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Wonwoo knows who Kim Mingyu is.
To be honest, it would be pretty hard to not know who Kim Mingyu is.
They have a few mutual friends, and the dude has built up quite a reputation for himself. If Wonwoo didn’t know him for his soccer vice captain role and student ambassador status, he’d know him as ‘the guy who hosted the festival party in December and almost burned down the eastside accommodation block’.
Even though Wonwoo’s never met the dude, he feels like he knows too much already. Soonyoung loves bragging about how him and Mingyu stole the bronze mascot of their rival University, and then accidentally dropped it into the river. Junhui never fails to mention every time Mingyu takes Minghao to some fancy party or bar uptown.
Wonwoo knows Kim Mingyu because everyone else does, like he’s some kind of campus celebrity, so he’s a little surprised to see him slip into the seat across from him in the library at 2:46am.
Looking up from his broken coding assignment, Wonwoo tries to hide his surprise as Mingyu shrugs his backpack to the floor and puts both his palms on the table.
“Hey.”
The first thing that catches Wonwoo off guard is that Mingyu is dressed like shit.
To be fair, no one dresses up to go to the library in the wee hours of the morning, he’s not expecting black tie. But Kim Mingyu usually has a better fashion sense than most guys their age, and he hangs out with Xu Minghao.
No one is allowed to be badly dressed around Xu Minghao. Junhui escapes by the thread of his grandpa sweater.
So yeah, seeing Mingyu in an old pair of sweatpants and a hoodie with a mysterious purple stain on the sleeve throws Wonwoo a little off kilter. Mingyu looks, for lack of a better word, frazzled, like he’s been in the microwave for thirty seconds too long. This hair is fluffed from running his hands through it and he looks a little tired, eyes puffy from sleep.
Kim Mingyu is a hot guy.
Wonwoo is fine with this because Wonwoo’s not attracted to hot guys, he doesn’t like the narcissistic vibe. They’re overly confident and greasy, and, not to generalise any group of people simply because their hot, but they’re usually about as interesting as a wet slice of bread.
The issue is that right now Mingyu is not hot at all, he looks like he needs to be wrapped up in a blanket and it’s a little startling.
Wonwoo blinks for a second before replying.
“Hey?”
It’s not supposed to come out as a question, but it does anyway. It’s ‘hey’, but it’s also ‘why are you talking to me and what do you want?’.
Kim Mingyu is popular, looks good dressed like that, and talking to him makes Wonwoo’s anxiety spike.
Mingyu fixes him with a slightly wild stare. “I need help.”
“What.” Wonwoo says on impulse.
“I’ve been in this library for seven fucking hours.” Mingyu starts, and Wonwoo thinks that’s a great way to start an explanation. “My brain is fucking fried, like triple deep fried with black pepper seasoning, hyung.”
Wonwoo blinks, trying to keep up. Did Mingyu just use an honorific?
“I need to get something from the print room.” Mingyu presses on. “But the fucking lights broken, because Soonyoung hyung is incapable of understanding how electronics work and he kept turning it on and off earlier to freak me out and tripped the fuse.”
Wonwoo nods as Mingyu continues. “I finished my essay an hour ago and I was putting all my books back when I heard,” he pauses for suspense, “a noise.”
A beat passes between them.
“A noise.” Wonwoo repeats.
“A noise.” Mingyu nods, eyes wide. “A very spooky noise.”
“Spooky?”
“Listen.” Mingyu says even though Wonwoo was clearly already listening. “I am a skeptic. Yes, I hate horror movies and yes, I cried when me and Minghao got lost in that corn maze, but I am a man of science, Wonwoo hyung, I’m doing a BSC.”
Wonwoo quirks an eyebrow. “You’re doing culinary tech.”
“It’s a fucking science, it says BSC on the Uni website so it’s a science.” Mingyu arges. “Whatever, I am a man of science, food or otherwise, I know ghosts don’t exist.”
There’s a pause as he collects himself.
“But.” Mingyu fixes him with that wild stare again. “I have been in this library for seven fucking hours and the print room is dark as shit and hyung, it was a really spooky noise.”
Right.
Wonwoo sighs and tilts himself back on his chair. Mingyu watches him carefully. He looks a little nervous.
“So what do you want me to do?” Wonwoo asks.
“You’re the only other person in this library, can you come with me to the print room so I don’t get murdered?”
Wonwoo snorts, and then raises both eyebrows when he realises Mingyu isn’t joking. “Oh.”
Mingyu looks at him with pleading eyes. It’s a little ridiculous, and Junhui is definitely going to find this story hilarious later, but Mr Popularity Kim Mingyu is sitting in front of him looking like he’s genuinely scared of going to the stupid print room alone right now, so Wonwoo relents.
“Sure.”
Mingyu grins, and Wonwoo can’t help but think to himself, ‘cute’, which is weird because Kim Mingyu is definitely a hot guy, not a cute guy, definitely.
“Yes! Ah thanks hyung, you’re a lifesaver.” Mingyu grins harder through his words and Wonwoo can’t look directly at him because its like looking at the sun, so he turns his eyes back to his computer screen.
“What are you printing?” Wonwoo asks as he saves his work and shuts his computer down. He should probably leave anyways, if he stays up past 3:30 he will absolutely miss his morning class tomorrow.
“Oh.” Mingyu laughs. “It’s dumb?”
Wonwoo looks up to raise an eyebrow at him and Mingyu relents.
“Pictures of kermit the frog.” He says. “One hundred pictures of kermit the frog.”
And there’s nothing for Wonwoo to say, other than, “why?”
“I was going to break into Minghao’s room and cover his ceiling with them. He’s out of town, so, I thought why not you know?” Mingyu laughs nervously, turning it into an awkward cough as Wonwoo stares at him.
“Because then when he comes back,” Mingyu continues weakly, “it’s like, he won’t notice them straight away, but when he lies down to sleep it’ll be like kermit’s watching him from heaven.”
Yeah, this is not the Mingyu Wonwoo’s heard about.
“Right.” Is all Wonwoo can say, stuffing his laptop into his backpack.
“It wasn’t my idea.” Mingyu says quickly. “Seokmin suggested it, I’m just the perpetrator because I have the spare keys because Minghao trusts me, a trust I am greatly abusing.”
“How long did you say you’ve been here for?” Wonwoo interrupts.
Mingyu’s left eye twitches a little. “Seven hours.”
“Alright buddy.” Wonwoo smiles. “We’ll print those frogs.”
Mingyu looks stupidly relieved.
It takes a few seconds for Wonwoo to tidy up his stuff, and Mingyu anxiously taps his hands against the table as he waits. Slinging his backpack onto his shoulder, Wonwoo stands, not forgetting to grab his empty coffee cup. The Starbucks on campus stays open until 6pm but they have a hot drink vending machine in the library reception, thank God.
Wonwoo wanders over to throw his trash away, and is surprised to turn around and find Mingyu following him to the bin like a puppy after it’s owner. The other tries not to look sheepish, and simply shrugs when Wonwoo throws him a questioning look.
They head towards the print room, on the second floor of the library.
Wonoo can feel himself itching to break the silence as they climb the stairs. “Did you send it via the website, or?”
“Yeah, um, about an hour ago.”
Wonwoo gives Mingyu a look over his shoulder.
“I was doing other stuff!” Mingyu raises both hands in defence. “I wasn’t like, loitering around waiting for you to finish your work so I could ask you or whatever! Hah. That would be weird.”
Wonwoo pauses at the big double doors of the second floor to give Mingyu a pointed look.
“Yes. Yes it would.”
The other looks at him a little fearfully and it makes Wonwoo want to pat him on the head.
Which he doesn’t do, obviously.
He laughs at Mingyu’s expression instead, pushing through the doors. The motion sensor lights flicker on, so there’s definitely no one else up here.
“Kidding.” Wonwoo grins as Mingyu’s face goes from scared to incredulous.
He follows Wonwoo through the doors with a pout. A fucking pout. How old is he?
“You know, you can be a little intimidating, hyung.”
Wonwoo blinks at him. Really? Intimidating? Wonwoo’s about as intimidating as a paper towel.
“Me?” Wonwoo laughs. “How can you say I’m intimidating when you hang out with Xu Minghao?”
“Minghao’s a baby.” Mingyu smiles, and Wonwoo stares at him.
“Pretty sure he’d violently murder you if he heard you say that.”
“Oh yeah one hundred percent, but he’s literally my son and no one can stop me from loving my baby boy.” Mingyu looks completely serious.
“You sound like Junhui.” Wonwoo mumbles, and Mingyu nods.
“We have similar priorities.”
They arrive at the print room, it’s huge sign looming over them. Wonwoo peers through the glass windows, seeing nothing but four rows of printers and a desk in the far left corner. Usually a nice old man will sit at the desk and help first time students figure out how to understand the stupid amount of options each printer has. Tonight, it’s empty.
The door is a fire door which, because it’s after hours, will lock shut behind them, so they prop it open with Wonwoo’s backpack.
“So what do you want me to do?” Wonwoo asks, leaning against the doorframe. Mingyu hovers awkwardly in the hallway.
“I don’t know, just like, lookout?”
“For what?”
Mingyu huffs at him. “I don’t know! Anything?”
“Alright.” Wonwoo pats him on the shoulder. “You’ll be fine. Go print your frogs.”
A look of determination crosses Mingyu’s face and he nods, stepping into the dark print room.
It’s still pretty ridiculous, Wonwoo just kind of loitering in the doorframe, watching as Mingyu bumbles around with the printers. Amused, Wonwoo watches him for a minute. It’s obvious Mingyu doesn’t really know what he’s doing, struggling to get past the login screen on the small printer screen. It cute.
Wonwoo frowns to himself. Kim Mingyu. Hot guy Kim Mingyu is not cute. Stop it brain.
Pulling out his phone, he opens his group chat with Soonyoung and Junhui, expecting them to both be asleep but wanting them to be updated anyways.
wonton
guys something dumb is happening
Wonwoo gets two posts into reddit and Soonyoung is already spamming chat, very much awake.
callmesoon
WITHOUT ME?
wonu whta the fUCK this is so rude
moonjub
betrayal,,,
callmesoon
you NEVER let me do stupid shit and now!!!!!!! here we are!!!!!!
wonton
are you guys not gonna ask what im doing
callmesoon
I DONT CARE WHY WAS I NOT INVITED
moonjub
i, an amazing and wonderful friend, do care
what are u up to noni my love
wonton
shut up
helping kim mingyu fuck his friend
moonjub
uh
callmesoon
wonwo wha the fuck
moonjub
im so fukin proud omg,, shedding a tear rn,,,
wonton
not what i meant!! helping him print out pictures of kermit the frog
moonjub
oh
two things that do not align in the slightest
callmesoon
gettin down an freaky w kermit,,, i rate that tbh
wonton
this is why i dont tell you anything
callmesoon
ur fuckin rude wonwoo u know that
“Hyung!”
Wonwoo jumps about a foot in the air, dropping his phone and clutching a hand to his chest.
“Oh shit.” Mingyu scrambles to pick up the mobile. “Sorry! I just - sorry hyung I didn’t mean to scare you!”
Wonwoo wheezes, trying to catch his breath. “It’s - you’re fine,” he snatches the phone back before Mingyu can see his group chat, “you just surprised me.”
“Sorry,” Mingyu flashes him a sheepish grin, “I need some help with the printer? It won’t do what I say, you’re doing computer science right?”
Wonwoo blinks at him in surprise. “Yeah?”
“I’m an idiot, please help?”
Mingyu throws him another dangerous pout, eyes wide, and Wonwoo relents.
“Sure. What’s the issue?”
They both crowd around the tiny screen on the closest colour printer, which is flashing an angry red ‘NO PRINT RECEIVED’ popup. Absentmindedly, Wonwoo notices the smell of Mingyu’s deodorant, something spicy and warm. Kind of autumnal.
Wonwoo catches himself. Smelling other people is weird, focus. He tries to concentrate on whatever Mingyu is saying instead.
“- so I just tried pressing this button, but it froze. I think I’ve broken it.”
He might be right, actually. Wonwoo jabs the ‘esc’ button on the little keypad and gets no response.
“You might have killed it.” He nods, and Mingyu looks troubled.
“They can’t fine me right? Oh fuck, I bet these printers are like thousands! I can’t afford that!” Mingyu puts both hands on the printer and shakes it a bit. “You bastard! Just print my frogs!”
Wonwoo sighs and holds down the power button.
“Mingyu.” He raises his other hand in front of the younger’s face. “Please, you don’t have to buy a new printer.”
“Oh thank God. Student loan would not cover that.”
Wonwoo gestures to the other printers. “Go load it up on another one, I’ll sort this.”
The printer screen blinks and goes black, successfully forced to shut down.
“Thanks hyung.” Mingyu straight up beams. “You’re a genius.”
Wonwoo is literally just turning it off and on again, but okay.
“No problem.” He offers a genuine smile.
Seemingly satisfied, Mingyu wanders over to another printer and starts jabbing at the screen again. Again, Wonwoo watches him, his eyes drawn to where a bit of Mingyu’s hair is sticking up at the back, like a duck’s butt.
Somehow, Mingyu has managed to destroy almost every preconceived notion Wonwoo had about him in about twenty minutes. Sure, he’s still Kim Mingyu, soccer captain and ex prom king, but he’s also fluffy sleep deprived Mingyu who can’t seem to remember his print login and screws his whole face up as he yawns.
Wonwoo’s brain stutters a little. Mingyu dog.
The printer beeps back to life and it startles Wonwoo, focusing his attention.
Across the room, Mingyu’s printer whirs into action, loudly filtering its paper and slowly ejecting pictures into the tray.
Mingyu meets Wonwoo’s eye with glee. “Victory!” And Wonwoo can’t help but grin back.
Behind them, there’s a soft click.
Both faces fall as they whirl to see the fire door safely tucked into its frame, shut.
Wonwoo lets out a breath. “Fuck.”
“Fuck!” Mingyu startles.
They both scramble over to the door, Wonwoo grabbing the handle and yanking with no luck. There’s his backpack, knocked over on the other side of the glass, seemingly bested by the weight of the door. They’re locked in.
Mingyu presses his face up against the glass window. “I knew this fucking place was haunted.”
“Mingyu,” Wonwoo sighs, “come on, it’s not haunted, my backpack must have been too light or something.”
The other hums a little, like he’s considering the logic, and then nods.
“You’re right, I’m just being a baby.”
“Not a baby, just tired.” Wonwoo turns to face Mingyu, leaning against the window. “I know someone who lives on campus, I’ll ring him and he can let us out.”
“Okay.” Mingyu nods again, and wanders back over to the printer to look at the bits of paper.
Junhui, Soonyoung, Wonwoo and their other friend Jihoon share a house on the other side of town, and he knows his friends are more likely to leave him to suffer overnight than make the thirty minute trip to campus. But Seungkwan is still a first year and lives in one of the campus halls, meaning he should only be a couple of minutes away. Wonwoo just prays that he’s still awake.
Wonwoo knows Seungkwan by accident. He’s a friend of a friend of one of Soonyoung’s first year dance buddies, but he’s also the annoyingly perky barista that works in the coffee shop between Wonwoo’s place and the bus stop, so Wonwoo knew his face way before he showed up to Soonyoung’s 22nd and ate all the complementary rice cakes.
Seungkwan had spotted Wonwoo from across the room, pointed, and shouted his coffee order at him. Like that was the only way they knew how to communicate.
Ever since then Seungkwan will babble away while he makes Wonwoo’s morning coffee, about anything or nothing in particular. Wonwoo has to pretend he doesn’t find it endearing.
They fit together weirdly well. The talker and the listener. Unstoppable force and immovable object.
Seungkwan picks up on the seventh ring. “What?”
Instantly Wonwoo holds the phone away from his ear, pounding music filters through the line.
“Hyung?” Seungkwan’s voice crackles, “Wonwoo, hyung?” Wonwoo hears a sigh, “is this a fucking butt dial? Oh my god.”
“Seungkwan,” Wonwoo interrupts him, “where are you? Shit, are you out right now?”
“Hyung? Yeah I’m - fucking,” there’s rustling on the other end of the line, “hey!” and then a different voice breaks through.
“Seungkwan?”
“Wonwoo!” It’s not Seungkwan, it’s Hansol, slurring his words. “Shit, sorry, Wonwoo hyung!”
Wonwoo frowns. “Hey man, can I talk to Seungkwan please?”
“Yeah he’s just -” there’s a pause, “uh, actually I might have lost him?” Wonwoo tries not to audibly sigh.
“Oh! Wait,” Hansol says, “there he is! He’s talking to some dude at the bar, hey!”
Wonwoo waits patiently, watching Mingyu collect up his stacks of paper. He seems to be struggling to organise them.
Hansol seems to have completely fucked off on the other end of the line, a familiar club beat replaces his voice. About five seconds away from hanging up, Wonwoo taps his foot to the music. It’s like he’s somehow been put on hold.
There’s some rustling on the other end of the line. “Hi hyung,” Seungkwan’s voice finally filters through, “sorry about Hansol, my boyfriend’s an idiot.”
“Oh?” That piques Wonwoo’s interest, the tone in his voice catches Mingyu’s attention from across the room. “Finally made it official?”
Seungkwan laughs down the phone. “Yeah, fucking finally. I was dropping hints for like a month hyung you have no idea.”
Wonwoo does have an idea. Seungkwan wouldn’t stop complaining about it.
“Anyways,” he hears Seungkwan move to a quieter part of the club, “how can I help you on this lovely eveningtide?”
Wonwoo pauses for a moment. “I need your help.”
“Oh! Help you say?” Seungkwan makes a weird haughty noise down the phone. “Well, Jeon Wonwoo-sshi, how may I be of your assistance?”
“Seungkwan.” Wonwoo deadpans. “I’m locked in the print room of the library.”
There’s a pause.
“Sorry?”
Wonwoo sighs. “I’m fucking - I’m with Kim Mingyu and we’re trying to print pictures of kermit the frog and the print room door mysteriously locked behind us and it’s 3am and I’m very tired so can you please, I’m literally begging you please, come and let us out.”
Seungkwan sucks in a breath. “Kim Mingyu?”
“Don’t get distracted,” Wonwoo jumps in quickly, “I know you’re out right now but please, you must be coming back to campus soon right?”
“I - I guess?”
“We’re trapped in the print room, please free us.”
There’s another pause, and then Seungkwan bursts into laughter. Wonwoo puts his face in his free hand.
Mingyu notices from the other side of the room and stick his head out of his papers. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, he’s just -” Wonwoo sighs, “he’s just laughing at me.”
Seungkwan continues to cackle over the line as Mingyu raises his eyebrows.
“That’s, wow.” Seungkwan sighs happily. “That’s fucking funny. Yeah, of course I’ll come get you, just give me like twenty minutes to get back to campus.”
“Thanks, brat, you’re the best.”
Seungkwan laughs again. “I know babe. See you in twenty!”
The dial tone sounds and Wonwoo breathes relief, he turns to where Mingyu is waiting expectantly.
“He’s coming to get us.”
“Oh!” Mingyu grins. “Fantastic!”
“In like, twenty minutes.”
“That’s okay!” Mingyu says quickly. “We can play noughts and crosses on the back of these kermits!”
Sounds fantastic.
Wonwoo opens his mouth to say something snarky in return, but before he can the motion sensor lights in the hallway outside the print room flicker off and both of them are plunged into darkness.
There’s silence for a few moments, and then, a small voice in the dark; “hyung?”
“Mingyu?”
After spending most of his teenage years bundled in the darkness of his bedroom, and a stupid amounts of night time deep chats on the roof with Soonyoung, Wonwoo’s eyes can acclimatise to the low light pretty quickly, and he only needs to blink twice to see Mingyu’s panicked expression.
“Hey,” Wonwoo stumbles forward and reaches out to put a hand on Mingyu’s arm, feels a little guilty as he feels Mingyu slightly jump, “it’s just me, I’m here.”
Mingyu instinctually puts his hand over where Wonwoo’s rests on his bicep and lets out a breath. “I’m okay,” he says shakily, “I was just surprised.”
“Sure,” Wonwoo grins under the darkness, “It’s just the motion sensor lights going off because no ones in the hallway.”
“I know!” Mingyu frowns in the darkness, his eyes finally finding Wonwoo’s form. Wonwoo laughs at his expression it Mingyu falters into a smile. He pushes Wonwoo’s hand off his arm in mock offence.
Wonwoo can basically make out the whole room now. The back of the room has a large window that spills moonlight into the carpet and closest few printers, catching Mingyu’s honey brown hair in a silvery hue. Wandering over to the window, Wonwoo inspects the view of their city below. The campus is up on the left hill of the valley, close enough to be walking distance but still providing a nice view of the suburbs and the city center.
Mingyu follows him over. “Who knew the print room had such a nice view?”
“Right?” Wonwoo laughs softly, and Mingyu throws him a smile under the moonlight.
The printer splutters behind them and spits out its last kermit, the room falls into silence.
Outside the window a gust of wind rushes past.
In the midst of the quiet, they’re able to hear the slight creak of the roof under the gale. Wonwoo can also hear the small noise Mingyu makes in the back of his throat.
“You know what I do when I need to calm down?” Wonwoo says, catching the younger’s attention.
Mingyu blinks at him for a second. “What?”
“It’s - it’s kinda stupid but just bare with me.” Wonwoo gently takes Mingyu’s hand and leads him over to the center of the room where there's space. He lies down flat on his back, guiding Mingyu to do the same.
“Uh, hyung?”
“I lie down like this,” Wonwoo pushes on, “and I just, I just fuckin’ scream, like really loud.”
There’s a pause, and Wonwoo panics.
“It’s uh, it’s something my therapist recommended,” he babbles, “it’s supposed to be like a physical manifestation of getting the stress out. Because like, our ancient monkey brains used to yell to call out for help when they were in danger so by yelling it automatically -”
“AHHHHHHHH!” Mingyu shouts in the darkness, his voice projecting around the room.
It scares the absolute shit out of Wonwoo, who feels his whole body jolt at the sudden sound, like he’s suddenly being projected into the goddamn astral plane. Silence fals again, and he takes a second to recollect himself, heart pounding.
Rolling onto his side, Wonwoo slaps Mingyu on the chest. “Asshole! You scared the absolute shit out of me, fucking hell!”
Wonwoo smacks him again, and Mingyu catches his wrist in the air, bursting into laughter. Wonwoo glares at him in the dark.
“Sorry,” Mingyu splutters through breathy laughs, “sorry hyung, I didn’t mean to.”
Wonwoo, despite himself, allows a small laugh to slip through his frown. Mingyu rolls onto his side to face Wonwoo, and starts laughing again as soon as he spots the others face, which sets Wonwoo off properly.
They lie there in the dark, just snickering at each other, Mingyu still has Wonwoo’s wrist in his grasp. His palm is warm, Wonwoo notices, starkly contrasting from Wonwoo’s own consistent cool temperature. Mingyu feels like a snug blanket against his skin. Gentle and comfortable and wow, Wonwoo is overwhelmed by the sudden desire to put on a large jumper and make a nice hot cup of tea, Mingyu pressed against his side.
Okay, maybe his brain is running a bit. Control yourself Wonwoo.
Once silence falls again, it settles like an awkward haze of them. Wonwoo feels his face start to uncontrollably flush, and is suddenly very thankful for the lack of light.
Mingyu breaks the silence, and Wonwoo thinks he can make out a small smile through the darkness. “You know, hyung, you really aren’t as scary as I thought you were.”
Wonwoo snorts at that. “Scary? Really?”
“Yeah,” Mingyu sheepishly laughs, “I mean, I just always pictured you as Junhui’s cool housemate you know?”
Wonwoo almost chokes. COOL??
“I guess you just always seemed like you know what you’re doing.” Mingyu says into the dark. “I’m a little envious of that, I guess.”
“Envious?”
Mingyu laughs again, soft as a feather. “I mean, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m kind of a mess.”
“Mingyu,” the words tumble out before Wonwoo can stop them, “don’t. You’re funny, charismatic, kind, and so much cooler than me.”
“Wonwoo hyung,” Wonwoo can hear the grin in Mingyu’s voice, “that’s very kind of you.”
“Don’t get cocky.” Wonwoo reaches out to slap Mingyu on the arm again, the younger makes an exaggerated pain sound and Wonwoo laughs.
There’s a couple moments of comfortable silence, and then Wonwoo speaks again. “Well, if it helps, I always just assumed you were the typical ‘Arrogant Popular Hot Guy’, but I was wrong. I guess we both need to work on our judgement skills.”
There’s a long pause, and then, through the darkness. “Hot?”
Fuck. “I mean -” Wonwoo stammers, “don’t be annoying, you know what I mean.”
Mingyu laughs at that. “Yeah, you mean that I’m hot. Thanks hyung, I’m flattered.”
“Shut up, I said I was wrong, didn’t I?”
“So I’m not hot?”
Wonwoo smacks the other again. “You know what you look like, asshole.”
“Ah!” Mingyu tries to push his hand away. “Abuse!”
Snickering, Wonwoo shoves Mingyu harshly on the shoulder, and the other giggles stupidly (and it’s adorable).
“Seriously,” Mingyu grabs Wonwoo’s wrist again, “I was a little scared of approaching you, you know.”
“Approaching?”
Mingyu shrugs. “Our friends are friends.”
Their friends are friends, and have been for a while now, Wonwoo can’t help but wonder how him and Mingyu had never met before. Never crossed paths. Never stumbled into each other in line at the cafeteria and had the oh, hi, I’m Junhui’s flatmate moment that kicks off their tumbling, awkward, joyful friendship.
Coincidence, Wonwoo had thought, never even occurred to him that it could have been Mingyu’s own choosing.
“Well,” Wonwoo says after a moment, “we’re here now.”
“That we are.”
Friends, Wonwoo thinks, but it feels too wrong to say out loud.
They chat for a while, about their courses, friends, all of Mingyu’s dumb stories that Wonwoo’s probably already heard through Soonyoung. It feels a little weird to be lying on the floor of the print room, but it must be approaching 3:30 and Wonwoo’s so tired and Mingyu’s voice is so warm that he almost feels like falling asleep.
Time flies, and before he knows it the motion sensor lights flicker on in the hallway and both of them jump to stand, light illuminating their proximity. Wonwoo’s neck flushes.
On the other side of the print room, Seungkwan comes into view, phone outstretched and supposedly filming. He cackles at the both of them for a solid thirty seconds before opening the door.
“Ahh! He’s free!” Seungkwan laughs, shoving the camera right into Wonwoo’s face.
Wonwoo bats it away with one hand and pulls Seungkwan into a hug with the other, the younger giggles into his shoulder.
“Thanks, brat.” Wonwoo grins, hugging Seungkwan a little too tight.
Seungkwan pulls out of the hug quickly with a grin. “You’re welcome and all but Hansol is probably ruining the downstairs bathroom as we speak so I gotta run.”
“Ah!” Mingyu claps Seungkwan on the back and pushes him down the hall a bit. “Can’t be helped I guess! Bye!”
Seungkwan finger guns at both of them before scampering down the hall and through the double doors. Weird.
“Well,” Mingyu quickly redirects Wonwoo’s attention, handing him his forgotten backpack, “I uh - thank you, for helping me out.”
Mingyu runs a hand through his honey brown hair, the sleeve of his oversized university hoodie slips to reveal a multicoloured friendship bracelet on his wrist, his other hand curls around the papers against his chest. He grins, sheepish but sincere, canines on show.
Wonwoo’s caught, hook line and sinker.
“No problem.” He manages, and Mingyu smiles like a summer morning, bright and hopeful.
“I promise I’m not this much of a loser,” Mingyu laughs, “I’m just very sleep deprived. Next time you see me I’ll be ‘Arrogant Popular Hot Guy’ again.”
“Don’t,” Wonwoo says before he can stop himself, “I like loser Mingyu more.”
Mingyu laughs at that, the tips of his ears are red. “Noted.”
There’s a beat, and something hangs in the air. Wonwoo’s brain is in overdrive, he can see the flush on Mingyu’s neck and feel the unsaid words on the tip of his tongue.
But, he sighs to himself, Mingyu is golden, and Wonwoo has coal dust on his fingertips. And maybe he’s just a little too sleep deprived, the lateness of the night pulls on his bones, hallucinating an inflection in tone that his heart wishes was there.
Wonwoo could reach out, to touch and to mark and to change something, but the progress is already enough and he can’t risk grasping at air.
So instead he smiles once more, and shrugs his backpack higher onto his shoulder. There’s a flash of resignation in Mingyu’s eyes.
“I’ll see you around, then.” Wonwoo says with a smile, and Mingyu’s face buffers for a second before returning it.
“Yeah, right.”
Mingyu grins tightly, gripping his papers to his chest, and turns. He offers one last wave over his shoulder before disappearing through the double doors.
They flutter shut behind him, and Mingyu is gone. Wonwoo sighs and leans back against the railing of the second floor hallway, overlooking the bookcases of the floor below.
Silence envelops him, Wonwoo stands in the quiet with the books at his back and the print room in front of him. He can see through the glass into the room and beyond, the city blinks back.
Wonwoo pulls out his phone with another sigh.
wonton
yall will not b e l i e v e
A loud crashing noise startles Wonwoo away from his phone, and his attention snaps up to see the doors being flung open and Mingyu storming towards him, completely red in the face.
Wonwoo opens his mouth but Mingyu interrupts him with a ‘fuck it’, reaching out one hand to hold Wonwoo’s chin and pressing his back into the railing and clumsily sliding their lips together.
The scent of spice and warmth envelops him and Wonwoo can’t help the surprised ‘oomf!’ noise or the way he drops his backpack right on his own feet, arms hanging uselessly for a second before automatically reaching up to tangle in the front of Mingyu’s hoodie as his brain finally responds and he starts kissing back. So sweet and soft and so totally unexpected that Wonwoo probably forgets his own name for a moment.
And ah, that feels right.
Mingyu, eager and awkward, hums into the kiss and reaches his other hand out to tangle in Wonwoo’s hair. There’s a fluttering of papers behind Wonwoo’s head and he can’t help but stutter a laugh into the kiss because -
“Mingyu,” he pulls away with a grin. Mingyu frowns at him and it's adorable, but Wonwoo resists the urge to kiss him again and instead gestures behind himself.
With no room to turn because of the way Mingyu’s pressed against him (not that he’s complaining), Wonwoo can only laugh over his shoulder at the one hundred kermit the frog printouts gliding through the air, landing strewn across the first floor. Some catch on top of bookshelves, some float down onto the soft carpet below, one even gets snagged by a low hanging light fixture.
“Oh fuck.” Mingyu groans, closing his eyes and resting his forehead against Wonwoo’s temple. The other laughs at the sight.
“It’s kind of beautiful, in a way.”
“Hyung.” Mingyu whines, and Wonwoo feels like he’s going to be hearing a lot of that in the future. “It’s gonna take me hours to pick all of those up.”
Wonwoo slings both of his arms around Mingyu’s neck and pulls him in for another quick kiss, one the younger enthusiastically responds to.
“Or,” Wonwoo says after pulling away, “we could, just, you know, leave.”
Mingyu quirks an amused eyebrow. “And go where?”
Wonwoo’s neck flushes and Mingyu grins. “Start with fries?”
Mingyu laughs like the chiming of bells in the sunkissed afternoon, slings Wonwoo’s backpack over his shoulder with one hand and slots their fingers together with the other, and tugs Wonwoo towards the door.
“Quick! Before Seungkwan comes out of the bathroom and realises what we’ve done.”
Wonwoo laughs like the crackling of a warm fire, low and sudden and sparking to life. He lets himself be dragged behind Mingyu, feet catching on carpet for a second before they find their footing.
Mingyu, Mr Popularity Kim Mingyu, who’s vice captain of the soccer team because he always tries to lift everyone's spirits after a loss, who almost burned down the eastside accommodation block because he was trying to make chips for an extremely drunk Seokmin, who grins with his whole face and is scared of the dark.
Wonwoo tumbles, hands still tightly locked together, watching as Mingyu’s honeyed hair flutters with each step, out into the night air.