Chapter Text
Hyunjin hates Friday. He doesn’t particularly hate Friday, he just has a tiny wee bit of dislike toward Friday, because Friday means he has to wake up really early in the morning and attend a class that he isn't really fond of, but this particular Friday is going to change his life.
It takes three alarms for Hyunjin’s eyes to finally flicker open and slowly adjust his vision to the sunlight striking through the window in the room, blinking his eyes a few times to wash the sleepiness away. He stares sleepily at the white ceiling for a moment before finally roaming his hands around the flat mattress, searching for his loudly blaring phone. Shutting the alarm off and putting his phone aside, Hyunjin lets out a tired sigh and lazily sits up, roughly ruffling his raven hair out of habit and letting the hair strands fall into his eyes.
“Hwang Hyunjin, rise and shine. It’s Friday.”
A voice singsongs, to which making Hyunjin grunts at the mention of Friday. The owner of the voice emerges from the bathroom all dressed up in a white tee and black pants with a towel wrapped quite neatly around his head and flashes a radiant smile at Hyunjin. He waltzes his way through the room and settles down at his study table, beginning to do his usual morning routine, which is applying some facial products that Hyunjin is unfamiliar with despite rooming together with the guy for four semesters in a row now.
His roommate, Minho, two years older than himself, is an early riser, always waking up early for his morning jog, an activity Hyunjin despises the most, exercising. Hyunjin quietly watches the older guy with his hawk eyes, simply observing.
“What are you applying for if you’re just going for a morning jog?” he asks, genuinely curious.
Minho rolls his eyes at the question. “It’s a sunscreen, you dummy. It protects my glowing face and skin from the sunlight." He pauses his activity and turns his head to Hyunjin’s direction, observing him for good seconds. “You should start wearing sunscreen if you don’t want to get your face or skin wrinkled by the age of thirty, and I mean it.”
Hyunjin shrugs and rises from the bed. He grabs his towels and his clothes, a grey hoodie, and black jeans, and heads to the bathroom for a shower. Before he steps inside the bathroom and disappears through the doorway, he says, "Minho, help me choose a sunscreen when we go out later in the evening."
A satisfied smile grows quickly on Minho’s face. "Oh, right. Hyunjin, wait," he says and Hyunjin stops his track, arching his brows upward and displaying a 'what' expression, gazing lazily at the older guy. "Are you going to the gathering tonight?"
Hyunjin's brows knit together in confusion, tilting his head slightly to the side. "What gathering? Whose?"
"Chan. He's inviting some people for a mini gathering some sorts at his house."
Hyunjin scrunches his face and shakes his head, pursing his lips. "No, I'll pass."
"Why?" Minho whines immediately, "It'll be fun."
"You know I won't go. As much as I like socializing, gatherings or parties aren't my things. My things are reading books accompanied by music in the background, or watching movies while snuggling under the comforter in my comfy bed, or watching the twinkling stars under the moonlight."
"God, you're such a sap. I hope your future soulmate likes whatever you like so that they don’t have to suffer," Minho casually comments and shakes his head before turning back to his table to continue his morning routine.
Hyunjin scoffs at the remark. “You know, a good partner would try to understand my preference even if they don’t like them. Besides, not like my preferences are terrible things to do.”
“If I were your boyfriend, I think I would suffer. So, no thanks.”
Hyunjin rolls his eyes and scowls, annoyed by his roommate's demeanor. “Good thing you’re not my boyfriend then.”
Minho snickers, amused. “Touche.”
The first time Seungmin meets Hyunjin is when the latter crashes onto Seungmin's back by accident because Seungmin is getting lost in searching for the administrative office on his very first day of college.
Seungmin lets out a sigh as he steers the wheel of his car with one hand and carefully makes a right turn, driving slowly along the road and eyes scanning around to find the parking lot. When he finally spots a parking sign not far from where he’s at, he speeds up the car a little and swiftly parks in front of a building. He turns off the engine and picks up his backpack before getting off of the car.
Seungmin stands there, still, with a hand inside his grey hoodie's pocket and another holding the strap of his backpack slinging on his shoulder while his eyes survey around his new college. His new college is definitely bigger than the one he attended previously.
Seungmin sighs, nervous and anxious. He isn't sure if he's going to like the place because it's a little too quiet to his liking.
With heavy feet and a slightly thumping heart, Seungmin makes his way into the building, gripping tight to the backpack’s strap. After a few minutes inside, his search for the administrative office comes to a halt when he fails to locate it, looking everywhere in the hallway for a sign or any indication at all, but there’s nothing that can show him the way to the office. Knowing that he eventually has to seek for the information, Seungmin sighs, having to brace himself and ask from one of the people passing by.
Seungmin contemplates for another few seconds, feet unconsciously taking a few steps backward while his eyes are looking around the area. It’s right then he feels his back crashing on something, or someone. His breath hitches sharply and immediately he stops his track, swiftly turning his heel to see a guy in a grey hoodie and black jeans standing in front of him, and his eyes grow wide at the sight of a few colored papers scattering on the floor.
The guy stares at him with a piercing gaze for a while before letting out a tired sigh and then crouching down to pick up his scattering papers. Panicking and feeling guilty that he caused such incidents, Seungmin follows suit and begins to mutter a few words of apologies, helping the guy to collect the papers. He’s apologizing and frantically collecting the scattered papers when he feels a hand grabbing his forearm, stopping his movement at once. Seungmin stares at the hand before slowly looking up and meeting the guy’s eyes.
“Hey, I said it’s fine so stop apologizing, okay?” the guy assures in a soft voice.
Seungmin doesn’t even realize that he becomes a little bit panicked which results in him not hearing anything from the guy at first. He blinks his eyes at him and nods timidly. Standing up after clearing everything off the floor, Seungmin realizes that the papers in his hands aren’t plain but they’re photos. He briefly takes a look at one of them; a close-up photo of a beautiful orange cat.
“Wow, the photo is really pretty,” he casually compliments, handing them all back to the guy.
It’s then Seungmin can look at the guy properly. The first two words that come into his mind about him are tall and handsome . The guy standing in front of him has raven hair, neatly styled and smoothly falling in a pair of sharp eyes, a beauty mark under his left eye, two more on each of his cheeks, fair skin, and plump full lips, which complements his whole feature. Seungmin can say he’s a little starstruck by the visual of the guy before his eyes and in all honesty, he can stare at that kind of face the whole day but he doesn’t have a whole day.
Seungmin snaps back to reality when he sees a warm smile grow on the guy’s face, making his initial intimidating facade disappear at once and he swears his stomach flips at the sight. Maybe his day just gets a tad bit better.
Seungmin thinks the guy is really cute when he smiles.
“Thanks for the compliment, I guess.”
“And sorry again,” Seungmin says apologetically, bowing slightly.
The guy is about to leave when Seungmin remembers the one tiny question he’s supposed to ask, stopping him with an awkward hand gesture.
“Yes?” The guy’s brows rise, shooting him a questioning, yet curious look.
Seungmin clears his throat immediately and asks, “May I know where the admin office is?”
“If you walk down the hallway, you’ll see a staircase on your right. The admin office is on the second floor,” the guy tells him, pointing to a direction as he explains, and then comes the magic question. “Are you new here?”
Seungmin flashes a quick polite smile and nods twice in response. “Thank you,” he mutters softly, “I’ll be going then, and sorry, again.”
He retreats backward, turns his heel, and begins to march toward the said direction. After settling everything in the admin office, he is handed a piece of paper which turns out to be his schedule (every subject is already fixed since he comes to the college on the fifth day after it begins). Taking a look at it for a bit, Seungmin realizes he has a morning class for today and it just barely begins. Wasting no time, he walks out of the office and heads for his first class.
The first time Hyunjin learns Seungmin's name is when the Head Dorm, Mr. Tuan, introduces him to a new 2nd year student who just moved college for some reason and Mr. Tuan has asked him to assist Seungmin because he's the dorm representative. It's also the very same day Hyunjin learns that Seungmin has pretty much the same interest as himself.
Hyunjin slowly pushes the door open when he reaches the lecture hall, finding a few students already inside the hall sitting at their respective seats and promptly glancing at him before shifting their attention elsewhere. Lazily, he brings his feet to his usual seat located somewhere in the middle, plopping himself and tossing his backpack on the table. Fishing out his phone from his pocket, he begins to scroll down his social media for the next twenty minutes.
When the professor comes in, Hyunjin quickly puts his phone on silent mode and keeps it away, having his attention to the front as he takes out a notebook and a pen. It’s right before the professor begins the lecture when someone emerges through the door, hurriedly nodding his head politely to the professor before storming off to the back and sitting on a seat.
Hyunjin promptly steals a glance of the guy, realizing that it’s the same person he bumped into earlier in the hallway. Feeling a nudge on his elbow from his left, Hyunjin turns his head to meet his friend’s eyes and gives him a questioning look.
“Did you promise the new guy to wear a couple clothes?” Felix teases, barely whispering, and snickers. Hyunjin takes a look at his clothes and then swiftly turns to glimpse at the new guy’s; they are indeed wearing the same exact clothes. Goosebumps . He shifts his attention to the red-haired guy and says, “Shut up, Lix. Ever heard about coincidence? I think it’s called a mere coincidence. Besides, I don’t know him.”
“Coincidence it is,” Felix mutters, nodding in agreement as he takes a glimpse of the new guy and smiles. “But, he’s cute.”
“Yeah, quite,” Hyunjin mindlessly agrees, and he hears a snort after that. Only then he realizes what he has said, ultimately falling into one of Felix’s tricks. The raven-haired guy swiftly turns his head to Felix to find the redhead grinning knowingly, wiggling his brows playfully as if he just discovers an exciting new secret about Hyunjin.
“What is this I'm smelling in the air? It's sweet and soft. I think it's called love,” Felix teases excitedly, making a sniffing action while closing his eyes with a goofy smile on his face. Hyunjin grunts and rolls his eyes in irritation, deciding to not pay attention to the guy before any of his words give him more ideas.
Felix 1:0 Hyunjin.
Hyunjin’s mouth quirks upward on one side slyly when he’s reminded of something about Felix, tilting his head slightly to the guy and giving him a devilish smirk. “Lix, just worry about yourself. How long more you’re going to pine for Chan? It’s been like, what, two years? Or three?”
Hyunjin wiggles his brows, happily teasing Felix. The redhead’s bright expression quickly turns sour, lips jutting out into a pout. “You don’t have to do me dirty like that,” he whines. Hyunjin has to suppress his giggle watching Felix slamming his face onto the table, satisfied with his counter attack.
Hyunjin 1:1 Felix.
Hyunjin needs to attend only two classes on Friday —a three-hour lecture and an hour tutorial— yet he feels really drained as if he were having classes for the whole day. As soon as he reaches his dorm room, he tosses his backpack away and jumps face planted onto his bed, sighing tiredly. He’s too tired to even roll to the better side of the mattress.
Realizing he has a bunch of assignments to complete, though it's only the first week of the semester —his professors have no mercy when it comes to assignments and they usually give the students a ton of them— Hyunjin groans in frustration and screams into his pillow. He lazily brings himself to sit up after that, taking him his whole energy to finally move. He changes to a new set of comfortable clothes and begins to do his assignments.
Hyunjin is brainstorming ideas for one of his assignments when he hears several knocks on the door of his room, halting his activity at once. Tossing his pen away, he rises from the chair and makes his way toward the door, opening it to reveal the Head Dorm, Mr. Tuan.
“Hello, Mr. Tuan. What brings you here?” Hyunjin asks, lips naturally pulling into a small polite smile. It’s right at that moment the corner of his eyes catches the sight of a certain brunet standing almost timidly next to Mr. Tuan.
Oh. It’s the new guy.
The brunet seems a tiny wee bit startled when their gazes meet, and Hyunjin isn’t sure why.
“Hyunjin, this is Seungmin,” Mr. Tuan introduces, pointing to the pursed lips brunet. “He’s a new 2nd-year student, and this is Hyunjin, the dorm representative. If you have questions about anything at all, you can ask me or him. But, I personally think you’ll feel more comfortable asking him rather than me. Seungmin, what’s your major again?”
“Photography & Media,” Seungmin answers in a soft voice, making Hyunjin’s eyes light up delightfully at the information.
“You two are in the same major then? Great. Hyunjin, I’d like you to assist Seungmin since he’s new here, and also, please show him around the college.”
“Sure, that would be no problem,” Hyunjin agrees easily, smiling brightly. Besides, it’s one of his duties to guide and assist new students or anyone who needs help after all. In other words, he can’t exactly say no, especially if it’s a request from their Head Dorm.
“Then, I’ll leave him to you.”
With that, Mr. Tuan takes his leave and they watch him disappear from their sight before shifting their attention to each other simultaneously as silence ensues, making the atmosphere somewhat awkward.
“You,” Hyunjin says monotonously, deliberately staring at the brunet with a neutral expression.
“Me,” Seungmin replies as he averts Hyunjin’s gaze on him and his head hangs low, looking down at their feet, pressing his lips into a thin line.
“You,” Hyunjin repeats in the same tone.
“Me…” Seungmin lets out a sigh. He looks up and locks his eyes with Hyunjin’s after that.
“Teen Wolf reference?” they ask the question at the same time and burst into a peal of hearty laughter right after that, bumping their fists together. Hyunjin couldn’t believe he found someone who has the same interest as himself, feeling his stomach bubble with giddiness.
“So, where’s your room?” Hyunjin asks, genuinely curious about his newly-made friend’s room. Seungmin gestures to the room numbered 1422 opposite his own, and Hyunjin’s face brightens.
“Oh, convenient and just nice. You’re rooming together with Jisung. He’s, hm, nice, I guess?” Hyunjin shrugs at the thought of his dorm neighbor, not bothering to explain further. “Do you need help with setting up your room?”
Seungmin only stares at him with a blank face, making Hyunjin internally flustered. He waits nonetheless. Seungmin shrugs his shoulders. “If you want to.”
Hyunjin slowly breathes out and flashes a soft smile. “I need to do a quick tidy-up so I’ll be there in a minute,” he tells him, gesturing to his messy table at the back.
Seungmin gives him a nod and a small smile before retreating to his own room without saying anything else. As soon as the door is closed, Hyunjin quickly goes over to his table and keeps everything in order before heading out. Standing in front of Seungmin’s room, Hyunjin knocks on the door twice and waits for the permission of the room's occupant. Hearing a faint ‘come in ’ from the inside, he reaches for the doorknob and twists it, pushing open the door, peeking his head to find the room full of several boxes everywhere in the room.
It’s messy, and there’s only a narrow path for Hyunjin to pass through. He doesn’t dare to turn and witness the other side of the room, which is obviously Jisung’s.
“Seems like you are halfway done.” Hyunjin surveys the room and notices Seungmin already set up almost everything, from the bedsheet to the wardrobe, seemingly leaving his study table and a few other things, and also a major cleaning. “Is there anything I can help you with?” he asks. He's genuine about wanting to help.
Seungmin stops unpacking one of his boxes and cranes his head up, locking his eyes with Hyunjin’s. “You know you don’t have to, right? I'm almost done anyway,” he bluntly says.
Hyunjin’s lips quirk upward. “I know, but I want to.”
He squats down to the nearest box he can reach, looking at Seungmin for a brief moment to ask for permission. When the brunet gives an affirmative nod, he begins to remove the tape, gingerly opening the box.
“Oh, books!” he squeals in a tiny voice excitedly, gaining attention from Seungmin.
“Let’s see what you got here.” Hyunjin carefully takes out the books one by one and places them on the floor. “The Maze Runner, Percy Jackson, The Infernal Devices series, I’ve only read The Mortal Instruments series,” he pauses and lets out a loud gasp when his eyes catch the sight of a set of books he has always wanted to read for ages, but never really get the chance to.
“Oh, my God, you have a complete set of Harry Potter!” he exclaims, staring longingly at one of the books in his grip. “I’ve only watched all eight Harry Potter movies so far.”
Seungmin, who has been staring in a daze since the raven-haired guy squealed over his books, finally returns back to reality and speaks, “You should really read the books. It’s more detailed compared to the movies, thus more fun.”
Hyunjin’s eyes grow in anticipation, gleaming brightly. “Really?”
Seungmin nods twice, and before he can go back to unpacking his things, Hyunjin shoots him an unexpected question, a question he doesn’t see coming at all, even when he perceives Hyunjin as someone who likes to read as well.
“Can I borrow your books?” Hyunjin asks with hope gleaming in his eyes. His eyes sparkle so bright that Seungmin can’t look away, so he chews his cheeks and doesn’t answer the question. He’s reluctant. The guy continues to persuade, slightly pouting his lips. “Pretty please? I’m too broke to buy new books.”
“You can read e-books,” Seungmin suggests quickly, a brow arching upward and hoping Hyunjin would agree to his suggestion. In all honesty, he doesn’t really want to lend his books to Hyunjin or anyone at all. He loves his books way too much. Besides, he just gets to know the guy less than an hour, so he would rather not risk his precious books.
“But I like physical books more. The smell of books is really nice. E-books don't smell. You as a book lover should know that physical books are better than e-books.” Hyunjin sure doesn't have a give up in his life dictionary. Seungmin lets out a defeated sigh, completely won over by the single statement.
Hyunjin really has his way of talking.
“Okay. I agree with you that one. I can lend you my books with the condition you will take good care of them.”
A triumph grin grows on Hyunjin’s face, eyes crinkling into crescents. “Of course! I love books too, you know so you can trust me. I'll take good care of them.”
Seungmin stifles a laugh at the guy’s antics and nods understandingly. “Okay then.”
As he’s about to continue unpacking his things (again), someone with dirty blond hair barges through the door and loudly announces, “I’m home, b—” he pauses his sentence midway when he spots Hyunjin in the room.
“Wait, am I in the right room?” he asks in confusion as he checks the room’s number, hands on his hips. “Right. It’s my room. What the hell are you doing here, Jin? Did I forget to lock the door again?”
Jisung looks at him, blinking his eyes in a daze that Hyunjin is in the room. He then notices another guy in the room, making him frown in confusion. “And who are you?”
Hyunjin clears his throat and introduces them to each other. “Jisung, your new roommate, Seungmin. Seungmin, this is the not-so-nice Jisung.”
“You jackass,” Jisung snarls at the crappy introduction of himself, bringing his fists up, ready to fight. Hyunjin bursts into a fit of laughter, throwing his head to the back. Jisung has to hold himself from jumping onto Hyunjin and physically attacking him right there at that moment.
“Hey,” Seungmin mumbles and gives him a polite smile. Jisung’s expression immediately changes from grim to a bright smile and returns his greeting with a tiny excited wave, to Seungmin's amusement.
“Ah, I’m going to miss having the room for myself,” Jisung mutters, tossing his backpack, and his bed bounces with its weight. He instantly adds, “No offense, Seungmin.”
Seungmin raises both hands and nonchalantly shrugs. “None is taken.” And he continues where he left off.
Jisung’s face brightens and his eyes light up gleefully, his smile growing into an excited grin. “I love this guy already. Let’s catch up later, Min. Need to run for work. See you!”
Picking up his jacket, he waves a goodbye and disappears through the door, leaving the two guys on their own. Just when they finish unpacking and cleaning up everything, Hyunjin’s phone dings, indicating a text message just comes in. He slips his hand into the pocket, takes it out, and reads it.
From: Sassy Minho
I’m done with class. Where are you?
“Oh crap,” Hyunjin curses out loud, slapping his forehead instinctively when he remembers that he’s going out with Minho. He winces at the thought of the older guy nagging at him like there’s no tomorrow. He looks up from his phone to see Seungmin is gazing at him curiously with raised brows.
“Oh, it’s just my roommate. I forgot that we have a date.”
“Oh.”
Hyunjin takes notice of slight changes in Seungmin’s expression, but he doesn't think much of it and returns his attention back to his phone, quickly replying to Minho.
To: Sassy Minho
Pick me up at our usual place in ten minutes.
“I have to go,” Hyunjin says, keeping his phone back into his pocket and dusting his hands as he stands, eyes scanning around the room. There's only one box left to unpack, and Hyunjin is sure Seungmin can settle it by himself, but now he’s contemplating whether he should ask if Seungmin wants to go to the town too and he’s confident Minho wouldn’t mind an extra passenger.
“Uh, I’m going to town. Do you want to tag along?” Hyunjin asks, hoping Seungmin would say yes. For what reason he doesn’t know. “We can show you around the town or something.”
Hyunjin notices the way Seungmin’s eyes light up at his offer, but then becomes dim a second after as if realizing something Hyunjin doesn't know. After considering for a while, Seungmin politely declines, saying he has to finish unpacking everything before the night comes. It’s a legit reason, but Hyunjin can’t help feeling disappointed.
“It’s Saturday tomorrow. Do you want to tour around the college?” Hyunjin asks before he leaves.
Seungmin gives it a thought for a moment before a warm smile graces his face, nodding in agreement. “Sure, I’d love to.”
“See you tomorrow?”
“Yeah, see you.”