Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The only class Taehyun has on Fridays is a mid-morning class, and he usually uses the extra time to get an early work-out at the student gym. Kai is still sleeping when he wakes up (his first class starts at noon and he spends every last minute sleeping until he absolutely has to get up). He gets ready quietly in order to not disturb him and grabs his backpack and sports bag before heading out.

There’s an 8:00 a.m. kickboxing class that’s typically pretty empty—everyone either sleeping, in class, or too hungover to come. He tends to belong in one of the first two categories most of the time, but on Fridays he likes to come in and let out some of the tension he has accumulated during the week.

He always feels more clear-eyed and energized afterwards—nothing like a fist coming straight at your face to wake you up, even when you know it’s not real fighting and it won’t actually land.

The teacher is a bull of a man called Lee Hoseok, who gives the sweetest smiles and is an absolute nightmare on the mat. He’s surprisingly fast and precise for all his muscle mass, and despite his intimidating appearance, he’s probably one of the nicest people Taehyun has ever met.

Which is not to say that he isn’t utterly ruthless as a teacher. His classes are always gruelling, only made worse by the fact that he keeps smiling and cheering them on like his godlike displays of skill and strength are nothing.

Taehyun always leaves his classes aching in places he didn’t even know he could ache, and with the bone-deep satisfaction of well-put effort. Today is no different—as he leaves the showers and gets dressed, he can feel a pinch on his left shoulder when he moves his arm too much. As his leading arm, he has a tendency to strain his left side too hard. He switches both his backpack and gym bag to his right shoulder and massages the left one with a slight grimace. That’s probably going to bother him all day. Great.

He checks his watch. 10:12. It’s later than he thought; he’ll have to drop his sports bag in his room after class.

Fortunately, when he gets there, he sees that the teacher hasn’t even arrived yet. Instead, he sees Chaeryong already sitting on the second row, next to the window. Damn it, she beat him again.

He and Chaeryong have an ongoing competition where they both try to be in class before the other comes. He isn’t sure when it started, but it quickly escalated from being the first to get to class to being the first to complete or submit assignments. One time he submitted a task 58 seconds before her and she didn’t speak to him for a week.

He sighs as he walks over and sits down next to her, dropping his things on the empty seat to his right.

“Look who has finally decided to grace us with his presence,” Chaeryong says, not even looking up from her computer. He knew she was going to enjoy this.

“Professor Kwon isn’t even here yet,” he complains.

“Your point being?” she says, clicking around on the screen.

He gives up trying to defend himself (she did beat him, damn it) and instead starts taking his things out of his bag. He suddenly feels a light tug on his scalp and looks up to see her grabbing a wet strand of his hair and rubbing it between her fingers while he’s vulnerably crouched down getting his computer. “Why is your hair wet? Were you running late?” she singsongs, delighted.

Beomgyu’s record as the most insufferable winner could be easily challenged by Chaeryong. He refuses to fall into her game.

“You see, when water touches a permeable material-“ he starts, as he straightens back up.

“Really, you don’t say,” she cuts him off, smile dangerously sweet.

“I took a shower. Obviously.”

“Obviously,” she mocks him, mimicking his voice in an exaggerated snotty tone.

He’s not going to respond. He’s not going to say anything. He’s a mature, independent-

“I don’t sound like that,” he says. Damn it.

“Sure you don’t.”

“I don’t.”

“I don’t,” she mimics him again in that ridiculous voice.

“And I was at the gym, I wasn’t running late,” he can’t help pointing out.

“Uh huh.”

“Will you stop-“ he says, but she interrupts him.

“Hush, the teacher is here. Show a little respect, will you?” And she turns back to her screen, flipping her hair and transforming into the perfect model student.

He seethes at her but doesn’t say anything, because Professor Kwon did just come in and he actually does have some respect. Unlike others, he thinks, but when he looks pointedly at Chaeryong, she’s ignoring his existence wholeheartedly.

Sometimes she reminds him so much of his older sister, especially when they were younger and used to bicker about the ownership of every toy. She used to pull the I’m the noona card all the time, and he didn’t know how, but he always ended up twisted around and having to do what she wanted. All of his interactions with Chaeryong feel like that; he starts with a very clear purpose in mind and suddenly he’s the one in the wrong and she was right all along.

The rest of the students have started filtering in in the meantime, without either of them noticing, so by the time Taehyun turns to the front, Professor Kwon is about to start the class.

He spends the rest of the class focused on taking notes, unable to think about anything beyond the next variable. He only has time to roll his left shoulder from time to time, which is only growing stiffer due to the uncomfortable posture as he writes.

At one point, Chaeryong knocks her ankle against his and hisses at him to “Sit straight, dumbass. If you’re stupid enough to get muscle cramps from bad posture, I’m not carrying your things for you.” Which might have had nice sentiments buried somewhere under all the insults, but Taehyun is too busy trying to figure out the problem on the board, which the professor is asking students at random about, so he can only grunt in vague acknowledgement.

When class is over, he packs his things and starts heading out, and if he goes a little slower to give Chaeryong time to catch up to him, that’s no one’s business but his own. Unfortunately, that means he also opens up the possibility of other people catching up to him, and he has to suppress a sigh when he hears a cheerful “hey!” to his right as he reaches the door.

It’s not that he hates his classmates, it’s just that most of them are annoying and mildly incompetent at best.

Taehyun knows he can be a bit of a bitch, but that’s just how it is. For him, you’re either in or you’re out, and he’s not interested in letting most people in.

“Hey,” he answers, resigned to his fate, but when he turns his head he sees that it’s Sunghoon. He’s probably one of the only people in his year Taehyun has listed as “decently competent” in his head; they did a project together last year, and he was alright, if a little shy at times and overexcited at others. They’ve talked a few times in class after their project, short conversations about the course materials or their busy schedules. He doesn’t know what Sunghoon could want right now. Maybe to ask to have a look at Taehyun’s notes?

Sunghoon beams as he falls into step beside him.

“Professor Kwon is tough, isn’t he?” Sunghoon says with a hesitant little laugh. “I thought I was gonna have a heart attack when he asked me to solve that problem.”

“He’s pretty strict,” Taehyun agrees, “but he’s a good teacher. We’ll just have to study harder.” He wonders if that’s why Sunghoon approached him. He didn’t think Sunghoon was behind in this class but, to be fair, he doesn’t pay much attention to his classmates’ scores beyond Chaeryong’s and his own, so who knows, maybe Sunghoon is finding the coursework too burdensome and wants to ask Taehyun for help.

“Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure.” Sunghoon nods, fast and energetic like a little bobblehead, and Taehyun waits for him to say more, but he just looks down at his shoes and doesn’t offer anything else.  

Taehyun sees Chaeryong finally coming towards them, and he tries to communicate with his eyes that she should come over here and save him, but she just raises an eyebrow at him and smirks a little as she looks between him and Sunghoon. If anything, it seems like she only slows down her pace even more. Taehyun glares at her.

“So!” Taehyun has to force himself not to jump at Sunghoon’s sudden outburst. “We should definitely study more for this class, yeah. Studying is very important, haha. I bet that’s why you always get such good grades, you’re so smart. But, um. You don’t spend all your time studying, right?”

Taehyun frowns, confused. Is Sunghoon trying to ask him if he has any free hours for tutoring?

“I also tutor a few freshmen on the afternoons,” he says, hesitantly. He guesses he could start a study group with Sunghoon, if Sunghoon really needs it, but he’s a little surprised. The few times they’ve talked, he’s always gotten the impression that Sunghoon prefers studying alone. He even thinks he remembers Sunghoon mentioning during their project together that he always carried noise-cancelling earplugs in the library, because other people’s noise bothered him.   

“Oh.” Sunghoon blinks rapidly a few times. “That’s cool! But I meant, like, in your free time, haha.”

The longer they talk, the more confused Taehyun is.

“Oh,” he doesn’t know how to answer. What does that have to do with anything? He racks his brain for an answer, but suddenly he can’t remember a single thing he’s done for fun in his life. “Uhh, I’m going to a party tonight.” He winces internally. Is that all he can think of? A party he hasn’t even gone to yet? Maybe Beomgyu is right and he really is a grandpa trapped in the body of a twenty year-old.

But Sunghoon’s face lights up like a Christmas tree. “Ah! The international students’ party, right?  Jay and Jake are going, since, you know, international.” Taehyun has no idea who these Jay and Jake are, and he isn’t sure if he’s supposed to. But, really, is everyone going to this party? “I was planning on going too, that’s cool. I mean, it’s cool that you’re going. And I’m going. And Jay and Jake, of course! Since it’s for them, and I’m going for them, but we’ll probably still see each other there, hahaha, don’t you think?”

Sunghoon laughs nervously, and he looks a little red, probably about talking so much when he’s normally a pretty quiet person. Taehyun doesn’t want him to feel embarrassed if what he’s trying is to be more outgoing (maybe that’s what’s happening here?), so he says, “Yeah, sure. See you there.”

Which gets him a much brighter smile from Sunghoon than he thinks his answer warrants. And he isn’t saying anything else, just beaming at Taehyun kind of expectantly, and Taehyun is so confused.

Luckily, Chaeryong chooses that moment to grace them with her presence.

“Sorry to interrupt,” she says, grabbing Taehyun by the arm, “but I need to borrow this nerd over here.”

“Ah, um, sure,” Sunghoon stammers, but Chaeryong is already leading them both away with a blatantly fake-cheerful “bye!”.

“God, you’re a disaster,” she tells him once they’re a bit farther away.

“I am not,” he says out of sheer reflex, trying to get away from Chaeryong’s perfectly manicured claws. “Wait, about what? What did I do now?”

“If you don’t know already, I don’t want to tell you.” She finally lets him go after that cryptic message, climbing down the entrance steps ahead of him and turning around again before he can ask anything else, “We have that test for Professor Han next week. Try to study hard, or crushing you won’t be half as fun.”

“You have a terrible personality, noona.”

“Thanks!” she says before flipping her hair and walking away without another word.

Taehyun sighs, but now his thoughts are focused on Professor Han’s test, and he doesn’t think about Sunghoon’s weird behaviour or Charyong’s cryptic comments again.

That night, Beomgyu meets them in their room to go to the party together. He arrives unusually early, when Taehyun and Kai are still getting ready, and Taehyun has the sneaking suspicion he only did it to try to veto their outfits.

He’s wearing a combination of the clothes he showed Taehyun last time—a dark t-shirt of some obscure rock band with a leather jacket on top, ripped black jeans and heavy-looking boots. He looks cool and mysterious, and nothing like the chews-with-his-mouth-open woodland creature that Taehyun knows he actually is.

“Do you have snacks?” is the first thing he asks as he walks into the room, and just like that the illusion is broken.

“I think there are some sweet potato crackers left on Kai’s side,” Taehyun says, because they’re not his crackers.

“Hey!” Kai complains from somewhere inside the bathroom, but he doesn’t come out, so Beomgyu takes it as explicit permission to raid his snack stash.

“Juyeon and his friends set it all up earlier, but the party starts for real at 10,” Beomgyu starts, chewing while he talks (see? Taehyun wants to point out to the universe). “They’re doing some sort of welcoming ceremony for the international students, with drinking games and stuff, but I thought we could get there a little later when everyone’s already gotten started and loosened up a bit. What do you think?”

“Sure, sounds good,” Taehyun says, and Kai gives an affirmative muffled hmm from the bathroom. He’s probably brushing his teeth, if the exaggerated gurgling sounds are anything to go by. If Taehyun didn’t know any better, he’d think he was choking or drowning in the shower. Fortunately, he’s used to it by now; Kai’s getting-ready routine in the mornings is a whole situation.

“Okay, it’s already 9:52,” Beomgyu says, checking his phone. “I think it’ll be okay if we drop by at around 10:30.” He pops another cracker into his mouth, careful not to get any crumbs on his clothes.

There’s an unintelligible glrurrjrjjrrrurglurr coming from the bathroom, and Taehyun sighs before he says, “We didn’t get that, Kai. Could you repeat it?”

The walls of the dorms are so thin that they can hear him spit into the sink before he says, “I said that’s great! Soobin told me he’s coming a little later as well—he can meet us there!”

“You talked to Soobin?” Taehyun asks.

“Yup! I ran into him after class and we talked for a bit.” Kai says, sounding a little dreamy. “I still didn’t get his number, which sucks, but he did mention he was coming tonight with a couple of friends.”

“That’s settled, then,” Beomgyu says, and then, out of nowhere, “Do you think I should start speaking like an anime villain?”

“You’re already an anime villain,” Taehyun says. Because he lost the ability to be surprised by anything his friends say a long time ago. He pulls a hoodie over his short-sleeved T-shirt; it’s one of his nicer ones, one he doesn’t use for the gym, black with a rose design on the back. His left shoulder throbs a bit while he puts it on, still a bit sore from this morning, and he rolls it a few times to get rid of the pinching sensation. “You say crazy shit all the time, you have mysterious connections and you’re somehow behind every single bad decision I’ve made since I met you.”

“Aww, thanks, babe,” Beomgyu says sweetly. “By the way, are you wearing that hoodie?”

“Yeah,” Taehyun says, a little wary. “Why?”

“Nothing, nothing. The short sleeves of the shirt made your arms look good, I thought that was what you were going for.”

“It’s still April.” He crosses his arms defensively. “And we’ll be in the middle of the woods. It gets pretty cold at night, you know?”

“Yeah, yeah, ahjussi. At least this one makes your chest look nice. Like a pair of hardened steamed buns.”

Taehyun decides to graciously ignore that last comment. Because he’s mature like that.

Right then, Kai decides to finally come out of the bathroom, arms outstretched triumphantly like he completed a difficult feat. “I’m done! Are you guys ready?”

Kai usually goes for comfortable, baggy clothes or cute animal prints, but he always looks nice when he actually decides to dress up. He’s wearing make-up, light enough that it’ll probably be barely noticeable in the dark, but it gives his uncommon features that extra something that makes him look a little ethereal. An image that is supported by his long blond hair and his dangly silver earrings (he bought them after he saw Yeonjun’s, presenting them to Taehyun like a happy puppy with a new toy). He looks like a fairy prince. This Soobin guy will probably shit his pants when he sees him

(and if he doesn’t, then Taehyun will just have to make sure himself that he’s suitably grateful to receive Kai’s affections).  

“Sure. Just a moment, though,” Beomgyu says, answering his question. “Do you have a spare toothbrush somewhere? I don’t want my breath to smell like sweet potato the entire night.”

“You shouldn’t have eaten the crackers, then, hyung,” Taehyun says, just to be a brat, at the same time that Kai says, “Ohhhh, hyung, plan on kissing anyone tonight?”

“Gross,” Taehyun says, trying to erase the mental image of Beomgyu kissing someone—anyone— from his brain.

“My perfect lips are reserved for the chosen ones only, my dear and lovely Huening Kai.” He sweeps past him into the bathroom, in search of the cup of spare toothbrushes they keep under the sink, because Taehyun thinks that dental health is very important.

“That’s a lie, hyung. You love pretty people,” Kai says, deceivingly innocent.

“Ya! Are you calling me a slut?”

“Nooo,” Kai says, waving his hands even though Beomgyu can’t see him. “I’m just saying you like pretty people and you like kissing. And you’re not usually picky about the pretty people you’re kissing. There’s nothing wrong with that!”

“I’ll keep my eye on you, Huening Kai. You better watch your back. And don’t think I didn’t hear that ‘gross’ comment, Kang Taehyun.”

Taehyun sighs.

“Can we just go?”

Later, Taehyun will remember the night in flashes—short scenes that succeed one another, vibrant and hazy, like film rolls out of order.

He remembers leaving the dorm and walking into the forest on the north-end of campus; the party was taking place where a lot of parties took place around here: in the middle of the mountains. It was probably the reason that a lot of Seoullites called them country bumpkins—not that any of the Gwanak residents seemed to care. Small gatherings were usually hosted in dorm rooms— or common rooms if you had a cool RA—but in general their idea of a civilised party was a nicely sized clearing in the middle of the woods.

You’d think that walking around drunk at night through the mountains was a massive safety hazard, and you wouldn’t be wrong, but Taehyun has the theory that once you enter the campus you automatically develop a special survival instinct that prevents you from breaking your neck on random protruding roots. Also, the path leading to the clearing they’re headed to is wide and easy to follow, and not very long.

So they cover the short trek to the right place without problems. Taehyun’s memory is still intact at this point, and he remembers seeing the light and hearing the music before they even got there, Beomgyu’s voice a constant flowing stream at his side.

The place itself is a relatively well-sized clearing with trees on all sides. Someone had taken the effort of stringing fairy lights between the branches, and someone else—probably theatre majors—had brought a few strobe stage lights to light up the place. There’s also a plank of wood on one side, like the ones the ahjummas used to use to sit on in the streets, that had been there since the first time Taehyun came here last year (which was honestly quite disgusting, actually. He doubted anyone had cleaned the thing since it was brought here, and who even knows when that was).

Surrounding it, Taehyun can see coolers full of soju and beer, a few empty bottles already on the floor. A couple of people are sitting on chairs propped up against some trees, talking and drinking.

“Hey, you made it!” a voice calls out. A tall guy in dark clothes comes over to them, cheeks flushed and grin tipsy.

“Hey, Juyeon. Thanks for inviting us, man,” Beomgyu says, hugging him around the bottle he’s holding. “These are Taehyun and Kai, ’02 liners.”

“Cool! The more the merrier, man!” he says, and bows a little drunkenly. “I’m Juyeon. Come, come! There are drinks over there.”

He leads them to the coolers, where they each grab a bottle of soju, and then quickly disappears again to greet someone else.

Which is not surprising, since there are a lot of people here. Taehyun was expecting the party to be packed, given how many people knew about it, but the big crowd still takes him by surprise. There are people dancing to the music coming from the speakers, mingled with groups of people talking or playing drinking games on the floor, without a care for getting dirt on their clothes.

This is the point where Taehyun starts drinking, but this early his memories are still clear.

He talks with Kai and Beomgyu for a while, and a couple of Beomgyu’s art friends join them (thankfully no one from Hyunjin’s group. Taehyun knows there’s a probability of seeing him here and he is mentally bracing himself for the awkwardness).

But then Beomgyu gets dragged away by a guy Taehyun doesn’t know, who claims Beomgyu just has to see this (whatever this is). So he and Kai stay behind until Kai sees Soobin in the crowd. Taehyun only knows it’s Soobin by the way Kai’s face just lights up like a Christmas tree. And, of course, he immediately drags them over to him to introduce them.

The guy is ridiculously tall, even taller than Kai, and Taehyun resigns himself to remain the shortest in their friend group. He seems nice, though—a little shy and soft-spoken, with the dimples Taehyun has heard a million praises about on display every time he smiles. And, most importantly, he seems as smitten with Kai as Kai is with him. His heart-eyes could probably be seen from space, so maybe Taehyun will have to reschedule his shovel talk for another time.

Soobin introduces them to a friend of his, Ryujin, a girl with cool bangs and a lot of style who is nice, if a little blunt—but in an honest way that Taehyun appreciates. She’s a year older than him and makes him call her noona straight away.

Kai and Soobin try to make them feel included in the conversation, which is nice of them, but it’s obvious that they only really have eyes for each other, and Taehyun and Ryujin end up exchanging many an exasperated look at their antics, until she rolls her eyes one final time and grabs him by the elbow. “I see some people playing games over there. Taehyun here looks like a pretty competent guy, so I’m taking him with me. Not that you’ll notice our absence,” she mutters under her breath.

“Okay, have fun!” Kai calls after them. He doesn’t seem excited that they’re finally leaving them alone, but he doesn’t sound upset about it either. “I’m so glad you’re making friends, Taehyuinie!”

“God, he’s so embarrassing.” He rubs a hand over his face while Ryujin drags him away.

“He’s cute,” she shrugs. “But he and Soobin were starting to drive me crazy. If I have to listen to that tall idiot whine about how Kai is too perfect for him one more time, I’ll punch him in the face.”

“I think Kai would be a bit sad about that. He loves that face. And then I’d have to fight you because you made Kai sad, which wouldn’t be a very good start to our friendship.”

“You do have big arms.” She pokes at his bicep a couple times like she’s testing the consistency of dough. He cups a hand protectively over it—she’s got very long purple nails—, and takes a preventive step away from her. He happens to look up at that moment and sees Chaeryong among the growing throng of people, leaning against a tree. He starts to raise a hand to wave at her—he didn’t know she was coming as well— but she’s glaring at him so intensely that his hand falters. He hasn’t even done anything now! He loses sight of her among the bodies of people dancing and fooling around before he can do anything about it, though. And then his attention gets pulled back to Ryujin when she says, “I still think I could take you in a fight, though. I’ve got a mean punch.”

“So do I,” he says, a little indignant and trying not to show it.

“I’ve got a black belt in Taekwondo.”

He swallows a bit, but he is, unfortunately, way too competitive to back down. “I’m great at kickboxing.”

She scoffs. “Okay, boxing boy. Let’s test that out someday. But for now, tell me, are you as good at drinking games as you are at kickboxing?”

“Absolutely,” he says, firmly ignoring his latest beer pong loss.

She links arms with him again. “Then let’s kick some ass.”

The night starts getting a little fuzzy from that point onwards, but he does remember some things:

They don’t find any beer pong tournaments like Taehyun had originally wanted, but they do find a group of people gathered around a folding table someone brought, cheering on an intense-looking bottle-cap race. He and Ryujin join in on the next round, facing off against two Health Science’s students. They have to drink every time a bottle cap falls off the table, and by the end Taehyun is a little drunker than he started but happily soaking in the glow of victory. His shoulder aches a bit from tensing it to hit the caps, but he ignores it and continues to win happily.

Then-

He's with a group of people he doesn’t know and Ryujin is high fiving him because they just won a round of Sam-Yuk-Gu. He doesn’t know how he got here but he’s having fun, and people keep offering him shots, even though he’s winning and he doesn’t have to take penalty shots. But he takes them, because he did come here with the intention to let loose a bit, after all.

He and Ryujin make a fearsome team, and even if he can’t quite remember the whens and the hows, he knows they managed to decimate a good number of games before she tells him, “I want a drink.”

“What?” he yells, because someone turned the speakers up higher and drunk people are bad at controlling their volume. He can’t hear her at all.

“I said I’m gonna get a drink!” she yells back. “Want anything?”

“Soju!” he tells her, and she gives him an ok sign before disappearing into the crowd.

Then-

His next memory (or at least the one he thinks goes next) is of watching some people play the Sense game and snickering when they inevitably fall on their asses every time they try to crouch down when they say a number. Alcohol and psychomotricity don’t really get along well. He played a round a while ago, when he and Ryujin were making their rounds on every single drinking game they could try to win (she’s even more competitive than him, and together they’re a real nightmare). They won the game (obviously) because Taehyun’s reflexes always beat everyone else’s in the Sense game and because Ryujin intimidated anyone who wanted to say the same number as her into submission.

He laughs again at a particularly funny fall, ignoring the way his own body feels pretty uncoordinated, and thinks that he’s truly glad he came out tonight. He feels light and relaxed—the most un-stressed he’s felt in a while. Oh, no. Will he have to thank Beomgyu after all?

And, speaking of which, where the hell is Beomgyu? Taehyun doesn’t think he’s seen him since the start of the night. It’s true that Beomgyu knows many people and is always flitting between  different groups at parties, but he’s also usually not one to ditch his friends the whole night. Did he end up hooking up with someone like Kai said?

He looks around trying to spot him in the crowd (he may not be as tall as his friends, but his height is still above average and generally allows him to have a pretty clear view over most people’s heads). And yet, he can’t seem to find him anywhere. Did he spontaneously disappear? Did his Gwanak instincts fail him and he got lost in the woods? Oh my god, what if he did get lost in the woods-

His thoughts come to a screeching halt when he sees him.

Not Beomgyu, who is still nowhere in sight, but Choi Yeonjun.

Yeonjun, who looks more handsome than ever with his newly cut black hair (oh god, when did that happen?) and sleeveless shirt that shows all his arms and collarbones (oh god).

Taehyun really can’t look away from the hair. He got so used to seeing it long and pink that it’s a shock to see the change. It’s so dark and short, and Taehyun doesn’t know when he changed it, but now he has it pushed off his forehead and Taehyun can see his eyebrows, and wow, he needs to stop being weird about it like, now.

But, damn, Yeonjun looks good.

It’s not like it’s a surprise, since he always looks good, but the fact that Taehyun wasn’t expecting to see him here makes it all hit harder somehow.

He’s talking to a group of girls who seem completely infatuated with him, laughing and beaming up at him. Not that Taehyun can blame them. They’re very pretty, and Yeonjun is listening intently to what one of them is saying, a thumb pressed against his bottom lip in thought.

Taehyun’s muddled brain briefly entertains the idea of going over to him to say hi (something about a compensation for something? Whatever, that sounds like a problem for future Taehyun), but just then a guy throws an arm over Yeonjun’s shoulders and joins in on their conversation.

Oh.

Taehyun recognises that lavender hair; that’s the guy Yeonjun called Wooyoung when they were at the pond that time. He’s beautiful as well, and Taehyun wonders if all of Yeonjun’s friends look like models. Wooyoung says something, and tugs Yeonjun closer when he laughs.

Taehyun’s stomach twists like it did when he saw them play-wrestling on the pond, but he tells himself that he’s being ridiculous and that he needs more soju, so he turns away, stumbling a little.

And, speaking of soju—where did Ryujin go? She said she’d be back with drinks, but he hasn’t seen her in a while. Oh, no— what if Taehyun really was wrong about his immune-to-the-wilderness theory? First Beomgyu and now Ryujin. What if they fell down somewhere in their drunkenness? There are plenty of rocks and fallen trunks around here to crack open a skull. Not even Beomgyu’s hard head would be invulnerable to that. Is the universe trying to prove him wrong and punish him for his hubris by taking away two of his friends?

He weaves through groups of people talking and dancing like a needle through mismatched patchwork, looking around frantically while his thoughts spiral into all types of worst-case scenarios—Beomgyu lying unconscious on the ground, Ryujin hitting her head, Beomgyu breaking an ankle on a treacherous root and not being able to walk back, Ryujin being-

-right there, talking with Chaeryong.

Okay, not what Taehyun was expecting.

But at least she looks perfectly fine. She looks more than fine, actually. She’s laughing brightly, one perfectly manicured hand resting on Chaeryong’s elbow.

And—is Chaeryong smiling? Without a trace of sarcasm or self-sufficient mockery? Wow. Taehyun must be drunker than he’d thought, because there’s no way that that sweet-looking Chaeryong is real.

He shakes his head, and the world shakes a little with it. He stumbles a bit over an invisible obstacle. Alcohol makes his body feel like a stranger, but he’s reached the level of drunk where he doesn’t mind.

He still feels pretty energetic, though, and his left shoulder isn’t bothering him anymore (or at least, he doesn’t feel it, which he counts as a win), so he decides to try his hand at a few more games. It doesn’t look like Ryujin is coming back, so he’ll have to make do on his own.

At some point, however, the alcohol in his system starts to truly get in the way of his coordination and agility of mind. Annoyed, he tries to find a solution. He needs to find a way to be, if not completely sober, at least a little more clear-headed. The usual solution of just letting the alcohol slowly make its way out of his bloodstream would take too long, though. Sleeping it off would also waste too much time.

Damn it. It’s like the soju that was helping him have so much fun has turned out to be a slow-working poison impeding him from doing what he wants. Okay, maybe a little dramatic, but- Oh. That’s it. If alcohol is a poison, then he just needs to get his body used to it by giving it small doses until it gets used to it and becomes immune and goes back to normal. What a great idea. He needs to test his theory immediately. He’s sure the experiment will be a success. It’s amazing how Taehyun can still surprise himself sometimes with his own genius.

He pulls away from the group of strangers he was with (where they playing something? Talking? Taehyun doesn’t remember) and a chorus of drunken voices try to get him to stay. “I need to drink more”, he says, and one of the voices answers with a supportive “Don’t we all”. Taehyun doesn’t think they get the importance of the mission he’s in, but they let him go without further protest.

On the way to where he thinks the coolers are (his sense of direction isn’t the best at the moment) he bumps into someone and grabs them by the arm to avoid toppling them both over.

“Oh! I’m so sorry, I- Oh. Taehyun, hi!” The person says. And it’s nice that they seem recognise him, but unfortunately Taehyun has no idea who they are. Also Taehyun’s vision is a little blurry right now, for absolutely no reason he can think of, but it’s a little annoying.

Still, he doesn’t want to be rude, so he says “Hi” back to the- boy? Around his age? He guesses? Who is smiling shyly at him like they know each other, and Taehyun is really truly sorry but he still has no idea who this guy is.

“It’s nice that we really did meet here,” the guy continues, oblivious to Taehyun’s mental lapsus. “I mean, since you said you were coming this morning. And since I’m here with Jake and Jay. Like, it’s cool. That we saw each other, hahaha.”

“Yeah. ‘s cool,” Taehyun says, brain working at quarter speed.

“So, what are you up to? Um,” the guy goes a little red, “I mean, you’re here, so obviously this is what you’re doing, haha, but I meant-“

At the mention of what he’s doing, Taehyun suddenly remembers his alcohol-weaning mission again, and he says, without even realising he’s cutting the guy off mid-sentence,

“I’ve gotta go. It was nice talking to you, uh…” shit, he still doesn’t know the guy’s name. He goes on, hoping the other didn’t notice. “Yeah, it was nice. But I’ve gotta go, so. Bye.” He finishes lamely, and is already gone before the guy can get another word in.

And then, the next thing his memory can conjure up-

He can hear the laughter and music of people dancing and having fun behind him, but he’s too busy staring at the crate of beer in front of him to pay much attention to anything else.

Occasionally, a couple of people will come by to grab a drink. Some even try to talk to him, but Taehyun ignores them, too. He contemplates his options, crouching on the ground over a few packs of beer like some kind of alcoholic dragon hoarding its treasure.

Except Taehyun can only wish it was treasure. Or soju. He’d settle for soju. But there isn’t any left; trust a bunch of college students to burn through several full crates of soju in a matter of hours. Taehyun himself can’t say he’s fully exempt from guilt; he already drank a bottle. Or two. (Plus the shots people kept offering him on all those games, but who is counting those?)

But now there aren’t any left. And that sucks so much it’s unbelievable. What is Taehyun supposed to do? He can’t drink beer. He hates beer. It always tastes like piss. He’s pretty convinced everyone who claims to like it is just in on some collective joke to get poor, innocent losers like Taehyun to drink it.

He sighs. This is not helpful at all to his experiment. Not- mm, what was the word… product? Productible? He looks up at the night sky, the stars much more visible up here, away from the campus lights, glittering like jewels in a dark cave. His tongue feels dry and heavy in his mouth. What was he thinking about?

He feels movement behind him, but again he doesn’t pay it any mind. Everyone’s moving behind him; it’s a party, they’re dancing and chatting and moving. Moving is good. Healthy. Taehyun will get right back on that as soon as he finishes contemplating whether to drink the beer or not. Oh, right, the beer. That’s what he was thinking about.

And then a hand lands gently on his shoulder, and a voice is saying, a slight trace of worry colouring it, “Hey, man. Are you alright?”

Taehyun turns his head back and up, to the person standing behind him. Actually, maybe he won’t need to get back into movement—the world around him seems to be moving just fine on its own.

It takes him a couple seconds to focus his vision, and even then, with whoever it is standing against the fairy lights tangled in the branches above their heads, they remain mostly in shadow. He can tell that it’s a man, at least. A very tall man.

And then the man leans down to his eye-level and says, “Taehyun?” and suddenly Taehyun knows who it is.

Because that’s Choi Yeonjun standing over him, with his newly cut black hair that should be as illegal as the pink one, and flared pants that should look ridiculous in the middle of the mountains, in some stupid college party, but which only serve to make his legs seem even longer than usual. And now that Yeonjun’s face has come closer he can see that he’s wearing glitter and subtle eye make-up that makes his eyes seem sharper and even more beautiful. Taehyun’s brain is already muddled enough without adding Yeonjun to the mix; this shouldn’t be fair.

“What are you doing here?” Yeonjun asks, since Taehyun still hasn’t said anything.

“I am very drunk,” he says, a sorrowful note to his voice.

Yeonjun scans his face for a few seconds before he breaks, laughing. “I can see that.”

Taehyun nods. It’s good that Yeonjun can see the state of the situation. “So I need to drink more,” Taehyun continues.

“What?” Yeonjun says. “No. No, I think that’s actually the opposite of what you should be doing-“

But Taehyun is already shaking his head (which might not have been a good idea, in retrospect, since now the world is just moving faster than before).  

His heel slips a little from his crouch, and when he sways a little to the side Yeonjun’s hand shoots out to stabilize him, alarmed. “Whoah, careful.”

“I’m fine,” Taehyn says, then thinks about it and decides to just sit cross-legged on the floor, just in case. The floor is good. Sturdy. “I’m fine,” he repeats, this time with more conviction. Until he remembers his predicament. The corners of his mouth pull down. “But there isn’t any soju left.”

“Something tells me you’ve had enough of that already,” Yeonjun says, amused, and sits down in front of him, too.

Taehyun makes an alarmed noise and reaches out with his hands to stop him. “What are you doing? You’ll get your pants dirty.”

“So will you,” Yeonjun says, not making any move to get up. And, okay, fair. Taehyun’s hands fall down without a purpose, landing on the artfully-frayed ends of Yeonjun’s pants.

“But yours are nicer,” he says, and if he were sober he’d be embarrassed by the slight pout in his voice and the way he starts absentmindedly tangling a loose thread of Yeonjun’s pants around his index finger. He used to do that a lot when he was little—whenever his clothes had a frayed thread he would just loop it around his fingers over and over again until it broke or his clothes ripped. His mother used to scold him a lot about it.

“It’s fine. I can just wash them later.” Yeonjun’s voice sounds a little off, and when Taehyun looks at him to see what’s up, he sees that he’s also looking at Taehyun’s finger, before quickly looking up again when he sees Taehyun watching him.

“Oh, sorry,” Taehyun says, taking his hand back. That was weird, right? Touching his clothes without his permission? Yeonjun’s probably weirded out and worried that Taehyun is messing up his clothes even more. “Sorry,” he repeats.

“No, it’s okay. I- don’t mind.” Yeonjun runs a hand through his hair. Taehyun’s eyes fixate on the way the black strands fall back on his forehead. “Why do you say you have to drink more?”

Taehyun blinks, slower than he means to, because it feels like there’s sand behind his eyelids. “They say you have to drink more to cure a hangover.”

“Okay… Not taking into account whether that’s true or not… You aren’t hungover yet. You’re still drunk. How is drinking more supposed to help?” Yeonjun pouts his mouth slightly when he’s confused, which is news to Taehyun, but he doesn’t feel emotionally prepared at the moment to deal with whatever cute habits Yeonjun may have, so he decides to just focus on explaining his plan instead.

“No, but if I want to avoid having one alto- altoge- altogether,” he enunciates each syllable slowly through the sluggishness of his tongue—like hell is he going to let alcohol defeat him—, “I need to slowly wean off my intake of alcohol and combine it with dos’s- doses of water so that my body doesn’t react as badly to the sudden cut off.”

Yeonjun raises an eyebrow. “You had trouble saying ‘altogether’ and ‘doses’ but you were fine with ‘wean off my intake’?”

Taehyun frowns. “Did you hear anything I just said?”

“Yeah, sure did. I heard all about your plans to go into an alcohol-induced coma.”

“No. I won’t. It’s an experiment. And it will work,” he says, hitting his knee for emphasis. Yeonjun is very beautiful, but he’s clearly not on the same wavelength as Taehyun and his brilliant plan. But that’s okay, Taehyun can show him. “You’ll see.”

Time to put his plan into action. Not with beer, though, he decides. Beer is gross. He’ll have to find something else.

He gets up to see if anyone has some soju they can spare—maybe someone has an unopened bottle somewhere—but he miscalculates the impulse needed to get up and ends up stumbling a little with the extra momentum.

“Hey, whoah, slow down,” Yeonjun says, swiftly getting to his feet and trying to catch him before he falls.

But Taehyun has already righted himself. He holds up a hand to stop him, “It’s okay, ‘ve got this. Stay here. ’m gonna get soju and show you,” he says. He narrows his eyes at him, even though currently Yeonjun’s face is slightly out of focus, “Seriously, don’t move.”

“Okay,” Yeonjun says, voice full of amusement and exasperation, and maybe something else that Taehyun can’t quite pin down, focused as he is on his search for more soju. “But how about this,” Yeonjun continues, “I’ll help you find your soju if you let me come with you. And then you can show me.”

Taehyun considers this for a few moments, but he can’t find any faults to Yeonjun’s offer. He gets an extra pair of hands involved in the search, he gets to prove his experiment to Yeonjun, and he gets to keep Yeonjun’s company for a while longer. It’s a win-win situation.

“Okay,” he agrees. And now that Yeonjun’s in, he can admit, “but I don’t know where to find more soju. Beer is gross, so we need soju,” he emphasises, because that’s important.

“Of course we do.” Yeonjun still sounds a bit like he’s trying to suppress a laugh, so maybe he’s not fully on board with the plan yet, but it’s fine as long as he helps Taehyun. “C’mon, I think I know where we can find some.”

“You do?” Taehyun asks, hopeful.

“Yep. This way.”

Yeonjun places a hand on the small of his back to guide him—probably more to prevent Taehyun from tripping over and dying than for any other purpose, but Taehyun’s heart still stutters a bit in his chest.

They walk right in front of one of the strobe lights someone set up against a tree, the sudden brightness hitting him straight on and making him a little dizzy. He closes his eyes to escape the overwhelming glare. He blinks-

and this time it’s the blueish glow of fluorescent lights that’s hurting his eyes.

He’s sitting in a small café, forehead pressed against the cool glass of a window. The fake-leather couch beneath him squeaks when he sits up straight, disoriented.

How did he get here? What time is it?

He looks around him, trying to get his bearings. It’s still dark outside the window, so not that much time must have passed since the party. He can tell he’s in a café by the décor of the place, though at the moment all the tables around him are empty. Which- makes sense. It must be pretty late, right? What’s a café doing open at this hour, anyway? And, more importantly, how the hell did he get here??

He can hear a soft buzzing, maybe a coffee machine running, but he’s sitting towards the back of the room, and a cabinet full of cups and artsy trinkets is blocking his view of the counter.

He rubs his eyes to get rid of the uncomfortable desert-dryness that clings to them, trying to make sense of things. The last thing he remembers is being led by Yeonjun to get more alcohol.

Right. That’s why his head feels full of cotton- he’s still drunk. And he didn’t complete his experiment- or did he do it and he just doesn’t remember? But that would mean it didn’t work, because he still feels very much intoxicated-

Someone puts something down in front of him and he startles, drawing his hands away from his face.

“Here, this will help,” Yeonjun says as he sits down across the table. He’s set down a bottle of water that he pushes towards Taehyun, and two tall smoothies that he keeps for himself. Taehyun blinks at him.

“What?” he says.

“You should drink some water to stay hydrated. And I brought you a smoothie in case you wanted some sugar.” He pushes the second smoothie towards Taehyun, “You said strawberry, right?”

Taehyun has to make an effort to close his mouth.

“I…did?”

Yeonjun pouts cutely.

“You don’t remember? Did you blank out or something?”

“Uh…my memory’s a bit fuzzy right now. Did we walk down here?”

“Wow, you really did blank out.” Yeonjun pushes his hair back and Taehyun’s stupid animal brain kicks in again. He stares. He can’t help it. “You seemed pretty gone at the party. And I was a little worried you’d do something reckless, so I brought you down here— actually, maybe it’s for the best you don’t remember the journey down, because I had to save you from slipping and falling down the mountain a couple of times.” God, is it possible to want to die from humiliation but also be a little into the image of Yeonjun having to catch him in his arms to prevent him from falling? Luckily, Taehyun’s mind is too chaotic right now to spend much time mulling over these deep, philosophical questions.

Yeonjun goes on, blissfully unaware of Taehyun’s moral quandary.

“-so I thought you could use some water to sober up. This is the only café on campus that’s open 24/7, so. Here we are.”

Wow. Yeonjun is so smart, he thinks. And then,

“You’re so smart,” he says, because apparently he lost his brain-to-mouth filter somewhere on their way here. Whatever. Another problem for sober Taehyun. “How did you know about this place? That’s so smart.”

Yeonjun, who was just taking a sip of his smoothie—is that mint choco?— nearly spits it back out when he laughs.

“Ah, Taehyun-ah. Has anyone told you you’re very funny when you’re drunk?”

Taehyun frowns, trying very hard not to pout, too. “Are you saying I’m not funny when I’m sober?”

Yeonjun sets an elbow on the table and rests his chin on the palm of his hand, his pinkie pressed just under his eye.

“You’re always funny, in your own blank-faced way. But you’re even cuter like this. More open. Relaxed.” He smiles at him, eyes scrunched up and looking unfairly alive under the soulless fluorescent lights.

“Thank you,” he says primly, aiming for a joke, and instead having it land somewhere on the edge of too genuine, too flattered. He has a hunch sober Taehyun will probably want to kill him, but he doesn’t really care at the moment. He opens his bottle of water and takes a few sips.

“You’re welcome,” Yeonjun says, just as primly and a lot more amused. And yet he makes it seem like he’s trading laughter back and forth with you, and not directing it at you. “Anyways, to answer your question, I know about this place because I used to work the night shifts here a few semesters back.” He drinks more of his smoothie- yep that definitely looks like mint choco. Well. Nobody is perfect.

“Wasn’t it hard? Working at night?”

“Not really, no. It was pretty chill, since we didn’t have many customers. Mostly it was just students pulling all-nighters and infusing their veins with ice americanos. I did have to deal with the occasional drunkard every now and then, but it wasn’t so bad overall.”

Taehyun draws the bottle from his mouth slowly, setting it down on the table. He feels extremely tragic all of a sudden.

Yeonjun must notice the change in his behaviour, because he suddenly sits up straight and asks him, eyes wide and worried,

“What? What’s wrong? Are you feeling okay? Do you want to throw up?”

Taehyun shakes his head.

 “I’m drunk,” he says, like he’s confessing some great crime. “I’m the drunkard. ’ve become one of those people you had to deal with, hyung.”

Yeonjun stares at him blankly for a few seconds before he bursts out laughing.

“Ah, Taehyun-ah. Seriously, you’re going to kill me,” he says, once his laughter has calmed down a little.

Taehyun frowns, not knowing how he should take that, and still feeling bad about his behaviour, so Yeonjun lays a hand on top of his on the table and tells him,

“I can assure you, you’re nothing like them, Taehyun. So don’t worry. Drunk-Taehyun may have some strange theories, but he’s pretty well behaved.”

Mildly mollified, Taehyun nods and takes his first sip of the smoothie Yeonjun brought him. Oooh. Delicious.

“Is it good?” Yeonjun asks him, smiling, probably seeing the pleased expression on Taehyun’s face.

“Yeah,” he answers, happily drinking some more. “Strawberries are the best.”

“So you’ve said. Do you really not remember when we came in and ordered?”

“Not really. I have…” he waves a hand looking for the right word, only then realising that Yeonjun had still been holding it. He starts, flustered, but makes an effort to go on like nothing happened “-holes. Gaps. In my memory.”

Yeonjun makes a sympathetic face. “That sucks.”

Yeah, it does suck. Taehyun doesn’t like not being aware of all his actions. What if he does something really stupid? Even while still being a little drunk he can admit that Drunk-Taehyun doesn’t make the best decisions. In contrast, Yeonjun seems totally fine, sipping his smoothie, cool as a cucumber. Did he not drink tonight? Did he drink and he just has a really good alcohol tolerance?

A light-bulb switches on in Taehyun’s brain.

“Wait. I was supposed to…to sober up? With soju?” He frowns, trying to piece his memories together.

Yeonjun winces.

“Yeah… I was kinda hoping you wouldn’t remember that part.”

Taehyun frowns even harder, trying to remember. Something to do with small doses… Of what? Soju? But why? He knows it all made perfect sense to him a while ago, so why can’t he remember his plan or how he was going to carry it out now?

“Listen,” Yeonjun says, breaking him out of his brain-wracking. “Why don’t you try drinking the water and the smoothie for now, and if you still haven’t sobered up a little by then, we can try your crazy plan, okay?”

Seeing as how Taehyun can’t even recall his plan in the first place, that sounds like a good idea. Still,

“My plan wasn’t crazy.” (Whatever it might have been.)

“Uh huh.”

Taehyun narrows his eyes at him across the table.

“That didn’t sound convincing at all.”

“Wasn’t trying to,” Yaeonjun says with a cheeky smile, like he thinks he’s cute.

Taehyun would argue more, but Yeonjun is cute, damn it, and Taehyun’s too drunk for this. Though maybe Yeonjun’s plan is working, because he feels more tipsy than drunk the more sips he takes. The walk down the mountain probably helped, too.

“So,” Yeonjun says, twirling the straw in his drink with a finger.  “How come you never mentioned you were coming to the party? I would’ve looked for you sooner if I’d known you were there.”

“You didn’t mention you were coming either, hyung,” Taehyun points out.

“Okay, yeah, fair.” Yeonjun shrugs in easy acceptance. “But still.”

“I don’t know. I guess it just never came up.” Taehyun drinks more of the smoothie. It really is tasty. Yeonjun has such good ideas. “Beomgyu wanted us to come, and Kai was instantly sold when he found out the person he likes was coming too.”

“Oh, right, how’s that going? Does that mean you two won’t be stalking this poor unsuspecting person anymore?”

Taehyung glares at him, but the effect is probably lost due to the cute pink straw he’s currently drinking from. “It wasn’t stalking. Kai’s just an idiot. But yeah, they finally had a real conversation today, so hopefully Kai will stop dragging me along and just go with him.” If Yeonjun notices the slip of the pronoun, he doesn’t say anything. And besides, if Taehyun’s suppositions about him and that Wooyoung guy are correct, then he probably has no prejudices against guys dating other guys.

“That’s nice,” is all Yeonjun’s says in the end, and he sounds sincere.

“Yeah. They’re cute.” Taehyun thinks of Kai’s bright smile and Soobin’s dimples. “They spent the entire party glued to each other’s side. They’re probably still together right now.”

“Oh, no, were you their third wheel? Cute couples are way less cute when you have to put up with their PDA.”

Taehyun shrugs. “At first I was, but then me and a friend of Soobin- the person Kai likes- went off to play some drinking games, and that was fun.”

“Drinking games, huh?” Yeonjun raises an amused eyebrow. “Now I see why you ended up so drunk.”

“It wasn’t because I was bad at them, though,” Taehyun says, because it’s important that’s clear. “We won most of them.”

Yeonjun laughs. “Of course you did. Why did you drink so much, then? Don’t you know how penalty shots work?”

“I guess I just felt like it.” Taehyun drinks more water; the smoothie is great, but the sugar in it isn’t helping with his dry mouth.

“That’s fair. There’s nothing wrong with a night of fun every once in a while.” Yeonjun is still resting his arm on top of the table, and Taehyun has to keep his eyes from wandering to the skin exposed by his sleeveless shirt. “Are you done with your drinks?” Yeonjun asks him when he notices Taehyun’s finished with the water and the smoothie.

“Yeah,” Taehyun says. He can’t help feeling a little disappointed; now he doesn’t have any excuse to stay here chatting with Yeonjun. The disappointment only deepens when Yeonjun stands up and says they should start heading out. But he forces himself not to show it, just nodding and standing up from the table as well.

He needs to go to the bathroom, so he tells Yeonjun to wait for him and then they can pay for their drinks. His legs still feel a little wobbly as he walks to the bathroom, but his sense of awareness is much better than before and the fuzzy feeling in his head feels like it’s slowly ebbing out. Seems like Yeonjun was right about his plan being better, after all (though Taehyun is still sure that if he could just remember his own plan, it would make a lot of sense too).

When he washes his hands and steps out of the bathroom, it’s to find Yeonjun already waiting for him by the door. Taehyun sends a look at the bored girl in the counter, who is flipping the pages of a magazine with bright red nails and isn’t paying attention to either of them.

Taehyun walks hesitantly towards Yeonjun, but before he can say anything, Yeonjun tells him. “Don’t worry about it; I’ve already paid for both of us.”

Taehyun frowns. He doesn’t like feeling like he owes things to people.

“I can pay for myself.”

“I know,” Yeonjun says. He holds the door open for Taehyun like he thinks he’s Prince Charming or something. Taehyun would find it annoying if Yeonjun wasn’t so, well, charming. “Just think about it as a hyung doing something nice for his intoxicated dongsaeng.”

“First of all, I’m not even that intoxicated anymore,” Taehyun says, walking out of the café. He resolutely ignores the way his legs still feel like they’re stepping on sand. Very small patches of sand, though, which is much better than before. “And second of all, I’m going to keep that in mind. Get ready to be a hyung every time we need to pay for something from now on.”

“Sure,” Yeonjun says brightly, not sounding bothered by the prospect at all.

After Yeonjun follows him out and lets the door fall shut behind him they’re left standing in the middle of the sidewalk. It smells like night, and there’s a slight breeze picking up that ruffles the leaves of the trees around them softly. Now that Taehyun is outside, he thinks he recognizes the area they’re in. They’re near the Education buildings, if he’s not mistaken. It’s really quiet around them- either because this is a rather secluded place or due to the hour- in a way that almost makes Taehyun feel like he and Yeonjun are the only people on earth.

“What time is it?” he asks.

Yeonjun takes his phone out of his pocket and looks at the screen. The breeze ruffles his bowed head. “It’s- Oh, wow. 3:14. I didn’t think it was that late.”

“Oh.” Taehyun knew that the night had to end at some point, but the same disappointment that gripped him in the café sneaks past his defences now. This is the point where Yeonjun wishes him goodnight, tells him to take care or to not trip over and die on his way home; and then Yeonjun will be able to go back to the party or wherever it is he wants to go, instead of having to babysit a tipsy Taehyung. As he should, Taehyun tells himself. He should get to enjoy his night, so stop wishing you could keep-

“Hey, do you wanna hang out?”

The question is so sudden, so at odds with all of Taehyun’s calculations that it takes him a moment to process that those were words coming from Yeonjun’s mouth, much less decipher what they mean.

“What?” is all he can say in response. Which, okay, not his most eloquent moment.

“I mean,” Yeonjun starts, and if Taehyun didn’t know any better, he’d say he sounds a little nervous. But that’s impossible. The way his arms are pressed a little too close to his body is probably just because he’s a little cold in his sleeveless shirt, and not out of any nervousness in front of measly Taehyun. “I know it’s pretty late, and it’s totally fine if you just want to go home and sleep it off, but maybe we could still hang out for a bit.”

“You want to keep hanging out?” Taehyun repeats, just to be sure. “With me?”

“Sure.” Yeonjun shrugs. His casualness looks so easy, so effortless, that Taehyun wonders idly if he practices it in front of the mirror. “You’re fun.”

“You too,” Taehyun answers without thinking. Yeonjun gives him a blinding smile. The previous disappointment has completely bled off of him and he feels light like a blown balloon. He asks, “What do you want to do?”

Yeonjun contemplates this for a few seconds, pursing his lips in a way that makes him look like a duck. Taehyun can’t help smiling at the sight.

“Oh, I know!” Yeonjun’s face lights up excitedly. He comes forward and grabs Taehyun’s sleeve, turning him around and tugging him forward. “C’mon, you’re gonna love this.”

“Where are we going?” Taehyun asks, but doesn’t resist Yeonjun dragging him along.

“You’ll see soon. It’s not that far.” Yeonjun seems to want it to be a surprise, so Taehyun decides to just follow him and doesn’t ask further questions, which is an incredible show of restraint coming from him.

Yeonjun lets go of his sleeve- which Taehyun decisively does not pay attention to- and starts asking about Tehyun’s week. Nothing really notable happened to him lately, though, and he tries telling Yeonjun that, but eventually Yeonjun manages to drag details out of him that Taehyun doesn’t think would interest anybody. Except Yeonjun listens carefully to his recounting of his and Chaeryong’s rivalry and Beomgyu’s latest antics, humming ah-ing in the right places and asking questions that keep the conversation going. In turn Yeonjun tells him about a project that’s really kicking his ass lately and the R&B artist he just discovered, who he’s had on loop for days.

They go around the small extension of fields north of the Education buildings- which look a little creepy at night, since there are no lights illuminating the area- and past the Faculty Club, reaching a clump of buildings belonging to the Natural Sciences departments. Or was it the Engineering departments? Taehyun thinks he had a seminar around here last year, but he can’t really remember. He doesn’t think there’s a café or anything of note in this area, though, so he’s not sure why Yeonjun brought them here.

His confusion only grows when Yeonjun heads to one of the buildings on the outer limits of campus, and instead of going to the entrance (which would be closed anyways at this time) he goes around to the side of the building.

“What are you doing?” Taehyun asks, unable to restrain himself anymore.

“Shh,” Yeonjun tells him, eyes full of mischief. “You’ll ruin the surprise.”

He stops in front of a small door that looks like it has seen better days. Inexplicably, he bends down and starts looking around on the floor.

“Seriously, what-” Taehyun starts again, but stops abruptly when Yeonjun stands up with a triumphant “Aha!”

He shows Taehyun the small key he’s holding in his hand proudly. “The Science students always leave this under one of the rocks on the floor so others can open the door. But it’s harder to find when it’s so dark.” He pouts.

Taehyun is still focused on one part of what Yeonjun said. “What do you mean ‘open the door’? Are you planning to break in?”

“It’s not breaking in if I have the key,” he says, which misses the point so completely that Taehyun wants to shake him a little, beautiful boy or not.

“It’s a campus building. Any time you go in outside of teaching hours is considered breaking in. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t think there are any classes happening at 3 a.m.”

Taehyun only realises he’s whispering when Yeonjun asks him, “Why are you whispering? There’s no one here.”

Taehyun frowns at him. “You don’t know that. Campus security could be around here somewhere. And I really don’t want to get caught doing something stupid.”

Taehyun didn’t notice at first, but they’ve gotten so close while arguing that Taehyun can see Yeonjun roll his eyes even in the dark. “Relax,” Yeonjun tells him, like that word has ever worked on anyone. “If they weren’t there to break up the party that’s happening less than 20 minutes from here, they’re definitely not gonna show up on a random campus building at 3 a.m.”

“You don’t know that,” he tells Yeonjun. “And what do you even want to do? There’s nothing here.”

Yeonjun gives him a lidded smile, and Taehyun wishes he didn’t find it so attractive. “You’ll see.” And then, to Taehyun’s dismay, he starts fiddling with the lock until he gets it open. It makes a squeaky noise, like it hasn’t been oiled since the Bronze Age. Taehyun winces and looks around, but there really seems to be no one around. One positive thing about this is that he feels completely sobered up; nothing like the anxiety of getting caught committing a crime to really wake you up.

Yeonjun steps inside the building without hesitation and turns around to look at Taehyun. There’s something playful and triumphant in his eyes, like a kid that got away with stealing candy from the jar. It’s painfully endearing, despite the fact that he’s literally breaking into a building and Taehyun still kinda wants to shake him by the shoulders to knock some sense into him.

“C’mon,” he tells Taehyun from inside the door. “What are you waiting for?”

“This is a really stupid idea,” he says, because it’s important that Yeonjun knows that. “The stupidest idea anyone’s ever had.”

“If you don’t come in, you’ll never know what I wanted to show you.”

Taehyun narrows his eyes at him. Damn it. Taehyun’s will power is usually very strong, to the point where no one can sway him from his decisions if he doesn’t want to be swayed. The problem is that Taehyun is also a very curious person by nature and, even worse, he loves a challenge. He can’t deny that he feels a thrill at the thought of following Yeonjun inside and finding out what he has in mind.

“You’ve lost all rights to call me a thief or a criminal ever again,” he finally relents, stepping into the door. “This is much worse than stealing your spot at the library or whatever.”

“That’s fine,” Yeonjun tells him. He’s still smiling from ear to ear. “We can be criminals together.”

Taehyun keeps an impassive face to hide exactly how that makes him feel, even though it’s very dark inside the building and Yeonjun probably can’t make out his expression in the low light anyway. It gets even darker when Yeonjun closes the door shut behind them. They both turn on their phone lights and Taehyun can see for the first time the space he’s in. It’s very narrow, with four walls closing down on them and only the bottom of a staircase in it. It must be some kind of emergency exit.

“We have to go up,” Yeonjun tells him, beginning to climb the first steps. He looks behind his back at Taehyun to warn him, “Watch your feet; these stairs are pretty steep.”

They go up like that for a while, their phone lights casting strange shadows on the walls. It’s a very narrow staircase and it smells like dust and rust, like no one’s used it in a long while.

“This used to be an emergency exit,” Yeonjun tells him, confirming Taehyun’s earlier suspicions. “But they built another one on the other side of the building that’s newer and safer, so no one really uses it anymore.”

“How come you know about it?” Taehyun asks. He’s glad his legs are working properly again, because he doubts he would have been able to climb the twisting steps otherwise. Yeonjun’s back is a steady silhouette in front of him.

“A Biology student told me about it a couple of years ago. Apparently most Natural Science students know about it and they hang out up here often.”

Taehyun’s glad that he’s not even panting after almost five flights of stairs (the hours at the gym are paying off) but his thighs are starting to burn a little.

“And where exactly,” he asks, “is here?”

They’ve reached the last floor, which is only another small landing with a metal door on one side. This time Yeonjun only has to twist the handle a little to open it, and when he’s done he turns to Taehyun, winking at him. “See for yourself,” he tells him.

Taehyun does, curious despite himself. He steps past Yeonjun out of the door and the first thing he notices is the wind, stronger here than it was below. He’s on a rooftop, all open night skies and empty air around him. On the floor, instead of the surface of concrete he expects to find, he sees that it’s all covered in overgrown grass and weeds, wild and unkempt.

There’s a wooden bench on one side and even an unlit lamppost standing next to it (what a lamppost is doing on a literal rooftop, Taehyun has no idea). He directs his phone light down the rectangular surface of the rooftop and sees that near the end of it there’s a white pergola with four posts and an open roof, under which sits a small wooden table and four chairs, like those you would take camping.

“What-” he says, because he wasn’t expecting to find any of this.

“Cool, right?” Yeonjun says, stepping up beside him. “When I first came here, I made the same face. Apparently, they covered this in soil back in the day so Natural Science students could plant vegetables and stuff, like an eco-friendly garden or something. But after a while people stopped planting things and the teachers sort of forgot about it. So students took over and decorated it themselves, turning it into a cool hanging out spot.”

“That’s…impressive,” Taehyun says. And he really is impressed. “Did they install the pergola and the lamppost themselves?"

"I think they put up the posts themselves, but the lamp I’m not sure about. It might have been here originally.”

“Yeah, probably. Still, this place is pretty nice.”

“I told you, didn’t I? And you didn’t believe me.” Yeonjun puts a hand to his chest like he’s mortally offended, but he sounds pleased by Taehyun’s reaction.

Taehyun rolls his eyes at the antics, but he’s smiling too. “It’s not that I didn’t believe you. I just thought the whole sneaking in thing was stupid. Which, by the way, I still do.” He sends a pointed look at Yeonjun, which Yeonjun resolutely ignores.

“But aren’t you glad you followed me? You would have missed out on this otherwise.”

“As long as we don’t get caught,” Taehyun mumbles, but he is having fun, which he’s starting to discover might just be a Yeonjun side-effect. Yeonjun seems to hear in Taehyun’s voice that he’s not as against this as he says, because he smiles really big. Taehyun steps forward to inspect the pergola spot closer just so he doesn’t have to look directly at Yeonjun face and his disarming smile.

The table and chairs are worn down by constant exposure to the weather, old paint chipping away on the table’s surface and one of the chairs groaning dangerously when Taehyun sits down on it. Yeonjun comes over to sit down in front of him and for a while they both just stare at the view around them without saying anything.

Taehyun can see the gentle slope of dark mountains on one side and the outline of the university buildings on the other. They’re on the rising belly of a hill, which gives them a pretty good view of the entire extension of campus; in the dark the only distinguishable things are the stray lights of buildings and streetlamps, and the vague shapes they outline, but it’s still beautiful, like a dark see of stars reflecting the sky over their heads. It smells green and clean up here, like night and early spring. Taehyun takes a deep breath, trying to take it all in; you’d never be able to get this in the city.

“Pretty, isn’t it?” Yeonjun finally breaks the silence, but when Taehyun looks at him his gaze still seems lost in the distance.

“Yeah,” Taehyun answers quietly. He feels oddly subdued, like Yeonjun and him have stepped into an invisible, fragile bubble that will break if he speaks too loud or makes any sudden movements.

“It’s really peaceful up here,” Yeonjun says, like he read Taehyun’s mind. “I used to come here alone a lot before last year, just to hear myself think.”

“What changed last year?” Taehyun asks.

They’ve set their phones on the table so that the phone lights are facing up, and Taehyun can see the outline of a rueful smile grace Yeonjun’s lips.

“I took a year off last year. I’m sure you’ve heard a lot of rumours about it,” he says, a trace of sour lemons in his voice. “I’ve certainly heard more than enough.”

“Well, unless it’s true that you’re actually a North Korean double spy who’s trying to gather intelligence for the army, I’m not sure how much I should believe.”

Yeonjun lets out a sudden laugh, and Taehyun is glad to have chased away that sourness from his voice if only for a moment.

“That’s a good one. I hadn’t heard that one before,” Yeonjun says.

“Well, it’s the only one I remember.”

Yeonjun smiles in response, but Taehyun doesn’t like the too-practiced slant of his mouth or the tired cast of his eyes. Taehyun wants to take a warm, soaked cloth and wipe at his expression until all traces of unhappiness are gone from his face.

“Does it bother you?” He asks Yeonjun. “The things that people say?”

Yeonjun is still not looking at him, gaze lost somewhere in the dark mountains.

“People have always talked. And I’m not saying that because I think I’m the centre of the universe, or whatever.” He looks at Taehyun, like he wants to make sure Taehyun understands what he’s saying. Taehyun nods; Yeonjun has always seemed confident to him, but not in an asshole way like he thinks he’s better than everyone else. He just seems comfortable in his own skin, secure in the certainty that he knows who he is. It’s one of the aspects Taehyun admires most about him. Yeonjun must be satisfied with what he sees on Taehyun’s expression, because he continues, “I just don’t dress the way people expect me to dress, or act the way they expect me to act. And then they talk, and draw their own conclusions, instead of asking me what I mean.” He sounds frustrated. “I wish people would just ask.”

Taehyun looks at him, and looks at him, and looks at him. At the dark circles that are barely noticeable under his eyes but are still there, at the way the darkness makes the first suggestions of stubble more visible on his jaw, at the line of his shoulders and the way the night air draws out goosebumps on his bare arms. At the way he looks like a boy right now, just a boy, more than he ever has. Without the glowing aura Taehyun cast on him without even realizing it, he is just a boy. Taehhyun can’t believe that he of all people, who only deals in facts, could get blinded by what Yeonjun appeared to be and not just focus on what he actually was. On the actual things he did and the things he said, instead of how people perceived them.

Because none of Yeonjun’s actions disappear after the glow is gone; he’s still the same person who apologized right away after their rough start at the library, the same person who tried to befriend Taehyun and make him feel at ease from the start, the same person who took care of a plastered Taehyun when he could have been enjoying himself at a party instead.

There is no glow anymore, no idolized version of a popular, cooler-than-cool guy, and what’s left is this: a boy, real and fallible, who has been nothing but good since Taehyun met him.

I will do better, Taehyun vows to himself. From now on I will be better; he’ll be who he is and I won’t impose my expectations on him. Satisfied with this resolution, Taehyun nods to himself. There’s also an excitement there, an irrepressible itch to know Yeonjun, as much as he lets Taehyun, that he hasn’t felt with any other person he’s met before.

He wants to gather Yeonjun’s truths like a magpie revelling in its jewels. He wants to know him inside and out and be known in return. Which is an insane thing to feel when they haven’t even known each other for that long. But those are all notions too big to deal with all at once; as a mathematician, Taehyun knows you must start small, draw out induvial operations before trying to solve the problem as a whole. So he starts small,

“What did you do last year, then?” He asks. “If you weren’t acting as a double spy on some secret mission, what where you doing?”

Yeonjun finally drags his gaze away from the horizon it had wandered to, focusing on Taehyun like he’s seeing him for the first time. It reminds Taehyun of how Yeonjun had looked at him in Jahayon pond, like he’d found something unexpected when he wasn’t looking for anything.

“I was in the U.S.” He smiles at Taehyun’s raised eyebrow. “I was actually born there, did you know? But I came to Korea when I was only 2 years old, so I don’t really remember anything about it.”

“Are you saying you’re actually American?” Taehyun asks. Taehyun’s experience with America is limited to what he’s seen in movies: glamour and sun, palm trees and beautiful people. He thinks Yeonjun would fit right in.

But Yeonjun pulls a face. “I don’t think living there for 2 years counts as being American. And I was a baby; I wasn’t even a whole person yet.”

“So why did you go back last year?”

“My aunt and cousins still live there- in L.A, to be more exact. My aunt is an interior designer, and she has a few contacts from people she’s worked for. One of her clients is the owner of a small fashion brand, and she heard they were looking for people to do an internship with them, so she told me about it and I applied. At first I did it just to see, to put myself out there; I didn’t expect to actually get selected. But I did, so I took a sabbatical year off uni and did the internship until the contract finished after a year.”

“Wow,” Taehyun says, not bothering to hide how impressed he is. “That’s so cool, hyung. Moving across the world alone to do what you want to do. That’s so brave.”

“Ah.” Yeonjun rubs the back of his neck, abashed. “Not that brave. I mean, I stayed with my aunt, so I wasn’t really alone; I knew I had a safety net there.”

“Still,” Taehyun says. “You were working in a whole different country with a whole different culture and a new language. That can’t have been easy.”

“It was a bit difficult to adapt at first,” Yeonjun admits. “My English was pretty good, thankfully, but they do things differently over there, so it took me a bit to find my footing. Like, there’s no half-measures in America, you know? Everything is go big or go home,” he says that last part in English, putting on a voice like he’s imitating someone else. “But at the same time, it was very exciting. I definitely worked way more hours than I should have, but I also learned so much. About the industry, and about myself.  It allowed me to see the real ins and outs of fashion, and to challenge myself to do things I never thought I would have been able to do otherwise.”

“I’m glad, then,” Taehyun says. “That you liked it, and that it was useful to you.”

“Yeah,” Yeonjun says, something almost wistful in his eyes. “It was definitely something. I feel like I grew so much in just a year.”

That makes something click in Taehyun’s brain.

“Wait,” he says. “Then how old are you? If you’re in your fourth year but you should be a year ahead, then…you’re a ’99 liner, right? Or- ’98?”

“’99,” Yeonjun says, scowling like he already knows what’s coming.

Taehyun lights up. Oh, this is even better than being able to tease Beomgyu for being a year older.

“My apologies,” he says, bowing politely in his chair just to be a little shit. “I should have been more respectful; I didn’t realise I was speaking with a grandpa.”

“Ya!” Yeonjun says, raising a fist theatrically. He’s aiming for an annoyed expression, but the effect is undermined by the way the corners of his lips keep twitching.

“Don’t worry, haraboji. I’ll mind my manners from now on.”

“Harabo-“ Yeonjun opens and closes his mouth incredulously. Taehyun is delighted. “Ya! I’m only three years older than you, brat!”

“You were born in another century, hyung,” Taehyun says, face all serious and sympathetic. “I know it’s hard to accept, but it’s really nothing to be ashamed of.”

“I’ll have you know that I’m on my prime,” Yeonjun pouts.

“Mmh. I’m sure you are.” Taehyun receives a glare for his condescending tone and he can’t hold the impassive expression any longer; he laughs.

Yeonjun laughs with him, shaking his head exasperatedly. “You really are a brat, has anyone told you that?”

Taehyun hums in assent, still laughing. “Yes, daily. But it’s mostly Beomgyu hyung, who is the biggest brat of all, so it doesn’t count.”

Their giggles last longer than the joke deserves, but it’s that time of night that doesn’t belong to the real world, where the funny things are funnier and the sad things are sadder, and you feel like you and your body are two separate entities. Once their laughter does die down, Taehyun picks up their previous conversation again,

“But really, hyung, I think it’s really cool that you got to do that internship. Definitely cooler than the spy thing.”

“Eh,” Yeonjun says. “Spies are pretty cool.”

Taehyun observes him closely, trying to find any traces of that defeated sadness that settled on him before. But he seems loose and relaxed, leaning back on his chair, like being able to joke about it with someone who understands has taken a weight off his chest. Taehyun will take a comfortable, relaxed Yeonjun over a sad one any day.

Taehyun says. “Not really. Spies are too overdone. I mean, if people are going to start rumors, the least they could do is be original about it.”

“Of course.” Yeonjun sounds amused. “How rude of them. And what would these original rumors sound like?”

Taehyun looks at him seriously. “Well, they’re your rumors, hyung. You should think of something.”

“I should start my own rumors about myself? The ones I’m not supposed to know people say behind my back?”

“Exactly,” Taehyun nods. “If people aren’t going to bother asking for the truth, you shouldn’t bother telling it.”

There’s no moon out tonight, but the grin Yeonjun sends him makes up for it with its shine. Taehyun feels that restless feeling again, like he’d need hours on the mat with Hoseok hyung to be able to burn off the way making Yeonjun smile makes him feel.

“Yeah, that sounds fair,” Yeonjun says. “So wait, let me think. Mmmh, maybe I was…travelling the world looking for my long lost twin, who I didn’t know existed until I found an old picture of the two of us when we were children.”

“I think you’ve watched too many dramas, hyung.”

“Too cliché?” Yeonjun pouts, thinking. “Fine. Then…uhh…maybe I changed my major for the year and… joined a group of…uhh…marine biologists. On an expedition in… the Atlantic.”

“For an entire year?”

“Maybe we were looking for a very rare species. Very hard to find; took us months only to find its trail.”

“Uh huh. And what species was this, exactly?”

“The, uh, crabus…nocturnus.” Yeonjun is trying to keep a straight face, but clearly the memories of his adventures finding the mysterious crabus nocturnus are too much for him.

“I see,” Taehyun says. “And would this highly venerated species consist of…a crab? That’s very nocturnal?”

“Yes, that would be correct,” Yeonjun answers, while another crabus nocturnus memory visibly makes his face twitch.

“Fascinating. And did you manage to find this elusive individual in the end?”

“Of course,” Yeonjun laces his hands on the table like he’s being interviewed. It’s so endearing that Taehyun has to press a hand against his mouth to suppress a grin. “After long months of arduous search, we finally found its hideout. Unfortunately, it was the last of its species, and it died a tragic death at the hands of a very vicious shark.”

“Oh, no,” Taehyun deadpans. “How horrible.”

Yeonjun nods.

“Saddest moment of my life.” And then he doesn’t seem to be able to hold it anymore and bursts out laughing. Now that Taehyun has won their unspoken don’t-laugh battle, he allows himself to laugh too.

“A crab? Really?” he asks when he’s regained his breath a little.

“Hey! Don’t insult my rumor-making ways,” Yeonjun scolds, but residual laughter crinkles the corners of his eyes.

“I wouldn’t dare,” Taehyun says. “Besides, it was certainly original. Can’t say I’d heard of the crabus nocturnus before.”

“And you never will again, because the last one died tragically without descendance,” Yeonjun reminds him.

“Right. What a shame.”

“But, hey, now next time that someone acts weird with me I can just ask them if they’ve heard of the crabus nocturnus.” He says it brightly, but some of the previous despondency is back on his eyes and on the purse of his expressive mouth.

Taehyun frowns. “Weird how?”

Yeonjun flaps his hand dismissively. “Nothing. It’s fine. I’m just being whiny, ignore me.”

If anything, that only makes Taehyun frown harder.

“It’s not whiny to not like it if someone treats you badly.”

“Ah, I said ignore me.” He sends Taehyun a brilliant smile. It’s so stunning that it almost makes you forget you ever saw Yeonjun doing anything other than smiling. Which is probably its intended effect. “No one’s treating me badly, you can get that cute frown off your face; you’ll get wrinkles. Seriously, I just get mopey sometimes for no reason. Like when we met in the library, for example. Which, sorry again, by the way; I was just having a bad day.”

Yeonjun is looking at him again with that intense look he gets sometimes, and Taehyun feels his neck flush under the attention. He doesn’t know if Yeonjun does it on purpose or if that’s just the way his eyes are.

“Uh,” he says, hating how flustered he feels. “I told you, hyung, it’s fine. And I was rude back then too, so we’re even.”

Yeonjun quirks a small smile. “Guess we are.”

“But why were you having a bad day?”

“Huh?”

Taehyun’s not going to let him off the hook that easily. There’s something that’s clearly bothering him, now and back then, and Taehyun wants to know what it is and then grind it into dust until it disappears.

“That day,” Taehyun explains. “At the library. Why were you upset? You never said.”

“Ah.” Yeonjun sighs, resting back on his chair. The wind ruffles his hair and he shivers minutely. “I had just talked to someone. Someone I’d been seeing for a while.” Taehyun ignores resolutely the way imagining Yeonjun with someone makes him feel. “After talking to them, I realized we didn’t see our relationship in the same way. I don’t know, sometimes they acted like…like I wasn’t a real person, like I was just a character in a movie; intriguing, but not real enough to be of any consequence in their life. I guess it’s actually my fault, in a way, for not seeing it sooner and getting my hopes up. But it doesn’t matter; it’s over now.”

“Oh,” Taehyun says, feeling like everything he says will inevitably fall short. “I’m sorry, hyung.”

Yeonjun shrugs, graceful and charismatic as always. “It’s really fine. I don’t want to be with someone who only wants their made-up version of me. And it wouldn’t be fair of me to expect something from them that they’re not ready to give, either; so in the end it’s better for both of us if we go our own ways. I just had to mope it out for a little bit. But thankfully a little gremlin interrupted my brooding session by stealing my table, so at least that didn’t last very long.” He beams at Taehyun.

“Once again; it’s not stealing if it’s a public space,” Taehyun says out of habit. Yeonjun’s smile gets wider, and Taehyun narrows his eyes at him. It seems like the sadder the things he says are, the more exponentially charming he makes himself appear. Taehyun files that fact away to make sure he isn’t distracted from Yeonjun’s unhappiness so easily in the future. “And even if it was for the best, you still have the right to feel disappointed about it. If they didn’t make the effort to get to know you even after you started something together, then that’s just irresponsible of them. You deserve better.”

Yeonjun lays his chin on his hand, looking at Taehyun with his head tilted like he’s trying to figure out a particularly complex puzzle. His arms have goosebumps from the cold, but his gaze is warm. “Ah. It’s cute when you get all judgmental like that,” he tells Taehyun. “Especially when it’s in my honor. But I assure you, that’s all water under the bridge. I don’t even think about them anymore.”

Privately, Taehyun thinks that he’s only judgmental because whoever this person is, they deserve to be judged for not seeing how great Yeonjun is. Even if Taehyun has only just now seen Yeonjun without the shine he’d involuntarily cast on him, he knows that anyone would be lucky to know the real Yeonjun, worries and moodiness and all. He also thinks that Yeonjun is probably not as over it as he says he is; he may be over the person themselves, but the way they’d treated him will probably linger on his mind for a while, or he wouldn’t be talking about it now. That, Taehyun knows from experience- the things Hyunjin had said to him when they broke up flash through his mind, but he mentally bats them away quickly.

And then a shiver wracks through Yeonjun, and Taehyun is pulled from his thoughts.

“Are you cold?” He asks him.

“No,” Yeonjun assures him, lying through his teeth while he tries to suppress another shiver. “I’m fine. It’s just a little chillier up here than I thought.”

Taehyun raises an eyebrow at him.

“Maybe because you aren’t wearing the warmest of clothes right now, hyung.” He looks pointedly at Yeonjun’s bare arms.

“It’s April! It should be warmer by now,” Yeonjun whines, levity coming back to his voice. “And, hey, are you criticizing my choice of clothes?”

“They look very nice.” Taehyun’s very proud of how even his voice comes out, like he hasn’t been shamelessly ogling Yeonjun’s arms and general being all night. “And I’m not criticizing the choice of someone who studies design, but maybe a sleeveless shirt isn’t the most practical thing to wear outside at night.”

“Beauty should always come before practicality,” Yeonjun says loftily, but a hard shiver ripples through his body on the last syllable.

He’s ridiculous, Taehyun thinks. He can’t believe he finds someone who voluntarily ignored making a sensible choice endearing. He sighs, starting to take off his hoodie.

“What are you doing?” asks Yeonjun, who’s watching him with a raised eyebrow when Taehyun reemerges from the neck of his hoodie.

“Here,” is all Taehyun says as he passes it to Yeonjun, because he doesn’t know how to do things for people without being awkward about it.

“I told you, I’m fine,” Yeonjun tries to insist.

 Taehyun just pushes the hoodie closer to him across the table.

“What about you?” Yeonjun asks, eying the short-sleeved shirt Taehyun had under the hoodie. “Now you’ll be the one who is cold.”

“I was warm for longer, I’ll be fine,” Taehyun says, ignoring the way the cool air is starting to tickle his exposed arms. “Besides, you can consider it as payment for helping me out earlier.”

Yeonjun takes finally takes the hoodie and puts it on, if a little reluctantly. He’s taller than Taehyun, but Taehyun is a little broader, so the material sits a little loose around his shoulders. Seeing Yeonjun in his clothes makes something startled thrum against his chest, but Taehyun pushes the feeling away. They’re friends, he tells himself, he’s just doing something nice for a friend.

“Thanks,” Yeonjun says. “But helping you wasn’t a bother. You’re a cute drunk.”

Taehyun blushes despite himself, wishing desperately that it won’t be visible in the low light. “I’m a dumb drunk,” Taehyun corrects him.

His memories are still a bit blurry, but he remembers a couple of things he said and did while he was plastered, and he’s painfully glad he doesn’t remember all of it, or he’s afraid he’d instantly combust in embarrassment.

“Nah,” Yeonjun says, smiling softly and burrowing deeper into the chair, pulling Taehyun’s hoodie closer around himself. Taehyun looks away.

He tries to find a more comfortable posture as well, but his shoulder twinges in pain and he’s unpleasantly reminded of pulling it at the gym this morning. He must make a face, because Yeonjun asks him, worried,

“Are you okay?

“Yeah, it’s nothing. My shoulder just hurts from doing kick-boxing earlier.”

Yeonjun raises an eyebrow, something appreciative on his face. “You do kick-boxing?”

“Yeah. I started last year, actually. I was looking for something to burn off energy and get a good work out from it, and I found this. It’s actually really good for your body.”

Yeonjun’s eyes drop to Taehyun’s arms and he crosses them over his chest, self-conscious. “I can see that,” Yeonjun says.

“Uh, yeah. Do you do anything on your free time, hyung? A sport or something?” Taehyun asks, partly to direct the attention from himself and partly because he’s interested about finding out everything he can about Yeonjun.

So Yeonjun tells him about how he dances sometimes, but nothing serious, just every now and then with a group of friends. And then Yeonjun asks him about his favorite work-out routine and their conversation continues, fluttering from one topic to another with the ease of a bee settling on top of different flowers.

Time gets away from them, and by the time they notice how late it is, the sun is already stretching its first rays over the horizon. And even though they spent literally all night together (not like that, a voice inside Taehyuns head reminds him when his thoughts try to go somewhere else), Taehyun is still a little disappointed when he inevitably has to bid Yeonjun goodnight.

He tries to check his phone, but the battery is dead after using it as a flashlight for hours. Thankfully, he has the keys to his room in his pocket, so he doesn’t need to call Kai to let him in. When he finally comes through the door, he sees that Kai probably wouldn’t have heard his ringtone anyway, since he’s passed to the world, sprawled on his bed in a mess of blankets.

Taehyun crawls into his own quietly so as not to wake him, but despite not having slept all night, it still takes him a while to fall asleep. He keeps replaying every moment with Yeonjun, the way they were alone on a rooftop in the dark, just the two of them in a sea of darkness. He thinks about Yeonjun’s voice and Yeonjun’s laugh, his intense eyes and his expressive mouth.

By the time he finally manages to fall asleep, Kai’s soft snoring a familiar melody next to him, the sun is already completely up in the sky.