Chapter Text
Eric doesn’t breathe a word about the night's events to anyone, and it seems Sunwoo hasn’t either because he doesn’t get asked anything suspicious. He takes some more precautions to ensure he doesn’t run into the other, too, like avoiding study room G, as much as it pains him. He develops a liking to a particular corner of the silent floor of the library as a substitute. It’s not perfect, but it’ll have to do.
His classes align to give him an oddly light week despite everything, or maybe it’s that he’s so adamant in distracting himself from any thoughts of a particular boy, and boys in general even, that he’d thrown himself into his work with such vigor that it became light. It’s because of this that he readily accepts an invitation to a karaoke night with his friends for Saturday evening, excited to hang out with them again. Until he has an unfortunate thought about a particular boy.
“Wait, what’s the exact invite list?” Eric asks Juyeon. He looks up from where he was scrubbing at the stove to where Eric is elbow deep in dishes.
“Why’s that important?”
“Uh…just. I just wanna know.”
Juyeon ignores him.
“Fine,” Eric adds, “Is Sunwoo going to be there?”
“Yes.”
A deep sigh.
“What?” Juyeon presses.
“Nothing. He’s just…annoying.”
“Chanhee told me you two went for a long ass smoke break alst weekend. I thought you guys were friends.”
Eric rolls his eyes. “Just because we smoke together doesn’t mean he’s not annoying.”
Juyeon pauses the stove scrubbing. “I don’t get why you hate him so much. Seriously, what’s the issue? Am I missing something?”
“Nothing!” He says, too quickly, making Juyeon raise an eyebrow. “Like I said, some people annoy me, and he’s one of them! He’s just…so full of himself.”
Juyeon shrugs, deciding not to press further, resuming his cleaning. Eric’s gut twists.
—
Karaoke rolls around before he knows it. Weekdays all seemed to blend into one with Eric’s routine. He blinks, and they’re gone, but they feel so long as he’s going through them. The evening gets off to a good start. He pre games with Juyeon and Jacob before linking up with the larger group, and it’s surprisingly easy to ignore how we would totally kiss Jacob if he asked, because he loves Jacob as a friend very deeply.
Upon linking with the larger group, he finds that he keeps making accidental eye contact with Sunwoo, making them both look away quickly.
Sunwoo is dressed real nice today, though. More so than usual. His hair falls almost effortlessly wavy and deep black, and his black turtleneck hugs his upper body tight, a silver pendant hanging over his chest. And those jeans, Eric could swear they’d been in his shopping cart too. Not to mention the shoes.
He finds himself looking down at his own outfit that he’d put a concerningly large amount of effort into. Cream button down with sleeves rolled to the elbows, first few buttons popped open with a golden linked chain around the neck. His favorite thrifted pants. Comfy shoes mostly hidden by said pants. He’d styled his hair, too, blow dryer with some hairspray and everything. Juyeon and Jacob had been surprised. He never dressed up this much for their nights out unless they were trying to pick up girls, which they haven’t attempted since last year. Eric had just rolled his eyes saying he’d been feeling like a bum lately and wanted to look good for once. It was…true!
Sunwoo and him don’t really talk, at all, making sure to skirt around each other, which is again surprisingly easy because there’s so many other people to be around. He meets some new people, too, who seem chill and nice, like Hyunjae’s friend Younghoon (Hyunjae sure knew a lot of people…) and Kevin’s friend Sangyeon.
They’re four group songs deep at the karaoke bar in their private room (affordable when you’re splitting eleven ways), when Juyeon leans into the mic.
“I think Sunwoo and Eric should duet.” The group uproars at this, because what better than the two worst singers doing a duet together? Eric wasn’t bad, and neither was Sunwoo, but most of their friends did acapella and choir and shit in highschool, if not currently, so it was a high bar they’d set.
Eric groans, deciding to comply. It was easier that way. It appeared Sunwoo had the same idea because he just rolls his eyes, reaching for a mic and calling out for song suggestions, having them finally settle on “Love is an Open Door” from fucking Frozen, courtesy of Juyeon. He narrowed his eyes on his roommate. What the fuck was he playing at here? Did he…know what had happened?
Only one thing could fix this. He reaches for a bottle of soju and takes a large swig. Chanhee hoots, and then shouts something that makes Eric regret even coming.
“Act it out! Get up in the front you two, dance it!”
Sunwoo grumbles, “I wanna sit. Don’t make me stand.” But the group is chanting for a performance now, and it was always majority rules.
He watches as Sunwoo drinks an even larger amount than him before getting up to the front, standing next to Eric, refusing to meet his eyes. The room is dark save for the flashing lights and they’re backlit by the giant screen. Someone queues up the song, and the opening notes play.
“I’ll be the girl,” Sunwoo says. Eric doesn’t really get to respond. He’s glad for it, though, because he doesn’t know if the group will demand the higher pitched voice to match, too.
The duet is blurred through drinks, and he wades through it best he can, letting himself loosen up because it was just a performance, anyway, and Eric was a performer at heart. Surprisingly, Sunwoo is the same, because they get so lost in the roles that they find themselves ending with Sunwoo hanging off Eric, in his arms as if they’d just finished a ballroom dance. Worse yet, Eric finds he can’t look away from Sunwoo’s flushed face and wide eyes no matter how hard he tries. He feels himself go red as cheers erupt around them and he comes back to reality, pulling away from the other quickly and returning to his seat.
“That was fucking fire!” Hyunjae hoots. “What chemistry!” Sangyeon shouts. Maybe Sangyeon was not chill, after all. Eric hides his face in his hands. Juyeon claps a hand against his back, oblivious. “See, you guys make great friends!” He says.
Eric was well and truly cooked.
—
When their time runs out, the group heads to the 24/7 McDonalds. Eric has Juyeon grab his order and excuses himself outside for a smoke break. He’s searching his pockets for his new lighter when he sees something thrust in front of him. A BIC lighter with a pixelated shark that reads “Kiss Me”. His eyes widen, and he looks up to see Sunwoo, looking off to the side and not meeting his gaze.
“I found it on my way out that night. Thought I’d return it to you. It’s cute.”
He takes it from the other, too drunk to be careful about it, making their fingers brush far too much for his own comfort.
“Thank you,” he says, genuine. “I thought it was gone forever.”
Sunwoo finally turns to him. “Guess it wasn’t.”
Eric tips him the pack of cigarettes, letting Sunwoo take one.
“Why’d you buy that one?” He asks. Eric lights his with no-longer-lost lighter, enjoying the familiar sensation and click.
“My brother got it for me.”
Sunwoo’s brows furrow. “Your brother got you a lighter that said ‘Kiss Me’?”
Eric laughs, “Don’t make it weird. He thought it was a funny design.”
Sunwoo looks at him. Eric looks at Sunwoo. The coincidence of the lighter’s message suddenly hits him.
“We should talk about that night,” Eric says, very fast, words out of his mouth before his brain had fully formed them. No!! He does not want to talk about that night!!
Sunwoo just stares at him.
“Kiss me?” He says.
Eric ashes his cigarette against the wall behind him, watching Sunwoo’s still dangling unlit between his fingers. “You’re funny.”
Sunwoo visibly deflates and it makes Eric’s gut twist. Eric and alcohol and Sunwoo were a bad, bad combination. Eric was never going to drink again. He leaned in, cupping Sunwoo’s jaw with his hand, and Sunwoo moved to capture his lips, and somehow, they’re kissing again. It’s probably the third best kiss of his life, if he were to be very objective and rate it looking back, but in the moment he felt fucking amazing, like his skin was electric everytime they touched, like his lips were intoxicating in and of themselves because they were unbelievably soft, pushing Eric to envy. He could only hope Sunwoo felt the same. He breaks away.
“How the fuck did we get here. Are you gay?”
Sunwoo shrugs. “I don’t think so, but this is fun.”
Fun. That was a choice word. Eric can’t be bothered by words at the moment, though. He makes to kiss him again when a shout from a little ways down makes the two of them jump out of their skin, moving back like they’d touched a live wire.
“There you are!” Kevin shouts, “Man, you guys and your smoke breaks. Your orders are getting fucking cold, get in here.”
Refusing to look at Sunwoo, Eric makes his way inside, running his tongue over his lips, tasting some kind of sweet-ish lip balm. Damn, that’s how his lips looked like that.
They’re saying their goodbyes soon enough, group splitting their separate ways when Sunwoo steps to his side. “You’re gonna start ignoring me again, aren’t you?”
Eric bristles, “Do you want me to not?”
Sunwoo shrugs. “I mean, you’re fun.”
Juyeon eyes them, confused. They’re a little ways away from the group, to the side. Eric kicks a rock. “You too, I guess. I won’t ignore you, if you won’t ignore me.”
“I can do that,” Sunwoo says.
He glances back at their friends, laughing and chatting, oblivious to what was happening. Juyeon is swaying, leaning against Hyunjae and watching them, no doubt ready to ask fifty questions, and Jacob has his back to him, talking with Kevin and Sangyeon. He should be chilling with them right now.
He looks back at Sunwoo. “Not to ask what are we but, what are we? I don’t think we’d make good boyfriends.”
Sunwoo smirks, but there’s a kind of awkwardness to it. “Who said we’re doing that?”
Eric lets out a tense breath. “Right,” he mutters, wondering what the fuck they were doing then.
Whatever it was, their friends would notice eventually, and what would they even say? It would be awkward, to say the least. Not because they were homophobic, but it would be awkward.
“Whatever,” Eric says, “Let’s just do what’s fun.” Sunwoo grins at this, and Eric can’t help but mirror it.
He can’t quite fathom how this irritating guy has somehow managed to wedge himself into every corner of his life. The study room he used to have all to himself, the smoke breaks he used to take alone, even his late-night thoughts. Especially his thoughts.
They reach the rest of the group, and Juyeon claps him on the back, asking if he’s good. Eric glances at Sunwoo, the same question hanging unspoken between them. Is he good? Not really, but he’s…something. Different.
When Sunwoo looks at him, there's that little twist in his gut again, the one he’s begun to both dread and crave. Yeah, maybe different is alright. Different is okay.