Chapter Text
“When are you going to stop forcing me to take you to school every morning?” Jeongin groaned when Seungmin happily bounded down the apartment stairs towards Jeongin already on his scooter. Seungmin stuck his tongue out at the younger.
“Don’t act like I’m making you, you know you love me.” He teased, strapping a helmet over his fluffy brown hair. Jeongin only stared at the boy, thinking he rather resembled a puppy with those wide eyes surrounded by the circle of helmet.
“Love by default of knowing you for 15 years.”
“It’s love either way!” Seungmin threw a leg over the scooter, gripping happily around Jeongin’s waist, who rolled his eyes. “Let’s go!”
It was around a 20 minute ride to campus, and Seungmin blabbered the whole away about the many, many, reason’s Jeongin should always take Seungmin to school.
“Carpooling is ecofriendly.” Seungmin supplied, adding onto his long list as the two arrived at campus. Seungmin shook out his hair in attempt to salvage it a little from its helmet head state.
Jeongin scoffed, “Taking the bus is also ecofriendly.”
Seungmin cocked his head in disagreement, “This is more efficient.”
“You’re impossib—”
“Bye Innie! See you at 5!” Seungmin said, shooting finger guns at the younger in a you-better-not-leave-me-again manner as he walked backwards away. Jeongin watched him go, face still scrunched in annoyance. The elder then turned to skip down one of their campus’ many tree lined paths.
“Who was that?” A voice came from next to Jeongin, making him jump.
“Jesus!” Jeongin’s hand shot up to his heart in shock, “Hyung! When did you get here?” Hyunjin shrugged his broad shoulders. His longish brown hair swept up in the breeze, making him look like some sort of anime character. He nodded after Seungmin, prompting Jeongin to answer his question.
“That’s Seungmin hyung, he’s my roommate.”
“Huh, he’s kinda cute.” Hyunjin said in such a genuine tone that Jeongin’s eyes almost bugged out of his head.
“Seungmin? Cute?” Jeongin sputtered incredulously. “Don’t make me gag, hyung.”
Hyunjin chuckled, jabbing him in the ribs, “Come on, we’re gonna be late for class.”
~
The day had been—going. Nothing overly exciting happened since Hyunjin had watched the cute brunet—Seungmin—skipping down the path. It wasn’t the first time he’d seen the boy with Jeongin, but they’d never gotten the chance to talk before. Hyunjin wondered if the other boy had ever noticed him before.
It was fate, Hyunjin thought, when he spotted Seungmin sitting by himself in the dining hall that day, reading a giant book. He looked even cuter up close, wide eyes scanning eagerly over the pages. He was clearly engrossed in the story. Hyunjin smiled to himself as he watched the food Seungmin had precariously balanced on top of a spoon tip a little too far, causing the food to spatter all over the table. Seungmin jumped slightly in shock. Hyunjin grabbed a couple tissues before making his way over to the boy.
“Thanks,” Seungmin said, grabbing the tissues from Hyunjin’s hands without even looking up at him. Hyunjin watched, unsure of what to do as Seungmin briskly wiped up the spilt food before going straight back to his book.
Hyunjin lips quirked up in amusement as he sat down across from Seungmin. He gave a little cough when the boy didn’t look up. It took a little while, but eventually Seungmin tore his gaze away from the book to glance at Hyunjin, who gave the boy what he hoped was a charming smile. Seungmin seemed surprised to see him sitting there. Clearly, he didn’t recognize Hyunjin. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea…
“I—hi.” Hyunjin gulped, suddenly shy under the other’s curious gaze. “You’re a friend of Yang Jeongin’s, right?” Hyunjin asked, even though he already knew. Seungmin nodded, gaze turning suspicious. “I’m a friend of his too, I’m Hwang Hyunjin.”
Seungmin only continued to stare, head nodding once in greeting. “Kim Seungmin.”
Hyunjin started to eat, if only to lessen the awkward moment. He felt the other’s eyes on him for only a bit longer, before Seungmin eventually returned to his book. Hyunjin chewed, watching the boy read, but Seungmin must have felt him staring, for when he looked up and caught eye contact with Hyunjin and adorable blush spread across his cheeks.
“Sorry I’m not very talkative right now. I’m just—almost done with this book and I can’t seem to stop.” He laughed, a little sheepishly. Hyunjin thought it was one of the most endearing things he’d ever heard.
“Oh no, you’re fine. I’m the one who barged in on your reading time.” Hyunjin said. They smiled at each other, and Hyunjin was relieved that the awkwardness seemed to dissipate with that smile.
They spent the rest of lunch like that, Hyunjin eating as Seungmin continued to read his book. It wasn’t exactly what Hyunjin had been hoping for, but he couldn’t bring himself to say anything to disturb the boy more than he already had. Besides, Seungmin looked cute as his face flashed with differing emotions as he read. Eyebrows furrowed before his eyes widened a little in surprise, little scoffs he unknowingly let out as he read. Hyunjin had fun trying to guess just what the boy was reading.
It was perhaps 10 minutes later when Seungmin closed the book with a satisfied smack. “Done.” He said, turning his attention back to his mostly uneaten food tray.
“I suppose it would be stupid if I asked if the book was good?” Hyunjin said.
Seungmin laughed, “Oh, it was really good. I’m going to be in a post-book slump for a while now.” He said, mechanically lifting the spoon piled with food to his mouth. It was clear his mind was somewhere else, presumably on said book.
“Do you read a lot?” Hyunjin asked, not wanting the silence between them to come back.
Seungmin nodded enthusiastically, “I kind of have to, I’m a Korean Literature major.” He said with a smile, “But I love reading anyways, so it works out!”
“Korean Lit? That’s cool! I dabble in reading, myself.” Hyunjin tried to joke, and then chastised himself at his lame attempt. To his relief, Seungmin laughed.
“Do you now?”
“But I haven’t been able to read in a while since my programming classes take up a lot of my time.” Hyunjin said.
“Oh, are you in the same major as Innie then?” Seungmin, eyes wide, asked imploringly. Hyunjin tried not to coo at both the expression and at Jeongin’s nickname. Innie, I should call him that sometime.
“Yup, that’s how we met actually, but I’m a year above him.”
“Oh, me too!” Seungmin said, holding out a hand for Hyunjin to high five, which he happily did. “Great, now we can lord over Jeongin with our age.” Hyunjin laughed at Seungmin’s mischievous expression. “The brat’s always disrespecting me.” Seungmin pouted. Hyunjin thought he would really like to pinch Seungmin’s cheeks.
“I forget Jeongin’s younger sometimes.” Hyunjin said. Though he was a year older, he often felt like Jeongin was the older one since the boy was so chill and mature. That is—if you ignored his cute baby face.
Seungmin shook his head, pointing his spoon at Hyunjin conspiringly, “I make myself remember, otherwise his maknae ego will get too big and he’ll never respect me again.”
Hyunjin found he quite liked talking to Seungmin. Despite the initial awkward silence, conversation came rather easily between them. “How long have you known Jeongin?”
“Too long.” Seungmin said, “We’ve been friends since elementary school.”
Hyunjin’s eyes widened, he hadn’t expected that. “Wow, that is a long time. He just told me you were roommates.”
“You guys talked about me?” Seungmin teased, and Hyunjin definitely did not sputter.
He laughed in attempt to hide his slip up, “All good things.”
Seungmin scoffed, “I doubt that, Jeongin’s always slandering the Kim Seungmin name.” He pouted. “He wasn’t lying about the roommate part at least, we are roommates. Along with our friend Lee Felix, do you know him?”
Hyunjin shook his head, “I don’t think so.”
“Well then, we’ll have to invite you over one day.” Seungmin said, shoving another spoonful into his mouth immediately after like he was trying to prevent himself from saying anything else. Hyunjin thought he looked a little redder than he had a second ago.
“I’d love to finally see Innie’s place.” Hyunjin said, trying out the nickname. Seungmin stiffened, Hyunjin watched with an increasingly sinking feeling as the boy’s expression shifted into—one Hyunjin couldn’t read. Did I say something wrong?
Seungmin gave him a small smile then, though it wasn’t as bright as earlier. He glanced at a clock that hung on the wall. “I’m sorry, I actually have to go to class now.” They both had finished all their food, but Hyunjin couldn’t shake the feeling he’d done something wrong.
Seungmin paused in the midst of packing his stuff up, “It was great meeting you though. I’m sure we’ll see each other again soon.”
Hyunjin gave his most genuine smile, hoping it would ease over whatever he had done wrong. “I look forward to it, Seungmin-ssi.”
Seungmin gave him a small wave before dashing off through the dining hall.
~
Seungmin cursed himself for letting that nickname affect him. It was just that—he was the only one who called Jeongin, Innie, and hearing it from someone else just felt wrong. Even hearing it from someone as nice and pretty as Hyunjin. It made a very unwanted feeling rear up inside him, and he hated how he let it affect him.
Hyunjin was super nice, not to mention adorable, probably the most beautiful guy Seungmin had laid eyes on asides from Jeongin—Seungmin shook his head. Stop that, you know you have to get over him.
Perhaps Kim Seungmin had just the tiiniest crush on his best friend of 15 years. Perhaps he’d had that crush festering inside him for quite some time, but that didn’t change the fact that Jeongin was just a friend. Could only be just a friend. Not only because it was clear the younger did not like Seungmin in that way, but also because—he’d never be able to risk losing his friendship with Jeongin. It was too precious to him. He was scared that admitting his feeling would only fuck things up.
And it would, he sighed. He was almost late to his last class of the day, he hadn’t been lying to Hyunjin when he said he needed to leave, but he knew it had come off sounding more like an excuse.
Seungmin spent the entire three-hour class period distracted. Too many thoughts swirling around his head. His friend, Changbin had to—quite literally—keep poking him back to reality.
After class, Seungmin perked up a bit when he walked to their meeting spot to see Jeongin was in fact, there and waiting for him.
“Innie!” He said, and then winced when the name brought up his cringy behavior towards Hyunjin earlier that day.
“Hey, Minnie.” Jeongin handed him his helmet silently.
“Minnie hyung.” Seungmin sighed, tsking at the younger but Jeongin just rolled his eyes.
“Doesn’t knowing you for so many years let us transcend the whole “honorific” system?” Jeongin asked, slinging a leg over his scooter. Seungmin followed suit.
“Maybe I’d allow it—if you weren’t such a brat.” Seungmin wrapped his arms around the younger like usual, but Jeongin unlatched Seungmin’s hands, shooting him an annoyed look over his shoulder.
“Yah, I’m not a brat.” He said petulantly.
“Yah?? YAH?? That’s peak brat behavior!” Seungmin slapped Jeongin’s helmet, only to squeal when he barely had enough time to hold on before Jeongin went zooming off.