class this morning

I’m so dumb

Jooheon

Stop grovelling and run after me

Changkyun

Shit ok

“These violent delights have violent ends,” Changkyun read, sighing deeply, dramatically, as he held the book above him and read on his back. “Which in their triumph die, like when Twilight ruins a perfectly good Shakespeare quote on sparkly angsty boys.”

“I like Twilight,” Minhyuk sniffled, sadly clicking through the sparkly puppy site he had created.

“Of course you do. Team Edward?” Changkyun enquired with a shit-eating grin, shifting onto his elbows to see Minhyuk rubbing at his eyes miserably.

“Team Jacob, you coward.” It was quiet for a while as Minhyuk sniffled some more and Changkyun returned to the riveting tale of two overdramatic teenagers.

“Do you really think I can’t code, Changkyunnie?”

“This is ridiculous,” Changkyun puffed, very subtly changing the subject of the conversation. “I mean, who falls in love that quickly? In crush, maybe. Maybe even like them in a ‘I’d stare at you in class for a while until we inevitably part ways and I never see you again’ kind of way, maybe--”

“Changkyunniiiiie,” Minhyuk pouted, flopping over onto the younger boy who dropped his book with a huff. “The puppies, they deserve the truth.”

“Min-hyung, I literally accidentally sat in on one programming class, next to a man with too many opinions for his size, I honestly can’t give you an informed answer here.”

“Changkyun, you’re really short yourself, you know--“

“No, you’re all vertically stretched freakshows and that is besides the point--”

“Let’s sign up for a programming class.”

“I--what?” Changkyun paused, completely abandoning his book and sitting up to give Minhyuk the proper, bemused look he deserved for such a preposterous statement.

“It’s the twenty first century!” Minhyuk said excitedly, like it was something to celebrate. He grabbed onto the younger’s shoulders and throttled the jacket off his shoulders. “We should know how to make a proper site for dogs!”

Changkyun squinted. “You make it sound like the site is literally for dogs. To peruse others of their kind. And like, I’m pretty sure you already know how to make a site? That’s a great site. Great… cashmere style sheet.”

“Cascading style sheets.”

“That’s what I said, Minhyukkie, keep up.”

“Oh, pleeeeease, Kyunnie?” Minhyuk whined, clinging onto the younger’s arm and swaying slightly, enough to threaten complete loss of balance any second now. “I don’t wanna do it alone but I really, really wanna do it.”

“But--"

“And I won’t even tell Shownu you made me cry!” Minhyuk added brightly, beaming up into Changkyun’s face.

Changkyun calmly nodded, swallowing before looking around and asking in a slightly strained voice, “Right. Where’s the registration building, again?”

---

Changkyun

So guess who’s taking programming

Hyungwon

I’m gonna regret this but WHAT

Changkyun

Believe it or not

This is not because of the hot guy

Well

It depends on how you view Minhyuk???

Also idk man idk why I do these things

Hyungwon

Lemme guess

Minhyuk did that thing where he pretends he’s not blackmailing you

But he actually fucking is

Changkyun

… m a y b e

You literally can’t say no to him though???

Not that I want to

It’d be like switching off the fucking sun or something

Hyungwon

Okay cool but like somehow Shownu was involved right

Changkyun

…

Listen. I like my nose

I’d like to keep it thanks

I think if that man sucker punched me it would fly out the back of my skull

Hyungwon

And that would, of course, be such a horrible thing

Right

Changkyun

If you say it would be an aesthetic improvement I swear to god

Hyungwon

You know.

I wasn’t even thinking about it

But now that you mention it

I have to admit

It would make some purely aesthetic improvement to your profile

You know

You can trust me I’m a model I know what I’m talking about

I’m sure you can still ask Shownu to do it

Changkyun

“You can trust me I’m a model I know what I’m talking about”

Hyungwon

You really wanna start this

Changkyun

Banana-hyung, you see, the difference is

I don’t give a shit

There’s plenty more where that

You know what nevermind I’m good

Who the fuck took that picture how did they make you look so damn fine what the fu

Hyungwon

Okay what do you want

Changkyun

...so technically I haven’t actually signed up yet

Hyungwon

And that’s my problem why

Changkyun

Because deep

Deep

Within your cold dead heart

You know I’m useless at anything practical

Like… forms

Hyungwon

I’m not that deep

That knowledge is on the forefront

Changkyun

OH MY GOD PLEASE OKAY

I said please

Please

Please please please

Hyungwon

Minhyuk will be there right? You don’t need me

You know I read that sentence and I realised

Okay fuck fine

Just to keep you both from accidentally setting the actual building on fire

Changkyun

What did you realize

Hyungwon what did you realize

Hyungwon

If you think really really hard

And reach down really really deep

You’ll realise, too

Changkyun

Ah I see you realised you’re actually a decent human being I gotcha

No time to text and retaliate come to the building Minhyuk found some matches???

Hyungwon

Good fucking lord

---

“Do you have any idea,” Changkyun laughed, trying not to drop his phone. “What kind of bullshit excuses I’m thinking up right now to explain my enrollment to this class to my paying, hard-working family? I’ve never advocated blogging this much.”

“Why are you laughing,” Hyungwon grumbled, adjusting his glasses as he frowned at the paperwork in front of him, twirling the pen, “When you’re making your hard-working parents pay for this bulshit class you’re only taking because you’re scared to take a hit.”

“And we really appreciate it,” Minhyuk said with a little pat on Hyungwon’s back, watching avidly as Hyungwon filled in Minhyuk’s details. “One day, I might even be able to do this by myself! It doesn’t look too hard…” Minhyuk mused, missing the wide-eyed glance Changkyun and Hyungwon shot each other before looking away, each trying their very best not to burst out laughing.

Changkyun, hiding behind his hand, continued giggling. “I just told my grandmother that blogging is the future, and so am I. I feel so dirty. Shownu’s biceps hold far too much power over me.”

“Same,” Minhyuk said.

"Meh, it's fine, though," Changkyun shrugged, pocketing his phone. "Dad's head of the science department so we're barely paying for anything anyway. I'll just buy the book myself or mooch off of Minhyuk-hyung."

Hyungwon just sighed, turning back to his papers when he heard a throat being cleared behind him. Without looking up, he said, “Okay, look. Yes, I am aware of the fact that I am currently sitting in the middle of the hallway and have about ten different forms spread out around me but honestly you can just step over me because I am not--”

Hyungwon looked up.

He looked up. He kept looking.

He was aware of the fact that Changkyun seemed to have something stuck in his throat if the violent way he kept clearing it was any indication but honestly Hyungwon was too busy admiring the absolute god that had just appeared before him.

The Adonis like creature smiled at him. The fucking nerve.

Hyungwon felt a slight pressure on his shoulder. He shrugged it off. The pressure increased. The pressure got really fucking painful and finally, to save his shoulder, he looked around indignantly to see Minhyuk standing behind him staring at him intently.

“The nice man asked you a question, Hyungwon. Aren’t you going to answer it?”

“I- what?” The Adonis spoke? When? How did Hyungwon miss this momentous occasion and oh god why did Changkyun have his phone pointed in Hyungwon’s direction giggling like a madman.

“I, um, what? You said something?”

The Adonis frowned and Hyungwon almost cried because even his frown looked pretty what the fuck what the fuck what the -

A sharp pinch to his shoulder brought him back on track enough to actually pay attention to what was coming out of the Adonis’s mouth no Hyungwon focus.

“I was just asking if you would help me with these forms? I just,” he gestured at the papers spread out around Hyungwon, “you seem to know what you’re doing.”

“He will, yes,” Changkyun said, smilingly ignoring Hyungwon glaring daggers at him. “He’s the King of Forms. A god among… pens.”

“Oh!” Adonis smiled, widely, (and Hyungwon let out a pained sounding moan). “Thank you so much!” He did a little bow. What the fuck.

“You can just start with your name and number--” Changkyun had to stop his sentence, because Hyungwon’s bony ass elbow really hurt. Especially when it made contact with your stomach that wasn’t quite as hard as you wished it was.

(“Minhyuk, did you see that shit?”

“Listen, this man could ask me for the keys to my car and I’d give it to him with all my passwords and social security number.”

“What would Shownu say?”

“Eh. He’d be okay with it.")

“So,” Adonis squatted down, tilting his head at the forms Hyungwon had diligently been filling out, “What should I fill out first? The first time I registered for classes there was someone helping me.” He let out a self-deprecating little laugh, running his hand through his hair. “I might not have been paying as much attention as I ought to have.”

Hyungwon shook his head. Okay. He could do this. He could definitely do this and not get distracted by the way this guy’s thighs looked when he squatted. Hyungwon was a strong, powerful -

“Here, let me just sit next to you so I can follow along to what you’re doing.”

-very very weak man who will not survive natural selection.

“Oh, and my name’s Shin Hoseok by the way. But people call me Wonho.” He smiled.

“I’m Shin Hyungwon--Chae! Chae Hyungwon.”

Changkyun and Minhyuk fell over each other laughing. Hyungwon turned towards them with a brittle smile on his face that promised mountains of pain. “What class did you want to sign up for again? Advanced Physics, right?”

“Advanced Physical, am I right.”

“Changkyun, I swear to God. I’ll do it. I really will."

Throughout this exchange Adonis, or, well, Wonho, was looking at them with a furrowed brow.

“Are you guys okay?”

“Oh, yes. Ignore my friends. They’re a bit…”

“Did Hyungwon-hyung just admit to us being his friends?” Changkyun asked, his hand splayed over his heart.

“Unstable." Hyungwon smiled, nearly straining a muscle to do so. "Soon to be dead, actually. They can’t even fill out these forms without my help. And this one is a third year,” Hyungwon added, pointing at Minhyuk who scrunched his nose at Hyungwon before shrugging.

“In my defence,” Minhyuk started, holding up his hands and tilting his head. There was a long pause before he deflated and lowered his head, saying, “I, erm, yeah, you might be onto something.”

“At least he knows his own name, hyung,” Changkyun giggled.

“Okay you know what, they have Calculus on here too don’t push me--“

A loud laugh rang out next to Hyungwon and he looked up, surprised, as Wonho laughed next to him.

“I like you guys. You’re funny. Are you always like this?”

“No,” Changkyun deadpanned.

“Yes,” Minhyuk countered, a wide grin on his face.

“Nearly always,” Hyungwon said, with a star-struck expression Changkyun would definitely hold over him for the rest of time.

“Cool. I feel like we’re going to be friends,” Wonho said, still smiling brightly as he starts fumbling with his pockets. “Oh, can I get your number?”

“Mine?” Hyungwon said, pointing at himself.

“Yes?”

“Cool, cool, cool.”

“Don’t mind him he’s just having an emotion. He’s not used to it.”

"Changkyun.”

“That emotion is anger. Lovely,” Minhyuk helpfully supplied as Hyungwon almost violently stapled the forms together and got up, Wonho trailing after him as they made their way to the front desk.

Changkyun's shoulders fell. “I’m a dead man, aren’t I.”

“I’ll pick nice colours for your funeral, I promise,” Minhyuk hummed.

---

Hyungwon

So, when do you want to schedule your murder

You have a free period tomorrow right

Changkyun

That’s after class, though

At least take me out before I go to class, man

Hyungwon

You know I’m not that merciful come on

Changkyun

YOU WERE SO CUTE THO

I LOVE LOVE

AND OH MAN

[insert whip sound effect here]

Hyungwon

You know, one day, when you least expect it

I’m gonna get you

It’s going to be beautiful

People will be screaming

Birds will be dying

Fantastic

Changkyun

Threaten me with death and you have nowhere to go, hyung

You can’t one up death

I’m not scared of anything anymore

Hyungwon

Why you think I’m talking about death

Changkyun

…

True, you’d never give me what I want

Hyungwon

You know me so well

Anyway

I have a few ideas

At least one of them involves you showing up naked to class

Changkyun

~~~Friendship is the rainbow between two hearts

You raise me uuuuuuuup

So I can stand on moooouuntaaaaains

Please don’t hurt one half of your soul

Hyungwon

You can see my eyes screaming for help

What soul

Changkyun

The one that screamed at the sight of a hot boy

Hyungwon

I fear you have been severely misled

That was not my soul

That was my dick

Changkyun

Your dick IS your soul

Explains the personality

Hyungwon

So tomorrow at two it is then

Changkyun

Disappointed but not surprised

Bring cheeseburgers

I demand a last meal

Hyungwon

The only thing you’ll be eating is your own damn words

Changkyun

[walks up to camera] Hyungwon is the mafia

---

“So I got horrifically lost, there was a very rude but very pretty boy, I signed up for a programming class because of Minhyuk, Chae Hyungwon grew a heart and then promised to murder me, and we may have made a friend that looks like a demi-god. Not much, honestly.”

“Hyungwon sounds like he mellowed a bit. Usually the threat would have been a bit more graphic,” Jooheon mused, while simultaneously placing a bomb underneath Changkyun’s character on screen and watching in satisfaction as he blew up.

Changkyun’s character respawned in the time it took him to process that Jooheon had indeed Just Done That.

“Bro. That’s low.”

“Bro’s blow each other, bro.”

“I’m disconnecting if this continues,” Shownu voiced over Discord.

“You can be a bro too if you want,” Jooheon offered.

“Bros come with bro perks,” Changkyun offered.

“Bro it up.”

“I hate this,” Hyungwon moaned.

The sound of someone dropping their controller, followed shortly by Changkyun’s surprised, “Shit when did you appear?” followed that announcement.

“Guys, what happens when your bro is your hoe?”

“Shownu’s okay, he already gets blown,” Minhyuk added in a perky voice, the sound of Shownu choking audible.

“That. That’s what happens.”

“Do you guys know if Wonho plays online games?”

“Changkyun, no.”

“Changkyun, yes.”

“Changkyun, wetalked about this. We have a time and date set for the murder and everything.”

“As with Romeo and Juliet--”

“Oh, Jesus Christ, not again--”

“--I dothn’t believe my fate to be set in stone, and I’ll probably end up killing myself because of a petty misunderstanding or some shit, anyway, I guess--”

“Oh, shit guys, nevermind Changkyun dying, some guys who are actually good just joined this game pay attention,” came Jooheon’s panicked voice.

“Jooheon, you literally just meleed me in the ass and tea-bagged my corpse,” Hyungwon deadpanned.

“Respawn and stop your bitching, goddamn.”

“That bro needs a blow,” Minhyuk added casually.

“Shut the fuck up, oh my god."

---

Kihyun

Hey, you said you’re free for some modelling this weekend, right?

Hyungwon

You’re so needy

Kihyun

You’re getting free headshots I don’t know what you’re complaining about

Anyway, I need some photos.

Hyungwon

Please don’t make it at some ridiculous time in the morning again ffs

But sure

Kihyun

When you are a struggling programming student 

you can fucking complain about the time again kay

Hyungwon

Fuck fine

We know so many pretty people why me

Why must I suffer like this

I know a kid with a great nose bother him

Kihyun

Stop complaining you love it

Funny you mention that

There was this kid with a great side profile in my programming class the other day

He was a little shit though

So a no go on that

Hyungwon

...right good to know okay

Out of interest’s sake

Why is this boy a no go

For science

Kihyun

Ugh

He was just being annoying

With his Shakespeare book and his sass

Oh yeah he was in the wrong class too

So I doubt I’ll ever see him again

Hyungwon

You’re right

I advise you lose all hope of ever seeing him again

This campus is simply too big for two people who have nothing in common

To randomly meet again

Kihyun

I’ve never seen you type this much

The hell

Hyungwon

Just sad that you’ll probably end up dying alone, is all

You’re such a sad person hyung

It makes me sad

Kihyun

Fuck you, you waste of a good face

Hyungwon

Aw love you too

Have fun in class!

Kihyun

Literally snap in two, you photogenic turdblossom

---

Kihyun pocketed his phone and walked into his programming class, safe in the knowledge that at least he only has to deal with one sassy little shit today. Brushing his hair back with his fingers and tugging on his beanie, he took his place in the front of class. At least he would be able to pay attention this time. Unlike last time where he got to his dorm, took out his notes, and realised he had exactly half a page of usable notes and then the notes he had passed to the little shit.

Which, was just ridiculous. He shouldn’t have let himself get distracted like that. Especially by someone who wasn’t even supposed to be in class. It’s just, the little shit kept staring at him and he really did have a nice side profile and -

Oh. God. No.

What was he doing here?

Kihyun stared in horror as the little shit, the self-same one, strutted into class, looking like he fucking owned the place with what looked like a human koala hanging from his arm.

“I told you we should have come earlier, all the spots at the back are taken,” the koala pouted, staring up at the little shit beseechingly. The little shit looked around, his eyes catching Kihyun’s and Kihyun just had enough time to see a frankly evil looking grin spread over his face before Kihyun whipped his face away. He could feel his ears reddening. He'd been staring. Fucking hell.

Kihyun pulled his beanie down over his ears. God-fucking-dammit.

The little shit (was his name Changkyun? Not that Kihyun gave a shit) pulled Koala Boy down next to him, at the front of the class. Which was, coincidentally, where Kihyun was seated.

Maybe he hadn’t noticed Kihyun. Maybe if Kihyun sank down really low in his chair and didn’t look at him things will be just fin-

A piece of folded paper had found its way under Kihyun’s arm, and with a herculean effort, he just about managed not to scowl at the page. What the fuck did this little shit want? He risked a glance, just a quick peek from the corner of his eyes, at Changkyun, but he wasn’t even looking at Kihyun, instead offering his hand for his Koala friend to doodle on (probably more than a friend, going by the way the guy had hung off Changkyun).

Which was fine. It was fine. It wasn’t like Kihyun wanted his attention anyway. Hell, Kihyun didn’t even know why he was in the class again. Which, he was not going to ask. Because it wasn’t his business and he was just there to pass the class.

Kihyun decided to ignore them both. Another note made this very difficult.

Kihyun frowned at the note before pointedly crumpling it up and making a perfect throw into the dustbin. Another note followed soon after.

Before Kihyun could destroy this particular catastrophe, Changkyun snatched the note back quickly, writing more before passing it back.

Kihyun knew he didn’t have a very firm lid on his temper. He also knew that he had, in fact, told this boy that html was not fucking coding and that was a warning in Kihyun’s book so he thought he was at least a little justified in his reply.

Kihyun hesitated only slightly before adding:

He had already replied. He might as well satisfy his curiosity. He forcefully slid the note back, allowing a tiny smirk to slip onto his face as his hand jabbed at Changkyun’s elbow.

Changkyun read the note (looking satisfied at a reply, the jerk ) and pursed his lips, mouth corners twitching. The Koala had finally stopped doodling on Changkyun’s hand and was now, seemingly, doodling on a piece of paper, somehow perfectly capturing the essence of the lecture and shit the lecture had started Kihyun should be paying attention.

Kihyun tried to resist the lure of the note next to his elbow, but, frankly, he had already worked ahead and, well, if he was perfectly honest with himself, the stuff they were doing at the moment was quite simply horrifically easy. Scanning the note, Kihyun didn’t know if he should laugh or glare. He settled on a grimace.

Watching all colour drain from the kid's face was oddly satisfying.

Kihyun smirked. Damned Humanities students. Didn’t know how easy they had it.

Kihyun had no idea why, but he felt a tiny, miniscule, barely worth mentioning (so why the hell was he mentioning it why won’t be brain shut up) shiver work it’s way down his spine at the nickname. 

Glad that his beanie was pulled down low enough to cover his ears, Kihyun rolled his eyes at the page.

Kihyun stared at the page, aware of the fact that his whole face was flushing and that muffled choking sounds were coming from his right, but he didn’t trust himself to look up. Deliberately, Kihyun crumpled the page, slid it into his bag, and fixed his eyes on the screen. Changkyun seemed to get the message, because apart from one half-hearted attempt to get his attention by loudly coughing his name, the other stayed silent.

Despite himself, however, Kihyun kept noting the little, almost unconscious touches between Changkyun and Minhyuk. The latter was more touchy than the former, but they were always somehow touching, whether it was with a hand casually resting on the other’s shoulder or playing with the hair at the backs of their necks.

Kihyun didn’t know why, but for some reason it made him quite uncomfortable. It was probably because they were two boys, Kihyun tried to comfort himself. That was definitely it.

Changkyun

Y’all I’m in rude boy’s class wtf

Hyungwon

You are aware of the fact that this is not a group chat

You are in fact only bothering me

Changkyun

Y’ALL

Height wise you’re like two and a half people shh

Seriously though he was wearing a BEANIE

ON HIS HEAD

Hyungwon

I would assume

How else would you wear a beanie

Changkyun

I feel that you’re making a point of ignoring my s t r u g g l e

Hyungwon

I’m probably going to regret asking this but

What struggle?

Changkyun

The, and this is brilliant, hear me out on this

the ‘Shin Hyungwon Struggle’

Hyungwon

…you know I blame myself

I knew I shouldn’t have asked

Changkyun

It’s an hour to my scheduled death so I’m taking Risks

Hyungwon?

I’m scared now

Do you know where I am???

No way pffft

YOU DON’T KNOW WHERE I AM

Oh god

---

Changkyun

Bro if I die

Tell Beanie boy I’d totally hit that

Jooheon

Dunno who that is but will do bro

Out of broness sake, why will you die?

Changkyun

Death By Pepe

Jooheon

Oh yeah. That’s a thing

My bro

I will miss you

I will find Beanie boy and tell him you’d hit it real good

Go in peace

Changkyun

Sympathy is hard to find apparently

sdhgsdig

I just saw a rando tall person and literally dived under a table holy shit

WAIT SHOWNU WILL PROTEC

WHERE IS DAD

Jooheon

Didn’t you just have class with Minhyuk?

That new programming thing?

You should have just stayed with him bro

You’re my best bro

But you’re kinda dumb

Changkyun

I LOST MY DAD MAGNET FUCK

IF I JUST RUN INTO THE SUN WILL I FIND LEE MINHYUK

Jooheon

I would honestly not discount that theory

Changkyun

Hang on I just spotted adonis I’m safe

Jooheon

I

I don’t even know anymore

---

“Wonho! Hide me behind your biceps,” Changkyun panted, not even waiting for an answer before hiding himself behind Wonho’s much buffer frame. “You’re like a big hunk o’ Hyungwon cryptonite.”

“Nice to see you again, Changkyun,” Wonho laughed, frowning in amused confusion and shrugging at the nearest student that looked at them funny. “Have you been running?”

Changkyun plucked at his damp t-shirt, letting the cool wind get on his chest as he looked around the courtyard like a spooked meerkat. “Just a bit. You’d think he’d planned this additional torture.”

“Who? Hyungwon? He seemed so nice! Why would he torture you?”

Changkyun waved his hand dismissively, fanning his face in the process and leaning slightly into the much buffer boy who looked like the extra weight barely even inconvenienced him. Changkyun frowned and poked at Wonho’s arm as he talked. “We’ve known each other just like… way too long. It’s fair game at this point.”

“...Do you want to sit down or something?”

“You ask me like I have a choice.”

Wonho helped Changkyun towards a bench (if Changkyun had any manly pride, it would be wounded, but at this point he was made solely of cringe and to hell if he wasn’t going to enjoy Wonho’s strong arms) and sat down next to him.

“I have some salad,” Wonho informed Changkyun, digging around in his bag. “You want some?”

Changkyun squinted at the larger male, but just as he wanted to open his mouth to say thanks but no thanks, he made eye contact and, like... goddamn. “Riiiiiight, salad. I love salad. Eat it… all the time.”

“It’s really good for you,” Wonho informed Changkyun with a serious face, already digging his spoon into a pile of what looked suspiciously like the leftovers of a pruned tree. “And it’s really nice once you get used to it,” Wonho said happily, crunching into a spoonful of greens.

Changkyun assessed the leaves in front of him. Fucking leaves. Was it really that difficult to just say no to--Changkyun’s eyes widened, a smile creeping onto his face. “Wonho, this is really random, but would you mind if I took a picture of you real quick?”

Frowning, Wonho shrugged. “I mean, sure. But why?”

“Beeeecauuuuuse,” Changkyun stressed, giving himself time to think as he scratched the back of his head, before happily proclaiming, “My mother thinks I am a chronic loner and have no friends.”

Wonho crunched his leaves.

“That’s honestly a bit sad, Changkyun.”

“I am a sad, sad man. Smile?”

---

Changkyun

You’d never kill me in front of a puppy would you

loooook

Hyungwon

…

I

I’m not

…

You play dirty

Changkyun

:)

Wonho says hi

---

Hyungwon groaned, giving his face a soft slap before stuffing his phone into his pocket. It’s fine. It’s all fine. Changkyun may have found some temporary protection with the most beautiful man who had ever lived, but it couldn’t last forever.

Hyungwon knew where Changkyun lived, after all.

His phone chimed in his pocket and, rolling his eyes, he prepared to give Changkyun a sassing to remember, before seeing it was his resident photographer.

---

Kihyun

So.

You know someone with a great nose huh

Hyungwon

It’s very important to know one’s self

Kihyun

SO

You know SOMEONE with a great NOSE HUH

Hyungwon

I can literally hear you screaming in my head and it is very distressing

Kihyun

Aw shame poor hyungwonnie

Oh wait

I don’t care

Hyungwon

Why do you care if I know someone with a great nose

Are you going to replace me

Because then by all goddamn means

Kihyun

Stop bluffing

I know you love your photoshoots

It’s why you still bring me tea each time

Hyungwon

I forgot how to read suddenly

Kihyun

Unfortunately it seems like you retained your writing abilities

So, you know this boy?

Your reaction yesterday tells me you do

Hyungwon

Careful Kihyun you’re showing interest in an actual human being

But if it’s the same little shit, then yes, I know him

For too long

and far too much

Kihyun

Listen you overgrown tree

I’m asking for purely artistic reasons

As pointy as your angles are

I do need other models

It might be the same little shit yes

Changkyun?

Hyungwon

You know his name?

PS: He always eat his burgers like that

Kihyun

What

What burger

I don’t know what you’re talking about, honestly

And, btw, it’s his fault I know his name he kept bothering me

And he had the wrong book out I couldn’t not ask him who he was

Hyungwon

Changkyun?

What Changkyun?

I don’t know who you’re talking about honestly

Wait no nevermind that he was bothering you and you LET him?

Kihyun

NO

He’s persistent

Hyungwon

Are you saying

That Changkyun

Has decent angles?

Kihyun

From a purely artistic point of view

He has nice angles

What of it

Hyungwon

From a purely realistic point of view

You’re full of shit

Kihyun

You know what

I suddenly have the urge to take photos at 3 am

The moon is really nice then

Be there

And don’t wear a sweater

It’ll mess with the shot

Hyungwon

You’re an evil little man, you know that?

Kihyun

:)

---

Changkyun

Broheon my day has just blowed in the not good way

Jooheon

Bro

You’re still alive?

Changkyun

Barely. I haven’t Exerted like this since middle school soccer

BUT

I am AT THE DORM

I AM SAFE

WE CAN PLAY OVERWATCH

AND HAVE POPCORN

Jooheon

Bro

Changkyun

Yeah bro

Jooheon

Run bro

Changkyun

:)

Changkyun can’t come to the phone right now

Why?

Because he’s dead

Jooheon

Stop talking shit and RUN BRO

Changkyun

It’s funny that you think Changkyun is still capable of texting

Jooheon

…

This became really creepy really fast

I'm gonna go hug my dog

---

Hyungwon

Not sorry about what I did

But hit rude boy next time you see him

Changkyun

Why the fuck were you awake at 02:30

Hyungwon

Hit him really hard

---

Hyungwon had been sleeping in the same corner of the library since he was an ickle little first year. At first, it had been a mistake, born of pulling all-nighters trying to study all the work and finish assignments. The second time it was more a thing of convenience, in that he was bored and didn’t have fuck all else to do anyway.

After that it became a regular thing. It was on the top floor, which, admittedly, was quite a way to go for a nap, but it was the perfect napping spot. Somehow, no matter what season or what time in the day it was, there was always a spot of sunlight that managed to be just big enough for him to curl up in with his head on his bag.

And, the best part of it all was, because it was so far out of the way, no one ever came up there. He was all alone to just nap and -

“Hyungwon?”

He was pretty sure that was his name, but mid-nap was definitely not the optimal time for brain function. When he decided that sleeping further was definitely more important than someone telling him to stop sleeping in the library, he nuzzled into his bag, grumbling and hunching his shoulders.

A hand shook his shoulder lightly, followed by another soft, “Hyungwon?”.

The boy in question picked up his head, blinking slowly at the big, blonde figure. Who dared--

A final blink that brought his eyes into focus also brought forth the horrifying realisation that this was Wonho. Wonho, who he wanted to make a good impression on. Wonho, who even with Changkyun’s shitty phone, had made the photos look so good Hyungwon had nearly walked a freshman out of the ground. Wonho, who was smiling at him.

“Fuck.”

“Sorry?” Wonho frowned, probably trying to figure out why the apparently homeless person who helped him with his forms was swearing at him. Hyungwon had to admit he didn’t have an answer to that that didn’t include several things that he was aware was not to be repeated in company. (Changkyun would protest, but then again, Changkyun didn’t exactly count as company.)

“I meant, hi, hello, uhm,” Hyungwon swallowed, trying (really, really trying) to keep his eyes open (but damn), before making a point of looking around confusedly. “Is this the library? My bad, er, must have, um, studied too hard last night. Um.”

“Oh, sorry,” Wonho winced, letting his hand fall. “I probably shouldn’t have woken you up.”

Hyungwon made a noncommittal noise that might have been agreement but which might also have meant: You could punch me in the face and I’d thank you.

“I just, I saw Changkyun--”

Hyungwon groaned reflexively.

“--yesterday and, well, he looked really out of it. Are words I’d use to describe him. He didn’t even want any of my salad!” Wonho pouted.

“How dare he,” Hyungwon agreed, while simultaneously trying to remember what fucking day it was again, and, was he supposed to be in class right now .

“Right? They’re so good for you. The only thing better, I think, would be ramen,” Wonho added, nodding thoughtfully.

Hyungwon hummed in agreement, thinking of the whole entire pizza topped with extra cheese he had eaten the night before. He’d fucking destroyed that thing, man.

“Anyway, is Changkyun alright?”

Hyungwon, who had basically been lying on the ground for the entire conversation and might have begun feeling extremely fucking vulnerable like that as he woke up more, shoved himself upright into something that might, if you squinted and were in a mood to be generous, be called sitting.

“He might not be able to sit down for a while, I guess.”

“...Excuse me?”

“I may have put butter in front of his dorm room and made him run.”

“...Why.”

“Cos it’s slippery and--”

Wonho laughed, which knocked Hyungwon’s train of thought right off track.

“--and, um, the running. It’s hard. I mean difficult. Because it’s slippery. And you fall. Which he did. And screamed. Er, I mean, er, exclaimed--fuck, do I have class right now, I really might-- ”

At this point, Wonho had sat down next to him and was outright slapping his thighs and laughing silently.

Hyungwon laughed a little, uncertain. “So, he’s fine, I mean. Just needed some…” He gestured vaguely. “Fuck, what’s that word--”

“Do you--” Wonho started, before giggling into his hand and taking a breath. “Do you always wake up like this?”

Only when I see a cute boy’s face first thing, Hyungwon almost said. He had enough presence of mind to stop himself however, and said instead, “I’m awake? This isn’t a dream? I feel really... asleep.” Which was just great. Because that was obviously much better, really. Hyungwon resisted the urge to actually facepalm himself and instead managed to only do it mentally.

“Cute.”

“You too.”

Oh god did he really just say that what will Changkyun say oh god--

“Thank you,” Wonho smiled widely. “Hey, do you want my number? I just, I just want to be updated on the Changkyun situation. You know. Because of the butter.”

“I already have pictures of you on my phone, might as well have a number.” It took Hyungwon a second to realize what he had just uttered with his actual mouth.

“Pictures? Why do you hav--”

“I! It was…” Hyungwon trailed off. He actually had no explanation for this and his brain wasn’t working because he had just woken up and fuck.

“OH! Did Changkyun send those to you?”

“...Yes. Yes, he did.”

“I thought it was for his mother.”

Hyungwon frowned. Hard. Was that fucking kid on drugs.

“...He has his little jokes. I don’t think he listens to half the words that come out of his mouth sometimes, honestly.”

“So was that a yes for the number thing or? Because last time you said yes but never actually gave it to me so--”

“Yes! I mean, yeah, sure. I mean, sure. It doesn’t matter.”

“Ouch,” Wonho chuckled, taking out his phone.

“No, I didn’t mean like, I was only,” Hyungwon despaired, already seeing Wonho just up and leaving him alone on the library floor because he was incapable of being nice and acting like a normal human being.

“Hyungwon, calm down, I know,” Wonho, who was still clearly highly amused, patted Hyungwon’s knee and held out his phone. “Listen, I need updates on the state of Changkyun’s ass.”

Hyungwon let his shoulders fall, laughed through a sigh and shook his head.

“I…” He cleared his throat. Tried again. “I’m sorry, I’m not really good at, like, people stuff.” Hyungwon rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, shielding himself from Wonho’s gaze.

“People stuff?” Wonho, the little shit, raised his eyebrows and grinned.

“Socializing, oh my god, give me the damn phone.”

It was as Hyungwon was done entering his number into Wonho’s phone (under a very interesting name) that he spotted the time in the top right corner and realised --

"Fuck I do have a class now!”

He was off, almost throwing the phone onto Wonho’s lap as he, for once in his life, exerted himself and ran, breaking the rules of the library in the process.

---

Kihyun took out his books, managed to pick the pen with the least ink in one try (because what kind of animal uses another pen before using one until it’s finished), and flipped through his notebook while he waited for the lecturer to show up, not thinking about anything or anyone else at all.

Which was, of course, why his eyes kept straying to the entrance every time someone entered. The doodling boy had already arrived. But that didn’t mean anything. It didn’t mean he was coming or not coming or. Whatever.

He was just beginning to allow his shoulders to drop from their tense position, when a figure limped into class, and Kihyun ( godfuckingdammit ) looked up. Changkyun seemed to be limping, at least, and Kihyun frowned slightly in a moment of weak, weak concern, before the little shit grinned at him, pulled his hoodie off his head, and plopped down next to him. The moment he did, however, he let out a completely uncalled for, “Ah, fuck.”

Kihyun looked over at him with wide eyes, already feeling his ears light up. That… Was that the first time he actually heard the boy say anything?

And did he really have to say that . Like… that. Like, in what universe was that necessary, honestly.

“Sorry,” Changkyun apologized nearly immediately, wincing as he readjusted in his seat, letting out a low whine as he dropped his bag down next to him. “I was very recently murdered. You know. No biggie. Just takes the fun out of living for a bit.”

“You… what?” Kihyun honestly didn’t even know where to begin with that statement.

“I have a friend who wildly misuses butter for his personal benefit.”

“Wait. If that’s a weird sex thing I really don’t want to know and--”

Changkyun burst out laughing. “Wow, nice talk. Wanna comment on the weather before we get into the subject of kinky sex, Mr Yoo?”

“Oh, shut up. I mean, what the hell did you expect, you can’t sit and you said butter-- just whatever! And my name’s Kihyun.”

Kihyun, fuming, turned around to face the front again, furious at the boy and himself because of course he couldn’t keep his mouth shut and of course he blushed about as easily as an easily bruised peach.

“Sorry,” Changkyun said through a laugh, wiping at his eyes before coughing into his hand. “Oh, god. No, actually. Getting murdered isn’t code for anything, my friend just decided to be oh so hilarious and turn my life into a Vine Fail. I just fell, okay.”

Kihyun opened his mouth. He closed it. He frowned.

“Why do you keep sitting next to me, anyway? I’m sure there are a lot of people in this class who would love to be bothered and none of them are me.”

Changkyun stopped laughing, face still a bit pink as he looked towards him, eyebrows knit in confusion. “I could... move, if you want? So could you, for that matter.”

Kihyun frowned at him harder. “I mean, you’re free to sit wherever you want, I guess, but still. And, I was here first.”

Kihyun managed to refrain from actually pointing out one of the numerous seats Changkyun could move to. He looked around, and at a quick count, it was… Not full. Changkyun literally came to sit next to him when he really didn’t have to. And when his friend was sitting just a few seats behind them, seemingly engrossed in the textbook. What was this boy’s game?

“So…” Changkyun trailed off, still looking at him, and Kihyun could have sworn he saw the ghost of a smile on his face. “I can stay, then?”

“Shhh! The lecture started.”

“Mmm, that’s what they all say.”

"That makes no sense."

“Shh, the lecture started, God.”

It was only as Kihyun was packing up his books from a surprisingly note free lecture (he was even a little disappointed, honestly, though he’d deny it even at gunpoint) when he saw a piece of torn paper lying on the seat next to him.

Picking it up, he spotted the familiar, scrawled, stupidly capitalized handwriting.

---

The following day, Kihyun walked into class, threw the paper down onto Changkyun’s book, sat down, and ignored him for the rest of the lecture.

He also, vehemently, ignored the smug little smirk the little shit wore, and the odd tug at the bottom of his stomach. If he ignored both, it would go away.

Right?

---

Minhyuk

HOW’D IT GO???（。＞ω＜）。

Changkyun

I’m scared of these curly bois {}

They coed

But when they alone {

They attac

Also I forgot I was supposed to hit him

For Hyungwon I’m not kinky

Wait lemme think about it first

Minhyuk

WHAT

NO????

ALSO NO WITH YOUR CRUSH DID YOU GET HIS NUMBER OR SMTH

Changkyun

I don’t know what ur talking about ur halucinating

Minhyuk

YOU

IN THE FRONT OF THE CLASS

STARING

I MEAN REALLY

HAVE SOME CONTROL

Changkyun

I know these words but what do they meeeean

Minhyuk

(◕︿◕✿)

U R MEAN

---

Changkyun

He spoke??? And it was like an angel???

Like I was near death like that heavenly but like

I also wouldn’t mind dying if angels looked and sounded like that

Do you think angels are also so angry

like

“You die and now I have to take care of yo dead ass”

Idk man I feel like I need to sit down

Is this why man invented poetry

Jooheon

Dude you whipped

Changkyun

I wonder what other sounds he makes OwO

Jooheon

BRO NO BRO PLZ I’M SO YOUNG

Changkyun

I MEANT LIKE SINGING OR LAUGHING

GODDAMN JOOHEON

i'm younger than you anyway omg

Jooheon

…

I need to go rethink some stuff

---

Kihyun sat in the car for a few seconds after switching it off, just breathing. This was always the hardest part. It wasn’t like the university was stress-free, or anything like that at all, in fact quite the opposite of that. But, at least, at the university, he didn’t feel like he was being watched all the time.

On campus, everyone was too busy. Too wrapped up in their own little worlds, studying or talking or reading or whatever. Nobody really cared what the fuck you did on campus, as long as it didn’t bother them.

Home, though. That… was a different story.

“Kihyun? You still out there? Come in, the food’s getting cold.” His mom’s voice floated out to him from the doorway, and he felt those precious few seconds of peace slip away from him as he grabbed his bag and got out of the car, making sure to lock the car behind him. (He had gotten a talking to about that far too many times to forget now. Not that’s it’s a bad thing, but still.)

He shot a tired smile at his mother, who was getting the table laid out and ready, before making a quick stop at his room, just long enough to place his camera carefully on his bedside table, throw his bag next to his desk, take off his beanie (it was rude to wear one at dinner, after all) and run a comb through his hair. When he entered the dining room again, his mother, sister and father were already there.

It was quiet as they ate, as it was most nights, only interrupted every now and then by someone asking for something and by his mother’s quiet enquiries about their days. Kihyun gave the usual answers. Everything was fine, his classes were going well, his tests had gone well. Nothing to worry about. The model child.

“Have you seen that friend of yours recently? Hoseok, right?” His father asked, tilting his head and helping himself to the kimchi, hopefully not noticing the way slight tensing in Kihyun’s shoulders.

“Yes. We have lunch together, sometimes.”

Kihyun silently prayed (not that anyone ever listened) that that would be all. Please let it be all. He knew his parents didn’t exactly… approve of Wonho. And they didn’t even know about his, well, his proclivities. It wasn’t exactly fault by association, but… Even association could be turned to assumption.

“Is he still doing the dancing, um, thing?” His mother asked, lips pursed. His parents considered Wonho’s choice of study to be short-sighted at best, and selfish at worst.

“Yes. He actually got one of the lead parts in one of their productions,” Kihyun said, trying to smile, but falling flat when he saw the glance his mother and father shared.

“He’s quite handsome,” his sister commented with a bright smile, smiling even brighter when Kihyun caught her eye with a little shake of his head. “Too bad he doesn’t come by so much anymore.”

“Yes. What a shame.” His father laid down his chopsticks, and looked at Kihyun’s sister, Jeongyeon. “You should finish studying for that chemistry test tomorrow. Your teacher said you weren’t doing as well as you could be doing.”

“Dad, they always say that. ‘One’s full potential’ is just a fancy method of guilt-tripping you into studying.”

“Ah, that reminds me, I have to go study for a programming test tomorrow, thanks for the food,” Kihyun said quickly, excusing himself before he got pulled into the middle of yet another bickering match between his dad and Jeongyeon.

“Honey, you barely ate anything,” his mother pointed out with so much concern Kihyun nearly sat down again, before seeing Jeongyeon get a glint in her eyes that promised absolute chaos and oh god he had had a long fucking day (with that little shit) and he was just not in the mood to be held up as a good example with his sister looking knowingly at him. Because, of course, she was the one that caught him that one time he and Wonho had been absolute idiots and--

Yeah. He was not in the mood.

“I’m fine, mom. I had a big lunch.” Kihyun walked off, already hearing the rising voices of his dad and Jeongyeon and readying himself for a night of studying with his headphones on.

It was a habit now; spotting Kihyun in class and just sitting down next to him. Sometimes they’d talk, sometimes Changkyun could tell the boy was concentrating on something (he had this pout and oh god was it adorable) and he wouldn’t bother him until the lecture started and he’d slide over a piece of paper Kihyun could willingly ignore if he wanted to. Most of the time, he didn’t ignore it (Changkyun liked to think it was because he was particularly good at irritating the boy just enough with his comments that his temper wouldn’t let him not respond), and Changkyun had to go through the trouble of not losing his shit.

So it was a tiny miracle, something Jooheon would hear about for days, really, when Kihyun wrote to him, first, for the first time since it had happened on the first day and then never the fuck again.

Changkyun simply slid the note over, head resting in his hand as he blinked at the lecturer, and Kihyun frowned at him.

Changkyun contemplated the note, before sighing and writing It took much longer than usual.

Kihyun thought for a minute, trying really hard not to look like he gave a damn, which he didn't.

Changkyun looked at the note, frowned, and tucked it into his book before looking at the lecturer.

It was a day for big things, apparently, because it was also the first time Changkyun didn’t reply.

---

Kihyun was sitting in the computer lab. He was sitting in the computer lab, listening to his music, going through the slides of his computer hardware class and minding his own business. Only his business. Not the business of the person in front of him who just so happened to be Changkyun and who just so happened to be staring at the screen as if it, personally, was responsible for all the misery in the entire world.

Which, normally, Kihyun would just ignore. Because it wasn’t his business, and he didn’t care two shits about anyone else, and he didn’t even like the kid, but still. Paired with his strange behaviour from two days ago and the way he had just seen the kid open Google, searching for life insurance and various coffin prices, before sighing deeply and opening Visual Studio again, Kihyun had fairly had it up to here with the kid.

(It wasn’t because he was worried or anything. Like he said, the kid was an annoying little brat and the only reason Kihyun tolerated him was because…….well. Because.)

After watching him type in the same variable twice, both times coming up with the variable not created error because the absolute idiot had gone and declared and instantiated the variable in the main method and not on class level, Kihyun just. He just couldn’t take it anymore.

Heaving a huge, entirely put upon sigh, Kihyun stood up, walked up behind Changkyun (who didn’t even seem to notice him wow he must be more fucked than Kihyun had thought), and batted his hands away from the keyboard and mouse  (with maybe a tad bit more force than strictly necessary) while leaning over him. He felt the kid jolt when he touched him, but he proceeded to ignore the initial sputtering and then the suspicious silence that followed as Kihyun systematically went through the code and declared the variables in the correct places.

“There. That ought to work.”

Kihyun looked down with a self-satisfied smirk only to freeze when he saw how close they were and how wide Changkyun’s eyes were. It was only for a moment, however, before Kihyun hastily removed himself from behind Chankgyun and stood beside him, nodding at the computer screen and resolutely not paying attention to the way the kid was staring at him or his own, rapidly reddening ears.

“Try it now. It should work.”

There was a slight pause, before Changkyun seemed to get what was going on and ran the program. The sound he made when the program actually ran was somewhere between a delighted laugh and a giggle and goddamn if Kihyun couldn’t even hide from himself how adorable he found that.

“How did you do that?” Changkyun asked, turning in his chair to look at Kihyun with something that resembled adoration too much for comfort and it made a lump form real fast in Kihyun’s throat.

Kihyun cleared his throat and tried to frown. He could not tell you what his face looked like then, cos he himself did not know.

“You just, you just read the textbook, really. I mean, if you don’t declare the variables outside the main method, they’ll be created anew each time you try to do the calculation and then it would just start at zero again--stop looking at me like that,” Kihyun finally snapped, running a hand over his neck. Dammit, he just wanted to make the kid stop looking at life insurance would he stop with the fucking eyes ?

Changkyun blinked, eyes widening a bit and cheeks pinking. “Like what? You’re, like,” Changkyun waved a hand around noncommittally, “Really smart, and stuff. I have the textbook literally open--” He laughed a little nervously, “And couldn’t figure that out.”

Kihyun barely restrained himself from snapping something about illiteracy. Granted, that was what he would say to literally anyone else, even Wonho, the one person who managed to make Kihyun call him friend, but… but there was something about Changkyun’s eyes. They were so fucking puppy like and right at this moment they were looking at Kihyun like. Like something. Like he was someone really important and special and goddammit Kihyun wasn’t sure how that made him feel but he did know that he didn’t want that expression to go away.

“Yeah. Well. Practise, I guess,” Kihyun mumbled, already turning around to trudge back to his seat behind Changkyun.

“That’s what I was trying to do, you know,” Changkyun huffed. “Practise doesn’t matter much when you keep fucking up and you don’t know why .”

“Yeah, well, good luck with that,” Kihyun said, right before sitting down to continue taking notes on the mechanics of how a video card actually worked .

Kihyun was well onto his second sentence since sitting down, when he heard a quiet, “Well, fuck me,” come from in front of him. He stayed strong until the beginning of his fourth sentence, but when he heard something solid hitting the desk he looked up in alarm to see Changkyun lifting his head from the surface with the clear intent to smack it down again.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Kihyun groaned, hastily standing up and moving quickly, catching the collar of Changkyun’s shirt just before he smacked his head again. “You know, destroying your brain cells isn’t going help anyone.”

“Maybe it’ll resuscitate a few,” Changkyun said, lifting his head to look mournfully at first the screen, then Kihyun.

“Oh my god, will you just, I mean, seriously can I just, ugh ,” Kihyun leaned over Changkyun’s shoulder and squinted at the screen, glad for the slight obstruction between their faces thanks to Changkyun’s hoody. “Okay, explain to me what you’re trying to do.”

Changkyun swallowed thickly. Kihyun chose to ignore it. “Well, I’ve got this curly boi, right--”

“This what .”

“That thing,” Changkyun said, pointing at a curly bracket on the screen.

“Changkyun, I swear to God --”

“No, but, like, I think it actually hates me and all of its own kind. It doesn’t want to find a friend and you know, I can’t make it like the other ones so--”

“Oh you absolute-- okay, listen, just ignore the curl-- the thing for the moment and let’s concentrate on the code--”

“I”m trying --”

“--Okay. So, it looks like you were trying to make the user choose between a red or green button?”

Kihyun felt Changkyun nod next to him.

“Okay, so basically what you want to do is create two separate event handlers for the buttons. Like, if you want to form to turn blue, or the font to be italics or something when you press the button, you do it in the event handler, not the initialising component.” Kihyun squinted at the screen, unconsciously letting his chin rest on the younger boy’s shoulder. “Do you remember how to create an event handler?”

“If I say no will you actually kill m--Wait!” Changkyun exclaimed (causing a nearby student to frown in their direction) and clicked on the tab for the form design and double clicking on the button, beaming when Visual Studio automatically created the event handler.

“I did it!”

“Okay, good,” Kihyun said, letting himself chuckle. “Just remember to check in the event list that the default event is the one you actually want. Later on you might want something to happen when you, for example, hover over the button. There’s a different event handler for that that you have to set it to. Now, just add the code you wanted into the event handlers for the buttons and it should work.”

“Okay, okay,” Changkyun said, typing and biting his lip in concentration before tugging at Kihyun’s sleeve when he started to lean away. “No, there is still every chance I could fuck up, just wait…”

Kihyun rolled his eyes just as Changkyun ran the program and clicked on the button. The form changed colour. Kihyun allowed himself a small, proud smirk while Changkyun whooped for joy.

“Can you two lovebirds keep it the fuck down?” came an extremely put-out voice in the row just across from them.

Kihyun looked up, ready to fight anyone who dared suggest something so completely insane , only to suddenly be faced with a rapidly paling Min Yoongi.

“I, I mean, sunbae, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to--you two can be as loud as you want, really,” Yoongi stammered, even inclining his head slightly at Kihyun’s eyebrow raise.

“Just because you’re the best in class doesn’t mean you have the right to sass your TA. I gave you those marks. I can decide to stop being so nice,” Kihyun said, struggling to keep an amused smirk in check. He had seen that little shit wear a death glare so potent he could almost feel it, yet faced with someone in authority the little brat broke.

(Oh, yeah and that kid with the blond hair seemed to have found a way past his defences as well.)

Yoongi bowed his head slightly, put on his headphones, and didn’t look their way again.

“Er, Kihyun?” Changkyun asked in a soft, slightly strained voice from where he was sat in front of Kihyun. “You know that, uhm, with great power comes great responsibility.”

“...Oh my god.”

“ I’m sorry , you’re kind of scary and it’s kinda sexy and I may have regressed back into a twelve year old with a Peter Parker crush?”

“...Do you have a filter?”

“I manage not to swear in front of my grandparents. Sometimes. That’s something, right?”

“Good fucking lord…” Kihyun went to bury his head into Changkyun’s hoodie covered head, realised what he was doing, and hastily stepped back. “Anyway. That’s how it’s done. So, yeah. Gotta get back to studying now.”

“Cool. See you again in about... two minutes,” Changkyun smiled up at him, cheeks dimpling and slightly pink, if Kihyun saw that correctly. “I’ll just move my hands, though, you hit really hard.”

Kihyun looked at him. Changkyun grinned back cheekily.

“Feel free to scream at me, too, by the way, Yoo Sunbae,” Changkyun said, turning back to the screen.

Kihyun pinched the bridge of his nose.

“You did understand all of that, right? Like, you’re fine now, right?”

“Oh, yeah, totes,” Changkyun said, and then immediately tried to enter the code for one of the buttons in the initialising component, before glancing over his shoulder at Kihyun, with Kihyun glaring absolute daggers at him because how do you do something so wrong jesus christ-- “See, a complete natural.”

“At driving me insane, maybe,” Kihyun breathed miserably.

“Mm?” Changkyun asked, innocently blinking at him.

“Nothing.”

“Oh, good, thought you said I drove you crazy for a second there,” Changkyun shrugged, frowning as many, many errors popped up on his screen. “Oh, bother, what are thoooose…”

“I don’t fucking understand why you just keep typing. Like, do you not see all the little red lines fucking hell,” Kihyun moaned. “They’re supposed to be a warning to stop. To like, go through the code and see what you did to make it give an error.”

“They’re decoderation.”

“Are you being this annoying on purpose or were you just born this way?”

“It’s a talent.”

Changkyun merrily kept typing, literally just describing what he wanted the code to do like it was fucking story he was writing and well, Kihyun saw red. And lost his mind a bit. That’s the only possible explanation for what came out of his mouth next as he literally grabbed Changkyun’s wrists so it would just end .

“Will you stop, I’ll even fucking tutor you just stop.”

Changkyun turned to look Kihyun in the eye impassively, before turning back to the screen, and correctly typing what Kihyun had showed him. “Mmm,” Changkyun mused. “I mean, if you insist. Thanks, hyung.”

Kihyun thought he was perfectly justified in savagely pulling the hoodie from Changkyun’s head and hissing, as menacingly as he could, into his ear, “You asked for this, you little shit,” before walking away.

---

Changkyun

So what do I do if I

Hypothetically

totally popped a boner in the computer lab

Jooheon

Not fucking tell me about it

Changkyun

What happened to bros bro

That’s harsh

Jooheon

…

I don’t

Want to know???

But I’m so curious???

Changkyun

Right so firstly I may have discovered a kink

Jooheon

NOIPE

---

Kihyun

Would you help me hide a body

Hyungwon

Just wear clothes goddamn

Kihyun

...

Two bodies

I’ll ask Wonho

Hyungwon

Wait what

KIHYUN

---

Wonho

You know...

I found this random contact on my phone...

And went through a lot of people...

But no one quite has your legs, Hyungwon

TheOneWithTheLegs

I had honestly forgotten that something literally possessed me

and made me write that as my contact in your phone

I mean

I know my redeeming features at least

Wonho

More than just legs and a pretty face, then? ^.^

TheOneWithTheLegs changed to Hyungwon <3 Legs

Hyungwon <3 Legs changed to   Hyungwon

Hyungwon

I would say that’s demeaning

But I did that to myself

Um, you want an update on Changkyun’s butt or

Wonho

Oh yeah I forgot about that heh

How is he?

Hyungwon

I do not have a fucking clue

Although a friend of mine also wants him dead (I think) so

His odds are looking weaker by the minute

Wonho

Why would anyone hurt him??? :o

I don’t understand.

He’s so cute

Hyungwon

Text him then if he’s so cute

I mean, do you want his number?

I’m sure he’s more informed about

...his ass

Wonho

I’m sure he is

Hyungwon

Okay

I’ll give you his number

Let me just look for it

Wonho

I don’t want his number, Hyungwon

Hyungwon

Oh okay cool

But you still think he’s cute

Wonho

He’s not my type \^_^/

I just kind of want to protect him

Which I think might be more necessary than I thought in the beginning?

Hyungwon

Protect him? He brings this on himself honestly

Don’t pity him

He doesn’t deserve it

What is your type then

Wonho

He’s too short…?

Haha idk jk someone who can make ramen I guess?

Hyungwon

Yeah, Changkyun almost set my kitchen on fire once making coffee

The short shit

Wonho

Told ya~

Mmm, idk, guess I’ve not really thought about what my type is

Just that I like certain people more than others

So do you have an ideal type?

Heh you’d think we’re idols on a variety show

Hyungwon

Same as you I guess

Wonho

...Someone who can make ramen?

Hyungwon

I mean, I just like certain people more than others

So

Can’t really explain it

You know

Wonho

Heh no biggie

Oh man first conversation and I’m already quizzing you about boys

I MEAN

I DIDN’T MEAN TO ASSUME I’M SO SORRY

Hyungwon

Lol dude it’s chill

I’m super bi

Wonho

Same omg thank god

I MEAN

Just that you’re not going to like hit me in the face or something idk

NOT THAT YOU WOULD

Omg just ignore me

Hyungwon

You know, I normally wouldn’t say this to anybody that wasn’t me

But I think you need to take a few deep breaths m’dude

Wonho

Sorry I just make a fool out of myself a lot??

And… overshare. Whoops.

Hyungwon

You’re just nice

It’s

Nice.

Because I’m

Well

Not nice

Wonho

I don’t believe that??

I don’t mean to like, call u liar or something ugh sorry I just mean like

You helped out a total stranger to fill in forms

Who does that

Hyungwon

Not nice people?

I mean, going by the evidence

Wonho

How long is it going to take to convince you?

Hyungwon

Days

Weeks

Years

Wonho

Heh guess we’ll find out, then \^.^/

---

Kihyun, standing on a small ladder, frowned, looking down from where he was adjusting one of the artificial lights pointing at where Hyungwon was supposed to be, not lounged like a prince on the nearest couch.

“What are you smiling about, you damn turtle?” Kihyun said, now frowning at the light, the blank canvas on the wall it was pointing at, back at the light, before adjusting it just a tad more.

“Why so salty? You jealous you can’t find anything to smile about?”

“Yeah, that’s definitely it,” Kihyun said, rolling his eyes as he got off the ladder and went to tug at the white canvas. There was a crease, okay. “Has nothing at all to do with the fact that you’re supposed to be over here so we can both go home earlier and not over there smiling. If you’re gonna smile, do it in front of the damn camera.”

“I thought you said my smiling ruins my angles.”

“A chair against your face might also ruin your angles, don’t test me.”

“Mmmhmm,” Hyungwon hummed, smiling as he tapped something out on his phone.

Kihyun tilted his head. He looked. His eyes widened.

“Oh my god who are you texting do I know them?”

Hyungwon scoffed, unconsciously holding his phone just… a little bit closer to himself. “You know, like, three people and two of them are related to you.”

Kihyun squinted, walking towards Hyungwon, who immediately put his phone to his chest, covering the screen. Kihyun stopped walking and looked at him in a ‘ are you fucking kidding me ’ kind of way. There was a tense silence before Kihyun practically pounced.

“Oh my god just show me-- ”

“GET OFF--”

“Please god I need this in my life--OW, YOU’RE SO DAMN BONEY--”

Hyungwon rolled off the couch before standing up to get away from Kihyun, who pulled him down by the leg. “Kihyun, my angles!”

“Fuck your angles, who are you TEXTING-- ”

“I’D RATHER DIE WITH HONOUR,” Hyungwon squirmed, effectively managing to get his bony elbows into every soft, squishy place on Kihyun’s body.

“Fuck! ” Kihyun exclaimed, cradling a very delicate place on his body. “The fuck what fucking honour you have none why would you do this.”

“Oh, please,” Hyungwon sniffed, pocketing his phone and straightening his clothes before walking over to the screen to take his place in front of the camera. “It’s not like you were ever going to use it anyway. For that to happen you’d need to find someone who actually tolerated you for more than five minutes.”

Kihyun glared, but was unable to make anything other than a fairly embarrassing dying whale noise as he slowly got to his feet. After he had had caught his breath, with Hyungwon smirking infuriatingly the whole time, he managed to get out, “You know, you talk big for someone who’s only friend is a frankly disgustingly annoying brat who is also at least two years younger than you.”

“Mmm, he’s still sticking around, then?” Hyungwon grinned, stretching his arm languidly behind his back. “Maybe you should just hit that and get it over with.”

“What? I mean, that’s just-- so stupid-- honestly who would even-- I’m a man, I mean, that’s not-- I don’t do that, okay,” he practically spat. “That’s not--men aren't supposed to do that.” Kihyun looked away, flushed and frowning, hands twitching, expression unreadable.

Hyungwon raised an eyebrow, trying to figure out what exactly had just happened. Flustered, maybe; denial, check?; slightly… disgusted? No, that’s not... right. Hyungwon felt something uncomfortable stir in his stomach and creep up his neck. “I’m not going to explain to you why that doesn’t really matter, but whatever, dude,” Hyungwon sighed, shaking his head. “In what position would you like me?”

“Did you do that on purpose?”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about.”

---

“One hot chocolate,” Shownu said, passing the paper cup to a texting Jooheon and putting another cup down next to Minhyuk’s laptop. “And a chai tea for you, love.”

“Thank you, teddy bear,” Minhyuk smiled widely, patting Shownu’s arm before going back to frowning in the utmost concentration at the screen.

“What are you working on?” Shownu asked, scooting his chair closer to Minhyuk, draping his arm over the boy’s shoulder, playing with the hair near his ear. “There are no dogs?”

“Sad, isn’t it?” Minhyuk pouted, “But no, it’s actually pretty cool! It’s a game, look, I think I’ve got it right--Oooh, I did, look--” Minhyuk pointed excitedly, Showu’s eyes crinkling in a laugh.

“That’s great and all, hyung,” Jooheon deadpanned, sipping at his hot chocolate and looking at the disgustingly cute scene in front of him with something approaching resignation. “But why did you drag me out here in the middle of the day, when we’re both supposed to be studying, and claim an emergency if you’re just going to code a game? Which is great,” Jooheon hastened to clarify as Shownu, probably completely unintentionally, flexed his arms, “but still.”

“Because we have something important to discuss,” Minhyuk explained simply, as Shownu leaned forward towards his laptop to play the rudimentary game of pressing the up, left, right and down arrows to catch one pixel with another pixel. “And I was supposed to do that last night, okay.”

“Are you sure? Because last time I talked to Changkyun he was talking about doing equations on something called console or something, not catching pixels.”

“...Fine, I might be reading ahead a bit, that’s not the point,” Minhyuk conceded, smiling away Jooheon’s negativity, and moving aside a bit so Shownu could just play the damn game. “This is about Changkyun, actually. And Kihyun, for that matter. Hyungwoo went to school with him, you know.”

Jooheon turned to squint at Shownu, who simply nodded as he continued tapping on the laptop’s keys. “Yeah, Minhyuk told me about a kid called Kihyun, and I remembered him from school.” Shownu shrugged, eyes not straying from the screen. “We didn’t hang out or anything, but from what I knew of him then I never would have thought he’d date Changkyun.”

“Hon, they’re not dating, that’s why we’re here,” Minhyuk gently corrected, calmly pointing out a way in which Shownu could catch the pixel easier.

“Right, sorry.”

“Wait, what?” Jooheon spluttered. “Why wouldn’t he date my best friend? Changkyun’s a catch and I’ll literally punch anyone who disagrees with that.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Shownu said, frowning as he just missed the pixel yet again. “I just meant, well, he was one of those, well, really artsy type people. I think he was in the choir? Always practiced the piano in break times. Took photo’s, I think. Just quiet, I guess.” He frowned. “And there was this… incident. I don’t know the details, but he got into a lot of trouble with the school board for bullying. Which was really odd because I’m pretty sure a month or two before that, I heard something about him getting pommeled behind the gym, by the same guys he teamed up with or became friends with or whatever. That was ages ago, though, I think he was like fourteen or something, it was when I was sixteen.”

Jooheon frowned, looking down at his coffee. “He was a bully? I mean, Changkyun calls him ‘rude boy’ so I’m not expecting a Disney Prince but…”

“You think I’d let my son marry a bully? No, no,” Minhyuk rolled his eyes.

“Hyung. As far as I know they’re barely talking. You can’t talk about marriage and shit. Which isn’t actually legal.”

“Yet . Call me optimistic. The damn point is,” Minhyuk stressed, because damn, they missed his point more than Shownu missed his pixel. “That I did some networking.”

“Oh, God,” Jooheon had vivid flashbacks of the last time Minhyuk did some ‘networking’. “Please tell me there are no breaking into the Science building and leaving flowers on desks again because that was just fucking ridiculous and not what I would call networking in any sense at all . And we got caught.”

“You know full well we didn’t get completely caught and now, really, Jooheon, what are the chances of me needing another bunsen burner.”

“Listen, hyung, I’ve learned not to have any sort of line when it comes to you. And what the hell is completely caught that makes no sense. ”

“They caught me and you, not Shownu. Now,  please,  can I make my point,” Minhyuk groaned dramatically, ignoring Jooheon’s sputtered complaints. “I did some networking, and I have a new friend who’s close with Kihyun, and I was curious about who he is now compared to when Shownu went to school with him. Do you know a Shin Hoseok?”

“I know of Shin Hoseok, or Wonho or whatever, although none of my shitty friends have made the effort of having us meet or anything--”

“Okay, good, because he’s close to Kihyun and I don’t think someone like Wonho would be friends with a bully. Which, is where shit gets really interesting,” Minhyuk said, leaning in towards Jooheon, who backed away. “The guy Kihyun got into trouble for bullying? That was Wonho.”

“Wait, what?” Shownu asked, looking up for the first time, just as the laptop made a pinging sound, announcing his first win to the table.

“Right?! Crazy!” Minhyuk exclaimed, leaning in even further to grab Jooheon by the shoulders, Jooheon wincing a little bit because too damn close to my face to be screaming, man. Shownu simply pulled at the back of Minhyuk’s shirt and Minhyuk fell back into his chair with nearly practised ease.

(Shownu didn’t even flinch at the volume. Which Jooheon chose not to think about because just no. We do not go there. Those places are covered in shadow and the sun did not touch those places.)

“Who the hell becomes best friends with the guy that bullied you? And from what I’ve heard Kihyun’s not the biggest specimen so I’m having a really hard time imagining Kihyun being intimidating to a man made out of muscles, which, again, I’ve only freaking heard about, you assholes .”

“He was smaller back then, and again, that’s not my damn point, ” Minhyuk sighed, looking at Jooheon with crossed arms. “The point to all of this is , that I asked Wonho what Kihyun had bullied him about.”

“And?”

“And he wouldn’t tell me,” Minhyuk pouted. “Said it wasn’t his place to say, which makes no sense .”

“So? I mean, do you have a plan for this or are we still just here so Shownu can test your game?” Jooheon knew he was being a little shit, but honestly, he did have a very important test tomorrow that was not going to study for itself.

“You’re Changkyun’s best friend--”

“Forever and always, yes, go on.”

“--And I know Changkyun can get…” Minhyuk hesitated, biting down on his lip. “I just mean, I don’t… Ugh! I don’t want him to get hurt. By getting into something without knowing all the information.”

Jooheon smiled softly. “Of course I care about Changkyun, hyung. Of course I do. But, do any of us really know all the information before going into anything ? Like, obviously if this Kihyun seemed like a really bad guy, we would do something, but since he seems to have changed, at least if this Wonho guy being friends with him is any indication, is it really our business to tell anyone about this? Like you said, he was fourteen. People change.”

Minhyuk leaned back in his chair, still looking concerned, yes, but definitely calmer. “Good point.”

“Besides, from what I can tell, Changkyun actually likes him,” Jooheon shrugged, before frowning. “Maybe a… bit too much.” Jooheon had a vivid flashback of a text Changkyun had sent him earlier, and shivered visibly. “Anyway! I’ve got this. I know the kid.”

“I hope we’re doing the right thing,” Minhyuk worried, smiling absently as Shownu fist-pumped the air after getting his second win, before he looked up and hummed in agreement.

“Dunno who I’d hate more if we aren’t,” Jooheon said, running a hand through his hair. “Kihyun, or my dumb ass.”

---

Hyungwon

So how much do you actually know about this Kihyun guy

Changkyun

Is this #concern I smell

It smells a bit like salt???

Hyungwon

Fuck off do you have any idea how long it would take me to testify if you got yourself into shit

Unfortunately people have seen us together before

I’d be a suspect

Changkyun

Do you accuse people of murder often or

Seriously hyung why?

Wait, how do you know about Kihyun?

I didn’t tell you shit about his actual name??

Hyungwon

Nice talk

Changkyun

NO

HYUNG???

HYUNG I’LL LITERALLY COME FIND YOU

MINHYUK SAYS YOU HAVE CLASS IN THE DRAMA BUILDING

I WILL LITERALLY KICK DOWN A DOOR

Hyungwon

Holy shit can you chill please

I just

Maybe

Know a photographer

That may or may not have complained about an annoying little shit

In his programming class

It wasn’t hard to put the dots together

Changkyun

He’s a photographer? \o.o?/

Hyungwon

That’s what you focus on okay cool

Cause obviously you are an annoying little shit

I’m glad you know yourself well enough to admit this

Changkyun

Shhh so many words, none of them about a beautiful photographer

You actually know him? Fuc there go my chances

Wait you model for him??? That’s where you keep getting pictures of yourself?

I’m processing

WAS HE THE ONE WHO TOOK THAT MIGHTY FINE PICTURE OF YOU

Man he’s good

GOD I DON’T STAND A CHANCE DO I

Hyungwon

Well, you know I look like a literal god

So, you might want to step away for a bit

I don’t like him

But yeah

Changkyun

Right

Thanks for the warning

---

Jooheon

Uhm hyung why the FUCK is Changkyun in my room, close to tears because

Apparently his crush is deeply in love with you??

Hyungwon

That little shit that’s not what I said at all

Well, mostly

But also not at all

Jooheon

Were you trying to scare him off Kihyun or something?

Hyungwon

I may

Possibly

Definitely have been trying to do that

Jooheon

Is this because of the bullying thing? Did Minhyuk tell you?

Hyungwon

WHAT

WHAT BULLYING

DID KIHYUN BULLY CHANGKYUN?

WHAT

Jooheon

NO HE’D BE DEAD BY NOW IF HE DID

No idk man apparently in school he beat up a guy or something

But they’re best friends now

WAIT YOU DIDN’T KNOW THAT IGNORE EVERYTHING I SAID

WHY were you trying to drive Changkyun away then?

Hyungwon

…..

Idk

He said some things

It made me just

A bit wary

Jooheon

Don’t fucking sprain something, I know you actually care

Wait, what did he say?

Hyungwon

Well I never

Such slander

Wait I didn’t even know Kihyun had a best friend

Idk man, it was just some

Well, it might be nothing

I made a joke about them boning?

He didn’t really react the way I was expecting

Jooheon

Yeah you met him?

Dude called Wonho

Hmm

Something to keep an eye on

But maybe not freak Changkyun out this much cos GOD

Hyung you know how he gets

Hyungwon

Ah

Right

That’s cool

People should have friends

Right

Jooheon

Hehe woah Changkyun was right

You DO have emotions

But you better think of SOMETHING cos Changkyun’s still upset you know

No matter what I tell him

About how unlovable and shit you are

Y’know, the usual

Hyungwon

…..

You want me to show up in that horrible outfit is that it?

Because, man

That’s cruel

Jooheon

:3

You did this

You fix it

Hyungwon

Omg fucking fine

Lemme just find the fucking stockings

If he doesn’t stop crying then

I’m out

I tried

Jooheon

Honestly I might cry a little

PS Minhyuk and Shownu say hi :3

Hyungwon

Fuck all of you

And tell Minhyuk to put away the camera

Jooheon

The lord is testing me on this day

But fine just make it quick, this is breaking my fucking heart u dick

Hyungwon

I know

I’m on my way

These heels are hard to walk in goddamn

“It’s just one class, dude.”

“Yeah, but what’s the use of one class when we’re all going to die, anyway.”

“Oh, my God, you’re hell like this. Hyungwon wore a dress, what more do you want?” Jooheon groaned, standing outside of the classroom with Changkyun.

“Effortless beauty, long legs, I don’t know,” Changkyun pouted, adjusting his backpack. “What if I really am just annoying him? Like,” Changkyun waved a hand around, looking at Jooheon with a pout. “I don’t know, he’s actually really annoyed with me and I’m just--”

“Bro,” Jooheon placed his hand on Changkyun’s shoulder, looking him deeply and brofully in the eyes, “I really think that, from what you’ve told me of this Kihyun, if he really didn’t want to talk to you, he just, plainly and simply, wouldn’t. ”

“Maybe he just feels sorry for me because of my pitiful existence.”

“I mean, that is a valid argument,” Jooheon hummed, “but I honestly don’t think so.”

Changkyun nodded thoughtfully. “Trash deserve love, too, right?”

“Right,” Jooheon agreed, nodding energetically, looking to the side before pulling Changkyun into a hug. “He likes you, bro, trust me.”

(Unbeknownst to Changkyun, Jooheon had spotted Kihyun glaring at them, and, while hugging Changkyun, he grinned cheekily and placed a sloppy kiss on Changkyun’s cheek.)

---

“You’re looking particularly pissed off today,” Changkyun pointed out cheerfully, flopping down next to Kihyun.

“How many boyfriends do you have?” Kihyun asked, just about managing to sound as aloof and sarcastic as he was going for. He thought. He hoped.

“What?”

“What?”

Changkyun giggled--flat out fucking giggled. “Oh, my God, do you mean Jooheon? Broheon? Bro of my life? My brotein shake? I brofess, he is my bro, but not my hoe.”

“...Fucking what ?”

“We’re just friends, hyung.” Changkyun grinned, patting Kihyun’s hand consolingly. It took Kihyun a distressingly long time to snatch his hand away, in his opinion. “Oh, yeah! Can I get your number?”

Frowning, and a little pissed off (at himself mostly) for even asking such a stupid question (he didn’t even care honestly), Kihyun merely paused before scoffing and saying, “No, why?”

Changkyun pouted. It was not adorable at all, fuck. “But sunbae, how are you going to tutor me if I can’t even text you?”

“Okay, first of all, I’m your hyung, not your sunbae. Technically. Second, I can’t believe I agreed to this fuckery, and third, we can just decide on a time in class.”

Changkyun frowned (so quickly Kihyun almost didn’t catch it), before nodding a little and getting out his books. “I guess, yeah. Sorry.”

Kihyun should have been satisfied with that reply. He really should have been. No shitty comeback, no smartass comment. Just a normal, reasonable agreement. It was fine. They didn’t bother each other in class at all, and Kihyun took fantastic notes and felt very great about the test coming up that week.

Which, of course, didn’t at all explain why, at the end of the lecture, when Chankgyun demurely asked him for a time, he blinked, hesitated, almost did just give a time, and then grabbed Changkyun’s phone, keying in his number.

“This is just for the tutoring, okay? I’m only doing this because I don’t have my schedule on me at the moment,” Kihyun grumbled, trying not to let the huge fucking smile spreading on Changkyun’s face affect him. Good god, could he just, like, keep that, that, fucking adorableness okay , inside him? It was disturbing Kihyun’s whole aesthetic.

He handed the phone back. Did Changkyun have to look so damn happy about this?

“Thanks, su-- hyung ,” Changkyun stressed, biting the inside of his cheek to fight off the smile. “I meant hyung.”

“It’s fine, I’m just not your sunbae,” Kihyun winced.

“Oppa?”

Kihyun turned around and walked the fuck away, ignoring the not at all muffled sniggers coming from behind him.

---

Changkyun

I GOT HIS NUMBER

I HAVE HIS NUMBER ON MY PHONE RIGHT NOW

LIKE I GO TO HIS NAME AND BAM

HIS NUMBER

Hyungwon

That’s

great

Changkyun

You’re super sure he doesn’t like you, right?

Hyungwon

Yes, Changkyun

Not even sure why you like him

Changkyun

You’re so nice sometimes

...why are you being nice to me

You’re supposed to tell me that I’m bothering you or something

Hyungwon

I don’t know what the fuck you mean

You fucking shit

Calling me nice

Disrespecting his hyung

Changkyun

I’m on cloud nine idgaf nothing can bring me down

Not even your salty ass

Love ya hyungie

Hyungwon

Cool

Even me telling you that I accidentally

Well

No yeah it was an accident

Broke your PS4 controller

Nice

Changkyun

I

I trusted you

Dont make me cry in the middle of english lit plz

Hyungwon

You should have known better

Than to buy Until Dawn

You know how I get with horror games

And Jooheon was here

The controller didn’t stand a chance

Changkyun

YOU INVITED JOOHEON ARE YOU INSANE

MY LAMP SCARES HIM

I ONCE GOT UP TO PEE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT AND HE ALMOST KILLED ME

WITH THE FUCKING LAMP

Hyungwon

It was funny though

Good times

Changkyun

I take back everything

You’re evil

Hyungwon

Order has been restored to the universe

---

Unknown

Heyyyy it’s Changkyun

Admittedly not about tutoring, but I never actually gave you MY number so

Just so you have it

For tutoring emergencies or whatever

Kihyun

Right

Thanks I guess

Unknown changed to Little Shit

Little Shit changed to Changkyun

---

Changkyun

You lied, he hates me

Jooheon

De fuck why

Changkyun

I texted him and he’s not??? Idk

Jooheon

WAIT

YOU HAVE HIS NUMBER?

Changkyun

Well, yeah… doesn’t mean shit tho

Jooheon

I’m going to whack you into another blood group

Stop texting me and go be funny

Changkyun

Right

I can be funny

I was BORN funny

You remember I showed you that picture of me with

Like, that face I made when I pooped right and I

Jooheon

BRO

Changkyun

FUCKING FINE

I’m going

---

Changkyun

Hey Kihyun

How does a programmer laugh

He Giggles

Kihyun

……

The fuck

Changkyun

#kihyun {

  right: 100%;

  margin: 0%;

}

Kihyun

You are

Of course

Aware of the fact

That that

Is HTML

Changkyun

Well the script is definitely working because

You are, indeed, right

What did HTML do to you dude

Kihyun

Made people think coding is easy

While we sit and suffer in the real coding class

It’s fucking annoying

Changkyun

I know actual coding is difficult why do you think I did HTML

Kihyun

I’m going to take a wild fucking guess here

But because you know

It drives me crazy

And you live off being an annoying little shit

Changkyun

Hyung Takes My Life

#HTML

Nah, it’s just easier to get something out of you when you have someone to prove wrong ;)

Kihyun

Why do you want to talk to me?

Didn’t we agree to make this for tutoring sessions?

Do you want to schedule one?

Changkyun

I was using HTML, I thought that was your idea of an emergency

But we should, to rectify my sins etc

AND I want to talk to you because

I

You’re interesting

And shit idk

Hyung?

---

Jooheon

Changkyun I can hear you screaming from next door wtf

Changkyun

BLESS ME WITH DEATH

---

Kihyun

Interesting

Right, so I have no classes on a friday, so we can meet up in the computer labs?

Like, basically any time

Just let me know the day before so I can schedule my study time

Changkyun

Cool, I’ll let you know

And

Thanks again

Have I said thanks yet? Anyway, yeah, thanks, you’re really giving me a hand here

I appreciate it :)

---

Jooheon

WHY U SCREAMIN BOI

Changkyun

A HAND WHY DID I SAY A HAND

---

Kihyun

Well, it would physically pain me if I saw you mutilating C# any further

So yeah

You’re

Quite

Nvm

---

Wonho frowned at the odd noise coming from Kihyun, looking at his best friend from across the table. “Er, who you texting there, Kihyun?”

“What? Nothing. I mean, it’s no one. Hey, don’t eat all the kimchi!” Kihyun grabbed at the bowl, successfully pulling it out of the reach of Wonho’s chopsticks. Wonho, like the best best friend he is, chose not to mention right at that moment how extremely red Kihyun was.

Wonho’s eyes widened and distressingly resembled those of a puppy, mouth full of kimchi. “M’no’! Gim’e!”

Kihyun dug furiously into the kimchi, cheeks bulging as he ate with righteous fury . God, who did this kid think he was, anyway? Kihyun had explicitly said the number was to use for tutoring related things only and… well, yes, while they had made arrangements on that front, he’d also made really horrible lapses of coding judgement and---Kihyun pushed the bowl away, frowning deeply, nose crinkling as he stared at the table so intensely, Wonho unconsciously patted it in sympathy.

“Wonho, do you think I’m an interesting person?”

“Uhm?” Wonho said, gently pulling the bowl towards himself again. “Well, yeah, you’re not boring or anything. Sorry, I’m confused, why are you asking me this?”

“Is a man not allowed to ask his best friend a simple question? Jeez.”

“Of course, I’m just confused as to what prompted it,” Wonho shrugged, only putting a reasonable amount of food into his mouth. “You’re interesting, Kihyun. Double major, artsy, short fuse,” Wonho shrugged. “Competitive? Smart?”

“Why do I hear question marks.”

“Well, I didn’t hear one just then, so I’m assuming that isn’t a question.”

“I just mean,” Kihyun huffed. “Why would someone go out of their way to talk to me?”

Wonho frowned, chewing thoughtfully before swallowing and taking a sip of his chai tea. “Is this about a girl?”

“What?!” Kihyun whipped his head up, “No--what--do I sound like I’m talking about a girl? What--”

“Dude, chill,” Wonho laughed, “I’ve just not seen you act like this before, okay? Usually with guys they get---” Wonho gestured towards him. “Like that, because of a girl. Or a boy. Whatever. You know I don’t care.”

“ You don’t,” Kihyun snapped, sitting back in his chair, before frowning. “Sorry, I just--"

“Yeah, I know,” Wonho said, voice small as he played with his food. “It’s fine, Kihyunnie,” Wonho smiled gently, as the other lowered his head guiltily into his hands, peering up from underneath his fringe. “We’ve had this talk before. It’s fine. I get it.”

“Yeah,” Kihyun breathed. “It’s nothing, by the way. Just this… little shit kid sassing me constantly. He’s driving me crazy--in a completely reasonable, I can’t handle this shit, kind of way.”

“Hm, why do you have his number then? I’m assuming that’s who you were texting?”

Kihyun grunted affirmatively. “He can’t just schedule a meeting like a normal person, noooo. He said he talks to me because I’m, and I quote, ‘interesting’.” Kihyun flipped a piece of kimchi around on his plate. “I don’t get it. I mean, I’m tired and grumpy and I’m pretty sure I’m not good conversation so why the fuck does Changkyun keep talking to me?”

Wonho nearly choked on his kimchi, laughing as he recovered. “Oh my god, Changkyun ? No wonder you’re like this.”

“Wait what? You know him?” Kihyun asked, leaning forward, food now completely abandoned.

“Mhm!” Wonho nodded animatedly. “Met him when I had to go register for classes. His friend Hyungwon helped me out with some forms. You know, the cute guy I mentioned texting? I don’t think I mentioned his name, though,” Wonho frowned in thought.

“ Oh my fucking god you like Hyungwon?” Kihyun basically screeched before catching himself and looking around a bit apologetically, before leaning in again, eyes wide. “What, I just, what? That beanpole? That piece of sass on a stick? What? I didn’t even know you knew him!”

“Wait, you know him?” Wonho gaped.

“Oh, my god, my entire life is falling apart, when did this happen …Oh my god was he texting you that one time oh my god. ”

“Earth to Kihyun, how do you know Hyungwon? This is important. Focus.”

“Remember when you got so busy practicing you couldn’t do shoots for me anymore?” Wonho nodded. “Hyungwon’s my current model. Christ, I cannot believe --”

“He… models for you? Like, in front a camera? Pictures and stuff?”

“Yes?” Kihyun looked up, frowning. “Why?”

“So, you have a lot of photos of him, huh? Like, a lot. Like, A LOT.”

“I don’t know you anymore. I’m going to go faceplant off a bridge, goodbye world.”

“No, but Kihyun wait like, you must have photos of him you don’t use right and--don’t walk away we were talking .”

“I am not enabling you!” Kihyun called back, slamming the cafe door.

---

Wonho

Hey! I saw you on campus and tried to say hi

but you weren’t paying attention to the rest of the world lol

What was the rush?

Hyungwon

Oh, sorry, I was just late for a class

Overslept

Wonho
In the library or? ^.^

Hyungwon

You know, the library was more a nap place

Not a sleep place

Per se

Wonho

Oh, yeah, Kihyun said he knew you?

And that you model for him?

Hyungwon

He did what now

Wonho

...So you don’t model for him?

Hyungwon

Not for HIM

Ugh okay but don’t, like

Idk think of me as an airhead model or some shit please?

I just

...Pout brainlessly at a camera

A+ for effort

Wonho

Of course I don’t think of you as an airhead model!

I just thought that

Um

Nvm

It’s stupid

I see that now

Hyungwon

Did you… want to model for him or something?

I’m sure you could just ask?

Wonho

No!

That’s not it!

Haha can you imagine ME being a model?

Hahahahaha

...

Okay so I admittedly modelled for him a little bit

But then my schedule got crazy as hell and he told me to focus on my dancing

BUT I think he actually got rid of me cos I kept laughing and blushing

I am not good at, well, keeping a straight face

Hehe

Hyungwon

Did you just….

Wonho
Did I just what?

Hyungwon

…..

Come on.

You know what you did.

Wonho

Bi the way

I was curious to see cos Kihyun’s my friend and all

And his photography is amazing

But I didn’t wanna look at your pics

Well, the pics of you

Without asking first

Is that dumb sorry

Hyungwon

Okay that was definitely on purpose

Wonho

…*by

hehe

Hyungwon

Uh-huh sure

Oh, okay well I guess if Kihyun says it’s okay you can look at them?

I mean, it’s not like I’m shy about what I look like

Oh wow that sounds really conceited I’m sorry.

Wonho

I offer this as a show of good faith and trust

Oh, no, don’t even worry about it, I mean

You’re gorgeous and I’m sure you own a mirror

Hyungwon

THa

Thanks

｡(*^▽^*)ゞ

Wonho

(/^▽^)/ You’re welcome!

Hyungwon

You’re quite good-looking yourself

Very...adonis like

Ahem

Wonho

Sorry I dropped my phone

I mean
Kihyun asked me something

Thank you??? (´,,•ω•,,)♡ that’s a new one haha

Hyungwon

Whatever he offers you or blackmails you with

Do NOT agree to a photoshoot at 3 am

That’s evil

Also, I can’t believe you haven’t heard that comparison before

Have you looked in the mirror lately?

Wonho

Getting up earlier doesn’t sound so bad hehe

No I guess you’re the most

Hehe

Straight-forward

Person I’ve met before

I did look in the mirror recently, actually

It thanked me

Hyungwon

Oh.

I’m sorry I was too forward

Sorry

Um

But yeah.

Thankful mirror nice

OH MY GOD YOU DID IT AGAIN YOU ABSOLUTE

Wonho

The word sorry is forever banned from this chat

Not allowed

It’s nice, Hyungwon, calm down

Hyungwon

I’m so

I mean, sometimes I just

Well I think too much

Ugh sor

I’ll just shut up now

Wonho

You know what

Do you want to have coffee sometime?

Hyungwon

Um yeah

That would be nice

Wonho

I love that you go through the effort of typing ‘um’ o(≧∇≦o)

Tomorrow sometime? I’ll text you when I’m free

Hyungwon

Oh, you know

Just want to illustrate accurately how

Painfully

Awkward I am.

Works for me

Wonho

It’s cute

Well, I mean, it’s not cute that you’re uncomfortable or whatever

That’s not what I meant

Um

SEE I UM TOO EVERYBODY UMS

Hyungwon

I’m not uncomfortable

It’s more that I’m tongue-tied

Oh wow I just put my foot so far up my mouth didn’t I

Nice job Hyungwon fucking fantastic

Wonho

Flexible

I MEAN OMG I PRESSED SEND WAY TOO EARLY

AHAHA I WAS STILL THINKING OF A WAY TO MAKE THAT NOT SOUND WEIRD

And here we are

Omg I’m gonna just let Kihyun kill me

Hyungwon

I’m very flexible yes

I’ll see you tomorrow

---

Kihyun

You’re buying my best friend a new phone at this rate, beanpole

Hyungwon

What, why what

Are you talking about

Kihyun

-.-

For our next shoot

I’m bringing an actual gun

Hyungwon

I’m sure some people will be sad to see you go

I’m not one of them though

Hold off until Changkyun realises what a pain you are

Kihyun

He knows

Why are you even

Ugh just be nice to Wonho, you asshole

Hyungwon

What are you talking about?

I AM nice to him

I am in fact, in general

A nice person

Kihyun

Could have fooled me

I have a test coming up, stop bothering me

Hyungwon

You texted me first, idiot

---

Hyungwon fiddled with his phone, barely listening as the lecturer finished up the class. He waved half-heartedly at the few people who he’d actually managed to get to a speaking level on in this class, and headed out, immediately unlocking his phone for the fifth time in as many minutes, checking for any messages that wasn’t Changkyun singing various versions of his new song, ‘Hyungwon and Wonho Stuck In a Tree, There Might Be K-i-s-s-i-n-g’.

It was true that he and Wonho hadn’t specified a time for their coffee date, but Hyungwon couldn’t help feeling antsy. It was already two, and he had just had his last class of the day. He could get started on his homework while he waited for Wonho to contact him, but he felt too on edge to do anything. And it wasn’t like he was paying attention in class anyway.

Thinking about it, did they say Wonho would contact Hyungwon, or was Hyungwon supposed to contact Wonho or --

Kihyun

Ohmygod I’m so sorry my phone died

and I forgot to let you know about a time for our date!

Hyungwon

…..I’m so confused

Did you have a stroke my dude

Have you been to the doctor

Kihyun

Huh???

OMGOSH SORRY IT’S WONHO

I’m using Hyunni’s phone to text you real quick

Hyungwon

Ok

That makes much more sense

Jeez, I almost had a heart attack

Kihyun

Anyhoo Kihyun’s glaring so

mind meeting at the on campus coffee place in about 15??

Hyungwon

See you in 15! :)

Hyungwon stared at the text. Specifically at the bracket, right next to the colon, like… when did this happen to him. When, a few seconds later, he realised Kihyun would probably be able to see the texts, he furiously Googled how to erase a text message.

Kihyun

:)

really

Hyungwon

Shut the fuck up Hyunni

Kihyun

FUCKING

NOBODY CALLS ME THAT ISTG HYUNGWON

Hyungwon

Okay Hyunni calm down:)

Kihyun

blocked

Hyungwon

That's fine

I’ll just take my perfect angles and fuck off then

Kay Hyunni?

He really did it huh

So petty

---

Hyungwon nearly dropped his phone as Wonho plopped down across from him at the table. “Wow, that was qu--”

“Hey, Wonnie! What are you doing here, of all places?” Minhyuk (not Wonho, fuck ) asked at the door of the coffee place, beaming distractedly at Wonho as he made his way over to them and pulled out a chair next to Hyungwon, Shownu, predictably, trailing after him, dressed in sweaty exercise clothes..

Oh, god. Oh no. Not this. Hyungwon barely managed to stop himself facepalming, instead pasting a strained smile on his face. “Minhyuk-hyung. Hyunwoo-hyung. Didn’t know you’d be coming.”

Don’t let them in, don’t let them see… Hyungwon sternly ordered his brain to shut the fuck up.

“Neither did we! We just so happened to be passing when we saw you and…” Minhyuk looked questioningly at Wonho, who was, of course, smiling at them.

“Shin Hoseok, but call me Wonho,” Wonho introduced himself, offering his hand to Minhyuk who grabbed it and shook it gleefully, before Shownu solemnly took it, nodding at Wonho, before turning back to the water he was nursing.

Minhyuk’s chair squeaked painfully against the floor as he moved closer to Hyungwon and leaned in. “Did you get a boyfriend without telling us? ” Minhyuk whispered. Loudly.

Hyungwon caved. He facepalmed.

“What I say?”

“Ah, no. We’re not dating,” Wonho corrected, coughing gently, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “Not yet, anyway.”

Hyungwon let his hands fall, looking at Wonho with wide eyes, brain stuttering. “Don’t egg them on!”

“What, am I not boyfriend material?” Wonho asked, hand to his chest, grinning at Hyungwon. Hyungwon could literally feel his face heating up, which. Well which was just not okay. He did not blush .

“This is hell,” Hyungwon deadpanned. “I died just outside of class tripping on a brick, and this is hell.”

“Are you blushing, Wonnie? Shownu look he’s blushing ! Our Wonnie is blushing, wow .” Minhyuk fluttered his hands around, grabbing at Shownu’s arm while he smiled indulgently at them all.

“You know, Wonnie could be me too,” Wonho pointed out with a grin.

“ Wonho ,” Hyungwon groaned, lifting pained eyes to Wonho’s face. Begging. For what he wasn’t sure, but he sure was begging for something .

“I’m sorry,” Wonho laughed, shaking his head a little, frowning softly at Hyungwon’s expression before turning to look at Minhyuk and Shownu with a soft smile. “It was really nice to meet you two, really , but I was wondering if maybe--”

“Say no more! Babe, move, we have literally everywhere else to be right now.” Minhyuk shooed Shownu up from his seat, waving cheerily at Hyungwon and Wonho before going to literally wherever the fuck Minhyuk spent his time, Hyungwon really didn’t know or care at this particular moment.

It was silent for a few long seconds before Wonho cleared his throat, prompting Hyungwon to look up from where he had been studying the table.

“Are you okay?”

Hyungwon shrugged slightly, then shook his head.

“Um, yeah. I mean, I’m just. I’m big on the um, privacy thing. I just. I don’t like other people knowing things about me. I don’t know. That’s stupid.” He shook his head again, a small, self-deprecating smile on his face.

“Hey, no, it’s not,” Wonho smiled, looking surprisingly sincere. “I’m sorry if I was out of line, honestly. I didn’t mean to put you on the spot like that.”

“It’s not so much out of line… I just feel extremely uncomfortable when people know things about me that I didn’t choose to share. It’s just, it’s a thing I have. Ha ha! Wow, you probably expected someone a lot cooler than this. Don’t pay attention to me. Hah! I’m unbothered by all of this, ha ha ha...” Hyungwon, mercifully, stopped rambling after that, hiding his red face in his hands.

“Hard not to pay attention to you, Hyungwon. Not in a bad way,” Wonho shrugged, still smiling kindly, from what Hyungwon could see as he peeked through his fingers. “But I get where you’re coming from, I really do. People knowing things about me haven’t always worked out wonderfully. I guess now I just sort of…” Wonho breathed. “Put it all out there, so there’s nothing for people to feel like they can use against me.”

Hyungwon let his hands fall, watching the boy with confusion and interest. “What do you mean all out there? Don’t you feel, I don’t know, too exposed?”

Wonho ran a hand through his hair, frowning at the ceiling for a second before shrugging. “I guess it’s like the difference between… I don’t know, taking your shirt off or having someone rip it off in public.” Wonho laughed, eyes crinkling. “Sorry, I’m terrible at metaphors. I just mean, that I felt the need to hide a lot of myself from the world--not in the same way you do, I know, I mean we’re different people--and in my experience, being open gets you the things you want and gets rid of the things you don’t need. It doesn’t always work out like that, but--” Wonho shrugged, smiling at Hyungwon again. “I say what I mean. Which is why I’m sure you know I like you, for one.”

“I.” Hyungwon paused. Swallowed. Tilted his head. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. So how about that coffee, then?”

---

“You guys good to go?” Changkyun asked, holding his taped together controller (fucking Hyungwon ), his character dancing at the entrance.

“Just getting some melon juice,” Minhyuk sang over his headphones and Changkyun had a solid two minutes of mental deliberation over whether that was in game or not. “Hey, Changkyun, have you submitted your online test, yet?”

There was a long, resounding groan.

“You forgot about it, didn’t you?”

“Maybe. Drink your melons.”

“I’ll help you afterwards. Okay,” Minhyuk’s tiny character jumped up and down. “I’m good!”

“Great,” Shownu said, “So--no Changkyun that doesn’t mean you can just run in--!” Shownu cut off with a muffled groan and a giggle. “Er, Jooheon, damage control.”

Changkyun exchanged a laugh with his roommate as he went in, waving his sword about, sending spells flying as he tried to keep everything off their incredibly squishy mage, Minhyuk, who Shownu was trying to delicately explain how threat worked and that’s why we let Changkyun run in first and hit everything, okay? Also, this would work much better if you weren’t sitting on my lap.

“I DON’T UNDERSTAND,” Jooheon whined loudly. “Guys, why the fuck isn’t Hyungwon here? This random asshole we got is really breaking my will to--oh my god did he just fucking-- ”

“Oh, Hyungwonnie’s on a date,” Minhyuk hummed distractedly as he almost died for the nth time.

“What?” Changkyun choked with a laugh, sending a quick vote through to kick the random asshole who thought sneaking all the way through to the boss on his own was a smart move and was probably twelve years old. Jooheon was turning red, it was his duty.

“ MInhyuk , you know we weren’t supposed to say anything. You could see it on his face,” Shownu reprimanded his boyfriend, successfully dragging Minhyuk’s character out of the worst part of the fighting. There was a reason Shownu usually got stuck as the party’s healer.

“Is it with Wonho?” Changkyun cackled. “Oh, my god, it is, isn’t it--”

“That’s pulling way too many, Kyunnie, chill--”

“Sorry! Just do an AOE--There we go. No, but seriously, did he actually say it was a date?”

“Um. No?” Minhyuk squeaked. “What? Date? Hyungwon? Hahaha, you must have heard me wrong.”

Jooheon and Changkyun exchanged a look .

“I didn’t say anything. He’s probably… sleeping,” Minhyuk concluded with a nervous giggle.

“ Minhyuk, stop wiggling, you’re gonna die --”

“Yeah, god Hyung, you’re gonna give Shownu a boner.”

“Too late,” Minhyuk said cheerfully.

“UUUUGH,” Jooheon groaned.

Changkyun sighed wistfully. “I wouldn’t mind a boner right about now.”

“Dude, I’m literally two metres away from you, can you not--”

“Oh, my God, Jooheon, a Boner is a tool with which you Bone, how how have I never made that connection-- ”

“We’re all seconds away from death, can you focus,” Jooheon deadpanned, kicking Changkyun.  

“But wait what about the date and--”

“ Changkyun, focus! I’ll never let you tank again.”

“Sorry, jeez. Seriously, though--”

“Seriously though nothing, you guys know Hyungwon is an exceptionally private person and something like a date, which I’m not saying it was --”

“You kind of are.”

“--Is a big deal, something he should tell us about, so can we please, please just focus on killing this... fish in a cauldron,” Shownu finished, succeeding in quieting them all down for all of five seconds before--

“Captain Cookie. The fish is called Captain Cookie.”

“Yes, thank you, Jooheon, that.”

“Guys,” Changkyun suddenly started laughing. “ Joy stick .”

Changkyun

Hey sorry for bothering so late

Are you free tomorrow?

Kihyun

Oh, wow, is it really that time already?

Yeah I said I would be.

You have a time for me?

Changkyun

Okay I know how busy you are so don’t judge my weak-ass humanities schedule

But I have like the whole day free except 10h-11h and 12h-13h

Kihyun

You lucky little...

Okay

Lemme just check my study schedule real quick

We can do it from two until like, four?

Whenever we get done I guess. I’ll try to finish most of my stuff before then.

Eat before you come, we’re gonna be there a while.

Changkyun

That would be great, thanks, hyung

Where do you wanna meet?

Oh and tea or coffee?

Shhh I’m buying you a beverage just let it happen

Kihyun

…..okay, yeah, sure, whatever

Tea, with milk and two sugars

Labs?

Changkyun

Cool, see you then. I won’t keep you up, get some sleep

Sleep tight hyung!~

Kihyun

Shouldn’t you be asleep?

You have class tomorrow, I don’t

Changkyun

Shhh shleeeeep

Kihyun

Hmm

Goodnight

---

Changkyun had some bad habits; almost never sleeping before midnight, picking at his lips when he was nervous; starting his assignments the day before they’re supposed to be in; chronic peace signs and winking in selfies; and, most relevant to the current situation, pacing.

The back entrance to the library was a courtyard away, but not far away, from the various food stalls on campus, so it was usually always crawling with hungry students and pigeons. Jooheon tried his best to concentrate on his textbook, desperate to cram as much information as possible into his head before his next class, while Changkyun was slowly wearing a path into the dirt with his insistent back and forth pacing fuckery.

“Jooheon.”

“Yes, Changkyun.”

“Will you tell my mother I love her?”

Jooheon rolled his eyes, closed his book (it was a hopeless case) and walked up to his best friend, put his hand on the younger boy’s shoulder, and said, “No.”

Changkyun groaned, picking at his lips (with a hand Jooheon swatted away), before resorting to fiddling with the strings of his hoodie. “This was a horrible idea. Like, those medieval pictures of various clearly dubious medical procedures? That level of bad. Who pumps air into a man’s anus, Jooheon? Why? ”

“You’re being obscure, Kyunnie, reel it in.”

“I’m a mature man. I can do this.”

Jooheon laughed. “I really don’t know what you’re expecting to happen here.”

“I am expecting,” Changkyun said, calmly, contemplatively. “To die of utter humiliation? To make inappropriate dick jokes? I’m expecting horrific, KDrama-esque... disastrous... situations. What if I fall off my chair or something, or, or--” Changkyun waved his hand about. “Fart? Loudly.”

“Why are you like this.”

“Have you seen Yoo Kihyun, Jooheon?”

“Short, angry…” Jooheon frowned in thought. “Pink? A little bit jealous?” Jooheon laughed at his best friend’s expression. “Listen, it’s a tutoring session, just be cool, okay?”

Changkyun looked at him for a long moment, before digging his phone out of his pocket, opening his chat with Kihyun, and handing it to his friend. “Just… just read it.”

Jooheon raised his eyebrows. “That’s some trust you’ve got there--yeah, yeah, gimme a second.” Jooheon scrolled, reading before glancing at Chankyun with a shit-eating grin. “Dude--”

“Shut up, I know .”Changkyun groaned, pulling the strings of his hoodie taut, managing to hide nearly his whole face and looking particularly helpless.

“You need to just unwind, Kyun. You’re overthinking everything in an attempt to make yourself likable.”

Changkyun stared at the wall. How dare he be so profound.

“Or maybe the two of you were just so tired you couldn’t muster the energy for all the unnecessary sass flirting.”

“Oh, my God,” Changkyun said, turning to Jooheon, wide eyes visible through the gap. “I’m being totally obvious and stupid, aren’t I? What if--What if he’s just trying to show me how to code and I--”

“Pop a boner in the middle of the computer lab? Already did that one, buddy.”

“It was a hypothetical situation. Like, that didn’t even happen and even if it did, it was in the utmost--”

“Dude,” Jooheon had to make quick work of catching his pacing best friend by the shoulders, shaking him a little as he did. “Sit down.”

“But I like pacing. It’s good exercise. For my legs.”

“It’s also stressing us both out, Kyunnie. Sit.”

Changkyun did, plopping down on the nearest little wall, craning his head to look over the bridge filled with food stalls towards the Math building. “What time is it?”

Jooheon tossed his phone back to him. It landed in Changkyun’s lap even as he made an uncoordinated attempt to catch it, his hands flailing.

“Ugh, Jooheon, you know I can’t catch for shit.”

“Yeah, you’re a real catch." Changkyun groaned. "And it’s okay, I was aiming for your lap, anyway.”

Changkyun sighed and held his phone face upward, eyes widening comically as he saw the time.

“Oh, jesus, fuck, I’m going to be late, fuck! ”

Changkyun ran off without a second thought, pushing people out of the way, waving Jooheon’s shouted, “You haven’t eaten yet!” off with a frantic hand.

---

Kihyun shifted the backpack on his shoulder, looking down at his phone, around him, and back at his phone wondering if he should just text the little shit. It was ten past two. He had thought to go in and wait for him numerous times, but something indefinable and stupid kept him waiting.

He was mid-text when he heard hurried footsteps behind him, and turned just in time to see Changkyun barreling up the stairs, coming to a stop just before colliding with the pillar Kihyun had been leaning against.

“Kihyunnie! Goodness, are you early? The cockel hath barely sung, ‘tis almost time for lunchen or whatever--”

“No. You’re late. And my name’s Kihyun . That’s all.”

Changkyun nodded, breathing only slightly labored. “Cool, my bad for, like,” he gestured vaguely. “Literally everything.” Changkyun smiled, looking apologetic and running a hand through his hair.

“Hmph. Come on, I still need to finish two chapters of math after this.” Kihyun flashed his student card at the scanner, opening the door after the beep, holding it just long enough for Changkyun to grab it before walking to the very back of the room where, luckily, two computers were open. It was Friday afternoon, so the lab was quite empty, and Kihyun was glad. He never really liked sitting in the middle or the front, preferring his back against a wall. He just… generally didn’t like people seeing what he was doing on his screen.

Changkyun took the other open seat, bouncing a bit on his chair and pulling the lever so he would be taller. Kihyun, glanced at him, before pulling the lever on his own chair so the chair would sink in.

“So!” Changkyun beamed at Kihyun, who glowered back. It had not been… the most productive day thus far. He was in what one might call, a bad mood. Changkyun’s grin faltered a bit, but he quickly recovered, tapping the desk lightly with hands. “So, what do we do first?”

“Well, first,” Kihyun drawled, pulling his textbook out of his bag and opening Visual Studio on his computer, “you get out your book. Then, you open Visual Studio.”

Changkyun’s grin flickered, disappeared, and returned rather strained. “Right. Right, sorry. I’ll do that.” He clicked the icon and quickly shrugged out of his hoodie while the program loaded, before taking out his book and looking at Kihyun, almost… carefully.

Kihyun noticed his hands stilling in their tapping, and sighed. He would not feel guilty about being grumpy. He wouldn’t. He was tired and stressed and Calculus was breaking him a bit (a lot) and honestly what did he care what some kid thought about him? It wasn’t like he owed the kid anything. He was doing him a huge favour. In fact…

“Hey, where’s my tea?”

The kid’s mouth opened, closed, opened. “There, uhm, aren’t any drinks allowed in the labs?”

Kihyun sighed, yawned, and flinched as his neck cracked ominously, before pointedly looking at the water bottle next to him, reaching out, and taking a sip, before turning back to his computer. “Right. No beverages in the labs.”

Changkyun looked away from him, chewed on his lip and frowned, before looking at Kihyun out of the corner of his eye.

“I’m really sorry about the tea, and being late,” Changkyun started quietly after a moment, shifting in his seat. “Er, I’ll get you some afterwards? Not that I--never mind. Uhm... what if I just try doing it and then I ask you if I’m doing something wrong? Or you feel a disturbance in the code or something.”

“Sounds good. Start with the first exercise in chapter one. It might seem easy, but it doesn’t hurt to cover your bases. You might just be getting something wrong that’s actually really easy to fix and you’re just overlooking it or something.”

Kihyun turned to his computer, plugged in his memory stick and pulled up the Calculus papers he had been working on, flipping open his exam pad and twirling his pencil in his hand as he glared at the screen.

Changkyun nodded, smiling softly before opening his book and getting started, and, Kihyun noted, glancing at Changkyun out of the corner of his eye, he was being far less vocal about his frustrations and thought processes than he had been last time. Changkyun frowned, went back a couple of pages in the textbook, read quietly, and continued on his own. Kihyun couldn’t help but wonder if he was doing this just so he wouldn’t bother him, which would defeat the whole purpose of the tutoring in the first place.

Kihyun jumped slightly in his chair when the girl next to Changkyun dropped her pencil case. Changkyun, seemingly on instinct, reached down to help her, and, naturally, nearly headbutted the poor girl.

“Oh, my god, sorry,” Kihyun heard him hastily apologize, as the girl just laughed and shook her head.

“Chill, dude, it’s fine,” she said, grabbing a handful of pens before squinting at him. Kihyun looked away. This was none of his damn business. He needed to figure out how to integrate this function or he’ll actually fail the next test “Hey, aren’t you the kid who got trapped in the automated doors at the library?”

Kihyun choked because of fucking course, waving his hand and playing it off as a cough when the two looked at him. They both turned away quite quickly, Changkyun with an odd expression before cocking his head at her..

“Aren’t you the girl who was laughing at me?” Changkyun asked, eyebrow raised with a grin.

“You sat down,” she pointed out with a laugh. “Like a scolded, trapped dog coming to terms with its fate. Was I not supposed to laugh?”

Kihyun couldn’t keep his eyes from shifting slightly to the side, enough to see the way Changkyun was smiling at this, admittedly, very pretty girl. Kihyun frowned. Changkyun shouldn’t be flirting right now. They were busy studying, for fuck’s sake. Changkyun needed to put away that damn smile and concentrate on his godawful programming.

...And Kihyun really had to watch whatever temper was flaring up right now for absolute no reason, thank you very much.

Another girl, who was obviously waiting for the blonde girl to get her shit so they could go, seemed to also disagree with the state of the situation, if the way she emphasised the nickname was of any indication. “Lisa, honey, can we go? Jisoo just texted.”

“Shit, right, sorry,” she, Lisa apparently, said, quickly stuffing all her stationary in her pencil case before chucking that in her bag and putting the earphone back in her ear. “See you in class, Stuck In Door Dude.”

“That’s Stuck in Door Changkyun, actually,” Changkyun pointed out, waving a little as she and her friend made their way out. Kihyun looked away just as Changkyun made to turn towards him, scribbling down the function he needed to integrate.

He heard a quiet sigh from beside him, but paid it little heed, getting caught in the complexities of integrating. Kihyun got about halfway with the problem, frowned, leaned back, shook his pencil a little bit (as if that was going to help at all), and finally gave in and pulled out his textbook. He was supposed to have the formulas memorised by now. He had, in fact, spent the whole morning doing exactly that. But… but it was different. Memorising and implementing were worlds apart and Kihyun couldn’t remember a single goddamn thing . He could feel the pit of stress and fear yawning in his stomach. He could feel how tense he was, the sharp line of his shoulders. He could feel it, but he couldn’t do anything about it. He just needed to keep working, keep trying. What else could he do, after all?

He was just on the tip of solving the problem, it was just barely out of his reach, he could feel it on the tip of his pencil, if he just wrote a little bit more it would all become so crystal clear --

“Well, fuck.”

The tip of Kihyun’s pencil snapped. Perfect.

Chankgyun was looking at his screen in utter incomprehension, hands gesturing wildly. “I don’t understand, I just don’t understand. I followed the steps, I really did. I implemented the writeline method correctly, I know I did. I put in the readkey so that the console window doesn’t immediately close. I followed the instructions for writing an if statement perfectly, this computer must hate me, I don’t understand,” Changkyun wailed, sounding suspiciously close to actually crying.

Kihyun relaxed his grip around his pencil. He was here to help this kid. Now was not the time to obsess about what he could and couldn’t do. Turning towards Changkyun, shifting closer to get a look at the screen, he said, “So. First rule of programming: never blame the computer. The computer doesn’t have free will. It only follows the instructions people give it. It’s not it’s fault if someone enters faulty instructions. Also, calling a computer dumb, or hateful, or any of that, is basically calling yourself those names. You’re the only one that can make the computer do anything.”

“Hyung, that’s super profound and all, but honestly, I’m like 100% certain this computer is going to physically manifest and punch me in the face.”

“Stop being dramatic,” Kihyun sighed even as he smiled softly, pushing closer to see what was going on on the kid’s screen. Damn, he should have just brought his glasses with him. It wasn’t like he could look any more nerdy than he already did, what with the calculus splayed across his screen. “Now, what the hell have you been doing here… Show me what problem you were working on?”

Changkyun shoved the textbook at him, pointing at a viciously marked up section of the book. Most of it, Kihyun saw with barely concealed amusement, was just the word ‘fuck this’ written over and over in various fonts.

“Ahem,” Kihyun cleared his throat slightly, willing the wide smile that threatened to make the corners of his lips twitch upwards to disappear. “Right, so, it looks like you were trying to change the colour of the line on the panel, right?”

Kihyun saw Changkyun’s head nodding out of the corner of his eye and continued.

“Okay, so, first of all, you didn’t declare your graphics object correctly. Remember I told you we work on different levels?" Changkyun nodded again. It was quite endearing the way he hung off every word. Kihyun shifted, feeling something flutter in his chest. "You, er, you didn’t declare this on class level. Also, you can’t just say when the combobox equals the colour red,” Kihyun leaned his chin on his propped up hand, blinking tiredly at the screen. “You have to say the text of the combobox. As in, what’s actually inside the combobox, not the object itself.”

“Whoops?” Changkyun said, biting his lip.

“It’s not that big a deal,” Kihyun mumbled distractedly, highlighting the errors. “I’m not going to fix them for you, otherwise you won’t learn, but try to remember the different levels of the coding, and also just change that so that you use the Text property of the combobox and we’ll see if it works.”

Kihyun sat back, ostensibly returning to his Calculus, and Changkyun tapped away at the keyboard, pausing a few times, before poking Kihyun’s arm and pointing excitedly at his monitor. “Kihyun, I think I did it!”

Kihyun rolled his chair forward, eyebrows lifting as he quickly scanned the code, his eyes snagging on a particular comment that literally made him purse his mouth in an effort to keep his smile at bay. There, at the bottom of the code, in comments, Changkyun had written:

//student only mildly hurt in the coding of this program.

//Ki-hyung to thank for lack of brain injuries

“You know,” Kihyun commented, biting his cheek. “And I know you know this, because I’ve told you a few times, now. My name is Kihyun .”

“You’ve mentioned it.” Changkyun smiled widely. Not grinning, per say, not… smug? Just… smiling at him.

Christ, this kid.

Kihyun shook his head slightly. “Anyway. The code looks okay. Why don’t you run it and check? You know, whenever you’re unsure, you can always place a stop-point in the program and then, while the program is running, go through the process the computer goes through step by step, to see where you went wrong.”

“Oh. I’ll do that next time.” Changkyun took a deep breath. “Okay, running it now.” Changkyun gave an exaggerated wince, leaning back like it would explode in his face or something.

The form appeared. Kihyun gestured towards the combobox, and Changkyun, obviously holding his breath, clicked on it, picked the colour red, and let out a relieved breath when the line changed colour.

“We did it!” Changkyun exclaimed, turning towards a reluctantly grinning Kihyun, who looked at him with that same smile for about two seconds, before something… shifted.

Kihyun didn’t know what it was. He didn’t know what had suddenly, inexplicably, changed so that the happy, relieved and slightly silly atmosphere that had been there just a few moments before suddenly deepened. Got more heavy. Drew Kihyun’s eyes inexorably towards Changkyun’s, holding fast like magnets. Kihyun, throat feeling suddenly extremely dry, swallowed and Changkyun’s eyes dropped, following the movement with a hooded gaze, eyes moving downwards before his eyes lazily travelled up, catching on Kihyun’s lips. Just as Kihyun felt a tsunami of heat threaten to overwhelm his face, he tore his gaze away from the sight of Changkyun staring at his lips like… Well, like something.

Kihyun stared at his screen. Changkyun cleared his throat softly beside him, but Kihyun did not fucking look over because he was studying. He had just helped a classmate with his work, that was all. That was all.

The functions swam before his eyes. He needed to focus. He needed to focus. He needed to not think about anything else he just needed to focus . He was not allowed to think of Changkyun’s eyes following the line of his throat, he was not allowed to feel the phantom heat of those eyes on his lips.

He was not allowed.

A low, loud grumble sounded from where Changkyun sat, followed very quickly by a soft, heartfelt, “oh my god, fucking really,” and the now nearly familiar sound of Changkyun’s head hitting his desk.

Kihyun looked over, previous… whatever the hell that was, now replaced with a sense of disbelief, diligently ignoring the fact that Changkyun’s face, ears and goddamn neck was a deep, telling pink. “I fucking told you to eat something. I told you.”

“I diiid,” Changkyun whined, his hands coming up to cover his face even as he rested it on the desk.

“Oh, yeah? Cos from what I’m hearing--”

“Oh, my god, just let me die--”

“Seriously, though, we’re going to be here for more than two hours, I fucking told you --”

“I ate an apple, okay.”

There was a moment of silence. “An apple? A fucking apple ?”

“Do you not like apples or something, cos they’re actually--”

“Oh my fuck-- Come on. We’re going to get you some food now. I can’t work like this.”

“No, no, no, I’m sorry, I’ll tell my stomach to shut up,” Changkyun defended, but Kihyun was already gathering his stuff.

“Just... come on. You owe me that tea anyway.”

---

Changkyun followed Kihyun out of the computer labs and the Math building, holding back every single urge to fling himself into the sun. Christ, what was today? Was the universe messing with him or something? First, he was late, second, he forgot the damn tea. Then Kihyun looked so damn tired and here he was, being a dumbass and probably wasting his time. And, hell, the one damn time he’d gotten the older boy to have a semblance of a smile, he had to go ruin it by being a gay disaster with absolutely no self-control.

He could feel his cheeks pinken just thinking about it. When had he gotten so close? It had probably been only a few seconds, but Changkyun wasn’t too sure it wasn’t an eternity. What really stuck in his head, though, was the look on Kihyun’s face when he’d (finally, unfortunately) looked away. He didn’t know what to make of it, and honestly he’d barely seen the frown knit itself between Kihyun’s eyebrows, but--

“Get a table, I’m buying you a sandwich.”

“You really don’t have to--”

“Table. Sandwich.” Changkyun hesitated. Kihyun rolled his eyes. “Now.”

Changkyun promptly plopped down at the nearest open table, putting his backpack on his lap and hugging it.

---

Changkyun

The lord is testing me on this day

Jooheon

shhh no time I'm staring at someone from afar

Changkyun

What

Jooheon

What

---

“You should put your backpack down,” Kihyun said, lifting an eyebrow at the way Changkyun was sitting, bag clutched close. “You can’t eat with that on your lap.”

“‘Can’t' is a strong word.”

Kihyun gave him a look.

Changkyun weighed his options here and swallowed heavily. Bag meant protection. Bag meant shield. No bag meant none of that. No bag meant complying to Kihyun. Complying meant he might not need said shield.

He put the bag down next to him, before noting what Kihyun had brought with him and stating the obvious with something approaching disbelief. “You bought me food.”

“I literally said I was going to buy you a sandwich,” Kihyun deadpanned, sitting down and pushing the food towards the younger boy, holding a cup in his hand. “You owe me for this tea, by the way. Call it a tutor’s fee.”

“Hell, keep helping me and I’ll buy you the next five teas--” Changkyun bit at the crust of his sandwich. “You’re really saving my ass, you know,” Changkyun mumbled, mouth full.

Kihyun shrugged, looking away and sipping at his tea. “Yeah, well. I couldn’t very well let you continue mutilating C# while I knew about it. Don’t speak with food in your mouth, it’s rude. Do you really think this is going to take five more lessons?”

“You literally just described my coding the way you’d describe a crime scene,” Changkyun pointed out, after swallowing. “Just five is me being optimistic.”

Changkyun watched in utter, fascinated amazement as Kihyun let a small, grudging and very amused smile grace his lips. (Changkyun specialised in being a human disaster for a living. He knew what amusement looked like, okay?)

“How did you even make it this far in life?” Kihyun asked, still with that strange half-smile on his face that could make Changkyun do anything it wanted. Like, swallow before he spoke. “Like, I’m honestly curious.”

“Well,” Changkyun said, getting a damn grip (getting a damn grip). “I, erm, it’s, well, firstly, I’d say it’s my flawless eloquence when asked questions.”

“Well, yes, of course. Obviously,” Kihyun snickered, lowering his head and looking up at Changkyun through the strands of hair falling into his face, rolling his cup of tea between his hands.

God mother fucking damn shit seriously who’s fucking idea had this even --

“So, I mean, that’s a plus,” Changkyun said, examining his sandwich intently. What a sandwich. So little butter. “I get nice people to help me? I don’t know, Hyungwon says I get away with murder because I look so apologetic about it.”

Kihyun tilted his head and pursed his lips, before nodding. “I mean, it’s still annoying as fuck, but I can definitely see that. You do look a bit like a puppy, so.” As soon as the words left Kihyun’s mouth, his eyes went wide, he clenched his jaw and he looked away, staring at his tea.

“A kicked one,” Changkyun said, still making eyes at his sandwich. “Raw skill, though? Mm, let’s see,” Changkyun said, leaning back in his chair. “I can…” He frowned. “Gimme a sec.” He frowned harder. “...Rap? Clap my hands behind my back and walk like a penguin?”

“You had to dig deep for those, huh?”

“We’re talking Marianas Trench, and even then, I’m not sure rapping in the shower counts,” Changkyun chuckled, running a hand through his hair. “I’m assuming you’re just good at everything, yeah?”

Kihyun scoffed, finally looking up at Changkyun again. “Of course.”

Changkyun couldn’t help the grin that overwhelmed him at that point. Such a cocky boy. So pretty too. And so smar--

Nope, derailing that train of thought at the damn station, nope.

“You’re a photographer, right?”

Good one .

Kihyun frowned. “How did you know that? Did Hyungwon tell you?" He leaned forward with narrowed eyes. "...Are you talking about me?”

“No, I was talking to the table,” Changkyun grinned, before feeling a bit self-conscious and nibbling away at the sandwich. “Er, yeah, Hyungwon mentioned that he models for you. My sincerest condolences, by the way.”

Kihyun shrugged. “He’s an ass, but he’s got good angles. Also, if you ever tell him that, I will murder you in your sleep.”

Changkyun laughed. “Good angles?”

“Mmhmm,” Kihyun hummed, throwing his head backwards as he drained the last drops of his tea. Changkyun had to fight to lift his eyes from Kihyun’s throat.

“You’re made of good angles,” Changkyun mumbled.

“What?” Kihyun lowered his cup, licking his lips.

Changkyun looked at him for a second with his mouth open before blinking. “Nothing,” Changkyun squeaked. Changkyun reached for his bag, quickly slung it onto his back, stood up, and honest to god fucking bowed. “Thank you for feeding me, hyung.”

Kihyun raised an eyebrow at the kid. “Yeah. Well. Eat next time. And we’re not done, by the way. We need to do at least five more exercises.”

Changkyun hid his face behind his hands. He had just fucking bowed to Kihyun in a coffee shop and he didn’t even have the saving grace of being able to leg it out of the situation as quick as possible.

“Right, five more. Let’s go,” Changkyun said weakly, following Kihyun’s quick strides back to the computer lab, shoulders slumped.

---

Minhyuk

Doth mine eyes deceive me or DID THEY GO ON A DATE

MY FRAGILE HEART

Jooheon

Wait, what?

Who?

I’m confused

Minhyuk

I JUST SAW CHANGKI ON A DATE

Jooheon

The hell is a Changki

Hyung I’m in class

Minhyuk

MEANINGLESS

Changki has relocated

CHANGKI RISE

I lost them

Jooheon

Please stop following them around

Because I assume Changki is your

Oh god I almost said ship name

Minhyuk

...

I was not

I’m not following them

What are you talking about

---

Jooheon

Hey Shownu-hyung where you at?

Shownu

Outside the computer labs with Minhyuk, why?

---

Jooheon

[screenshot attached]

B i t ch

Minhyuk

…goddamnit

I told him to stop being so honest to other people

Isn’t he just so precious tho

I wanna smooch his cheeks

Jooheon

why do people keep telling me these things thinking it's okay

---

Jooheon

Did you go on a date???

Changkyun

WHAT NO HE JUST BOUGHT ME LUNCH

My stomach may have started talking in various whale tongues

Jooheon

Do you ever think before you speak or

That sounds like a date

But anyway if you see Minhyuk hiding behind a bush or something just wave

Changkyun

Why would I

Anyway did you know that curly bois ha

Jooheon

The hell is a curly boi

??

Bro???

You there?

Changkyun

I’m not allowed to be on my phone kihyun said so

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Jooheon

Oh dear god

---

Jooheon

Are you done with the tutoring yet?

I have something to tell you

BRO

Changkyun

My highly sexually frustrated virginal ass is ready to listen, my friend

Jooheon

I... met a boy

Who raps and isn't you

he's short and funny and sassed Hyungwon

I want to smooch HE'S SO GOOD

Changkyun

I’m assuming you mean good at rapping

or does this story come with a happy ending

Jooheon

I wish

Man can't dance for shit but HIS RAPPING

DICKS OUT FOR DAT RAP 

Like, I was working on my raps?

And we were assigned to work in groups??

And then this guy came up to me saying we should work together???

And he wanted to go discuss it today after class????

And I saw him rapping?????

(May have been looking through doors a bit ngl)

seriously did I mention the rapping

Changkyun

Quick interruption to mention

One: HOLY SHIT DUDE THAT’S AWESOME

Two: we’re all incredibly gay aren’t we this is the gayest fucking college

Jooheon

I take offence to that

I’m bi af

Changkyun

I apologise

THIS IS THE QUEEREST COLLEGE

Continue your story I’m fucking RAPT

(lol geddit RAPt I'm so fucking funny)

Jooheon

That’s it

I’m done. Got his number

Working on the raps tomorrow

Changkyun

YOI GOT HIS NUCMEBR NOIIIIIIIIIICE

Jooheon

Learn to spell you’re an English major

Changkyun

KISS MY ASS IM EXCVITED 4 U BROE

Jooheon

I’m gonna

Stop enabling you now

Talk later

Changkyun

Im fucking gidDY

---

Changkyun

Remember how I said that you can throw a rock and hit a not-straight in this university

Jooheon

Something like that

Changkyun

Jackson Wang is on the roof

Singing a song called ‘For You, Markiepoo’

I’m guessing that’s the name

Though he has said that like seven times

Jooheon

This is an incredibly queer fucking place

For a country in which same-sex marriage is not legal

Changkyun

We’re making up for centuries of repressed homoerotica

LMFAO HE ALMOST FELL OFF THE ROOF MARK IS YELLING

BAMBAM LEGIT YELLED DO A FLIP

BRB THIS SHIT IS GOLD

---

Jooheon

When your bro texts you about his boner

Hyungwon

Why would you send this to me

Jooheon

Idk man I need a hug

Hyungwon

Who even took that picture

Jooheon

Irrelevant

---

“Hey, so, are we dating?” Wonho asked, not looking at Hyungwon, which was fortunate, since Hyungwon was fairly sure he was dying from choking on his water.

“I --” Hyungwon broke off, coughing so hard his eyes teared up and the water he just inhaled came bursting out through his nose. He stared in dismay at the mess he was making while Wonho hit his back, asking in an increasingly concerned voice if he was okay. That’s… very attractive, Hyungwon. Nice.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you choke.” The choking increased. “God, sorry!”

“S’fine,” Hyungwon wheezed, feeling the sweet relief of air entering his lungs at last. “I was just dying for a bit. No biggie.”

“Don’t die, it’s bad for your health.”

Hyungwon just looked at Wonho, who smirked at him, before it gentled into a slightly unsure smile.

Wonho fidgeted. “So, um. You didn’t answer me? Are we dating? I mean, it’s fine if you’re not comfortable with it yet, not that I’m assuming or anything, we were just getting along so well that I--”

“No, no, it’s just…” Hyungwon trailed off. “You wanna date me? I mean, are you sure ? I mean, I’m not exactly...”

Wonho, who had made a habit out of doing absolutely nothing Hyungwon ever expected, smiled softly at him and turned his chin so they were facing each other. “Seriously?”

“Hey, don’t trivialise--” Hyungwon started, feeling how hot his face was and knowing Wonho would notice and feeling about ten years old again, standing in front of his first crush and wondering why the boy was laughing and running away from him.

“I’m not trivializing what you say, or feel, for that matter,” Wonho spoke softly. “I just thought it was excruciatingly obvious how much I like you, Hyungwon.”

“I thought,” Hyungwon started, looking into Wonho’s eyes, then away again, “I just, I have trouble reading people sometimes. Especially when it concerns me. I thought, but I’ve thought wrong before. So.”

Wonho didn’t frown, didn’t pull away or pull that face that people always insisted wasn’t pity even if you mentioned it. He tilted his head, moving his hand to cup Hyungwon’s cheek. “You overthink stuff, right?”

“Yeah, no shit--”

“I’ll speak plainly, then,” Wonho chuckled, the sound reverberating somewhere in his chest. “I like you. A lot.  Do you believe me?”

Hyungwon finally lifted his eyes, flushing when he looked into Wonho’s sincere eyes, but didn’t drop his eyes as he leaned forward to press a soft, chaste kiss against Wonho’s lips. “Yes,” Hyungwon breathed, forehead resting against Wonho’s.

“Yes you like me or yes you’ll date me?”

“Both, god…”

---

Minhyuk added Jooheon, Changkyun, Hyungwon and Shownu to Bros & Hoes

Hyungwon

What fresh hell is this

Minhyuk

IT’S A PARTYYYYYY

Changkyun

[celebratory toot]

Seriously though what party

Minhyuk

I will explain in a sec

Hyungwon add Wonho

Changkyun add Kihyun

We need all boyfriends

Changkyun

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

What no what are you

I’m not adding him to this chat

I choose life

Hyungwon

Ugh

Fine I'll add Wonho

He’s probably gonna have to meet you shitheads sometime

Shownu

That was…

Changkyun

...easy

Jooheon

HI

What did I miss

Holy fuck Hyungwon isn’t arguing?

Hyungwon

Fucking listen

There’s no goddamn reason to fight against this shit

This is basically self-protection

Now for the love of god have some control

Hyungwon added Wonho to Bros & Hoes

Jooheon

Hi I’m a bro

Minhyuk

And I’m a hoe

Changkyun

I’m both

Minhyuk

WELCOME

Wonho

Oh!

Hi! o(≧∇≦o)

I’ve heard about you guys!

Hi, Changkyun

Changkyun

God aren’t you just so precious

I wanna wrap you in a sweater

HI WONHO~~~

Hyungwon

CHANGKYUN

Shownu

Hi, I’m Shownu, Minhyuk’s boyfriend

Minhyuk

୧༼✿ ͡◕ д ◕͡ ༽୨

Wonho

Hi, I’m Wonho, Hyungwon’s

Very nice for adding me to the chat (/^▽^)/

Hyungwon

What fresh hell is that emoji Minhyuk

Minhyuk

Proud yet cute

Ah yes

The niceness of Hyungwon

Legendary

Jooheon

Changkyun, remember that time Hyungwon was just so

Goddamn nice

Changkyun

IDK Jooheon you’re gonna have to be more specific

He’s just

So goddamn nice all the time

It’s hard for me to keep track

I have tears in my eyes just thinking about all that niceness

Hyungwon

Thanks guys

Especially you Changkyun

I’m so nice how about I just do you this favour :)

Hyungwon added Kihyun to Bros & Hoes

Minhyuk

Oh wow

Oh WOW

HI KIHYUNNIE

Kihyun

...Hi?

What is this?

Changkyun

Unfair

Unfair is what it is

Wonho

HYUNNIE

Kihyun

HOSEOK NO

Hyungwon

Oh, come on Hyunnie

Changkyun

what the

Minhyuk

I’m pretty sure we’re all here because I have something to say

So I’m gonna go ahead  !(•̀ᴗ•́)و ̑̑

Kihyun

I don’t know why I’m here

(I have all those photos Hyungwon just remember)

Minhyuk

You’re Wonho and Hyungwon’s friend, of course you’re here!

And inviiiiiiiiiteeeeed ٩( ᐛ )و

---

Changkyun

I'm totally fine not being mentioned it's c o o l

Jooheon

You're not his friend, you're putty in his hands

Changkyun

fair

---

Bros & Hoes

Shownu

Minhyuk’s parents need house-sitters for the weekend and we were thinking of holding a get-together

Jooheon

Mmm meeting people, that must be nice

Changkyun

Mmm dat sodium chloride

Minhyuk

Nobody is allowed to say no!

Wonho

Why would I say no, count me in~

Hyungwon

Ugh do we have to

Changkyun

What is we

Wonho

They’re your friends, Won, it’ll be fun

Jooheon

What am I witnessing with my eyes

Minhyuk

There’s more than enough room for everyone

Pleeease ɾ⚈▿⚈ɹ

Changkyun

I’m with Jooheon on this

Won? Are you sure you want to come?

Won?

---

Wonho

I’m so sorry!!

Hyungwon

It’s okay just

Gimme a minute

---

Bros & Hoes

Wonho

Yeah, I just call him that lol Hyungwon is a mouthful

---

Hyungwon

That does not help, Wonho

---

Bros & Hoes

Changkyun

I’m so fucking quiet right now I want that to be known

I have SELF-CONTROL

Kihyun

Yeah sure you do

Minhyuk

oh man you are DEFINITELY invited, Kihyun

Jooheon

Kihyun you don’t know this yet

But you’re not allowed to say no to Minhyuk

You’re just not

Kihyun

I

Ugh

When is it?

I need to check my schedule

And I’m only going because I know Wonho

Jooheon

ouch

---

Changkyun

I’m fine

Jooheon

Mmmhmm

Wait I have an idea you in the dorm yeah? omw brush ur hair

---

Bros & Hoes

Minhyuk

It’s next weekend~~~

IT’S BY A LAKE! And there’s a karaoke machine!

We’ll bbq and everything

Please please please please please

Jooheon

We’ll definitely be there!

Wonho

We’ll be there

I mean, I’ll be there

Hyungwon?

Hyungwon

I’ll be there.

Someone needs to be the grownup

Minhyuk

See you there~~~!

Kihyun??? How’s the schedule looking??? ⌒°(❛ᴗ❛)°⌒

Changkyun

lmao is Shownu sleeping

Kihyun

I should be able to shift things around to make it

Changkyun

Awesome!

---

Jooheon

Be cool, bro

Changkyun

…

---

Bros & Hoes

Changkyun

Can’t wait to hang with my friends~

---

Hyungwon

Dude

Changkyun

LET ME LIVE, WON

---

Bros & Hoes

Minhyuk

Oh my goodness Kihyun

I just realized I don’t know what you look like!

---

Jooheon

Lies u literally have class with him and followed them around like a creepazoid

Minhyuk

Shhh I’m doing this for Kyunnie

I even asked Hyungwon to play along

---

Minhyuk

send a selfie on the group

Hyungwon

fucking why

Minhyuk

cos Changkyun

#pain

Hyungwon

hah yeah ok

---

Bros & Hoes

Kihyun

...does it matter???

Hyungwon

Oh come now Kihyun

Look we’ve all sent selcas it’s your turn

Minhyuk

Pleeeeeeeeeeeease ㅠㅠ

Jooheon

The rules do state that saying no to Minhyuk isn’t allowed

Wonho

I have pictures of Kihyunnie!

Wait lemme check

Kihyun

Don’t you dare

Wonho

I’ll do it

Kihyun

Hoe don’t do it

Wonho

...

Kihyun

For fuck’s sake

---

Changkyun

Oh my god

he's so beautiful how H O W

Jooheon

Bro you need to stop screaming into your pillow

it’s not good for your throat

Changkyun

Fuck my throat

Jooheon

…

Screenshot acquired

Changkyun

 .

O

H MY GOD NO JOOHEON I DID'NT MEANI T LIKE THAT

---

Hyungwon

you nasty

Changkyun

THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT O MFG

Kihyun fiddled with the strap of his camera, barely able to restrain his leg from jiggling about. He was supposed to be in the library, waiting for Wonho who was on his way from his last class. It was a routine they had. It helped them both to concentrate, having someone else there with them struggling just as hard. But, instead of being in the library, he was in the smallish courtyard filled with plants between the West Block building and the Chemistry building.

He wasn’t supposed to be there. He really wasn’t. He usually only ever sat there on Wednesdays between his eight am and ten am class. And it was neither a Wednesday, nor between eight and ten.

It was, in fact, Monday afternoon. At two.

The precise time, Kihyun had discovered exactly three weeks ago, Changkyun walks on the path leading from the administrative building to the bridge, which, coincidentally, was right next to that little courtyard. And, somehow, the little shit always, always, always managed to look just… fucking heart-stoppingly good and Kihyun had no idea how he managed it because the rest of the time he looked exactly like a college kid on his last pair of clean underwear.

And, after a week of denying to himself that he just happened to be around the courtyard at two every afternoon coincidentally, he’d finally caved and just brought his camera with him. Because, it was for the angles.

The angles.

The first thing he noticed this time around was that Changkyun was laughing. He was unsuccessfully trying to tell a story, from what Kihyun could tell, at least, and the boy walking with Changkyun was having trouble keeping his laugh in. Kihyun vaguely remembered a selfie shared on whatever hell chat group he’d been added to, and the boy with red hair who’d been in it with Changkyun and had walked with Changkyun to class a few times now.

It was an almost helpless movement when Kihyun lifted his camera, focusing on the two before taking the first picture. He thought he saw saw Changkyun stiffen for a second, but just as he was about to lower the camera and run like the fucking wind, Changkyun grabbed the red-haired boy’s arm, laughing, seemingly oblivious, allowing Kihyun to snap one more picture before they disappeared around the corner.

Kihyun lowered his camera onto his lap. He flipped through the two pictures he had taken for a few minutes. He lowered his head into his hands.

“Well, fuck,” he mumbled.

---

Jooheon

BOI

DID YOU SEE

THAT CAMERA

Changkyun

Boi I sure did

And it sure did look like an expensive camera

Jooheon

Try telling me he doesn’t like you now

You little shit

He was literally sneaking photos of you

What the hell

Changkyun

Idk man I like that courtyard

That is a nice courtyard

If I could take pictures I would definitely be taking pictures of that courtyard

Jooheon

What…

What the hell am I supposed to do with you

Changkyun

Not laugh at me when I fall off a chair in the middle of a lecture hall

Although you know actually I laughed just typing that, you’re good

T h i s   t i m e

Dude he’s a photographer I’m sure he takes pictures of literally everything

Jooheon

Uh-huh

And the fact that he’s been there for the last two weeks

Means nothing at all

Also, can you stop dragging me along now

I’ve been late to dance class twice already

which sucks since I also have a

almost said crush 

Changkyun

I really wish you'd just tell me his freaking name already

LMAO NO WAY DUDE

I’D SPONTANEOUSLY COMBUST

He’s taken a picture of you too you know

Since you’re always there

We really don’t know it’s me at all

If he actually is taking pictures of me which he’s not

Jooheon

Changkyun

I'd let you

Hey bro

Jooheon

Yeah bro

Changkyun

I really like this guy

And I’m scared shitless

Jooheon

I know Kyunnie

I can’t promise you it’s all going to be fine

Cause honestly idk what the fuck’s going to happen

But

You know I’ll always be here for you bro

Right?

Changkyun

Yeah I know

Especially this weekend right? Cos I can’t promise I’m going to be okay like

I am out of my mind rn

Jooheon

WELL

It seems like no one wanted to invite MY sunshine

(tbf I never mentioned him)

I’ll be there

Pushing you out of your comfort zone like always

Changkyun

:) fun

Lol I’m going to make a fool of myself at least ten times aren’t I

Jooheon

Your name is Lim Changkyun

So yes

But, no worries

Minhyuk will be there

Also Hyungwon with Wonho

You are not alone young padawan

Changkyun

And knowing Minhyuk he’ll be on top of poor Hyungwon and Wonho lmao

Watch me divert attention like a pro

Jooheon

Tbf I am horrifically interested in whatever the fuck is going on there

Changkyun

OPERATION HYUNGWONHO

Jooheon

INITIATED

---

Where the fuck had the week gone?

Tuesday, Changkyun was sure, had just been, like, five minutes ago. It was just... tests kept popping up, like weeds, especially programming. Essays, too! And homework. And every time, every single time Changkyun thought he had, like, five minutes to himself, something else grabbed him by the throat and throttled him with panic until it was done. Rinse and repeat.

At least the incessant amount of programming meant more time with Kihyun.

...Cue incessant cringing because of that thought. God, he was like a fucking teenager.

But fuck it, he liked it. The tutoring session with Kihyun had been like a breath of fresh air, with Kihyun being all bossy and pretty and helpful and nearly hitting Changkyun’s arm off when he’d made one too many self-deprecating jokes. (Though Changkyun professed himself firmly of the opinion that ‘too many self-deprecating jokes’ was a myth.)

Changkyun broke out into a wide smile when he entered the chips aisle and, in one fell swoop, deposited six bags of potato chips into his shopping cart.

This was fine. He was fine. Fucking fine. It was Thursday and he was perfectly, fucking fine, okay. He had bought a nice new sweater and socks that actually matched. He was going to be put together. He was going to go to this party, and he was going to be funny, and chill, and holy shit was that Wonho and Hyungwon being cutesy and holding hands and giggling in the vegetable aisle?

Changkyun abandoned his trolley in the middle of the aisle and hid behind a watermelon.

It didn’t exactly work as well as it should have.

(Who would have thought a bright green watermelon didn’t work well at hiding a fully-grown boy in a bright yellow shirt. Also, the trolley was a problem, especially with Changkyun refusing to let go of it completely with one hand stretching out to keep a pinkie finger on it).

“Oh, heeyyy, ” Changkyun said, awkwardly cradling the watermelon and smiling brightly at a murderous looking Hyungwon. Murderous, embarrassed, he honestly couldn’t tell you.

Wonho carefully slid his hand out of Hyungwon’s. Changkyun wondered how Hyungwon was going to explain away that clearly purely platonic hand holding.

“Don’t mind me, just…” Changkyun wanted to gesture, but had to put down his watermelon first. It ended up crushing four of the chip bags and Changkyun winced, even as he did nothing to stop it. “Shopping.”

Changkyun waited for the acidic remark. The witty, sharp thing that Hyungwon would inevitably say.

“Um. Hey, Changkyun.”

Changkyun started, and looked up. What he saw made a tiny, humane part of himself who actually cared about this soft-hearted asshole, stand on its hind legs and start screaming. Hyungwon was… slouched in on himself, arms crossed, rubbing his elbows, resolutely avoiding Changkyun’s eyes.

“We were just. Getting stuff. For tomorrow,” Wonho giggled, a bit hysterically, hand behind his neck and a bright red flush on his face.

Don’t make a condom joke, don’t make a condom joke, do not--

“Well, isn’t that just such a coincidence, so was I!”

“Do you… have a craving for watermelon?”

No. 

“Yep. I just… love my watermelons. They’re, healthy. I think?”

“Oh, very! I mean, there’s a lot of natural sugars in them, but it’s all good for you,” Wonho enthused. “They’re basically just made of water. You’ll go to the bathroom a lot.”

“...Yes, thank you, Wonho.”

Changkyun stood there for a moment longer, staring at Hyungwon, before plastering a grin on his face and saying, “I’ll just, take my watermelon then. And, um, these six bags of chips…” Wonho frowned. “Which I was definitely not going to eat all by myself ahahaha I’ll just go now.”

Changkyun grabbed his trolley, drove into a stand, reversed a bit, tried again, and hurried to the checkout line. It was only once he was taking them out that he realised all six of the bags had been crushed.

How crummy.

---

Changkyun

:)

Hyungwon

Thanks

For not

You know

Whatever

Changkyun

I’m just happy for you dude

Like all memes and shit on a stick

You two are cute as hell

You know nobody would like

Have a problem with it

It’s not like Minhyuk and Shownu are subtle

Hyungwon

I know that

But

You know I have things

About privacy

Changkyun

Yeah six brave packs of chips died for your privacy

Hyungwon

Did you eat them to make them feel better

Changkyun

They’re in a better place now

With a massive watermelon

Which reminds me I need to go buy snacks for tomorrow night

Wonho was right I have gone to pee exactly five (5) times now

You realize Minhyuk would be 657890 times chiller if he knew you two were dating, right

Which I’m assuming you are cos I have eyes

Hyungwon

Oh yeah no I just hold hands with random dudes

Like, don’t you remember that time I just fucking

Held hands with you

Damn

Changkyun

I think about it daily yes

Hyungwon

Your hands were really sweaty

Changkyun

Maybe one day I’ll hold hands in a supermarket

with someone who doesn’t judge my bodily functions

Hyungwon

Kihyun would judge your bodily functions like SO HARD DUDE

Changkyun

---

Kihyun

Hey, I know it’s like

1 am

But are you awake?

Changkyun

Nearly always

You’re not usually awake though...

You okay?

Kihyun

You know, you shouldn’t be awake this much

It’s not healthy

Changkyun

Kihyun

you’re doing that thing where other peoples’ problems take precedent in an attempt to avoid your own

stahp

Kihyun

Stop spelling like a two year old

You’re a language major

Changkyun

Are you telling me to… stahp?

Also I just used the word ‘precedent’ at 1 am let me live

(you’re doing it again. Kind of.)

Kihyun

…

Whatever

Okay

Good god if you make this into a fucking joke I will

...

Stop the tutoring sessions

I’m only doing this because I’m pretty sure Wonho will actually kill me

If I wake him up

Changkyun

I wouldn’t joke about something serious ok

Not… really. Not if it’s serious serious. You know what I mean

I MEAN it’s fine, you can talk to me

Kihyun

What the fuck am I doing talking to the little shit in programming...

Okay

So about tomorrow

I was invited

Sort of

I mean, am I actually supposed to come?

Was it a joke?

Changkyun

We invited you because I

we legit want you there

Why would you think it was a joke? That wouldn’t be funny

We’re idiots, not dick lords

Well I guess as titles go

Anyway no it wasn’t a joke

Kihyun

It would be funny to some people

And I don’t

I don’t

Fuck

I don’t know anybody there

I don’t know if you’ve noticed

But I’m not super great at talking to people

Changkyun

Don’t know what you mean~

Sorry I cope with humour but

You know me?

And Hyungwon and Wonho are going to be there

Minhyuk is Minhyuk

Shownu’s an awkward dad but he’s incredibly kind

Seriously though we want you there

We’re not expecting idk whatever you think we are, from you

Kihyun

Right

Now I feel stupid

Ignore this

Pretend it never happened

Changkyun

Pretend what never happened?

Kihyun

Oh, and please tell me there’s a first aid kit there somewhere

Changkyun

I NEARLY ELECTROCUTE MYSELF ONCE

FUCKING ONCE

Kihyun

Okay, yeah

I’m bringing a first-aid kit

Ugh

Thanks Changkyun

See you

Well, later today I guess

DON’T EVER BRING THIS UP

Changkyun

Kihyun can I

Nvm

No problem :) Literally any time

And idk what you’re even talking about it’s 1 am unicorns are real, up is down

Sleep tight

---

Minhyuk fluttered around the house, double, triple, quadruple-checking that everything was ready and in place.

Line up of horror movies sure to make Jooheon pee his pants and provide all couples cuddling opportunities? Check.

Meat in sink being defrosted? Check.

Clean sheets in the cupboards for when everyone inevitably passes out and Minhyuk has to cover them with blankets? Check.

Cupboard stuffed full to bursting with junk food? Check.

A quick kiss to Shownu stringing up the fairy lights outside? Check.

Drinks in the fridge and a meager showing of fruit? Check.

Karaoke machine up and running? Check.

Pink neon ‘fuck’ up on the wall? Check.

Minhyuk stood in the living room, surveyed his handiwork, and nodded, satisfied with himself.

“Minhyuk,” Shownu called from outside, and Minhyuk glanced out the window to see Shownu frowning at the set of lights in his hands which looked suspiciously like the ones Minhyuk had bought them once for…

“Oh!” Minhyuk giggled, hurrying outside to relieve Shownu of the peculiarly shaped lights. One would almost say, suggestive lights. “We don’t want those. Well, not out here anyway.”

Shownu merely lifted an eyebrow, an amused grin plucking at the corners of his mouth. Minhyuk smiled back and was just about to suggest where they could hang the lights instead when his phone lit up, announcing the first arrivals.

---

Kihyun was parked outside the address Minhyuk had sent on the group. Of course, he wasn’t directly in front of the house. That would make sitting in the car five minutes after he had arrived even more awkward. The soft, gentle sound of VAV’s Flower helped calm him down a bit, enough that he almost thought he would be able to get out of the car after that song.

It wasn’t that he was nervous about meeting everyone. Exactly. He already knew Hyungwon, and from what Kihyun had gathered he was considered the height of ‘niceness’ in their group, so he was pretty sure he would able to handle the rest. And Wonho would be there, of course, and long gone were the days that Kihyun was intimidated by that big softie at all .   

Which just made the way he had spent an hour deciding between shirts that more ridiculous. It wasn’t like he was trying to impress anyone there. Right. He could do this.

Kihyun took a deep breath, lifting his overnight bag with one hand and the cooler full of food in the other. (He told his mother not to… but she tended to get a bit excited about Kihyun hanging out with friends. That weren’t Wonho.)

He was a few steps from the path leading up the front door when he noticed Changkyun sitting on the porch, staring into nothingness before absent-mindedly glancing at his phone. Hoisting the cooler further up his shoulder, (really regretting that extra meat) he cocked his head at the boy and called out, “Hey, aren’t you going to help your hyung?”

Changkyun jumped. Literally. He scrambled a bit before standing up, regarding the other boy with large eyes. “When did you get here?!”

Kihyun lifted an eyebrow. “Does that matter? I’m still dying here.”

“Sorry, sorry, sorry ,” Changkyun apologised, quickly rushing over to take the cooler from Kihyun. “It doesn’t matter, I just--er, the rest are inside, I just wanted to make sure you found the place okay.”

Kihyun watched in amusement as the younger’s whole body seemed to sag with weight of the cooler. “Careful, it’s heavy,” he quipped, full-out grinning now. This night was going to be fine. It was going to be fine .

“It’s fine, not heavy at all,” Changkyun said with a strained sounding voice, heaving it up higher, pushing his chin out, before nearly falling over and face first on the pavement. “How the hell did you not--fucking hell, did you bring your entire fridge?”

Kihyun shrugged, yanking the cooler bag away from Changkyun and pushing his overnight bag into Changkyun’s arms instead. Changkyun pouted, leading the way to the front door. “Not exactly. I have ice packs. For the inevitable injuries.”

“Yer a hazard, Harry,” Changkyun mumbled to himself. Kihyun elected to ignore it.

Kihyun came to a stop just in front of the door, even as Changkyun was already opening the door and leading the way in. Kihyun wasn’t panicking. He wasn’t. Any moment now he’ll unlock his legs and follow Changkyun and meet all his friends and be happy about it and have fun and stop stressing about what everyone thought and said and--

“Hyung?” Changkyun asked, paused in the doorway with an odd look on his face, and Kihyun bristled, ready to be offended at being pitied but that… wasn’t quite it.

“I’m--” What was that word again? “Fine. I’m fine.”

Changkyun looked into the house and bit down on his lip with a soft frown, eyes quickly glancing up at Kihyun before skittering away to land on the tiled floor. “Hey, you know that conversation we didn’t have this morning? I meant what I… didn’t say.”

Kihyun was blushing. He could feel it. He could feel it, and it wasn’t making things any better. He should never have talked to Changkyun in the first place. He should have just shut his brain up by playing music like he usually did and gone to sleep. Honestly what was he even thinking . What must Changkyun think of him ? Kihyun’s fingers tightened painfully on the strap of the cooler bag. He begged his legs to start moving.

Changkyun fiddled with the strap of Kihyun’s bag. He opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again. He widened his eyes at the carpet, as if begging it for help.

Kihyun decided to take pity on the poor kid. It wasn’t his fault Kihyun sometimes freaked out over stupid things.

“It’s fine. It’s fine. I’m just being stupid. Ignore me.”

“No,” Changkyun said, before looking a bit surprised at himself for saying it. “I mean, sorry, I didn’t mean, I just--I want you here, okay? It’s stupid that the only times I ever see you is with at least two computers involved. I want you here, and I want you to know that, that’s…” Changkyun ran a hand through his hair. “You’re not imposing or anything, you’re wanted...here. Yep. Here. Want you here. That’s a thing.”

Kihyun felt a… a feeling go through him. He didn’t know exactly what it was, but it made him feel vulnerable. Too vulnerable. Like he was showing too much all at once. He blinked at Changkyun, before nodding, a bit uncomfortably, and looking away.

Changkyun nodded a bit, looking a bit sheepish before walking into the house, Kihyun trailing after him.

---

Hyungwon was glaring at Minhyuk. Minhyuk was beaming at Hyungwon. Wonho was laughing outside, helping Shownu with the barbeque.

Hyungwon pinched the bridge of his nose. “Was it really, and I mean, really necessary to greet us at the door with those lights hanging off of your arms? I mean, honestly. Dicks , Minhyuk. Dicks. ”

“I got excited and forgot about it, okay,” Minhyuk defended, bouncy and smiling. “Besides, Changkyun and Jooheon thought it was hilarious.”

“I once saw Changkyun laugh for twenty minutes straight at a shitpost,” Hyungwon deadpanned. “About crabs and a pile or something. Not exactly the most discerning of comedic tastes there.

“Oh, shush,” Minhyuk giggled, filling bowls with popcorn. Well, the bag said it was popcorn, but Hyungwon was about 90% sure it was more preservatives than actual popcorn. “Anyway, I put it away before Kihyun showed up. And you’re just huffy that Wonho thought it was funny and didn’t pay attention to you while he was asking me where I got them.”

“I don’t even know what you’re talking about, yet I resent it.” Hyungwon sighed, stealing a hand of popcorn as Minhyuk swatted at him. “Do I want to know why you have tiny dick shaped fairy-lights?”

“I’m gay. Isn’t that explanation enough?”

“No,” Hyungwon frowned. Hard. “ No . It’s really not. ”

“Is that a pink luminescent ‘fuck’?”

“Oh, Kihyun, thank god you’re here,” Hyungwon said, not answering Kihyun’s question before standing up (grabbing one of the popcorn bowls as he did) and gesturing between Minhyuk and Kihyun. “Kihyun, this is Minhyuk. Minhyuk, that’s Kihyun. Now leave me alone.”

“Hyungwon, you can’t just do that,” came Changkyun’s voice from behind Hyungwon, but Hyungwon just shrugged and walked off, intent on finding Wonho.

Hyungwon found Wonho. Standing in front of the grill. Very noticeably not wearing a shirt.

Hyungwon swallowed. Hard.

He sat down, right there on the grass, and ate his popcorn.

---

Changkyun watched as Kihyun looked at Minhyuk, before his nose scrunched up a bit and he put his cooler down, Changkyun immediately scrambling to take it to the kitchen. Jooheon spotted Changkyun from the living room and walked over to help, the younger regarding him with wide eyes.

(“He’s so nervous,” Changkyun told his best friend in a panicked whisper, bent over by the fridge. “And I feel like everything I’m saying is stupid, even telling you is stupid, I--”

“Hey, calm down, what did you tell him?”

“That I want him here.”

“That’s good, dude, come on, you know that when you get all insecure and anxious I have to reassure you, like, fucking constantly? Just do that.”

“I mean, I thought so, but I wasn’t sure--”

“It’s fine, but don’t leave him alone with Minhyuk right after he arrives, okay?”

“Oh, Christ,” Changkyun squeaked before quickly making his way over to Kihyun’s side.)

“You know, I just realised you knew exactly what I looked like,” Kihyun said, crossing his arms and squinting. “We have class together, I’ve seen you everyday since University started, why the hell would you ask for a picture?”

Minhyuk blinked, a strained giggle bubbling out of his throat. “Er. Was that Shownu calling me just now? Yeah, he definitely just called for me--Oh, Changkyun, mind showing Kihyun where he’ll be sleeping tonight?”

Changkyun gave Minhyuk a look .

Why, Minhyuk, why, you know full fucking well--

“I--you--christ, fine. It’s this way.” Changkyun did a little… dipping gesture in the direction they needed to walk, like, god , Changkyun was one hundred percent trying not to be awkward and stupid yet here he was . He was really, really trying, but this was admittedly the first time Kihyun didn’t… well, didn’t have a reason to talk to him. Coding was a central weight to orbit conversation around or whatever, but here… he was just drifting aimlessly and getting hit by asteroids and bad internal metaphors.

Kihyun just scoffed at him and started walking, Changkyun trailing behind before hovering in the entrance of one of the guest rooms, stopping Kihyun with a quick, light touch to the older boy’s elbow.

“We, me especially, will probably just pass out in the living room after the upteenth movie, but there’s a bed here if you want it.”

“Thanks.” Kihyun shifted from one foot to the other, Changkyun letting his hand fall.

It was quiet for a moment before Changkyun stepped forward to put Kihyun’s bag on the bed, wincing at himself for being so damn awk--

“You know,” Changkyun’s head whipped up, eager to hear Kihyun say absolutely anything to break this absolutely painful silence, “you could have just left my bag in the kitchen or whatever. But thanks. Also, don’t think just because you’ve…” Kihyun trailed off. “Well, just because we’ve, um, not talked, I’m going to be any nicer to you. Or that you’re any less of a little shit.”

Changkyun let out a relieved breath before grinning at Kihyun. “Thank god. I’ve wanted to mention the fanny pack since the moment I saw you. Very stylish.”

“Listen , you little shit,” Changkyun just grinned wider. “This fanny pack holds the items that are going to keep you, and anyone else, from bleeding to death when an accident happens and -- will you stop smiling, good God .”

“Nope,” Changkyun said. “Hey, wanna see Minhyuk’s tiny dick lights?”

“His what now.”

---

Kihyun didn’t know why he was surprised when, true to his word, Changkyun showed him the tiny dick lights. He honestly didn’t know why he expected anything normal from this boy.

“Dicklets,” Changkyun giggled hysterically for a few seconds, regaining his composure a little bit before the look on Kihyun’s face made him guffaw again.

“I…” Kihyun trailed off, gingerly holding a tiny, um, light that was shaped like a certain appendage in his hand. “ Why? ” he finally settled on.

Changkyun shook his head, still chuckling. “Like I said, the man’s an enigma. Or just very weird. Or both. There’s a betting pool.”

“I’ll make a contribution for the ‘weird’ option.”

“ Nice. To be fair the only ones who had bet on ‘enigma’ so far was Shownu and Minhyuk himself. So.”

Kihyun allowed a small smile to appear on his face, ignoring the way Changkyun beamed at him. It was distracting and, honestly, Kihyun had just managed to calm himself down. He didn’t need to be overthinking things right that second.

“I’ll put the dicks away now.”

“I think that might be best.” Kihyun still gave the ‘appendage’ a curious once over before handing it back to Changkyun, who, for some reason, appeared strangely flushed before turning to the box he’d taken it out of and closing the cupboard door. Kihyun looked around the living room with a frown.

“Where is everyone?”

“I think I saw them outside, come on.” Changkyun quickly led them to the porch where Minhyuk, Shownu, Hyungwon and Jooheon were absolutely rapt at the image of a shirtless Wonho manning the grill.

Kihyun rolled his eyes, muttering, “Un-fucking-believable.” He was content to let the rest make fools out of themselves, (though he would be lording this over Hyungwon later, of course ), until Changkyun’s face went slack next to him, eyes glazed

“ Goddamn. ”

Kihyun looked at Changkyun. Kihyun raised an eyebrow.

Changkyun flushed. “I mean, I--I’m guessing he does push ups. I’m just-- I appreciate his efforts, er--”

“Shut the fuck up,” Kihyun growled, stalking forward and grabbing the apron conveniently left on the side, throwing it at Wonho. “Put a fucking shirt on. None of us need to see that.”

Five boys groaned in perfect unison as Wonho looked up, ostensibly confused, catching the apron and pulling on his shirt before tying the apron around himself. (Kihyun wasn’t fooled for a goddamn second . He knew this bastard and the mischievous glint in his eyes too well).

“A crime.”

“A goddamn shame. ”

“I definitely need to see that,” Hyungwon mumbled morosely at his popcorn bowl.

“You all do realize that he was going to burn everything, right?”

Hyungwon shrugged.

“I would have eaten it,” Minhyuk said.

Kihyun sighed visibly. “Gimme the--” He took the apron from Wonho before he even finished asking, quickly putting it on as he spoke. “Changkyun, can you bring me my cooler?”

Changkyun nodded quickly and ran to the kitchen. Hyungwon grinned to himself, offering the bowl of popcorn to Wonho who came to sit next to him.

“Shownu,” Jooheon said, then, stretching himself out and lying flat on the grass, staring up at the sky. “I can’t help but notice that you don’t mind your boyfriend drooling over Wonho.”

Shownu shrugged as Minhyuk giggled, “Why? It’s not like he has reason to be jealous, have you seen --hon, take your shirt off real quick--”

“That’s not necessary-- oh he already did it.”

“ See ?” Minhyuk stressed, beaming brightly at Shownu as Minhyuk absentmindedly pet Shownu’s muscular arm.

Hyungwon sighed, looking down at his own scrawny arms.

“How about you, Hyungwon?” Jooheon asked with a grin, eyes flashing to those self-same arms Hyungwon had been looking at just a second ago.

Hyungwon looked at him with dead eyes. “I want you to think about how you reacted when we played Until Dawn. And then remember that I was filming it. And then you think about that question you just asked.”

“ Damn , I just wanted your input on healthy relationship dynamics, Hyungwon, damn .”

Kihyun shook his head at the lot of them and rolled up his sleeves. Right, this he could do. The meat was already a bit too dry for his liking, but he was sure that if he put together a sauce real quick he could still save it.

Changkyun came back with the cooler, panting slightly, “The fridge you requested, hyung. Need any help?”

“Not really. Maybe if you could whip up some sauce for the meat. You do know how to make sauce, right?” Kihyun asked, brandishing the tongs at Changkyun.

Changkyun leaned back a bit, eyes on the tongs. “I can make… salad.”

“...Right. That’s a great help, thanks.” Kihyun turned away from a visibly deflated Changkyun. “Minhyuk, could you make some sauce?”

“Okey dokey,” Minhyuk said cheerfully, giving Shownu’s arm a farewell pat before heading to the kitchen.

The rest of the barbeque went smoothly. Or, at least as smoothly as it could, considering that Kihyun was surrounded by six apparently starving boys who started eating before Kihyun had even finished. Kihyun pouted, but couldn’t really say anything as they laughed and ate, given the fact that he had practically demanded to be in charge of grilling the meat in the first place.

There was also the fact that Changkyun was being ridiculous. He kept coming up to Kihyun to ask him how things were going even though it had only been a few minutes and meat didn’t Do Much in a few minutes. And, when Changkyun saw Kihyun glance longingly at the eating boys, (even though Kihyun had quickly looked away to pretend he wasn’t salivating over the food) the little shit actually took a lettuce wrap, walked up to Kihyun, and shoved it at his mouth.

Kihyun really had no other choice but to open his mouth and chew, avoiding eye contact and trying to pretend like it wasn’t a big deal .

Which it wasn’t. Changkyun was just being a good dongsaeng, feeding his hyung who was preparing the food. That was all. There was absolutely no reason for Wonho to smirk at him like that. Like Kihyun couldn’t see the way Wonho was practically glued to Hyungwon’s side, like he didn’t have the perfect vantage point to see how Wonho’s hand would, every now and then, stroke Hyungwon’s thigh. Like they were being subtle at all .

Honestly. If anyone had the right to side-eye anyone here, it would be Kihyun. So he did. Wonho, of course, noticed.

“Kihyun looks sexy in front of a grill, don’t you think?”

Wonho . That absolute shit.

“He looks like he hasn’t got any muscles, but look at his forearms--” Jooheon agreed, nodding, a tiny smirk playing around his mouth.

“Personally, I think his calves look very good--” Hyungwon started, biting his lip, a smile clearly threatening to spill out. Kihyun looked at the group in amused disbelief. Were they always this ridiculous?

“When he’s all sweaty and brushes his hair back...” Minhyuk mused, nodding enthusiastically.

Changkyun nodded, rolling the meat around with his chopsticks, “Mmm, and you can see the veins on his hands, very sexy.”

There was a pause, before everyone started laughing and talking again. Though Kihyun could barely hear them over the sudden rushing in his ears as he stared resolutely at his hands. The same hands Changkyun had mentioned. Which were, Kihyun admitted, quite veiny. Did Changkyun like that?

He immediately shook his head at himself. It didn’t matter if Changkyun liked it or not. It didn’t matter.

“Here,” Changkyun said, having stood up from his seat to walk over to Kihyun, again offering food on the end of his chopsticks.

Kihyun ate, and didn’t think about it anymore. That was safer.

---

“Not a word,” Kihyun grumbled under his breath to Wonho smirking beside him as he held the camera up, focused it on Changkyun as he waded about in the lake, laughing at Jooheon screaming at anything that touched his legs. Wonho leaned over to look at the picture as Kihyun let the camera drop to his lap.

“You know, you could just ask him to model for--”

“I said not a word, and those were many words,” Kihyun deadpanned, looking at his best friend. “Enough words for me to feel completely justified in asking what the hell is going on with you and Hyungwon.”

Wonho paled before turning an interesting pink and stuttering a bit, to which Kihyun simply rolled his eyes. “Don’t deny it, I’ve known you too long. I know what it looks like when you like someone.”

Wonho looked like he was going to say something, but must have thought better of it. Kihyun kept fiddling with his camera, not daring to go back into his gallery. There were all those candids of a certain little shit, after all.

“I could say the same about you.”

Kihyun bristled, feeling his ears redden. “That’s not--Don’t do that. Are you two dating now or what?”

Wonho sighed softly. “I can’t--” He broke off, rubbing his neck.

Kihyun raised an eyebrow. “What, you’re not allowed to tell me?”

“ Ugh, it’s not like that,” Wonho groaned, rubbing a hand over his face as he saw Kihyun frowning at him. “You keep this quiet, okay? We’re not ashamed of us, or each other, and he’s not being a dick about people knowing or anything or whatever you’re thinking, it’s just--” Wonho let out a breath, watching as Hyungwon lobbed a wad of lake sludge at Changkyun who barely managed to duck.

“You could have told me, you know,” Kihyun smiled softly, nudging Wonho (who barely moved). “I would have withheld the nation wide e-mail blast.”

“Hyungwon likes his privacy, and I like him, and that’s really all there is to it, honestly.”

“HEY, WONHO,” Minhyuk yelled from where he was currently atop Shownu’s shoulders in the water. “TAKE YOUR SHIRT OFF AND COME CLAIM YOUR MAN.”

“Ah, yes, privacy,” Kihyun said, biting his lip to fight back a smirk.

Hyungwon looked murderous. “MINHYUK YOU ABSOLUTE--”

Hyungwon was about to direct an assault in Minhyuk’s direction, when Changkyun threw a wad of mud right onto Minhyuk’s chest. “FIGHT ME, YOU HONOURLESS SWINE,” Changkyun yelled before quickly running (read wading like a scared penguin ) in the opposite direction as Shownu started towards him. Jooheon had to cling to Hyungwon he was laughing so hard at Changkyun’s panicked flailing and over exaggerated squealing in the knee-deep water. When Changkyun looked up at the sound of Wonho’s laughter, he looked straight at Kihyun who, at this point, was laughing just as hard as everyone else.

Changkyun’s facial expression… Well, Kihyun didn’t know what to make of it, that look of absolute affection. It made something in his chest feel simultaneously too light and too heavy, and as much as he tried, Kihyun couldn’t keep the smile off his face.

---

Everyone was exhausted and scattered across couches and the living room floor like the debris after an explosion. Minhyuk would definitely be getting his movie night. With some reasonable apprehension.

“I am not watching that.”

“Aww, come on, Jooheonie, I’ll hold you,” Changkyun offered, making puppy eyes at Jooheon.

“No. Definitely not. Last time you offered to hold me, you ended up scaring me half to death by whispering creepy shit into my ear. You stay far the fuck away from me,” Jooheon said, already scooting himself away from Changkyun into the welcoming arms of Minhyuk, who cooed at him before snuggling up to Shownu with Jooheon in his arms.

Hyungwon looked through the directory of horror movies idly--Minhyuk had absolutely insisted on watching horrors and Hyungwon would gladly rather watch gratuitous violence and psychological horror than some American romantic comedy--before he looked back to lift his eyebrows at the group. What a lot of cowards. His nose twitched, and his eyes furtively scanned the group.

Right, no one had popcorn yet. He could fix that. He got up, disappearing into the kitchen without notice.

Kihyun had sat down on the end of the couch, and by extreme coincidence , everyone quickly found their places soon after, leaving the only place open next to Kihyun. And, of course, Changkyun hadn’t found his seat yet and had to settle down next to Kihyun.

“Maybe if you watch something really scary, you’ll get over it.”

“Yeah,” Shownu agreed with Minhyuk (of course). “Face your fears or whatever.”

“Yeah, and I’m also sure the movie is more scared of me than I am of it, I am not falling for this .”

“Pretty sure that only applies to spiders and student teachers,” Kihyun said.

Wonho, settled on the ground, suddenly looked up. “Where’s Hyungwon?”

“Here I am!” Hyungwon’s voice cheerfully announced. His voice was quickly followed by him, leaning far back from three bowls he had loaded into his arms. He didn’t look like he was breathing. As he came closer and the overwhelming scent of salt and vinegar assaulted everyone’s noses, Minhyuk groaned.

“Who the fuck let Hyungwon make the popcorn?”

“Nobody was watching him, it’s not my fault!”

“What’s wrong with--” Kihyun started, taking a bowl from Hyungwon and making the mistake of breathing in its vicinity.

Changkyun patted Kihyun’s back as he coughed violently, taking his own handful of popcorn from the bowl. “The secret is not breathing while you eat. Or chewing. Just put it in and swallow.” Changkyun demonstrated by throwing the whole hand of popcorn into his mouth, not breathing even once. After he swallowed he licked his lips and turned, grinning to Kihyun. “See, easy! It’s quite nice once you get used to it.”

Kihyun didn’t watch Changkyun’s adam-apple bop as he swallowed, or watch his pink tongue disappear into his mouth again, and he definitely didn’t have trouble breathing at all.

(“Is nobody going to say anything about ‘just put it in and swallow’?”)

“Right.” Kihyun reached forward, grabbed a hand of popcorn, made the mistake of breathing, and started coughing.

Changkyun patted his back. “Swallow or you’ll choke, dude.”

(“Seriously, is anyone else hearing this shit or is it just me?” Jooheon squinted.)

“Right, first movie,” Hyungwon announced loudly as Minhyuk started giggling, moving towards the TV, “Insidious!”

“Fuck no, fuck you, fuck this, I am fucking out.” Jooheon made to get up, but Minhyuk’s arms tightened around him, anchoring him to his seat before somehow still managing to stuff a handful of popcorn into his own mouth.

“God, Minhyuk, just wait for the movie to start eating your popcorn.”

“Why would the movie eat my popcorn?”

Everyone paused to look at Minhyuk. Kihyun laughed into his hand.

Minhyuk’s confused frown remained for a few more seconds before -- “Ooooh, right, nevermind, I get it now.”

“ I am not watching this shit .” Jooheon wiggled.

“Then I guess I won’t rap for your new song,” Changkyun said, casually, shoving another handful of popcorn into his mouth.

“Low blow, bro.”

“ That’s what he sa-- ”

“I’m starting the fucking movie,” Hyungwon interrupted the maknae, pressing play and settling down next to Wonho, eyes quickly scanning the room before moving just a bit closer.

“Oh, I didn’t realize we were watching a Fucking Movie--”

Kihyun clamped his hand over Changkyun’s mouth, the latter turning an alarming shade of red and staring forward with wide eyes.

Jooheon immediately threw a pillow at Changkyun, grinning something wicked before Kihyun realized what he was doing and retracted his hand like it was an open flame. Changkyun hugged the pillow, red faced and staring at the screen.

“Shownu, move up a bit--”

“Hey, I don’t have popcorn, just pass some on--”

“Does anybody need a blanket?”

“If all of you don’t shut up and watch this stupid ghost movie,” Hyungwon said evenly. “A haunting will be least of your fucking problems.”

“Actually, I have no problems fucking--”

“ Minhyuk .”

“Just kill the kid,” Hyungwon exclaimed exasperatedly, waving his hands at the screen for the upteenth time.

“Stop suggesting filicide,” Shownu said evenly for the third time.

“What’s filicide?” Minhyuk asked, exchanging his empty popcorn bowl for a full one. Kihyun shivered at the thought of how pruned his lips would be. The popcorn really did contain an excessive amount of salt.

“Killing your own kid.”

“Isn’t that infanticide?”

“It’ll be Minhyuk-cide in a minute if you don’t shut the fuck up. But honestly, it would solve literally every problem they have.”

“Yes, and leave them with a dead child, Hyungwon,” Kihyun sighed, feeling compelled to chip in.

“They can have another one! It’s not like she’ll suddenly lose the ability to have children, honestly.”

“What if killing him isn’t enough, Hyungwo-- ”

“OH JESUS WHERE DID HE COME FROM?!” Changkyun screeched, flying up and behind the couch, nearly kneeing Jooheon in the face. Kihyun looked at him with a raised eyebrow before giving in and laughing at the boy, grudgingly extending a hand to help the boy back onto the couch, Changkyun blushing in embarrassment. The others barely paid any attention to the little exchange, as wrapped up as they were in the movie.

Changkyun clambered back over the couch, settling into the spot he had claimed next to Kihyun. It had been awkward at first, sitting next to each other, but gradually, before either of them really realised what was happening, they were sitting much closer than at first intended. Changkyun had made a habit of turning his scrunched up face towards Kihyun when the tension on the screen built and he was preparing for some sort of jump-scare, and when that didn’t work and he got scared anyway, he’d nearly completely hide himself in the couch cushion. That is, until he instinctively clung to the nearest human (who just so happened to be Kihyun) after a particularly cruel jump scare, burying his face in the older boy’s sweater.

Kihyun, though he wouldn’t admit it for the world, wasn’t unaffected by the jump-scare and only realised the position he was in a few minutes later. He also realised he was absentmindedly petting the younger boy’s hair, Changkyun’s head still buried in his chest. Almost leaning on his shoulder, really.

Wonho gave him a look. He elected to ignore it. Though he did stop petting Changkyun’s hair, instead merely cautiously resting his hand on the boy’s head. (He was not impressed to discover, about twenty minutes later, that his fingers had started carding through Changkyun’s hair without his permission. And that Changkyun was now definitely leaning into him.)

About halfway through the second movie (Kihyun was sure Changkyun had fallen asleep on him at some point, but he was too comfortable to check), Kihyun glanced down at the floor to see Hyungwon curled up beneath Wonho’s arm, his face buried in Wonho’s neck.

Kihyun’s breath caught in his throat.

It wasn’t really about the way they were seated, since Minhyuk was seated practically on Shownu’s lap and Kihyun didn’t think much of it. But. This. This was different.

Wonho’s arm was lazily trailing up and down Hyungwon’s back, and his face, though currently facing the screen which was portraying a man almost brutally murdering his wife, was shockingly serene. Hyungwon shifted, and Kihyun’s eyes snapped towards him. He was shocked to see that, instead of the usual droll smile or blank face, there was a smile on his face. A smile that Kihyun himself had never once managed to capture on camera, despite the two years Hyungwon had been modelling for him.

Suddenly ashamed at having seen what was obviously something private, Kihyun’s eyes dropped, only to drop onto Changkyun who… was staring right at him.

Under any other circumstances, Kihyun would have looked away as quickly as possible, shrugged it off, tried to pretend it wasn’t happening. Any other place, any other time, Kihyun would… well he wouldn’t have done what he did.

He smiled slightly, barely a twitch at the corner of his lips, (his chest was so tight, it was so tight he felt like he would break), and dropped the arm, the one not in Changkyun’s hair, the one that Kihyun had been awkwardly holding just shy of Changkyun’s shoulders, around the younger boy’s frame. He froze for a moment, watching the way Changkyun’s eyes widened slightly, before dragging his eyes away. He tugged the boy tighter against him, eyes focusing on the movie.

It was chilly tonight. That was all. Changkyun kept him warm. And he kept Changkyun warm. That was all.

And, if he could feel the exact moment Changkyun looked away (if he could feel that burning hot gaze slip off of him), well. That was no one’s business but his own anyway.

---

Changkyun woke up, blinked slowly, and realised it was still dark. Jooheon was snoring peacefully between Minhyuk and Shownu, his phone tight in his hand. Hyungwon was, amazingly, the little spoon, but most importantly, Changkyun’s pillow was Kihyun. Not only his pillow, Changkyun realised, shifting slightly. Kihyun’s arm was flung over him as well, tugging him close.

He was just about to snuggle down when had the sudden, abrupt realisation that, although he would, honest to Christ, not move for the next five years if at all possible, he had to pee.

Typical.

Cursing his body to hell and back, Changkyun shifted, oh so slowly , and oh so carefully out from underneath Kihyun’s arm, trying not to jostle Minhyuk sprawled next to him while simultaneously trying his absolute best not to lose his balance and fall on Kihyun.

Of course, he was Changkyun, and when did things ever go right for him.

His foot slipped on the pile of blankets on the floor. He tipped over, barely even touched Wonho’s head, and landed with hands outstretched on Kihyun’s chest, his palms making a smacking sound as they connected.

Kihyun grunted, to which Changkyun immediately responded by smacking his hand over Kihyun’s mouth in an attempt to not wake literally everyone up.

“Shh, hyung, they’ll hear you.”

Kihyun, eyes now fully open and alert, rolled his eyes at Changkyun. Changkyun burned red when he thought about the implication of his words, grateful for the lack of light, before removing his hand.

“I need to pee.”

“So, you decided to wake me up for that as well?” Kihyun whispered harshly, wriggling out from under Changkyun.

“No, I was just--” Trying not to wake you up because we were cuddling . “Gotta pee.” Changkyun scrambled up, ignoring Kihyun’s muffled protests as Kihyun inadvertently got an elbow to the stomach and walked away quickly, head down.

Changkyun stared at himself in the bathroom mirror. This was fine. Liking someone was not a nerve-wrackingly scary thing. And… actually it wasn’t. Changkyun had always been completely convinced that once he liked someone, his insecurities would get at least a million times worse. That he’d make a fool of himself and say stupid things but, not once, had he considered the way it would actually feel. Scary, yes, but at the same time, comforting. Like a heavy woolen blanket during a storm.

He slapped his cheek softly. Was it one in the damn morning? He always got like this past midnight...

“Stop being so goddamn sappy,” he ordered his reflection, before sighing and exiting the bathroom, making his way to the kitchen instead of the living room. His mouth had an unpleasant taste to it. He blamed it on Hyungwon’s liberal salting of the popcorn.

He squinted into the fridge, looking for some sort of midnight snack. Or maybe just water, since all that was left in the fridge were three blocks of cheese and some milk. He pouted and simply poured himself a glass of water (straight from the fridge, goddamn rich people and their nice ass fridges).

Glass of water in hand, he tiptoed through the living room (a quick glance confirmed to him that all was silent, and he assumed Kihyun had gone back to sleep), and out onto the porch, leaning against the railing while he sipped his water.

“What are you doing out here?”

Changkyun promptly choked on the water, coughing violently as he spun around to face a frowning, messy-haired Kihyun, who yawned and came to stand next to Changkyun. Changkyun wiped the water off his face, trying not to stare at how adorable Kihyun was.

Goddamn whipped .

“I was just… hydrating.”

Kihyun smacked his lips and glanced at the water in Changkyun’s hand. “Gimme that. I’m parched. Fucking Hyungwon, throwing a small ocean’s worth of salt onto that popcorn.”

Changkyun chuckled, quickly handing it over. “Yeah, sorry about that, he always does that. I think he’s trying not to be the saltiest thing in the room?” Changkyun shrugged. “Breathing is apparently not on his list of priorities.”

Kihyun shrugged, taking the water and gulping it down. “It’s fine. It wasn’t that bad. Just a... shock.”

“Not the biggest shock of the night, to be honest,” Changkyun noted softly, deciding that looking at Kihyun was just generally a bad idea and the view of the moon reflected on the lake was… almost as good.

“What? What do you mean?”

Changkyun motioned with his head to the living room. “Did you know about Hyungwon and Wonho? I saw them being cute in a supermarket yesterday like they’ve been dating for years.”

Kihyun, who had been tensing, relaxed. Did he have to be so damn difficult to read?

“I wasn’t sure, but I suspected. Wonho all but told me today, though. I don’t know what to think about it, honestly.”

Changkyun frowned, but still resolutely refused to look at Kihyun. “They look happy. I’ve known Hyungwon for… much too long.” Changkyun scoffed. “You should have seen his face when he saw Wonho for the first time, it was hilarious. Freaking priceless. But I had no idea he’d fall like this. It’s… nice.”

There was silence for a few moments before Kihyun spoke up again, his voice soft.

“It… it doesn’t bother you? Even a little?”

Changkyun turned to look at Kihyun, the elder’s face unreadable in the moonlight. Changkyun bit down on his lip, rolling it between his teeth. “I… Why would it?”

“I… I don’t know. Are your parents.... I mean, ugh I don’t know what I mean.” Kihyun straightened up, frowning at the lake. “Doesn’t Hyungwon worry about what his parents would think?”

“We all do,” Changkyun breathed, something small nagging at the back of his mind, as he turned to lean against the railing. “I told you my dad’s head of the science department, yeah? I’m a literature major. It’s not the same, obviously, I just mean that… it’s impossible to make everyone happy. Especially one’s parents, I think. They have, I don’t know, a set idea of who you’re gonna be? And that’s never gonna happen, so I think it’s just good to try and make them proud with what you decide. I know Hyungwon’s mom. She doesn’t agree with Hyungwon on… a lot of things, but if he’s happy, and works hard, she’ll be happy, too. Not in the way she expected, maybe, but,” Changkyun shrugged. “You know.”

Kihyun turned towards Changkyun, still frowning. Softly, almost inaudibly, Kihyun said, “No. I don’t know.”

Changkyun paused, not knowing whether to acknowledge the fact that he’d heard Kihyun. He dithered a bit, hesitating, before, “Kihyun-hyung, why are you studying programming? I’ve seen your pictures. You’re amazing. There’s an amazing photography course, so why Computer Science?”

Kihyun, although he had been frowning a second ago, had still been, well, loose. Not as tense. Open. Now it seemed like something had been drawn over his eyes, blocking out the life in them. His shoulders straightened up, pulling himself up as tall as he could, as if against an invisible threat.

“Computer Science is a good field,” Kihyun said, evenly, practised. “There’re lots of jobs, lots of opportunities. I’ll always be guaranteed a job. Photography is…” Kihyun’s shoulders slumped slightly, and he seemed to curl into himself, even as his voice became harder. “Photography is a hobby. That’s all. I might’ve wanted to be an, an artist, when I was younger, but that was a pipe dream. I had to-- have to be realistic.”

Changkyun shifted, ignoring the tightness in his chest at Kihyun’s pinched expression. “Artists, succesfull artists, photographers, all that, they’re not fictional or anything... But I do get it.”

Kihyun snorted, slightly, face losing a bit of its tightness. “Yeah? What are you gonna do with your literature degree?”

“Actually,” Changkyun grinned. “There’s translation, editing, publishing houses and, of course, being a broke screenwriter. Oh, and teaching, of course. That’s a staple I can always fall back on. As long as I’m doing what I like, I’m happy.”

“But, you want to be a screenwriter?”

Changkyun chuckled. “Call it my own little pipe dream.”

It was silent again, only the sound of the water lapping softly against the pier breaking it.

“Changkyun?” Kihyun’s voice was soft, and Changkyun waited a second to be sure he really spoke, looking carefully at Kihyun before he answered, wary.

“Yes, hyung?” Changkyun whispered, just as softly.

“I…” Changkyun felt more than saw Kihyun turn towards him, hyper-aware of the older boy. “Why, why… Why do you talk to me?”

Changkyun’s heart pulled painfully in his chest. Why would Kihyun ask him this? Did Kihyun not see how talented he was? How hard he worked? Kihyun had literally demanded to make food for a bunch of strangers, after agreeing to help Changkyun when he had no reason to fill his already cramped schedule with his idiocy.  Kihyun worked so goddamn hard that Changkyun couldn’t help but work harder as a result. When Kihyun laughed he did so unabashedly, cheeks dimpling and eyes disappearing into crescents. Kihyun was competitive and his face was an open book, pouting when he was annoyed or concentrating, and Changkyun couldn’t help but be endeared by it.

“Because you’re amazing,” Changkyun said, because that was really all he could say, and there was no reason not to.

Kihyun’s eyes widened. Changkyun’s attention was drawn to Kihyun’s hand as he half-lifted it, leaving it hovering in the air in front of them. Changkyun swallowed, not knowing what on earth was going to happen next, but knowing that he wasn’t going to do fuck all to mess it up and just shut up and stand really, really still.

Kihyun’s hand hovered for a few more seconds, the owner looking more and more conflicted, before it dropped and Kihyun sighed.

“Thanks. That’s, I’m not sure I believe you, but thanks.” Kihyun turned around to walk into the house, but paused just before entering. “You’re not so bad yourself, you know.”

With that he was gone.

Changkyun wasn’t surprised to see no sign of him when he entered the living room again. He peeked into the hall just to be sure that the guest room’s door was closed (it was open when he passed it a few minutes ago), before walking back to the couch, though he found it very difficult to look at the spot where they’d fallen asleep earlier that night. He ran a hand over his face, sighing softly.

“Hey, bro?” Changkyun spun around, almost tripping on the blankets again, looking straight into Jooheon’s concerned face peeking up from between Minhyuk and Shownu. “Are you okay?”

Changkyun’s shoulders slumped after the initial shock. “I don’t… I’m super fucked, dude. I don’t know.”

Jooheon frowned, before nudging Minhyuk, who moved with barely a murmur before clinging to Shownu and being dead to the world once more, and beckoned Changkyun over. Changkyun gingerly picked his way through the minefield of bodies and blankets before plopping down next to Jooheon, head automatically going to lay on Jooheon’s shoulder.

“What happened?” Jooheon asked in a whisper, pulling the blankets over them both.

Changkyun shrugged. “Nothing, really. We talked. He… he doesn’t sound happy, hyung. He sounds so sad. And…” Changkyun wanted to say more, wanted to voice the way in which Kihyun seemed so incredibly unaware of how he seemed to other people. He wanted to tell Jooheon how Kihyun had been looking at him with that look in his eyes, and with his hand hovering between them but. He didn’t know how. “He’s so sad, hyung,” is what came out instead.

Instead of saying anything, Jooheon pulled him closer, rubbing circles into his back. When Changkyun’s shoulders relaxed, Jooheon smiled softly before letting out a soft sigh and closing his eyes. What had this boy gotten himself into?

---

Kihyun blinked himself into wakefulness.

It was early. Way too fucking early. Kihyun could smell how early it was in the air. People who made a habit (or whose bodies and schedules forced them to make a habit), of getting up early knew that the early morning air had a smell and almost taste to it that was completely unique. It usually only lasted for half an hour or so before things started being normal and everyday. Those few moment, however, had made Kihyun’s early schedule a bit more bearable sometimes.

It was just, right at that moment, he didn’t appreciate his body not being able to sleep past half past six. He had stayed up until who knew how late the previous night, and honestly, he was still tired. He wanted to sleep, he really did. He knew he wouldn’t be able to though.

So, with a muffled moan of protest, he hauled himself into an upright sitting position, blinking blearily for a bit before getting up, stretching. Right. Bathroom and a shower first, and then off to look for some food. He could already feel his stomach getting ready for a good long rumble.

You would think eating a whole two bowls of popcorn the previous night would have deterred it, but no such luck. It was just as adamant as always that breakfast was the most important meal of the day, and it would be fucking Judgement Day before it missed breakfast.

Kihyun shuffled out of the room he had slept in last night (he had not been hiding, it was a tactical retreat. That was all). The house was still quiet, so Kihyun felt safe in assuming everyone was still asleep. That was, until he shuffled into the kitchen, still rubbing his head with a towel, to see Jooheon slumped over the kitchen counter, staring out of the window and drinking what appeared to be coffee.

Jooheon jumped slightly at his presence, but quickly relaxed, letting out a breath and smiling lazily. “G’morning. You missed out on some quality snoring, my dude.”

Kihyun snorted. “What a shame.”

“Didn’t Changkyun kind of fall asleep on you, though?” Jooheon asked, frowning over the brim of his cup.

Kihyun almost bristled defensively, but then he saw the lost way Jooheon was looking at the dregs of coffee in his cup and realised the boy was probably more out of it than Kihyun had been last night.

Kihyun shrugged. “Changkyun woke me up in the middle of the night when he had to go to the bathroom. Couldn’t get to sleep again with all you fucks snoring, so I moved to the bedroom.”

“Mmpf,” Jooheon hummed slightly in response, setting his empty cup on the counter with a sad sigh. “That explains why Kyun was---” Jooheon frowned, rubbing at his eyes before giving himself a soft slap on the cheek. “Anyway. Didn’t get much sleep because of the inevitable demons. Why are you up so early?”

Kihyun shrugged again, moving to the fridge, frowning at the meagre selection before closing it again, moving towards the cupboard now. “My stomach has a thing with being fed. It’s so adamant it wakes me up. And I’m too used to getting up early. Never been good at sleeping late anyway.” Kihyun let out a small, triumphant noise when his eye fell on a box of pancake mix.

“I now know exactly two morning people. Wonho was up early staring at Hyungwon, who… Yeah, I should probably try to get them up before Minhyuk wakes up.” Jooheon squinted at nothing in particular.

“I’m not exactly a morning person. I’m just… up in the mornings. It’s not like I particularly like mornings. Want some pancakes?” Kihyun held up the box.

“Dude, fuck yes . Here,” Jooheon reached next to him for the fruit bowl and tossed over the last banana. “Changkyun likes bananas.” He shrugged, heading to the living room. “Wish me luck.”

Kihyun frowned at the fruit in his hand. Changkyun likes bananas in the morning? And, what did he mean by… “Luck with what?”

Jooheon simply gave him a thumbs up before turning the corner. A few seconds passed in quiet nothingness. Then a loud thump, followed by a loud “Fuck!” that was quickly shushed, a loud Wonho laugh (Kihyun could tell), and Jooheon was limping into the kitchen again, grimacing.

“Ungrateful bastard,” he mumbled, sinking down into a kitchen chair and pulling his foot into his lap, gingerly poking at his toe. “You’d think me saving them the embarrassment of being woken up by Minhyuk’s ungodly cooing would be worth some gratitude, but noooooo ,” Jooheon said in a petulant voice, “I get a fucking knee to my shin and a headbut to my toe. What the fuck, Hyungwon.”

Kihyun opened his mouth. Closed it. Shook his head and started preparing the mix for the pancakes. He had found two boxes, so that should be enough for all of them. He hoped.

“What are you doing?” Minhyuk asked after a particularly large yawn, having wandered into the kitchen not too long afterwards, eyes barely open.

“I was asking myself that same question. Put your hand over your mouth when you yawn, you heathen,” Kihyun grumbled, flipping a pancake before sliding it into a plate and sliding the plate over to Minhyuk, who looked particularly petulant. Seriously, why was he constantly feeding six grown men?

“Mmmmm!” Minhyuk exclaimed happily, already stuffing the pancake into his mouth.

“...You’re supposed to put something on it,” Kihyun deadpanned.

“Fine, gimme the banana.” Minhyuk held out his hand.

Kihyun moved the banana away. “Er, no. Here,” he looked around. “Here have some…” his hand flailed for a bit before landing on a jar of peanut butter and putting it in Minhyuk’s outstretched hand. “Here you go. Knock yourself out.”

Minhyuk happily took the jar and began smearing peanut butter on his pancake. Kihyun couldn’t resist the rather incredulous smile spreading over his face. Was this guy supposed to be older than him?

“Here, I’ll take over for a bit. Go wake up Changkyun. He’ll be mad if there’s no pancakes left,” Jooheon said, coming up behind Kihyun. Kihyun frowned, but handed over the utensils easily enough, making to walk away before Jooheon’s voice halted him. “Don’t forget the banana!”

Rolling his eyes, Kihyun grabbed the banana, walking to the living room, passing Wonho and Shownu on the way, who seemed to be talking about chicken breasts? Anyway.

Kihyun stopped short in the doorway. Jesus Christ , the living room was a disaster zone. There were so many blankets you had to take the fact that the floor existed on blind faith alone, and popcorn was scattered from where Jooheon had upended a half-eaten bowl during the second movie. Kihyun had to actually look for Changkyun amid the chaos. Hyungwon was at the same place he’d been last night, hugging what must have been Wonho’s pillow, but Changkyun had… moved. Well, moved from where they’d, er, accidentally fallen asleep. If Kihyun’s memory served right, he was now fast asleep where Jooheon had been sitting.

He was curled up, like a little ball, legs pulled up and hands under his head as a pillow and, and .

Kihyun swallowed. Shook his head.

And he was so cute that Kihyun physically could not stop himself from grabbing his camera from where it had been sitting, carefully out of the way on the dining table, and snapping a picture.

He just. He literally couldn’t help himself. From a… purely artistic standpoint. Yeah. (Kihyun sometimes wondered if he actually thought he was fooling himself anymore). That was--

“Oh my god, will you not do that here, some of us are trying to sleep, I hate that goddamn clicking sound,” came a grumble from behind Kihyun.

Kihyun flushed. No, that wasn’t the right word. He fucking burned with embarrassment, and if it wasn’t for the fact that he had bought that camera himself, with his own fucking money, he would have thrown it so far away. As it was, all he could do was fumble with it, finally placing it back on the table, keeping his back turned to Hyungwon.

“I thought you could sleep through an earthquake. Where did that handy fucking talent go to, huh?”

“I have an excellent sense of dramatic timing. And great hair.”

Kihyun snorted, hiding his slightly shaking hands behind his back as he turned around again to face Hyungwon. “Dramatic timing, maybe. Hair, well…” Kihyun tilted his head at the literal bird’s nest that was Hyungwon’s hair.

“Oh, please. My hair is awesome,” Hyungwon mumbled, before squinting at Kihyun. “What were you taking a picture of any-- oh.” As he spoke, his gaze landed on Changkyun shifting slightly in his cocoon of blankets, burying his head in his pillow. Kihyun was frozen. Slowly, Hyungwon turned his head back towards Kihyun, leaned back on his elbows, lifted an eyebrow, and said, much too fucking smugly in Kihyun’s opinion, “That’s really fucking gay, Kihyun.”

Kihyun glared and opened his mouth to deliver a truly scathing, scorching remark when--

“Kihyun-hyung?” Changkyun groaned almost as if in response, eyes barely open, voice deep with sleep and muffled slightly by his pillow, before his eyes landed on Kihyun and widened, quickly pulling the blankets over his face.

Kihyun, momentarily distracted from the shit-eating grin Hyungwon was wearing, frowned. Why did Changkyun hide? Did he not want to see Kihyun? Should… should he go?

Changkyun managed to peek through the mess of blankets, his face pink (from what Kihyun could see, which wasn’t much) and hair sticking every which way out of the open slit he was staring out of. “Er. Morning.”

Kihyun cleared his throat, ignored Hyungwon completely, and grunted out a barely legible ( honestly was he a caveman what the fuck was wrong with him) “Morning. I brought you a banana. There’re pancakes,” before lobbing the banana in Changkyun’s general direction and booking it out of the living room. There were too many fucking judgemental faces there. (read: Hyungwon).

---

Changkyun watched Kihyun practically run out of the living room, before turning his face to scream into his pillow. Two minutes into the day and he was already like this .

“You know, he was taking your picture.”

Changkyun’s head whipped around to stare at Hyungwon with wide eyes, heart plummeting into his stomach. “He what ? But I--Oh God .” He sat up, still wrapped in blankets, hands flying up to cover his cheeks, which were most definitely not covered when Kihyun was taking pictures, oh god .

“...Why are you freaking out? It’s like, basically a declaration of love from a photographer.”

“I have acne scars if you haven’t noticed, Hyungwon,” Changkyun moaned regretfully, looking down at his lap, head cradled in his hands. He had been planning on legging it to the bathroom when he woke up, applying his foundation before Kihyun saw anything. Not waking up to Kihyun’s face and, apparently, a goddamn camera. Not that he could complain too much about that first part , but still. He pulled his hoodie over his head. Oh god, what must Kihyun think now oh wow shit fuck. Wait, why was he taking a picture, anyw--

“Changkyun.” Changkyun heard him, but didn’t bother looking over, too lost in the mantra of insecurities spinning through his head. “Ya! Changkyun!” Changkyun was rocked backwards by a flying projectile, which turned out to be the pillow Hyungwon had been clutching once he lifted his head to stare mournfully at Hyungwon.

“What.”

“Will you, like, not do that. I know you have scars. I was there when the acne happened that caused those scars. But it really isn’t as bad as you think. Just now, you looked,” Hyungwon grimaced, looking like what he was about to say physically pained him, “Cute. You looked cute, okay. And you should have seen the look on his face…” Hyungwon looked seconds away from exaggerated retching noises.

Changkyun squinted his eyes at the man who, even with his hair defying gravity and clothes crumpled, managed to look like a magazine editorial, before the fact that that exact man had just said those words to him registered in his mind. Changkyun wasn’t sure if he should believe him (not that Hyungwon would lie , it wasn’t that) as he was prone to, stretching, the truth. But, he really… wanted to believe him.

Changkyun glanced at the banana lying next to him. “What… what look was on his face?”

Hyungwon rolled his eyes and groaned. “I’m not a fucking poet, Kyunnie, I don’t know how to describe it.” Hyungwon paused, glancing at Changkyun, now looking at him all hopeful and expectant, before sighing. “Alright, fine. He, oh dear god, the things I do for friends , he was looking extremely fucking soft , okay? Also like he was having a heart attack. But I’m pretty sure that was about the cuteness, so forget about the stupid scars, okay.”

Changkyun listened, and thought. He thought about the brief look he’d caught on Kihyun’s face  before he’d hidden under the blankets; he thought about Kihyun’s hand reaching towards him last night and how Changkyun would have given just about anything to know what was going on in his mind at that moment because he didn’t have a fucking clue ; he thought about the way his eyes grew hard and softened throughout their conversation, making Changkyun’s chest hurt ; and he thought about this goddamn banana . How the fuck did he know about the fucking banana .

“Thanks, Hyungwon,” Changkyun said, picking up the banana and smiling at him.

“My pleasure,” came Hyungwon’s muffled voice, as he had already buried himself back into his nest of blankets. “Never make me do that again.”

“You look pretty damn adorable yourself, you know.”

“Shut the fuck up.”

---

Later, after breakfast, they were all sitting around in the living room, playing on their phones and talking quietly among themselves, none of them willing to admit the day had to end. (Kihyun adamantly didn’t look at Changkyun, though he could feel the younger’s gaze on him every now and then.) Kihyun could feel stress sinking its claws into him bit by bit though. He had so fucking much to do before Monday, he really should go--

“Guys!” Minhyuk exclaimed, pouting. “We never got to use the karaoke machine.”

“You know, Kihyun does have a really nice voice,” came Wonho’s voice, dripping with hidden amusement as Kihyun turned a murderous glare on him.

Wonho, you shady little bitch.

“I’m not going to si--”

“Changkyun can rap!” Jooheon said, before glancing at Changkyun, and giggling nervously. “I mean, he’s literally featuring on a song of mine, boy can rap, just saying.”

“...Well, you know, maybe this isn’t the worst idea.” Kihyun realised what he had just said just a second after it left his mouth. Changkyun was looking at him. “I mean,” he hurried to say, “I think it would be hilarious to see Hyungwon trying to rap. Cause, like, everyone will be doing it.”

“Yes, this is all on me,” Hyungwon said drily.

“Wonho can sing, too, you know,” Kihyun said, a verifiable expert on misdirection, really, as he grinned at his best friend.

“And dance,” Wonho said confidently, grinning up at Kihyun smugly.

“Yes, we’re all super gay and talented, can we get a move on?” Shownu said, getting up to turn on the karaoke machine.

“I am bisexual,” Jooheon said, squinting at Shownu. Wonho gave Jooheon an enthusiastic thumbs-up before grinning at Hyungwon who rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, especially for a certain rapper in his cla--ow!”

“I’m not ga--” Kihyun was cut off by a loud cheer as the screen flickered to life, music thumping as the song selection screen appeared.

“So you’ll be going first--” Minhyuk smiled in Kihyun’s direction, offering him a microphone.

“I will not. Also, I’m not ga --”

Changkyun got up and took said microphone, interrupting Kihyun, quite possibly on purpose, and grinned, a bit maniacally, at Minhyuk. “Play my song, Minhyuk.”

Hyungwon and Minhyuk paled and simultaneously shook their head, saying, “No way.” Jooheon, on the other hand, was grinning like a madman. Kihyun was worried.

“I will do this shit acappella, do not test me.”

Jooheon talked between laughs. “Just--” he waved his hand. “Minhyuk, just--”

“Christ, fine ,” Minhyuk said, unable to stop the smile creeping onto his face before quickly scrolling and selecting a song before Kihyun could read the title.

A familiar beat started playing and Kihyun was sure he would be feeling this particular facepalm for years, when Changkyun adamantly started his own rendition of Pen Pineapple Apple Pen. Like, nobody was supposed to get that into fucking PPAP.

Jooheon was on the floor laughing, with Wonho hanging off Hyungwon, who looked like he had accepted death in all its forms. Kihyun tried his best not to look up.

This… was going to be interesting.

---

Changkyun

I am dead. I have died.

Heaven? Hell? Who tf knows man

Jooheon

One day we will all stop being such dramatic ass bitches

Changkyun

Jooheon

lol his voice was nice though I'll give you that

but you looked so gone dude

Changkyun

Listen you know how you went on about mystery boy’s raps for an hour and I didn’t judge you?

Let me live

The fact that I got a word out, nevermind rapped adequately, is a fucking miracle

Jooheon

Lol judging by Kihyun’s face

You rapped more than adequately

Changkyun

I was NOT looking at his face

That sounds wrong I JUST MEANT I WAS

You know what no I am tired

Jooheon

BOI

WHAT WERE YOU LOOKING AT

Changkyun

bye

Jooheon

LOL

(I know you were looking at his mouth lol)

(And, I mean, everyone was looking at Kihyun’s butt when he danced like that)

ALSO

Did you see Hyungwon literally undressing Wonho with his eyes when he danced?

Cause damn that was…

Illegal

Changkyun

I DID and then went home and read the bible :)

(I was not leave me alone)

(he has this cute little frown when he sings though??)

No not doing this

Jooheon

Good for you I was enjoying the view

OF WONHO

You with Kihyun was just like

Awkward, painful, and sweet in equal measures

Changkyun

Can you like get a move on with whatshisname so I can give you this

UNFAIR TREATMENT

I’m so hurt why would you

I’m that second male lead in a drama that just doesn’t #win aren’t I

Jooheon

I’m still fully convinced that one day

Writers will see the absolute narrative GENIUS

Of letting the second male lead get the girl

Like, that would be the ultimate plot twist

Changkyun

Or get the guy. Just saying

Looking at you, While You Were Asleep

Jooheon

I literally told you that if you spoil that for drama for me I will disembowel you with a spoon

I’m not fucking joking

Changkyun

Love ya <33333333

Only spoiler you need is that Lee Jong Suk looks DAMN FINE

I’ll send you the screenshots of me making a fool of myself to Kihyun in a minute to reconcile

Gotta thank him for coming and I’m 110% sure I’m going to somehow fuck it up

Jooheon

Damn.

(Hello, when doesn’t Lee Jong Suk look like fine, like, when bitch)

When did we become so morose

I miss the days we could tease Hyungwon without worrying about inconvenient things

Like feelings

Changkyun

For the literal first three episodes of pinocchio holy shIT

You’re just saying that because you’re a scaredy cat

Just text Him, dude

whatevER HIS FUCKING NAME HIS

Jooheon

He still looked kind of cute idgaf unabashedly whipped

Who you calling a scaredy cat?

I’m not scared

I’ll have you know I’m texting him

Like, right fucking now

Changkyun

Sounds SUPER FUCKING FAKE but ok

---

Jooheon

Hey

Just wondering what you’re up to

Gunhee

Hey

Not much

Just wondering why you’re asking

Lol u bored or what

Jooheon

…

Something like that

Gunhee

Jooheon

Hey, do me a favour

Like, pretend that we’ve been talking for hours and just like

Say something really random so it looks like we’re in the middle of a conversation

I’ll explain later

maybe

Gunhee

Cool dude I gotcha

OMG JOOHEON HOW DID YOU GET YOUR DICK WAY STUCK UP IN THAT TOASTER

TELL ME MORE

Jooheon

Ffs

WOW DUDE LIKE I SAID MY BREAD HOW DID YOU MISREAD

THAT SO HORRIBLY

Gunhee

Fucking autocorrect man

No wonder my roommate keeps bringing dicks back from the supermarket

Jooheon

Damn yeah you gotta fix that.

(thanks this’ll do)

(I guess you can go back to ignoring me now)

Gunhee

That’s what the toaster said

Seriously what’s up???

Yes I was ignoring all those texts I definitely did not get

---

Changkyun

...oh? Where those receipts boi

Jooheon

EAT YOUR WORDS BITCH

Changkyun

We literally don’t own a toaster

A NAME. I HAVE A NAME

GUNHEE, HUH???? owo

Jooheon

...I didn’t say it was MY toaster ffs

Changkyun

Why you putting your dick in Gunhee’s toaster

Do we need to have a chat

You know what nevermind well done

but actually talk to him about, like

Not complete fake shit? K? K

One of us deserves love

Jooheon

It wasn’t fake

I’m definitely dumb enough to get my dick

BREAD stuck in a toaster

---

Gunhee

Ignored... How will I go on...

He appears, like a passing storm

Jooheon

SORRY

For that

I had to bring receipts

My friend doesn’t believe that I have

Other friends

Gunhee

Aren’t you and Jackson friends, too?

And isn’t Jackson friends with like literally everyone

Jooheon

YOU KNOW WHAT

I don’t appreciate this judgement

I panicked

Gunhee

Lol it’s fine I’m just glad you texted me

Whoops autocorrect I meant

...yeah I got nothing

Jooheon

Damn I was looking forward to seeing how you’re gonna get out of that one

So you wanna talk to me?

Apart from just about the rapping?

Gunhee

YOU KNOW WHAT

I don’t appreciate this exposure

Yeah you’re a cool dude so sue me

Jooheon

Cool

Hey, wanna come over to mine and play games?

I think I’m actually getting good at Overwatch

Gunhee

YOU HAVE OVERWATCH FUCK YES I’M ALREADY THERE

Jooheon

YOU DON’T KNOW WHERE I LIVE

WHERE YOU GOING BOI

Gunhee

IDK I JUST STARTED RUNNING AND SCREAMING

WHERE YOU AT

Jooheon

Lmao I sent you my location

Don’t fucking run into the middle of the road or some shit

Gunhee

soz can’t text running in front of a bus :)

Jooheon

Oh jeez fuck

See you in a bit

PS: Death is no excuse

---

Changkyun

Hey, thank you

For coming to the party

Thing? Get-together? Thing

Thanks for coming to the thing

It was nice

To have you there, I mean

Kihyun

Yeah

It was fun

I kinda want my popcorn to be that salted forever now though

Which might be bad for my health

Changkyun

It’ll kill Hyungwon first don’t worry

But I’m really glad! About you having fun not the popcorn

Ignore me

Kihyun

No but, like

I actually tried eating popcorn that wasn’t that salted when my mom made earlier today?

And it wasn’t nice. I couldn’t eat it

I need salty popcorn

Who needs to breathe honestly.

Changkyun

Unsalted popcorn is like puffy cardboard. Nasty.

Don’t tell Hyungwon though he’ll get all smug

You’re gonna have to pretend to hate it for the rest of time

cos I cannot handle smug Hyungwon

Kihyun

For the rest of time huh?

How long are you planning on knowing me?

---

Changkyun

Good luck with Gunhee hyung I’ll smile down at you from heaven

Jooheon

78% sure Gunhee is dead

Changkyun

What the

THE WORST PART IS I DO THIS TO MYSELF???

---

Changkyun

Well you know that exams always feel like an eternity so hahaha

yeah

Kihyun

Okay I get it.

You’re only planning on using me for the exams and then going away

Well FINE

Changkyun

I DIDN’T MEAN IT LIKE THAT HYUNG

I WOULD NEVER USE YOU

I JUST MEANT

WHY U GOTTA PLAY ME LIKE THIS

Kihyun

You’re digging your own grave

But it really was fun this weekend

Just make me a promise

Never do that PPAP dance thing again

For my sanity

Changkyun

He tutor.

He sing like an angel.

He protec.

But he also attac

Sigh. But only for you, hyung. That’s a part of my soul I’m sacrificing, you know

Kihyun

You think I sing like an angel?

You have a soul?

Changkyun

...Did I say that

oh look I scrolled up definitely said that

haaaaa

---

Changkyun

aaaaaHHHHHHHHH

Jooheon

Things are going well I see

---

Changkyun

Yes, hyung, you have a nice voice and you know it

...I don’t think I have one anymore, no

---

Kihyun grinned down at his phone. He had a calculus test he should be studying for tomorrow, and the study material was in front of him, yeah, but this was more entertaining than Kihyun had been anticipating. Changkyun seemed to have a particular talent for leaving himself open to all sorts of interpretations, which… well. It was just too tempting to resist, really.

Just as Kihyun was about to type a reply, preferably something that would trick Changkyun into saying something incriminating, his door creaked open. Startled, Kihyun looked up, seeing his father leaning into his room with a steaming cup in his hand, frowning at him.

“I brought you some tea, since you said you were going to study late.” His father pursed his lips at the phone held loosely in Kihyun’s hand, and Kihyun had the insane urge to hide it. “Doesn’t seem like you’re doing much studying though. I know you’re a young adult now, and you can be responsible on your own, but if you have a test tomorrow you shouldn’t be wasting time on your phone.”

His father walked over to put the cup of tea in front of Kihyun, and Kihyun smelled the familiar, comforting scent of honey tea waft over to him.

“Who were you texting, anyway? Wonho?” His father’s expression didn’t so much change, rather than becoming curiously blank.

Kihyun shook his head quickly, eager to stay on good terms with his father that night. He had, after all, brought Kihyun his favourite tea.

“No. No, it’s just. Just this boy I’ve been tutoring in programming. He was asking me some questions.”

His father nodded slowly, expression normalising. “That’s nice of you. Just don’t... get too distracted trying to help him. I’ve always been proud that you’ve never let girls intrude on your drive and ambition. I would hate to see friends do it.”

Kihyun nodded again, turning back to his books as his father closed the door behind him. His chest felt curiously heavy.

---

Kihyun

Right

Sorry, I’ve been wasting both of our time

I have to study

See you around

Changkyun

Minhyuk

The Kind

The Beautiful

Minhyuk

Yes go on

Changkyun

So I maaaaaay have left my charger at yours o(≧∇≦o)

Minhyuk

Hahaha how??? It’s been a week?????

but fine just come to my dorm, I think it's with my things

Changkyun

I’ve been using Jooheon’s but he’s…

How do you say...

Playing Overwatch

For the fifth time this week?

...with a boy ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Minhyuk

A BOI YOU SAY

FIFTH TIME, U SAY

TELL ME MORE MY SON

Changkyun

I WOULD BUT I KNOW NOOOOOTHING

Except that he can apparently get him to say whatever he wants to get me to believe his shit

Haven’t met him. Although I’m actually very tempted to just burst in there at this point tbh

Minhyuk

…I

I will buy you six (6)

Bags of chips

To make the sacrifice, and take me a picture of that boy

PLZ

Changkyun

…

Six you say

Minhyuk

SIX

And a watermelon

Wonho says you like them

Changkyun

If a single drop of watermelon

Yes, I said drop

A drop of watermelon graces my lips within the next five years

I will euthanize myself

Minhyuk

What did the watermelon do to you?

WAIT I will not be distracted

PLZ

Changkyun

Unspeakable things

Ok fine gimme a sec lemme just piss my best friend off

Minhyuk

Did you know there’s probably a type of poison that could kill a man in a second?

I think I found it.

Its name:

Curiosity

Changkyun

That was

Oddly profound

Minhyuk

I keep telling you people I’m a genius

But you don’t believe me

Changkyun

Never said you weren’t, Minnie

If I do die it is completely your fault tho

Minhyuk

A worthy sacrifice

GO, YOUNG ONE

---

Changkyun knocked on the door of his own goddamn dorm room. “Joohoney!”

It was silent for a moment, before the door opened just enough for Jooheon to stick his head out, eyes slightly too wide. “Changkyun! I thought you were going to be gone for--”

Jooheon was interrupted as a face popped out from under his arm, grinning, soon followed by a body squeezing itself between the doorway and Jooheon. “‘Sup, Changkyun! I’m Song Gunhee, and this is MC Rude, cos he so damn rude.”

Changkyun snorted, eyebrow raised and unsure smile plucking at the corner of his mouth, but waved a dismissive hand, mustering the most hurt expression he could. “The wounds run so deep they barely sting anymore, my friend.”

Jooheon paled as Gunhee laughed, “Oh, God, there’s two of you.”

Gunhee grinned at him and opened his mouth, but Jooheon seemed to stiffen, eyes going even wider (Changkyun later swore he saw a faint blush tinging Jooheon’s cheeks), let out a little squeal, pushed the door open almost violently, before promptly losing his balance and stumbling backwards, tripping over the side of his bed.

Jooheon stared up at them with wide eyes from his forced seat on the bed. “I’m fine.”

Changkyun and Gunhee stared at him for a minute, before turning to each other with barely contained mirth.

“Joohoney has told me so much about you,” Changkyun said.

“What a sweetheart, you know, he was literally just talking about you.”

“Good things, I hope?”

“Nah, apparently you’re absolutely terrible at most things.”

(“I never said that--”

“Shh, Jooheonie, the big boys are talking now.”)

“I learned from the best,” Changkyun grinned, keeping himself from bursting out laughing at Jooheon’s face. He could definitely learn to get used to this guy. “ You know , he once punched me in the face while we were watching a horror and I was trying to comfort him.”

Jooheon spoke up, indignant; “You were whispering creepy things into my ear, you little shit. ”

Gunhee scoffed, shrugging his hands into his jacket. “There’s worse ways to get punched.”

Changkyun physically had to restrain himself from further comments or laughing, as Jooheon seemed to be quickly turning a truly alarming shade of red. Changkyun grinned, a very, extermely dumb (genius) thought crossed his mind. “Hey, Gunhee, my guy, will you do me a favour--”

“Whatever it is, just say no--”

“Sure,” Gunhee agreed easily, still smiling at Jooheon who squinted at him. Changkyun giggled before coughing to hide it (it failed and Jooheon said so. Loudly) and quickly fishing his phone out of his pocket.

“Okay, so you might not know this,” Changkyun said, putting the phone to his ear. “But Jooheon has a gay, twenty four year old mother.”

Jooheon scrambled up from the bed. “NO DON’T YOU DARE CALL MINHYU--”

“Hello?”

“Minhyuk!” Changkyun grinned, eyes sparkling when he saw Gunhee grin and ruffle a pouting Jooheon’s hair. “Did you know Jooheon has a boy in his room?”

“PICTURE OR NO CHIPS, CHANGKYUN,” a shrill voice blared from the speakers, causing Changkyun to hold the phone away from his ear with a wince, before winking at Jooheon.

“Unacceptable, you say?” Changkyun gasped, holding the phone up against his ear again. “ Grounded, you say? Oh, you meant grinde-- ”

“Oh, god, stooooop ,” Jooheon whined, trying his best to snatch the phone from Changkyun.

Gunhee seemed to catch on quickly to what Changkyun was doing, holding his hand out for the phone. Changkyun handed it over while Gunhee, laughing, quickly got out of Jooheon’s reach while Changkyun moved in to hold Jooheon in a bear hug.

“Hello?” Gunhee laughed into the phone.

“Who is-- are you the boy ?!”

“Yes,” Gunhee said, lips pressed together as his eyes twinkled in Jooheon and Changkyun’s direction, saying in an overly serious voice, “My sincerest apologies for my and your son’s behaviour, next time we’ll keep the door open.”

Yep, Changkyun was definitely going to like having this guy around. Jooheon managed to wiggle free amidst Changkyun’s near frantic laughter, pouncing towards Gunhee and grabbing the phone. Or, well, trying to grab the phone. “No, stop, just give it to me--!”

“Not now, Jooheon, babe, your dad’s on the phone--”

“Oh, god…” Jooheon trails off, evidently deciding that clinging to Gunhee and attempting to get the phone was a better use of his breath than protesting, since Changkyun was fairly certain that neither of them were listening to his protests either way. Jooheon seemed to resort to just softly hitting Gunhee on the chest and looking decidedly miserable about the situation.

Changkyun saw, as Jooheon pouted, how the sharp amusement in Gunhee’s eyes turned softer, somehow, around the edges. More how you would look like when you were laughing with someone, rather than at someone, though, Changkyun didn’t think that was exactly right either.

“It’s Minhyuk-hyung, yeah? Mhm, yeah, no, I’ll talk to you later. We can have coffee and you can bring every baby picture of Jooheon you can find. Yeah, sounds good.” Gunhee lifted the phone from his ear, grinning at Jooheon before tossing the phone at Changkyun. “Changkyun, catch--”

Changkyun caught the phone as Gunhee tossed it to him underhanded, quickly putting it to his ear. “Hey, Minnie. Do I still need to take a picture or?”

“YES.”

“NO.”

---

Changkyun

So I had to play Overwatch with them for like four hours to get this

Deposit the chips straight into my dorm room thank u

Minhyuk

OH MY GOD CAN WE KEEP HIM

Changkyun

Yes

But if he starts humping legs I’m out

---

Jooheon

wtf dude wtf

Changkyun

You two are adorable

When’s the wedding

Jooheon

I can’t believe you sold me out

For chips

What happened to bros

Changkyun

I will share those chips with you I’m not heartless

I was just gonna come bro out, Overwatch and chill etc

Shit got out of hand

Gunhee is the best thing ever honestly I had NO IDEA HE’D DO THAT

Seriously can we keep him

Jooheon

He’s not a pet

Also, he’s mine

Fuck off

(And I don’t know if he even likes guys so shhhhh)

Changkyun

Well I’m definitely not putting a leash on him

HE’S YOURS HEY??? (☞ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)☞

Screencapped, shared, printed, framed

(yeah well welcome to my world)

Seriously though you don’t know? damn

Jooheon

Oh, shut up

(Yes he’s mine shut up)

Nope

I mean, there isn’t really like a sure fire way of telling, right?

Changkyun

Ask him his opinion on like… a hot dude

idk this is Korea they’re everywhere

Literally look at our friendship group damn we pretty

Jooheon

I’ll just ask him what he thinks of Sense8

I’ve yet to meet a queer person that doesn’t like it

Although, I’m sure straight people like it too….

Fuck

Lol you mean YOU GUYS are all pretty

Changkyun

WHAT THE FRICK FRACK MAN YOU’RE HOT WTF

I will go on a rant about your dimples and thighs don’t test me

Jooheon

Ah, not again

Last time you did that the people around me thought I was having a stroke

I was ‘so red’

And ‘wheezing for breath’

Don’t make me laugh that hard again I’m begging you

Changkyun

One day you’ll take me seriously. One day

Seriously though just… keep at it with Gunnie, I’m sure things will

Fuck how do we test queerness there must be a way

WAIT I GOT IT

WONHO

NOBODY WHO IS EVEN REMOTELY ATTRACTED TO MEN CAN RESIST

Jooheon

No straight man can look at him and not blush

Let’s be honest

Changkyun

True. Fuck.

I’ll think about it. ACTUALLY NEED TO STUDY NOW???

Kill me

Jooheon

Nah

Too much trouble

Have fun with…?

Changkyun

Programming

Have never studied for anything else in my life

This is new and I hate it

But I have to do well, can’t let Kihyun think he’s

Idk farting against the wind

#englishmajor

Jooheon

Brilliant metaphor

Mind if I use it?

Changkyun

Ya but I want 10% and merchandising rights

I HAVE TO HASHTAG SHHH

Jooheon

I’ll give you two (2) cups of ramen

Changkyun

You make it and we have a deal

Jooheon

Deal

Now go hashtag my son

Changkyun

Go Gun, my son

(☞ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)☞

---

Kihyun

Hey beanpole

Hyungwon

Seriously?

My photography lecturer is sick of your face but not nearly as much as I am

Okay, I get why you’d ignore me after that but seriously I need just, like, a placeholder?

I asked Wonho and he is refusing to model for me but I need to hand in a planning thing

Hyungwon?

Ugh

Hyungwon

I’m BUSY

Unlike some people

I have a life

Also, why don’t you just take still lifes

Go find an actual beanpole or something

Kihyun

Because my goddamn focus is photographing people

And somehow

You fall under that category

Hyungwon

I’m actually legit busy though

Like, salt aside

I’m busy

You’re gonna have to bribe another incredibly beautiful person with pictures

Oh wait

Yeah you’re fucked

Kihyun

Selfies are apparently not allowed so…

there goes that idea

Hyungwon

I said ‘incredibly beautiful person’

Not hamster close ups

Kihyun

Fuck you

Honestly

Wth does Wonho see in you you’re just

Literal salt

who just Salts

And Bones

Hyungwon

Your capitalization of ‘bones’ makes me very uncomfortable

Also, what he sees in me? Him

Kihyun

I don’t get it

Is that supposed to be funny or profound I don’t???

Oh

...eeeeeew dude

Hyungwon

:)

---

Kihyun tapped his fingers against the desk as he waited for his marks to load on the screen. He had already gotten back his marks for his other modules, (he had done… alright in them), but the marks for programming had taken a bit longer to be uploaded. Probably because it was such a practical module, but it still made Kihyun feel antsy.

The speed of his finger-tapping increased as he waited for the slow internet of the campus to display his marks. When finally, a few seconds later, the page was loaded, he scrolled down and…

Kihyun felt a huge sigh leave him, his shoulders even relaxing a bit from their habitual tensing. This was good enough. It wasn’t full marks, not what Kihyun knew he could’ve gotten if he had done one or more exercises extra, but it was good enough. He just had to--

“ Fuck yes, I got 60%, bitches!” Kihyun whipped his head up just in time to see Changkyun high five the nearest confused person, who just so happened to be a small, quiet-looking girl who looked a bit like she wanted to run away.

Apparently realising that the girl was close to tears, Changkyun’s smile faded even as he started giggling uncomfortably and tried to apologise, bowing repeatedly. Now apparently done at his station, (or just desperate to get away from the frightened looking girl) Changkyun stood up, looked around a bit confusedly for a moment, before he made eye-contact with Kihyun. Who, at this point, couldn’t even pretend he hadn’t been looking.

Changkyun waved at him and Kihyun fought off the blush (and the urge to look away immediately) and simply nodded at him. And then he looked away. There. He hadn’t been rude, he’d been perfectly civil. Changkyun should be able to see that he was busy and not to both--

“ Woah, holy shit, how are you so smart?”

Kihyun, absolutely, did not almost jump out of his seat in shock at the voice that came over his shoulder and he definitely didn’t bump heads with Changkyun so that they both had to lean back, whining a bit in Kihyun’s case, holding their foreheads.

Kihyun squinted at Changkyun, still wincing a bit because yes, this was completely his fault and there was absolutely no reason to be looking at Kihyun all red-faced and wide-eyed

“ Ow. Fuck, Changkyun, what the hell,” Kihyun said, not even trying to keep the whine out of his voice. It fucking hurt, okay.

“I,” Changkyun shook his head, moving the hand from his forehead to slap his cheek. “Sorry, hyung, I just saw your marks and--” He slapped his cheek again. “Remind me never to compliment you again. Fucking hurts.”

Kihyun frowned at him, still rubbing his forehead. “You’re fucking weird. Why are you slapping yourself. Whatever.” Kihyun rolled his eyes, turning back to his screen. “I heard you got 60% though. Good job. That was much better than that class test, right?”

Changkyun made an affirmative noise behind Kihyun. “Thanks to you, yeah.”

“I didn’t write the test for you, you know.”

“You can lead the idiot to the test, can’t make him not fail it, etc. I gotcha.”

Kihyun quirked a smile, but didn’t reply, hoping that Changkyun would get the hint and wander off. Which, he didn’t. He just. Stayed behind Kihyun, hands eventually finding their way onto Kihyun’s shoulders as Changkyun leaned into him, peering onto the screen as Kihyun clicked around, trying to look busy. It was as he opened his photography file and remembered that he was a bit fucked for the upcoming assignment, that he let out a sigh and Changkyun’s hands tightened on his shoulders.

Which was fine. (Kihyun had not been trying to calm himself when Changkyun’s hands first found his shoulders and he wasn’t doing it this time either. )

“What’s wrong, hyung?”

“Um. Nothing. Really. I mean, I’m a bit fucked, because Hyungwon is too busy to model for me, Wonho just laughed at me, and I need to get my preliminary planning stage in and I have nothing. ” Kihyun cleared his throat. “So, yeah. I’m fine. This is fine.”

“You need a model? What about Minhyuk, or Shownu?”

“I don’t… know them well enough. I, struggle, to photograph people I don’t know. I mean I can , but I wanna do really well on this and it would take too long to get comfortable enough to make it perfect .”

Changkyun paused. (Kihyun didn’t think he realised his hands were digging into Kihyun’s shoulders.) “I could do it. You know me well enough, right? I can, like, pout, if it helps you. Do models have to be Hyungwons?”

Kihyun tilted his head, considering. It’s not like he hadn’t been thinking about it… It was just, a lot. And, well. His photography was very personal. Kihyun knew himself well enough to know that he was right to be a bit scared by what the camera lense would reveal about himself.

“Sorry, it was a stupid idea--”

“No. Wait.” Changkyun paused, hands still digging painfully into Kihyun’s shoulders. “It’s not that I’m not grateful for the offer but… I’m very nitpicky. I get very. I’m a pain in the ass about my photography, basically. Like, this isn’t going to be just a quick thing to do for an hour or two after classes.” Kihyun fidgeted slightly, resisting the urge to shrug his shoulders. It was surprisingly helpful to know Changkyun wasn’t as calm as he was obviously trying to be.

“Kihyun-hyung,” Changkyun said evenly, turning Kihyun (stupid swivel chairs allowing him to do this) around to face him, a hesitant smile on the younger’s face. “You realize you’ve been tutoring me for close to a month now, right? You literally correct me while I’m still typing. I’m sure I was just as much a pain in the ass, and you stuck with it, so --” Changkyun wavered a bit, taking his hands off Kihyun’s shoulders, scratching at his cheek. “If you want me, I’d be happy to help. I can wear, like, a lot of makeup?”

“I don’t actually like my subjects to be caked in make-up,” Kihyun mumbled. Kihyun shrugged. “Listen, I’ll think about it. Thanks for the offer. I’ll… I’ll think about it.”

Changkyun nodded, eyes on his shifting feet. “Cool. Cool, cool, cool, cool . I’ll, er, see you around--just text me if you want me--need me for the thing, I mean. For the--yeah, bye.”

Changkyun quickly waved, turned to leave, walked into a chair, apologised to the chair, and then walked faster, disappearing out the door.

Changkyun as a model. Changkyun as a model. Changkyun as Kihyun’s model.

Kihyun fought the shiver running down his spine.

---

Changkyun

I just

Suggested that I model

MODEL

For Kihyun

KIHYUN

ME, I SUGGESTED IT

Hyungwon

WHAT DID HE SAY

I mean

What, really?

Changkyun

He said he’d think about it

which I’m sure means “sorry I meant I need a model, not a potato”

Hyungwon

Get over yourself

He’s not like that

Most of the time

Changkyun

I’m so stupid like I thought he’d want to??

Cos you said he took that picture of me while I was sleeping????

Ugh I need Jooheon to hug me and say nice things

Hyungwon

It’s literally probably just him working out how to fit you into his concept

Like, I know he has to have a theme and stuff

Like, he didn’t say no

Which is more than I can say the first time I asked him if I could model for him

Changkyun

I’m insanely curious what did he say

Hyungwon

He said he didn’t need a beanpole

But he came begging for me a few weeks later

Apparently his usual model dropped him

Which, now I think about it, was probably Wonho

Changkyun

...huh ok well if he said no to you

And feel free to take this straight to your ego

Then he must really just be thinking about it

I mean look how cute I am

Hyungwon

Now that I’ve stroked your ego

Can you please tell Jooheon that no, he cannot buy another horror game

He wants to play the evil within 2

Why does he do this to himself

Changkyun

He might be trying to prove himself to Gunhee

I mean

He’s a masochist what a crazy guy

---

Changkyun

TALENT

Kihyun

How did you even

Changkyun

Through pure talent

Ow

Kihyun

lol did the phone fall on your face

Changkyun

If only

Kihyun

Where

You know what

I don’t want to know

Changkyun

My selfies are much better when I’m not using my feet

I promise

You’re a PHOTOGRAPHER your selfies are probably frickin’ amazing

Kihyun

Do you think you’re being subtle

Changkyun

I like to imagine I can be, yeah

Kihyun

Imagination is a powerful thing

Changkyun

Can’t top this

Kihyun

You have dimples?

I mean, not bad

Changkyun

I do lol haven't you noticed

but yeah hang on I have an old pic or two somewhere

Seeeeeeeee you can’t beat dimples #illegal

Skills < dimples

Kihyun

That’s

That’s nice

You free tomorrow afternoon?

Changkyun

For what? Didn’t we just write the last test??? :O

OH GOD IS THERE A TEST I DON’T KNOW ABOUT

Kihyun

Chill your pants

For the modelling

Thing

You said you would

I mean, if you still want to

Changkyun

Wait seriously

Sorry I just meant

Like for real???

Kihyun

It’s fine if you weren’t serious

I mean

I’ll find someone else it’s fine

Changkyun

NO SORRY I JUST

I know those are some damn good selfies but

I’ve never modelled before and my face is a wreck and

Sorry I just mean I want to help I do

But I

Kihyun

Changkyun

Your face is fine

I’ll help you with the modelling

Believe it or not, I’ve had to help quite a few people

Anyway, my concept is ‘natural beauty’

I don’t want you to look posed anyway

Changkyun

Natural beauty

Okay well I mean if you’re sure I can do it

Lol I’m so fucking sorry I literally said I’d help you and look at me being

Anyway yeah no I’m not doing shit tomorrow afternoon, so yeah, no problem

Kihyun

Okay, it’ll be in my house’s garage.

The wall is clear and stuff it

It’s not as weird as it sounds

Changkyun

do you also photograph people in remote basements

[Life is Strange flashbacks]

I do not know where you live, but i’ll be there

With all my ~~natural beauty~~

Kihyun

I’ll send you the location in a bit

Thanks

You’re really helping me out here

Changkyun

It’s the least I can do :3

---

Changkyun

So Kihyun wants me at his house tomorrow afternoon

Hyungwon

He wants you

At his house

hmmmmm

Changkyun

YOU STOP RIGHT THERE SIR

I already accidentally made a sexual innuendo

about topping

right in his chat

next to my own goddamn face

I don’t need this

I meant modelling. He said yes to the modelling.

Let me live

Hyungwon

How the fuck did you manage to make yourself

*deep sigh*

ANYway

Yeah

Told you he was just thinking about it

You insecure potato

Changkyun

Whatever you conceited beanpole

Please help me I have no idea what to do or what’s gonna happen

Please I’m losing my mind a bit

Hyungwon

Someday

You’re gonna need to stop being so dramatic

Just

I mean, I basically just put on my bitch face and chill

?

Changkyun

If I had your face this wouLDN’T BE A PROBLEM, WOULD IT

It’s fine

The only reason I texted you of all people was because

His concept is Natural Beauty

Hyungwon

Wait

When did he tell you about this ‘concept’?

Changkyun

After he asked me to model for him. Why?

Hyungwon

Interesting

Because, I’m pretty sure his theme before

When he still wanted me to model for him

Was ‘Hands’

Like, he was gonna photograph me holding stuff and shit

Like I said

Interesting

Changkyun

...what are you trying to say here

Hyungwon

You know

I’m not your personal therapist

I’m not gonna spell this out for you

Stop being an idiot for a second maybe

And you’ll see it

Changkyun

...are you saying… that…

That maybe he...

Chose the concept for me...??

Instead of choosing me... for the concept...???

Hahahaha sure

Good thought though it made me laugh a lot thanks

Hyungwon

You’re missing a hyung there

You little shit

Changkyun

And you’re missing sense and reason, hyung

But I forgive you

Now teach me how to pout

Naturally

Hyungwon

Hyungwon is offline

Changkyun

Texting doesn’t work like that

Hyungwon

Message not received

Try again later

Or not

Fuck off

Changkyun

Changkyun is sad and alone now

---

Kihyun fidgeted around with his tripod and his light modifier, trying to get the angle perfect. Usually he set up without much fuss about twenty minutes before Hyungwon showed up, adjusting things as need be as the shoot progressed. For some reason, though, things didn’t seem to want to fall into place and honestly if this fucking reflector would just, fucking stop , bending at that weird angle--

“Oh, dear brother of mine, what the fuck are you doing?”

Kihyun felt his ears burn and shot up, ignoring the smirk on Jeongyeon’s face as he moved to fiddle with the camera.

“Watch your language. You don’t want dad to hear you.”

Jeongyeon leaned against the wall, folding her arms across her chest. “No worries. He’s at work. Like he always is when you hold these photoshoot things. You didn’t answer my question though, don’t think I didn’t notice.”

Kihyun rolled his eyes. “What? Suddenly I’m weird for adjusting my equipment? I always do that,” Kihyun scoffed, testing the flash the nth time.

“One,” Jeongyeon said, holding up a finger. “Please never refer to anything as ‘your equipment’ ever again. Like, ever . Two,” she said, adding another. “I’ve seen you do all this in like, five minutes. You’ve been in here for half an hour. Do you have a new model or something? You know Hyungwon’s angles way too well at this point, my dude. Ooh! Is it a giiiirl? ” Jeongyeon smirked, lifting an eyebrow at Kihyun.

KIhyun looked at her with a blank face, before flipping her the finger. She knew damn well that he wasn’t--

Nope.

“Go away,” he said instead. “Isn’t it your scheduled ‘annoy mom’ time.”

“Yeah, but I got some good annoying in before coming here so,” she grinned brightly. “When will he be here, then?”

Kihyun flipped her two fingers.

“ Two fingers? Wow, Kihyun--”

“Honey, there’s someone at the gate!” His mom’s voice floated in from the kitchen, and Kihyun felt the fluttering nerves he had been suppressing for the better half of an hour flare up again in full force. Why the fuck was he so nervous this was just a photoshoot he had done this about a thousand times before this should be chill.

“Go get him, tiger.”

“Okay, that’s it I’m telling Dad about your tattoo.”

“ Kihyuuun. ”

---

Was he supposed to ring the bell? Text Kihyun? Definitely wasn’t supposed to loiter around their gate for ten minutes. They must have spotted him, though, if the gate suddenly opening was any indication.