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Jisung isn’t a boring person, far from it, but the fact that he stays far away from messy college dorm parties has everyone thinking he’s the lamest person on earth. Okay maybe not everyone but being friends with some of the most loved students on campus who never shy away from an invite comes with certain expectations from those who don’t know them.
They are friends, yes, but not all of them like to drink themselves into a stupor almost every weekend. Hyunjin, Chan and Felix do, which leaves Jisung and Seungmin as the two who don’t.
College is stressful and draining enough as is and Jisung likes to spend his little free time doing absolutely nothing other than what he wants. And what he wants is to laze around in bed rotating through the same set of movies and tv series, eat whatever junk food he wants in the middle of the night and maybe deviate from his assignments and paint whatever comes to mind…
Not spending way too much time making sure his eyeliner is even, put himself in very uncomfortable jeans, deal with drunk assholes and try to be normal whenever someone he doesn’t know strikes up a conversation with him. It’s just not his thing.
Which is why he never joins his friends during their monthly ‘hangout’, not the one that involves tons of alcohol and too many vague acquaintances.
So far he has done pretty well. He’s only been to three parties in the last two years.
Jisung doesn’t go to parties.
Unfortunately, this time the party will come to him.
‘’Sungie, just this once? Please? We can’t keep bothering Hyunjin,’’ Felix whines, jostling Jisung about and almost making the boy spill the muddy paint water he has in the jar in his hand.
He had been on his way to the kitchen to ditch it and get new, fresh water and ran into a puppy-eyed best friend and dormmate.
‘’No,’’ Jisung deadpans as he finally manages to escape the freckled boy’s grip and tip the water over in the tiny sink, filling it back up again before turning back to Felix, ‘’And why does it have to be here? Why not at your boyfriend’s place? Or that Minho guy you have dance classes with?,’’
Jisung only knows the guy’s name from hearing it in passing and he has no clue how he looks like even though he shares his dorm with Changbin, one of the guys Jisung has worked with for a project before. It was something about getting all the artsy major students to pair up and make a combined something. Changbin had produced a beautiful track and Jisung had recorded him making a painting matching the music. They somehow ended up being somewhat like friends.
Despite that whole thing, Jisung has never met Minho. Honestly, he’s very curious whenever Felix praises the guy to no end, but that dwindles a little when Hyunjin comes with stories about soaked toilet paper and something about an air fryer?
Anyways, Felix whines again as he follows behind Jisung back to the latter’s bedroom, ‘’Chan is still trying to save up for a new tv after his previous one broke. We can’t risk something else getting trashed. And Minho hyung isn’t a fan of having people he doesn’t know over at his place,’’
It’s impossible for anyone to actually deny Felix anything so Jisung lets out a dramatic huff as he sits down on his bed and relents, ‘’Okay fine. But only on the condition you’ll let me do my thing and don’t try to drag me into the mess,’’
The freckled boy cheers at that and immediately dives right on top of him, the two falling back.
‘’Of course Sungie! Thank you, thank you!,’’ Felix screams in his ear before the boy rolls them around a bit.
There’s a lot of rambling about everyone he’s going to invite and all the stupid games they’ll play and Jisung really hopes he can stay away from all that.
Simple enough in theory because Jisung has a lock on his door anyways. He’s already prepared to make himself invisible in every way.
The rest of the week Felix seems too busy with preparing everything for it to be anything other than a full blown party that will probably get crashed by half of the students in the dorm. He keeps talking on the phone with people at the most random moments and at some point Changbin comes by to actually drop a whole set of huge Bluetooth speakers.
Jisung tries to keep down the nauseating anticipation in his stomach as he goes through his classes. He’s not so much afraid but there’s still the lingering feeling of unease. Who knows what will happen? Humans are already constantly battling between their impulses and rationality, throw in alcohol and maybe some peer pressure and everything can happen.
On Saturday it’s finally d-day. Felix has been gone ever since the beginning of noon with Chan, venturing to the big supermarket in the next town to stock up on everything they could possibly need. This leaves Jisung on his own and he spends it treasuring the quiet for as long as possible.
Chan had tested out the speakers earlier and it’s a miracle none of them popped their eardrums. He really hopes they’ll turn it a little down at least.
Around dinnertime the two return, arms full of plastic bags and sweet, sweet takeout.
Because Jisung isn’t an asshole he helps out with some of the preparations, like stringing up some colour changing lights around their living room and taping bubble wrap over their pretty new tv. Jisung sneaks their PlayStation into his room for safekeeping and makes sure Felix doesn’t know about it.
Chan is mostly bustling about in their tiny ass kitchen, stalling out all the bottles they had acquired – way too many, Jisung already feels like puking seeing them – and spending way too much time on making a pyramid out of crappy plastic cups for no reason other than that it looks cool.
Hyunjin and Seungmin arrive shortly after that and they eat some more food as they catch up, but an hour later the doorbell rings and Jisung cringes from his spot when Felix opens and there are a handful of people he doesn’t recall ever seeing standing there.
He takes that as his cue to retreat and tells everyone to have fun. Jisung grabs some snacks, a glass and a bottle of coke before speeding off.
‘’Sweet sanctuary,’’ he mumbles to himself as plops himself in the chair at his desk and turns on the little lamp.
He goes through the whole pre-painting routine of putting on his glasses, stripping out of his bright white hoodie and throwing on the old oversized t-shirt hanging on the back of his chair, testing out yet again the colours he wants to use and sharpening his pencil. After that he moves some stuff around like the jar pull of clean water where his brushes reside and his palette before he gets to work.
Everything starts off relatively meek. The bass in loud of course but there’s no loud yelling or the sound of people throwing up their insides or people getting down on each other in the tiny hallway.
Jisung drowns out most of the noise with his headphones and lets the auto play function sweep him deeper down the rabbit hole of lore on fairies while he draws delicate wings and long, flowy hair. It doesn’t look like much yet – he also keeps erasing half his work over and over again - and he’s really trying to take it slow while eyeing the already prepared watercolours next to him on his desk.
They are brand new and he has only used them once to make some swatches. The colours are beautiful, very pigmented and blend into each other effortlessly so his leg bounces impatiently as he focusses on the sketch of a fairy.
He spends a long time completely focussed - now having moved to actual painting - so much so that he’s even forgotten about the thumping base seeping through his headphones, the occasional sound of cheering and the now pitch black sky right outside the window in front of him.
It’s two hours later that he has the base colours down and sits up while they dry, but when he wants to grab a drink, everything goes downhill.
Jisung has a problem. A huge problem. One that rivals all the problems he has ever had in life…
He had grabbed the wrong soda from the fridge.
Now, it’s not that big of a deal if it was something he actually liked to drink, but Felix’s vanilla coke is too gross to stomach. The aftertaste is strange and reminds him of dusty candy that has been laying on a shelf for years.
‘’Stupid me,’’ he groans to himself.
It shouldn’t be such a big deal to slip in and out of his room, but he had already clocked out and feels mentally unavailable for any interaction.
He gets increasingly more thirsty and more deadest on getting his actual coke the longer he thinks about the matter and at some point his throat is so dry that swallowing fucking hurts. The decision is made pretty easily when his brain keeps screaming at him to get something actually decent to drink.
It’s not like he’s totally socially incompetent and having to push his way to his tiny kitchen isn’t exactly enough to throw him into some sort of crowd-induced panic attack.
‘’Fuck it,’’ Jisung hypes himself up as he gets up and crosses his bedroom.
The moment he opens his door he is met by two guys and a girl standing right in front of his door, leaning back against the hallway’s wall and falling silent as soon as they look at Jisung. They look at him with a frown and the girl is clearly checking him out… in the bad kind of way.
It makes Jisung realise he’s wearing a paint-stained shirt and old ripped jeans. His hair is probably also one big mess.
Well, that’s fucking awkward. Maybe he should turn back and-
No.
He’s not a fucking child.
He manages to look like he doesn’t give a single fuck and merely closes and locks the door behind him before walking off to the kitchen. Like he had expected, there are way more people around than considered safe but he soldiers on and actually manages to reach the fridge.
But he doesn’t get to even open it before he gets spotted.
‘’Heeeeey Ji!,’’
Jisung startles at the arm suddenly around his neck but relaxes as soon as he sees a dimpled smile and funky curly hair. He can tell that Chan’s already passed tipsy when the arm slides down to his waist. Sober Chan is already very affectionate but drunk Chan is even worse.
He and Felix are literally a match made in heaven. Or hell. Jisung hasn’t quite reached a definite conclusion on that yet.
‘’Seems like you’re having fun,’’ Jisung rolls his eyes when the older rubs his cheek against Jisung’s temple.
Luckily it lasts for just a couple of seconds until the older goes off into a rant about what has been going down so far. Jisung is close to cutting him off after twenty minutes but Chan himself beats him to it when he suddenly stops and slinks one arm away from Jisung to frantically flag someone down from somewhere on the other side of the kitchen.
Jisung curses his slightly shorter stature and the hight of the people around them because he can’t see whose attention Chan is trying to get.
‘’Hey! Kitty-cat!,’’ he screeches in Jisung’s ear and the younger recoils but recovers quickly when a guy suddenly appears in front of them, his expression somewhere between annoyed and happy.
‘’Hey hyung,’’ the guy speaks with a roll of his eyes before they land on Jisung, ‘’And…,’’
Okay, so, Jisung may be shy around strangers and prone to fidgeting, but that doesn’t mean he’s a disaster. Even when he faces someone incredibly attractive. Which the guy is.
His hair is yet black and slightly wavy, framing his flawless face perfectly. There are cat-like eyes seemingly looking into his soul and pretty lips and Jisung’s brain is totally not screaming ’ABORT! ABORT!’
‘’Hi, I’m Jisung,’’ he smiles, a little wonky but nothing too bad compared to the alarm in his head, ‘’One of Chan’s adopted kids, unfortunately,’’
Chan looks offended and even screeches an upset ‘hey!’ but it gets lost in the loud snort coming from the sharp-eyed stranger. Not the reaction Jisung had expected from someone looking so… cold? Maybe charismatic? Anyways, the point is that Jisung is glad the guy’s stoic expression is replaced by something a lot softer.
‘’Seems like we share the same fate, Jisung,’’ the guy chuckles, ‘’Lee Minho, estranged oldest child of the grandpa draped over you,’’
Oh. So this is Minho? And how come he didn’t know he was apparently close to Chan as well?
The guy gives him a pretty smile and Jisung is a bit taken aback that he seems even more beautiful than Felix has ever described him.
‘’My condolences. Once he has trapped you there’s no leaving,’’ Jisung chuckles back and Minho joins, his laugh joyful and almost child-like.
‘’I appreciate your sympathy. I tried to run away once but he tracked me down anyways. It’s almost creepy how he always knows where everyone is,’’
Jisung giggles and enjoys the comforting hum in his chest. Minho is funny and his whole vibe is pretty warm. Maybe it’s not that bad meeting strangers.
‘’I knew this would happen,’’ Chan groans but Jisung can see the happy gleam in his eyes nonetheless. Everyone knows how awkward Jisung can be with new people but it seems that he and Minho are doing pretty well so far.
Minho tilts his head and lets out a questioning noise and Jisung is already starting to understand why Chan had yelled ‘Kitty-Cat’.
‘’Felix and Jisung are born like, mere hours apart so we just call them the twins to make things easier. As you know, Lixie is an angel which means Jisung is the evil one of the twins,’’ the oldest sighs, poking Jisung’s cheek a little too harshly for comfort, ‘’And I have been fearing the two of you meeting because I can already tell you guys will only egg each other on,’’
Jisung huffs at being called the evil one before he snaps his head to the side and almost manages to bite Chan’s finger, missing by just a hair.
Damn it. Better luck next time.
‘’See?!,’’ Chan screeches and Minho laughs again, this time almost hysterical like seeing Chan’s fake misery is the funniest shit ever.
Jisung kinda agrees though. He holds grudges and can still clearly remember getting called evil as if had happened a couple of seconds ago. Which it had.
Anyways, he gets to enjoy the bashful child-like laughter from Minho until he stops rather abruptly after Jisung catches his eyes, for some reason. His lips are firmly pressed together now and there’s something about the rapid blinking that makes Jisung think he almost looks… embarrassed? The reason unknown to Jisung.
‘’Imma divert the topic here and tell you I wasn’t expecting you to still be here Minho,’’ Chan offhandedly comments.
Minho shrugs and even though he’s responding to Chan, his eyes stay almost glued to Jisung, ‘’I was planning on dipping out now that I’ve shown my face but Felix caught me before I could. And you know how your boyfriend is,’’
Chan smiles proudly and Jisung hums knowingly.
Felix is a master in emotional guilt-tripping, whether intentional or accidental, the whole reason this party is even happening at their place.
‘’You know, if you really want to go I’ll help you sneak out. Maybe-,’’
‘’You can hang out with me in my room if you want?,’’ Jisung speaks before he has even properly thought about it. It’s more instinct to offer an escape because he himself is quite familiar with getting stuck between pleasing his friends and wanting some alone-time away from people, ‘’Not like there is much to do but at least you’ll be free from this chaos,’’
Minho seems a little surprised at that and tilts his head like a confused little kitten again, staying dead-silent. Jisung thinks he has somehow managed to single-handedly push them back to square one by being weird but then the guy’s lips curve into a mischievous little smile. One that makes Jisung feel a little flustered, to be honest, because it makes Minho look all that much more attractive.
‘’Lee Minho! Not like that,’’ Chan butts in as he tightens his hold on Jisung, ‘’I will not let you corrupt my baby,’’
‘’I’m not a baby,’’ Jisung mumbles with a huff, more to himself as the reason for Chan’s outburst flies right over his head.
‘’I don’t know what you are talking about,’’ Minho replies but that mischievous smile is still there, together with a lively sparkle in his eyes.
Jisung’s heart skips a little at that, unfortunately. He’s getting closer and closer to giving in and bursting out into a gay panic. He can act cool for only so long.
Chan rolls his eyes, ‘’Sure Minho, your mind didn’t just totally go to a very not-PG place,’’
Jisung chokes on nothing and has just enough time to compose himself before Minho blatantly ignores Chan and turns to Jisung.
‘’I’d love that if that’s cool with you?,’’
His voice has suddenly turned ten times more gentle and it makes Jisung nod sheepishly. Minho merely beams at him and is quick to motion for Jisung to lead the way. The younger manages to snatch the coke from the fridge first before telling Minho to follow him.
‘’No funny business!,’’ Chan almost barks after them.
‘’You’re not my dad!,’’ Jisung yells back and is quick to pull Minho with him out of the kitchen. The older cackles loudly and actually flips Chan off before following behind Jisung.
Jisung normally isn’t very touchy with people – Felix is the exception, as always. Maybe Chan – and mostly just puts up with it, but he finds himself genuinely at ease when he notices Minho’s hand has found its way to the small of his back as Jisung leads the guy to his room. He’s still chuckling as well and Jisung thinks he probably isn’t even aware.
‘’I swear I’m not a mean person but sometimes it’s just really funny to rile Chan up,’’ Minho breathes out once the chuckles have stopped.
Unfortunately, the hand slips away from Jisung and maybe he’s a bit displeased about it, but he ignores it and gives Minho a hum in agreeance.
‘’Seems like your my type of person, Minho-ssi,’’
They get to Jisung’s bedroom door quickly, the two of them crowded together due to more people having migrated to the hallway right in front of his room. He only now notices that the music has switched to some chill lofi playlist and Jisung is grateful for the fact he didn’t have to scream while in the kitchen to be heard over the music.
As he opens his room, there’s a clear teasing whistle from somewhere and some laughing but Jisung does his best to ignore it and almost pushes Minho inside before following and closing the door behind him. He doesn’t lock it this time because that would look creepy.
Maybe he should’ve reconsidered because his room is a total mess he only now notices as Minho does a clear scan. There’s clothes piled up in a corner and his desk is full of pencil shavings, half-soaked paper towels, disregarded tape and smudges of paint.
He’s about to apologize but Minho seems to not be bothered at all and takes the liberty to plop himself on Jisung’s bed without any care in the world. Jisung’s only slightly uncomfortable with the guy being so… casual?, but he knows some people are just like that and maybe it’s for the best. God knows how awkward it would have been if there had been two Jisungs in the room.
‘’What where you doing before?,’’ Minho asks, eyes darting all around the room once again.
‘’Nothing much,’’ Jisung replies, ‘’I was working on some art,’’
He motions to his desk and Minho turns to his stomach, propping himself up to his elbows and stretching out his neck to see. It’s clearly not all that visible so Jisung isn’t surprised when the guy hops off his bed and walk over to his desk.
Jisung is only slightly fearful of his reaction.
‘’That’s so cool,’’ the older mumbles after a little while, ‘’Very pretty and the colour scheme is very… satisfying? If you know what I mean,’’
Jisung smiles a little at that and nods. He has gone with different shades of teal, lime, and pink and plans to add little details with metallic gold paint for some real magical sparkle. He had tried tons of different colour combinations and he’ll probably do a similar painting with peach, cobalt blue and lavender.
Minho moves away again and plops back down on the bed, waving his hands about a little, ‘’You don’t have to entertain me by the way, just continue doing what you were doing,’’
The guy pulls out his phone after that and even though Jisung feels like it’s a little bit of an asshole move, he can’t ignore his paints staring at him and telling him to finish the piece before he loses the vision in his head.
So he plops down into his chair and throws one look back over his shoulder to the guy. He catches Minho looking at him with the tiniest hint of a pout, but turns back to his phone and hiding behind the screen like he’s embarrassed Jisung saw him looking at him.
It makes him giggle soundlessly before he turns back to his work.
Minho’s quite interesting so far and Jisung isn’t sure what to make of him, but for once it leaves him fascinated rather than scared.
Jisung would almost forget about the other presence in his room if it weren’t for the fact that Minho at some point has migrated from the bed to his left, sitting on the stool he somehow managed to find. Probably out of boredom but Jisung’s so close to being done that he sends a mental apology.
That doesn’t mean he isn’t very aware of the eyes watching over his shoulder, but for the first time it doesn’t feel like someone is breathing down his neck and silently scrutinizing everything he does. Minho feels like a mere observer taking in how the colours blend together and how it slowly fills from being a flat painting to one with purposeful shadows and delicate lines.
People, including his friends, are always more interested in the end result, not the process. That’s nothing bad and he can’t blame them for that because most pieces take him a gruelling day to finish when they are for school. Who would want to sit through that?
However, it’s nice to have someone appearing just as entertained as Jisung in the moment.
‘’Do you have more?,’’ Minho softly asks, clearly not sure whether he’s interrupting by breaking the silence.
The younger contemplates letting someone who’s basically still a stranger see his works. However, he has a good feeling about Minho so he nods and points to a small drawer dedicated to all his art supplies, ‘’There are a couple of folders in the bottom drawer. Feel free,’’
Minho slinks away and Jisung takes that moment to finish up. There’s rustling and when he turns around, he’s surprised to find that the older has picked out the folder labelled ‘nature’.
It’s one he’s most proud of but people are rarely interested in something as basic as flowers. People tend to get more excited about bold and epic things like the dragons in his fantasy folder or the dozens of charcoal portraits.
Minho’s incredibly careful as he pulls out painting after painting, like he’s afraid to somehow ruin Jisung’s hard work. Jisung wants to laugh at him for being so gentle – it’s not gonna fall apart with a mere touch - but he recognizes it as respect for him and his work, which is honestly so sweet.
Despite all that and the previous compliment, Jisung is somewhat prepared for disappointment from the older. After all, he has stayed very simplistic with the flowers and they are all painted with pastel watercolours. It’s probably not very exciting for someone who doesn’t recognize the techniques he has clearly used like the subtle layering or the careful strokes.
However, that fear goes down the drain when the corners of Minho’s mouth tug up into a delicate smile, paired with fingers gently tracing the paper.
‘’These are all so beautiful Jisung,’’ the older comments softly as he looks up at Jisung, ‘’You must’ve worked so hard to get this good,’’
Jisung is a bit baffled at that. He has spends hours and hours of his life indeed, but most of the time people don’t understand or realise that. He gets told he is ‘talented’ and people proclaiming their sadness, wishing they were as talented as him. But mere talent doesn’t get you very far. It’s not like he had just woken up one day with the ability to draw and paint. It doesn’t work like that.
Minho’s one of the very few people who recognizes that it has taken Jisung about ten years, cramped hands, breakdowns, tears and a lot of hard-earned money from crappy parttime jobs to get where he is.
And he’s still not where he wants to be.
‘’T-thanks,’’ he stutters out, not able to stop himself from fidgeting with his fingers as Minho smiles at him and turns back to the rest of the paintings.
‘’You are a lot different than I thought you would be,’’ Minho offhandedly comments as he goes through the rest of the folder, ‘’Not in a good or bad way. It’s just that I’ve heard stories in passing and I thought you would be a lot more… I don’t know,
Usually Jisung is loud and a bit goofy around his friends, and it is no surprise that whatever any of his friends has ever told about him to Minho has given the older the impression that he’s somewhat of a loose cannon or an airhead, which he isn’t, thank you very much.
Jisung usually doesn’t do this because he doesn’t want to enforce the idea that he is down to give people free art, but he really wants to thank Minho for being so… nice? Sweet? Interested? Perfect?
‘’You know, I can paint you something,’’ Jisung pipes up, already feeling giddy about the idea of giving Minho something.
‘’Oh no, it’s okay! I can’t ask you to make me something for free,’’
Minho is definitely perfect. Bold statement because what does Jisung even know? Plus, ‘perfect’ is such a veiled toxic term he doesn’t like to use…
Let’s just say that Minho is very, very great then.
‘’Come on,’’ Jisung whines, ‘’I’m offering, ain’t I? And it’s not like I’m going to actually put a lot of effort in,’’
That’s not true at all but he pretends it is.
‘’Draw me like one of your French girls,’’ Minho comments with a wink and Jisung can’t keep the snort in. He thinks it’s very unattractive and already feels the embarrassed flush starting up, but Minho beams back at him and looks way too happy that the joke had landed well.
‘’No but for real,’’ Jisung smiles after he is done giggling and admiring Minho’s amused, sparkly eyes, ‘’Name something. Anything,’’
Minho clearly gives up and seems to think for a bit before he perks up, ‘’A cat!,’’
Oh. That’s not something he had seen coming, neither is Jisung that versed in the realm of animals. He wrecks his brain for a little but then comes to a genius idea and spins around quickly, taking out a pencil and sketching a cute little cat with its back towards him and looking out a window.
He keeps it simple and somewhat cartoonish before carefully erasing the pencil marks until they are barely visible. Then he carefully tapes the edges of the paper to his desk with masking tape and the rest follows almost on autopilot as he expectedly rotates between brushes and colours until he’s done.
The cat has a splash of muted orange, not filling his whole silhouette but fading seamlessly into the white of the paper nonetheless. Same goes for the pale blue sky he has created outside of the window and the small bouquet of wildflowers in a vase on the windowsill.
It’s nothing much but he likes the constricted use of colour and the simplicity.
‘’Are you done?,’’ Minho asks right when Jisung leans back.
He is, but he wants the paint to dry properly before showing Minho in case he needs to touch up somewhere or if the paint dries paler than he had intended to.
‘’Yeah, but you can’t look yet until it has dried,’’ Jisung huffs, shielding the small painting from Minho’s eyes.
The older pouts but doesn’t complain.
‘’How about I return the favour? If you give me a pen and some paper, I can make you the best portrait ever,’’
He has seen a giraffe the older had drawn before, of course from Hyunjin who was laughing his ass off, and it is safe to say Jisung doesn’t have a lot of expectations.
Apparently, the scepticism is easy to read on his face.
‘’I’m a very good drawer, ask Hyunjin,’’ Minho proudly announces, chin high up and arms folded like he’s posing for some super hero magazine. Still, he looks ready to burst out in laughter.
Jisung relents and picks up a marker and a loose piece of paper from his desk before chucking it at Minho. The older is quick to grab it and turns from carefree to incredibly focussed in the blink of an eye. It gives Jisung a moment to admire the great visuals and he must say that they way the older is frowning ever so slightly with a sharp gaze is pretty hot.
Minho looks up at him every now and then and Jisung finds it difficult to stay still, He’s never done great with being the centre of someone’s unwavering attention and Minho seems to be staring right into his soul even though his eyes are more focussed on other points of Jisung’s face.
He gets somewhat used to it though but is relieved when Minho’s expression eases back into that chill look with a hint of unfiltered amusement.
‘’I’m done,’’ the older announces as he reaches out and hands Jisung the piece of paper.
It’s…. ridiculously bad, to the point Jisung almost can’t make out where his face is supposed to start and where it ends. He has to bite his lip to stop himself from laughing but the longer he looks, the more difficult it gets and then he can’t help but giggle.
‘’What are you laughing about?,’’ Minho pouts while frowning. It’s clearly fake and Jisung doesn’t feel too bad as he bursts out laughing, ‘’It’s a Lee-casso original, you better treasure it,’’
‘’I will, thank you,’’ Jisung chuckles but is sincere when he smiles, ‘’Though I am always available to give you some pointers in the future,’’
‘’I might take you up on that,’’ Minho replies without any hesitation and there is something like a shy smirk on his lips, one Jisung doesn’t quite get so he ignores it.
He turns back to the tiny painting and judges that has dried and that the colours look fine.
‘’Can I see now?,’’ Minho asks with a wiggle and Jisung thinks he looks like a very impatient child and it’s very cute.
He silently and carefully peels the tape away from the edges of the paper and does another quick one-over before rolling forward, handing Minho his work.
The older is silent as he finally looks and there’s little to tell from his expression, but Jisung’s smiling giddily anyways.
‘’What the hell?!,’’
Jisung feels the smile slip from his lips and his heart suddenly starts pounding in his chest. Most of the times Jisung is fairly confident with the art he makes – ignoring the sometimes stupid details he gets hung up on – and he doesn’t think that there is anything he could have fucked up, but Minho’s reaction makes him think otherwise and it’s very upsetting.
Did he make Minho angry? Does he not like it? Is it ugly? Did he fail to impress Minho?
He’s genuinely close to tears and ready to hide under his desk but then Minho snaps his head up and is beaming at him.
‘’This is so cute. I love it,’’ Minho comments, hugging the painting to his chest, ‘’My heart can’t take how good you made something so simple look,’’
Jisung lets out a shaky but relieved sigh, managing a small smile as he plucks at the seam of his jeans before he quietly admits, ‘’I’m glad. For a second I thought you hated it,’’
Minho makes an offended sound and actually goes into a rant about how everything is perfect and Jisung is close to tears again by the end of it, but for whole different reasons now.
Jisung finds that Minho is easy to talk to despite his somewhat aloof looks. He should have expected that somewhat because it seems everyone is already pretty good friends with the guy, including Chan, who has some sort of radar for picking out genuinely kind people.
There’s something about him that reminds Jisung of a child and it’s very endearing.
They get lost in stupid, rather meaningless conversations about school and certain infamous professors, maybe mixing in some gossip. It’s nice and Minho makes conversating look so easy. It actually is though and Jisung realises he isn’t that bad at making new friends.
It all doesn’t last long though because Minho gets interrupted mid-sentence by a ping from his phone. He fished it out of his pocket and his eyes fly across the screen before he locks it and pushes it back in his pocket.
‘’Seems like it’s time to go. My baby Changbin’s wasted and needs someone sober to get him home,’’
Wait.
Jisung can’t help but feel vaguely disappointed at that, both at the fact that Minho has to leave and the clear pet name. His mood sours significantly, ‘’Oh, right. Okay,’’
Of course Minho was already dating someone. And Changbin is clearly a catch, but so is Minho.
Anyways, the older seems confused at the stand-offish reply and does the head-tilt thingy again, but apparently he’s very sharp or Jisung is just way too easy to read. Probably the latter, he can’t help it. He majors in art, for jisoos sake. He’s an expressive person in nature.
‘’Everyone who’s really close friends with Changbin calls him baby, because he is one under that fake tough exterior,’’ Minho explains, clearly amused when his kind smile warps into something like a grin, ‘’So don’t worry,’’
Jisung has rarely felt so called out but it is what it is so he merely tries not to smile. Not that it really works because Minho snorts and shakes his head as he heaves himself off Jisung’s bed.
‘’Anyways, it was fun hanging out Jisung. Thanks for saving me from the brunt of whatever drunk shenanigans have been going on outside of the door,’’ the older comments as he slowly moves to the door, not forgetting about the tiny painting as he looks at it again.
Jisung nods and gets up from his chair, ‘’You’re very welcome. I had a lot of fun too,’’
He absolutely means it. Minho is a fun guy and overall very chill. Jisung likes that. Not one second he had felt stressed about Minho being here or having to somehow pretend to be cooler than he is. He’s genuinely sad he’s leaving.
Jisung doesn’t voice that though and merely wishes him good night as the older leaves his room.
After Minho’s gone, Jisung sits there in his room for about fifteen minutes, just replaying the last two hours in his head. Processing, if you will.
The music is slowly dying out as well and Jisung hears some shouted goodbyes and then he can only hear the aftermath of his friends still being awake and buzzes.
He deems it safe to come out of hiding to take a shower so he gathers a pair of sweats and a t-shirt before zooming to the bathroom. He’s glad that there are no traces of anyone having emptied their stomach so it seems that things had been relatively meek.
After his short shower, Jisung decides to see how his friends are faring in the living room. He finds that Hyunjin and Felix are both completely knocked out on the tiny couch. Of course it is Chan and Seungmin who are making an attempt to clean out most of the plastic cups but they are barely making a dent.
‘’It’s freaking four in the morning,’’ Jisung comments after watching the two for a little, ‘’Just go sleep you weirdos,’’
Seungmin seems somewhat relieved and Jisung thinks it had been Chan’s idea to clean up at this insane time and had managed to rope sweet, sweet Seungmin into it.
‘’I think that is a good idea, see you in the morning. I’ll make sure to bring breakfast,’’ Seungmin comments and actually lets the stack of empty cups drop from his hands before disappearing into the tiny hallway, stepping into his shoes and then he’s out the door.
Chan obviously goes to crash in Felix’s bed, lifting the freckled boy from the couch effortlessly before wishing Jisung and a knocked-out Hyunjin good night.
Jisung kinda wants to let Hyunjin to fend for himself on the couch, but he can already hear the dramatic complaints that will get hurdled at his head later. So with that he shakes the taller awake and manages to drag him with him to his room.
Hyunjin seems all too happy to actually lie in a bed and is quick to make himself at home. Jisung kinda hates sleeping with Hyunjin in one bed because sometimes he jerks in his sleep and absolutely creep Jisung out with that, but he’s tired as well and merely slips in beside the taller.
They fight for the blanket for a little and Hyunjin ends up plastered to Jisung, but the latter finds the heath radiating from the other pretty nice. The smell of alcohol is less pleasant.
Jisung’s about to fall asleep when his phone suddenly makes a loud sound, informing him of a text. Fortunately Hyunjin is already knocked out and merely mumbles something before he goes quiet again.
Jisung turns so the light from the screen won’t wake the boy and opens the message from the unknown number.
’Hey, It’s Minho?’
The question mark is funny. As if Jisung wouldn’t remember meeting Minho or something. Although he does wonder if he had forgotten the whole part where he had given his phone number.
Jisung is contemplating whether to say hi back or pretend he doesn’t know a Minho just for the fun of it, maybe ask how he has gotten his number, but the dots indicate that the older is typing more so he waits.
’I kinda forgot to ask for your number so maybe I pestered a wasted Changbin for it, who was insanely happy to give it so don’t get mad at me’
That explains. Somewhat.
‘Guess I’ll have to have a word with Changbin hyung tomorrow then’ he texts back, as if he is anywhere close to being upset.
The next morning, Jisung wakes up to a loud screech in his ear and a too-awake Hyunjin for the amount of alcohol the taller had downed just a couple of hours prior.
‘’Shut up,’’ he grumbles but all he gets back is loud snickering and some poking.
‘’Sungie,’’ Hyunjin sings in his raspy-morning voice, ‘’You should learn to lock your phone properly,’’
He’s slow on the uptake and it takes him too long to figure out it’s Jisung’s phone Hyunjin has in his hands. Before he can say anything about it, Hyunjin basically throws the phone in his face before jumping off the bed without any explanation.
‘’The squirrel has a boyfriend and you bitches will never guess who it is!,’’ is all he bellows through the dorm as he storms out of Jisung’s room.
Jisung’s not awake enough to understand what the fuck is going on, neither does he remember getting a boyfriend but when he finally looks at a still open chat he realises that one; he had fallen asleep mid-conversation with Minho and two; he doesn’t see anything about having a boyfriend.
’So even though they can be brats, I love them to pieces. Especially Dori but I try not to let the others know’
There’s a couple of minutes between that message and the next, telling Jisung that Minho had clearly waited for him to reply. It makes him feel bad for the unintended ghosting but Minho seems unbothered when Jisung reads the next message.
’Anyways, I wanted to ask if you’d maybe be down to grab some coffee together sometime soon? I’d call it a date but if that makes you uncomfortable we’ll just say that I would like to get to know you better’
What…?
Jisung did not see that coming so he makes a weird noise involuntary. It’s a mix between a surprised squeal and a muted giggle. A rather gleeful feeling in his stomach follows and he needs a couple of seconds to process that Minho, whom he had met merely last night and who’s very beautiful and nice and sweet and cool, wants to go on a date? With Jisung?
How the hell had he managed to make that happen?
He can’t complain though because how could he? Those two hours had been more than enough for Jisung to get pulled in so he’d be shooting his own foot if he didn’t go out for a coffee-date with Minho.
Jisung has enough self-control to not start screaming and message back with an overeager ‘YES!!!’ and instead finishes reading the rest of the messages first.
’Are you ignoring me (if so, big sad, bad squirrel ;-;) or did you fall asleep?’
’Oh, stupid question. It’s five AM so you probably are, sorry ’
’Let me know when you wake up!’
’Sweet dreams Jisungie’
Jisung barely has the chance to apologize for falling asleep so suddenly and tell Minho he’d love to go for coffee – making sure to call it a date himself – before Felix comes crashing into his room.
‘’Minho hyung?! When did that happen?!,’’ Felix screeches before he winces hard, holding onto his head, ‘’You know what, we’ll talk about this later. I need to go back to my Channie,’’
Felix zooms away like he was never there and Jisung takes that as his cue to get out of bed.
He stumbles into the living room and finds Hyunjin and Seungmin eating breakfast on the couch, the place still as messy as they’d left it last night.
‘’Good morning,’’ Seungmin greets as politely as ever, ‘’Hyunjin told me you’re dating Minho Hyung now? The one they have dance classes with?,’’
‘’He’s not my boyfriend,’’ Jisung huffs but he can’t stop the flush from creeping up his cheeks, ‘’Stop spreading rumours Hyunjin,’’
The taller shrugs, ‘’Maybe not yet, but he clearly asked you out already. Plus, Changbin texted me that Minho had been pacing around their living room ever since waking up and was clearly waiting for you to text him, so I foresee great things in the future,’’
Jisung groans but smiles anyways and realises that maybe, college parties aren’t that bad…