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Changgu barged into Yanan's dorm room.
"I got the snacks."
Yanan's head popped up from his desk.
Changgu dropped the two bags of groceries onto Yanan's bed. "You fell asleep didn't you?" he suspected.
Yanan swiveled in his chair to face him with a timid smile. "Maybe."
The door burst open again.
"Can you believe Hyojong-hyung went to the club and didn't tell me?"
Yanan's roommate, Shinwon, took in the books on the desk. "Are y'all gonna study?"
"Yeah," Changgu responded.
Shinwon's face twisted. "Ugh. So productive."
His eyes fell on the two plastic bags on Yanan's bed. He stalked over and pulled a bag of chips from one of the bags. "Thanks so much."
He retreated back to the door, pulling open the bag as he walked. "I'm going back on my search of cool people to hang out with."
As the door shut behind him, the boys could hear him saying to himself, "Seriously, it's Friday night. Can they get a life?"
"He's the one who can't buy his own chips though," Changgu said.
Yanan laughed at that. Shinwon basically lived off of Changgu and Yanan. The two '96 liners worked, got paid, usually ended up sponsoring each other study food and then Shinwon would, without a doubt, somehow find a way to eat some of it.
"Good thing I bought that extra one for him," Changgu said, taking out another bag of chips from the grocery bag.
"Genius," Yanan commented.
Obviously, Changgu had come to terms with their college living.
"Did you get my soda?" Yanan leaned towards the bag.
"Of course I did." Changgu passed him a bright orange can. "I bought three. I hope it helps keep you awake."
Yanan popped open the can and shrugged. "Honestly, I think the only thing that would work right now is a shot. I haven't gotten more than three hours of sleep at night for the past week."
Changgu sighed worriedly. "I wish coffee worked on you."
"Me too," Yanan admitted. "I don't know how come it doesn't work on my family."
"But I really just wish you'd sleep," Changgu said, looking at the younger boy's dark circles around his eyes.
"I'll get to sleep when we finish this chapter tonight," Yanan said. "I don't have to work tomorrow and hopefully Shinwon doesn't bother me." He yawned.
"How are you gonna keep going like this, Yananie?" Changgu didn't even want to study anymore, he only wanted his friend to sleep. Yanan was getting more and more worn out each day and Changgu was afraid he would eventually burn out. "What's gonna happen when we have finals next month?"
Yanan drank from the can and leaned back in the chair, dropping his head back. "I don't know. Hopefully I'll get enough money before then and I can stop working for a while."
Changgu's gaze ran over Yanan's slouching body and he sighed again. "Okay. Hopefully."
Yanan leaned forward again and chuckled. "You sound a lot more worried about me than I am."
Changgu tried to manage a smile. "Well, yeah, I'm worried, you're my friend." He hoped he didn't look like he wanted to say something else. "And I'm a generally caring person. I care about your health, okay? I don't want you passing out during the exam or while you're working. You need to sleep."
Yanan's smile fell from his face. "I know I need to sleep." He rubbed his eyes. "I'm exhausted."
"We shouldn't study tonight. You go sleep and we'll study tomorrow," Changgu suggested.
Yanan shook his head. "The exam is in like a day and a half. It's on three chapters and I've barely read one. I don't want to do the whole thing tomorrow, I'll fail, I'm telling you."
"No, you–"
"Yes, I will," Yanan insisted. "I've tried that before. My brain doesn't work like that. I need to at least have a bit of information in my head to sleep on. If I don't sleep, I forget. But I hardly have time to sleep."
Changgu pushed his chair closer to Yanan. "Yananie, it makes no sense if your brain is too tired to learn anything now."
"But if I could–"
"You need to sleep."
"But, Changgu, if I read at least–
"No."
Yanan turned his body fully to Changgu. "I'll be fine, I swear. We can just–"
"Yanan."
"Changgu."
"Yanan." Changgu tried to glare at him.
"Listen, Changgu, I don't care what you say. If I don't at least read this chapter now I'm going to fail and my past few exams weren't that good either. My GPA is going to drop. It can't drop. I have to study from tonight."
"This is why you only get three hours of sleep every night. You're so fricking stubborn," Changgu huffed. "You need to sleep now."
"I know, but sleep isn't my priority right now."
"It should be."
"No, not when I have other obligations."
"You can still pass if you study tomorrow–"
"No, you can do that." Yanan then pointed at his own chest. "I can't do that. I have to study my ass off and work my ass off and deal with asses in my classes asking me if I understand what's going on. It doesn't come easy to me. I have to put in twice the effort and that just means getting half as much sleep." Yanan hung his head and sighed loudly, rubbing his eyes.
Changgu was a bit startled at Yanan's sudden outburst of his distresses but it all made sense now.
He slowly rolled his chair closer to Yanan's so their knees were touching. He took the younger's hands from his face and held them. "Yananie." Yanan looked him in the eyes. "I know where you're coming from. You're stressed and sleep deprived. Life is definitely unfair. You don't deserve this. It's sad that the best people have the most shitty lives, right?" He smiled. "But I'm telling you, sleep is the only way to feel better right now."
Yanan sighed, curling in his shoulders. "Will you wake me up in five hours?"
Changgu almost couldn't believe he'd gotten through to him.
"How about eight?"
Yanan shook his head. "Five hours, we do a chapter, then I'll sleep again."
Changgu relented. "Okay, fine. I'm just glad you're gonna sleep."
They were still near each other, Changgu holding Yanan's hands. Now that they'd settled their argument, they were quiet enough to notice their breaths on each other's faces, their knees and hands touching.
It all hit Changgu hard and his heart started doing double time.
He'd imagined this lots of times, in many different ways. But could he actually do it?
He hadn't broken eye contact with Yanan yet and he knew that if he did he wouldn't gather the courage again. But how would the younger boy react?
Surprisingly, Yanan broke their eye contact first. But not to look away. To look at Changgu's lips. And that was all Changgu needed to throw away his self consciousness and lean into Yanan. His mind was screaming at him to stop but he needed to know.
He pressed his lips against Yanan's and found the other boy leaning into him.
Well, his mind gave up then and his heart took over, bringing his hands to Yanan's cheeks and deepening the kiss.
He had to refrain himself from jumping for joy when they pulled apart. Yanan had kissed him back.
Yanan mirrored his grin. "You've wanted to do that as much as I have?"
Changgu could only laugh. "If I'd known I would've done it earlier."
Yanan shook his head in disbelief. "How long?"
Changgu took a moment to think about it. "I think from the moment I met you. But I only realised about three months ago," he said.
Yanan gaped at him. "I had no idea. I thought I was being obvious."
Changgu shook his head. "You definitely weren't. I just went on the spur of the moment just now, I didn't know you felt the same."
Yanan pulled Changgu towards him and kissed him again. This time was much longer than the last.
They eventually pulled away for air, high off each other.
"You still have to sleep, though."
Yanan groaned.