Archive of Our Own ^beta

When someone knocks on the door like ten times in two seconds flat and, as soon as Seungmin opens the door, walks in like it's his own house (it's not) and settles down on their couch in his sweaty clothes, complaining loudly about his brand new roommate, Minho just sighs and gets him something to drink.

'Don't tell me you were out there in just this', says Seungmin, eyeing the thin clothes Hyunjin is wearing with concern. 'At least a jacket-'

'Didn't get time', says Hyunjin. 'And I didn't need it either. Look at how much I'm sweating.'

'You are ruining the couch with your sweat, yes', says Minho.

'Alright, grumpy grandpa.'

'You are in my house, Hwang-'

'Okay, anyway', cut in Seungmin calmly. 'Take some rest Hyunjin. Then tell us what happened.'

'My roommate is a piece of shit is what happened.'

'Can you like...elaborate?'

'It's...a lot.' Hyunjin screws up his face and thinks for a few seconds. 'Let's just say that this morning was the last straw.'

'What did he do?'

'Drank my fucking Americano', wails Hyunjin.

Minho and Seungmin look at each other in disbelief.

'You are telling me that you burst into our house, sweating bullets on my couch and complaining about your roommate all because he drank your Americano?' asks Minho.

'As if you are any better', says Hyunjin. 'Didn't you come to my place every other week back when you and Seungmin were just roommates-'

Hyunjin closes his mouth abruptly at the glare Minho gives him. Seungmin looks amused.

'Wait, what is this story? I wanna know.'

Of course Seungmin wants to know.

'It's nothing', says Minho. 'Hyunjin, continue on with why your roommate should burn in hell.'

'No, no', says Seungmin. 'Hyunjin, tell us why Minho hyung used to complain about me.'

'Well', says Hyunjin, now pointedly ignoring Minho's withering look. He clearly wants to eat some tissues. 'He didn't complain about you exactly.'

'No?'

'Thirst would probably be a better word.'

Minho will kill Hyunjin. He will drown Hyunjin in a sea of personally assorted cat litter and stuff his mouth full of tissues and make him beg for mercy and then he will take his sweet time killing-

'Oh wow', says Seungmin, surprise clear in his voice but when he turns to look at Minho his eyes look more smug than surprised. 'That's something.'

°

'What did he do now?' asked Hyunjin, yawning as he opened the door. 'I just woke up hyung, make it quick.'

'It's noon and you just woke up?'

'Whatever. Come inside.'

Minho made a beeline to Hyunjin's bedroom. Hyunjin's room was messy. The blankets and covers were all falling off the tiny thing he called his bed and his pillow, which Minho knew from memory was once spongy and fluffy, was flat and sad looking.

Times must be bad if Minho can relate to a pathetic pillow so much.

'So what did your Kim Seungmin do now?' asked Hyunjin, sitting in the bed beside Minho.

'He is not my- ugh, nevermind. He wore a leather jacket.'

'Ha!'

Minho glared at him. Hyunjin lowered his head in surrender.

'Alright sorry, I won't laugh. Continue.'

Normally, Minho wouldn't do this. He wouldn't tell anyone these embarrassing thoughts and feelings and keep them inside until he felt like he needed to just go and scream into a void. But he had struck up this weird routine with Hyunjin. They had both agreed to use each other to vent about their problems. Hyunjin usually lamented about work or sleep (or some kdrama where the two main leads just wouldn't get together) and Minho-

'So he has these broad shoulders', said Minho. Hyunjin nodded because he knew all about Seungmin's broad shoulders. Minho had told him many times. 'And he decides to put on a leather jacket. A leather jacket. Does he know he can cause deaths? And he parted his bangs today. For some reason. I can see his forehead. I can see his forehead.'

'Oh no', said Hyunjin, almost asleep. Minho slapped his knee. Hyunjin straightened up immediately.

'And that's not all', said Minho. 'He told me he was about to get a piercing today.'

'Oh? Where?'

'Right ear apparently.'

Hyunjin looked unimpressed. 'That's it? The way you said it made it sound like he was getting a lip piercing or something.'

'Don't even make me imagine that', said Minho but it was too late. He was imagining it. It was not good for his sanity. He groaned and closed his eyes.

'It's a bit weird to see you like this', said Hyunjin, inching away a little. 'Who are you and what have you done to Lee Minho? Now look, I know he is stupidly attractive, but you are stupidly attractive as well. Maybe you should try the whole leather jacket and forehead combo too. You already have piercings on both ears.'

'And how will that benefit me?'

'He will lose his shit over you like you are losing it over him?'

'I am not.'

'Right. You are not.'

'And I don't want any of that. I don't want him to be attracted to me.'

'Why not?'

'Because what if we end up dating or something?'

Hyunjin stared at him. 'What if you end up dating or something? Don't you wanna date him?'

'I will not be dating a nerd', said Minho, lying. He had dated nerds before. He didn't care about things like that. But he needed an excuse. He had not yet articulated why exactly he was so against dating Seungmin but he wasn't going to let Hyunjin know that. Hyunjin would go off on some 'Oh you are so scared of the intensity of your feelings for him, how romantic!' tangent and Minho would rather burn himself alive than hear it.

'Hmm', said Hyunjin. 'I think it might be a little late though.'

'Little late?'

'I think he is already attracted to you.'

'No, Hyunjin, that's just him being nice. He is always nice. To everyone. It doesn't mean anything.'

'I wasn't talking about that.'

'Then what are you talking about?'

°

'What were you talking about though? You never told me.'

Hyunjin looks at Seungmin, who is avoiding Minho's gaze for some reason.

Minho looks at both of them. Then gets up to sit beside Seungmin, who looks up in something akin to alarm. Minho smirks.

'What was it?' he demands from both of them but keeps his eyes trained on his boyfriend. 'Tell me.'

'Excuse me', says Hyunjin, corners of his lips turned down in disgust. 'Is this some weird intimidation tactic? Should I leave?'

'Leave', says Minho but Hyunjin, predictably, doesn't budge.

Seungmin grows more nervous. Minho can feel it clearly and just can't understand why. Maybe Seungmin had similar venting sessions with Hyunjin?

'I used to catch him staring at you', says Hyunjin.

That doesn't explain why Seungmin is this nervous. Minho narrows his eyes and then envelops Seungmin in a half hug, suppressing his smile when he startles and tries to lean away from and toward Minho at the same time.

'Well, at least I can tell who the confident gay is', says Hyunjin, rolling his eyes at the sight before him.

Someone knocks on the door. They all look at the door but neither Minho nor Seungmin get up so Hyunjin sighs and gets the door himself.

Mr. Bang Chan enters.

'Hi guys!' he says. Once Hyunjin starts to go back to the couch again, Chan spots Minho and Seungmin just as Minho lifts his leg and wraps it around Seungmin as well. 'Um, what's happening here? Why has Minho attached himself to Seungmin?'

'I was just exposing both Minho hyung and Seungmin to each other', says Hyunjin cheerfully. 'Now Minho hyung is being a confident gay and Seungmin is panicking because I might expose him. It's fun. Come, take a seat.'

Chan stares for a few seconds and then shrugs. 'I actually just dropped in to say a hi but this seems interesting.'

Minho hears Seungmin's low groan and smiles to himself. Oh, how the tables have turned.

'So Hyunjin, you were telling us something?' says Minho, all casual.

'Oh yeah. Basically I used to hang out here sometimes back when Minho hyung and Seungmin didn't date. And there were times when I would catch Seungmin staring blatantly at hyung. Hyung, obviously, was always oblivious.'

Hyunjin laughs and Chan shakes his head, smiling.

'Seungmin didn't notice me catching him staring at hyung like that. The few times he did he would turn away quickly. One of those times...'

Hyunjin trails off and waggles his eyebrows at Seungmin. Seungmin groans again and tries to push away Minho's leg. Minho doesn't relent.

'Okay, okay, listening to it seems worse than telling it, so I'll tell you', he says, still valiantly trying to fight Minho's leg. 'Hyunjin had come to hang out with us. Minho hyung was still in the bathroom but Hyunjin called out about how he had brought some toys for his cats. And hyung just-'

'He ran out of the bathroom with just a towel around his waist', says Hyunjin gleefully and Chan raises his eyebrows. 'And you should have just seen Seungmin's face, Channie hyung. His jaw literally fell to the ground.'

'Please don't.' Seungmin buries his face in his hands.

'Please do', says Minho, thoroughly enjoying this. 'Then what happened?'

'He stared, gulped and then fucking licked his lips.'

'I- don't know if I wanna hear this', says Chan, looking almost as embarrassed as Seungmin. 'How on earth did Minho not notice that?'

'He was busy looking at the toys', says Hyunjin. 'Anyway, then Seungmin saw me looking at him-'

'I saw you winking at me', says Seungmin, face still buried in hands. 'Oh god, it was the worst day of my life.'

'You got to see Minho almost naked, I think you must have had worse days', teases Chan and Seungmin somehow buries his face more into his hands. Adorable.

'To think all this happened because Minho was stubborn and refused to take my help to get a new roommate when I moved to my own place. I had to catch hold of Seungmin at the last minute', says Chan. 'And the moment he met Seungmin, he started acting weirdly but I had no idea what was wrong. But maybe it was barely suppressed attraction.'

'Wait, what?' says Hyunjin, his smile falling off as he looked at Chan urgently. 'What is this? Tell me this story.'

°

'When are you leaving?' asked Minho. He was in Chan's room watching Chan pack and helping out here and there wordlessly.

'Two days', said Chan. 'I told you that before, you know?'

'I know. I just... wanted... I need some help.'

'If you need therapy-'

'I'm not talking about therapy', said Minho, rolling his eyes as Chan giggled. He cut to the chase. 'You know how I said I would find someone to room with me once you're gone?'

Chan's head snapped up with some speed.

'Don't tell me', said Chan. 'Minho! I offered you so many times!'

'I know', said Minho. 'I know. Sorry, hyung.'

'It's okay, I can manage something I think.'

'Don't mention Changbin.'

'Uh, why not?'

'Because he can't cook to save his life and I can't cook for him all the time.'

'He can cook.'

Minho scoffed. 'I don't call that cooking.'

'He can make scrambled eggs, Minho. I'm counting that as enough.'

'No, only the scrambled part of that is true because he sure scrambles for the egg a lot. But no eggs in the equation because he has dropped it on the floor without fail.'

Chan sighed. 'Okay, okay. I will find someone else.'

'Not Jeongin. I love that kid but-'

'Relax Minho. I'm gonna find you someone even more responsible than me.'

Minho raised one eyebrow. 'Such a person doesn't exist, hyung.'

Chan got up on his feet and puffed his chest. 'You will see. Wait, I need to make a call.'

The next day Chan brought home a tall, gangly guy with short, dark hair, a puppy-like face and eyes that sparkled whenever he smiled.

'Minho, this is Kim Seungmin', said Chan. 'And Seungmin, this is Lee Minho.'

Seungmin greeted Minho and bowed deep and smiled at him and everything but all Minho could hear was a faint buzzing noise as he began wondering if his ears were alright.

Clearly, everyone was waiting for him to say something but Minho doubted that 'Why are you so cute?' would be an appropriate question to ask the first time you meet someone. If he was Chan he probably would have asked exactly that but he was Minho.

'As long as he pays the rent on time and keeps the place reasonably clean and doesn't disturb me much, he will do', he told Chan and watched as Seungmin's smile faded a bit.

Chan gave Minho a look. Minho ignored it.

'Alright then', said Seungmin, his voice still as light as before. 'As long as you pay the rent on time and keep the place clean and don't disturb me much, you will do too.'

It was an apt retort and Minho didn't blame Seungmin for saying that. If anything he was a bit mad at himself for making that beautiful smile lose some of its brightness.

But there was a glint of challenge in his eyes and Minho enjoyed that.

°

'And thus began the enemies to lovers slowburn', says Hyunjin, grinning.

'You were such a tsundere, hyung', says Seungmin, his earlier embarrassment gone now. 'You still are.'

'No, I'm not.' Minho disentangles himself from Seungmin.

'Yes, you are.'

'Tsundere implies I have a soft side. I don't.'

Seungmin's eyes light up with challenge and even after all these years, Minho loves it.

'Are you sure hyung? Not even for me?'

Minho blinks, glancing at Hyunjin and Chan, both making no attempt to hide that they are looking on with explicit interest.

'I don't. You are just a prey to me.'

Seungmin smiles devilishly. This time he is the one to crowd Minho, leaning in just a bit too inappropriately given that two other people are in the room.

'I love being your prey', he says, voice low and Minho gulps.

'I am supposed to be the confident gay', Minho tries speaking but Seungmin replies almost immediately.

'Not always hyung. We switch it up sometimes, remember?'

Hyunjin makes a disgusted noise and goes to the kitchen. 'I need something more to drink to ignore this blatant PDA.'

Chan looks something between amused and scandalised. After all, the meaning of Seungmin's words aren't lost on anyone in the room.

Just as Hyunjin comes back with some tea he made himself, another person decides to join the party. This time there is no knock on the door, it just swings open to reveal Jeongin, who comes in, takes off his shoes and sits down.

Everyone stares at him.

'What?' asks Jeongin. 'Is there something on my face?'

'No, but there is something on your hair', says Seungmin. Jeongin reaches up with one hand, feels the pigtails and then drops his hand with a laugh-sigh.

'It was a dare. I have to go around like this the whole day.'

'Is that why you decided to abuse the fact that you have a key to our apartment and walk in unannounced?' asks Minho. 'So that you can hide from people who are definitely thinking that you look like that girl from that movie?'

'Come on, I have done this loads of times before. You never minded. Also what girl? What movie?'

'I don't know. It had monsters.'

'Thanks for narrowing it down', says Jeongin dryly. Minho shrugs and mutters a welcome.

'We were discussing Minho and Seungmin', says Chan, as if that is a completely normal thing to be discussing in Minho and Seungmin's apartment which everyone decided to crash in on the same morning. 'Do you have any stories about them, Jeongin?'

Jeongin thinks about it and then his face lights up. 'Did they ever tell you about the time Seungmin hyung tried to flirt with me and Minho hyung ended up marrying him out of jealousy?'

Hyunjin spit out his tea into the cup. Seungmin looks at Hyunjin with a pained look of disgust.

'What?' splutters Hyunjin. 'Marry? They are married? What?'

°

The first time Jeongin came to the apartment after Seungmin moved in was eventful to say the least.

And by eventful, Minho meant complete and utter torture for him.

Minho had invited Jeongin over many times but it wasn't until Christmas did Jeongin manage to appear. He claimed it was because of his studies, but Minho knew he was just too shy to meet someone new.

He was looking forward to seeing Seungmin and Jeongin meet. He felt like they would go along really well.

Turns around they went along a bit too well. At least Seungmin did, considering he started hitting on Jeongin.

It came out of nowhere. One moment Jeongin was introducing himself to Seungmin and the next moment Seungmin straight up asked him if he would like to go out for coffee with him. Minho had hoped that it was an invitation to a friend-date of sorts but that hope was soon crushed when Seungmin started complimenting Jeongin's looks.

Minho made and served the food, keeping down the plates on the table with a little bit more force than required. Seungmin looked up at him with a smile.

'Is something wrong hyung?'

Everything.

'Nothing', said Minho shortly. 'Enjoy the food. Give me a moment.'

He made to leave but Seungmin caught his sleeve and stopped him. 'What's wrong?'

'Nothing, I just need to-'

'Please stay hyung.'

Minho stared at Seungmin. Seungmin's tone was so serious that he almost felt scared. He was also looking at him with these big, pleading eyes which didn't even seem to be exaggerated for effect.

What the hell was this?

'Uh, yeah, of course', muttered Minho and quietly sat down on the chair next to Seungmin. Did Seungmin sense that he was jealous? Was his jealousy that obvious? One look at Jeongin suggested that yeah, it was. He was eyeing Minho cautiously, eyes flicking between him and Seungmin constantly as if trying to make sense of what he was seeing. Minho sent a smile in his direction which Jeongin returned but the wariness was still there.

As for Seungmin, he returned to eating his food as if nothing had happened. Maybe because nothing actually had happened. Like, all he did was flirt with a guy. He was allowed to do that. Just because Minho was out there having "thirsting over Kim Seungmin" sessions with Hyunjin as a witness didn't mean Seungmin wasn't free to do what he wanted. Hell, he didn't even know that Minho liked him, mostly because Minho was determined to never tell him.

Soon they were all engaging in a light conversation. Jeongin was telling them a story of his birthday. 'I once told this guy that I like rings and suddenly on my birthday I receive rings from everyone', he said, sighing with deep regret. 'I only have so many fingers.'

'Give me some of the rings then', joked Minho. He didn't expect Jeongin to pull out a packet out of nowhere with actual rings in it. Apparently he was just carrying that with him. And their friends called Minho the random one.

'Oh, you weren't serious?' asked Jeongin, laughing awkwardly. He began putting the packet back. 'Sorry, I thought...'

'It's okay', said Seungmin. 'You can give me some rings. Let me see if they fit.'

'Okay then.'

'All I'm saying is that you are free to put a ring on my finger.'

°

'And then I dropped one of the rings and Minho hyung picked it up, grabbed Seungmin hyung's hand and put the ring on his finger', finishes Jeongin. 'Thus, marrying him.'

There is a small giggle from Chan then a bigger one from Hyunjin. Seungmin smiles too and Minho rolls his eyes.

'You really had to call that me marrying Seungmin', says Minho. 'And I wasn't jealous, I was just helping him out.'

'You glared at me.'

'No, I didn't.'

'Yes, you did. You looked at me like "this my man, back off" and I didn't even do anything. Poor, innocent me, trapped in that drama. It was all Seungmin hyung trying to rile you up.'

Minho looks at Seungmin, who makes no attempt to deny the allegation. In fact, he nods. 'I wanted to see if hyung felt the same way for me as I did for him.'

'How romantic', croons Hyunjin. Minho glares at him, but it seems to have no effect.

'I decided to tone it down a bit for a while but then thought what's the fun in that?' continues Seungmin, sending a knowing look in Minho's direction.

'Of course you did', says Minho with exasperation.

'I was so fucking terrified let me tell you', says Jeongin. 'I mean, I realised from the get go that it was all an act but I was-'

'You did', asks Minho with some surprise. 'I didn't-'

'Because you are oblivious, hyung, next question', says Hyunjin.

'Always oblivious', says Chan, nodding.

'Painfully oblivious', adds Jeongin.

There are a few knocks on the door and Seungmin groans.

'More people?' he says and gets up to open the door.

Felix enters with a big smile on his face and a bigger container in his hands. He takes in the sight of all the others sitting around and promptly settles down between Hyunjin and Chan.

'Didn't tell me you guys were all hanging out together', he says and opens the container. 'Anyone wants brownies? Innie, you look cute.'

Jeongin once again put a hand up to his tied hair and sighs. 'It was a dare. Which I am not enjoying.' He takes a brownie. 'By the way we were talking about Minho hyung being oblivious.'

'Really? Oblivious to what?'

'Painfully oblivious in the face of his crush liking him back', says Hyunjin through a mouthful of brownie. 'Always knew Seungminnie was the smart one.'

'You have really pushed your luck today, Hwang Hyunjin', says Minho, warningly. 'Next time you come here, you won't get any drinks or food, you will be the food.'

'Channie hyung, do you see him threatening me?'

'I do.'

'Do something about it.'

'No, I value my own life.'

Felix laughs. 'Well, I feel the need to defend Seungmin's stupidity a bit.'

'Excuse me?' asks Seungmin. 'My what?'

'Your stupidity', says Felix, smiling wide as if he was complimenting him. There is something to be said about Felix's unexpected savagery and the way it never misses its mark. 'Minho hyung wasn't the only oblivious one.'

°

A few days after Seungmin moved in, it was Halloween. Seungmin informed Minho that he was going to a party with some of his friends and invited him too.

Minho had nothing to do so he agreed. However, he had no Halloween costume planned. He supposed he could just put on some old, shitty clothes, throw some ketchup on it and pretend it was blood but Seungmin looked absolutely horrified at the idea.

'No ketchup!' he said and Minho wanted to laugh at the alarm in his voice. 'I mean, you could just use some paint or stuff, don't waste food!'

Which, Minho supposed, was a good point. So he proceeded to pull out whatever old tubes of watercolours he could find and realised that they had all dried up.

And he had some minimal makeup lying around but it wasn't enough to stand out.

'And the worst way to stand out in a Halloween party is to not stand out.'

Seungmin raised both his eyebrows, gaze fixed on Minho. 'That actually makes a lot of sense. I have an idea.'

'What?'

'I have a friend named Felix. I was gonna call him to do my makeup anyway, since neither do I own makeup nor do I know how to use it.'

Minho bit his tongue to keep himself from offering to teach Seungmin how to do makeup. Not now. Not ever.

'I can tell him to do yours too if you want.'

'What are you gonna dress up as?'

'I was thinking of Sherlock Holmes.'

Minho raised his eyebrows this time. 'Really? You wanna dress up as a detective for Halloween? That's boring.'

'A few of my friends call me smart. As smart as Sherlock Holmes apparently.'

'They are highly mistaken.'

Seungmin frowned and immediate panic settled into Minho's stomach, although he was careful not to show it. He and Seungmin had gotten into such easy banter in just a few days that he assumed it was an okay thing to say. But what if Seungmin was offended?

However, Seungmin's frown turned into a mischievous smile. 'If I'm not even as smart as Sherlock Holmes, I would hate to see where you stand.'

Minho never thought in his entire life that someone roasting him back would make him want to plant a kiss on their lips.

'You menace', he said, but his smile was showing, fuck. 'You absolute menace.'

Felix arrived, already in his costume. He had some sort of hammer-hairband stuck to his head which wobbled every time he took a step. Minho took an immediate liking to the guy.

And then Felix opened his mouth and shocked him.

'Jesus, his voice is pretty deep huh?' said Minho in a low volume to Seungmin, making sure Felix couldn't hear.

Seungmin made a cute laughing sound. 'Yeah. I was shocked too the first time I met him. Anyway, I will go get my makeup done first. You don't have to worry about your costume by the way, Felix will do the makeup loud enough to overshadow your plain clothes.'

'Good to know, but never dare to call my clothes plain again.'

Seungmin gave him a once over (which, once again, made Minho want to kiss him, what the actual fuck was wrong with him) and smiled.

'You are so plain hyung', he teased as he escaped into his room with Felix. 'So basic!'

Minho shook his head and smiled.

His smile fell away though when Seungmin came out of the room again. There was nothing Sherlock-Holmes-like about the whole look. He looked and breathed pure demon. All black, heavy eyeliner and dark lipstick, brushed back hair, red contact lenses.

Good god. Minho could feel his mouth going dry.

'Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is not a "Sherlock Holmes" look', said Minho, managing to not choke on his words.

Seungmin looked up from where he was fixing his sleeve innocently. 'What? Oh no, you said it's boring', for fuck's sake, that was a JOKE, 'so I thought why not go for something bold? So I told Lix and he gave me this look. I'm a...uh-'

'Sexy vampire', said Felix gleefully. 'Seungminnie, you look too good.'

Seungmin smiled at Felix warmly, his demeanor contrasting starkly with his looks. 'Thank you Felix.'

'Minho hyung, you okay?' asked Felix suddenly.

Let's make a list of reasons to prove that Minho was okay.

One, he was not very, very fixated on the way Seungmin's clothes hugged his form. Definitely not.

Two, he was not losing it over the whole red eyes thing. Which seemed to gleam when he looked at Minho. Absolutely NOT losing it.

Three- oh fuck it, what's the point? How was he supposed to concentrate on being okay when that bloody shade of red adorned Seungmin's lips? How was he supposed to not think about kissing them? How was he not supposed to focus on the fangs inside Seungmin's mouth, strategically placed and ready to drain all the sanity out of Minho? How was he supposed to not want to strangle Felix for making sweet, innocent Seungmin look like this?

The whiplash Minho experienced from knowing Seungmin in real life to him looking like this... like pure sin was too much. He was regretting making that stupid joke, but he was also not regretting it.

In short, he was not okay.

'I'm fine', he said and maybe his voice cracked just the slightest bit but Seungmin didn't seem to notice so it was all good. Felix, however, grinned at Minho like he could read every single unholy thought that was going through Minho's head.

'Sure', he said. 'Come on now, your turn.'

°

Hyunjin whistles. 'Wow. Thrilling story Lix, five out of five stars, would definitely recommend.'

Felix bows and then giggles in Seungmin's direction. 'When I later told Seungmin about how I thought Minho hyung was attracted to him, he just brushed me off and said he was admiring my makeup skills.'

'In my defense, I'm pretty sure Minho hyung didn't realise I was salivating over him either after you did his makeup', says Seungmin. 'And how was I supposed to know he was attracted to me from that one instant?'

'Wait, you were salivating over me?'

'You have no proof I said that.'

'I literally have four witnesses-'

'There were loads of instances later when I used to visit you and watch the romance bloom between you two which I pointed out to you but you were dense and stupid', Felix cut in.

'Didn't expect this slander from you, Lixie.'

Felix shrugs.

Seungmin turns his face to look at Minho. 'You tell me hyung. Was that you admiring my makeup that day or something else?'

'I think I got like ten kinks that day, all of them Kim Seungmin specific', replies Minho, not bothering to care about any of the others' disgusted faces. If they could crash into his house and systematically expose both of them to each other, they can tolerate these things. 'So I think "or something else" sums it up well.'

Before anyone can berate Minho in his own house for the PDA, the bell rings.

Hyunjin laughs loud. 'I guess we are all camping here today. Fun.'

'I will throw you all out', threatens Minho, even as he gets up to open the door. 'Who- oh god, two people now? Come on.'

'What?' says Changbin, whining. 'We just came to greet you guys. Tell you about this awesome pact we made.'

Minho decides not to question anything, because there is a lot to question. What pact? Why on earth are they wearing matching shirts? Why are they holding each other's hands? Why do they look just the slightest bit drunk-

When Changbin and Jisung enter, a lot of things happen at once.

Seungmin looks (understandably) exasperated at the growing number of people.

Felix brightens up (possibly at the prospect of sharing his brownies with more people) but then goes slack jawed and Minho has no idea why.

Changbin's big smile fades away as he too goes slack jawed and stares at Hyunjin as if he has seen god.

But the biggest thing that happens, that shocks everyone to their core, that almost blows their eardrums out was the absolutely horrifying banshee-like shriek that Hyunjin lets out once he sees Jisung.

'You! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?'

The room goes deathly silent.

Then an equally loud scream comes from Jisung, essentially the same words as Hyunjin with a few swear words thrown in as well.

'Wait a minute!' Seungmin gets up. 'You two know each other? I thought we never introduced you to each other-'

'Of course I know him! He is my asshole roommate!'

'Oh', says Seungmin, realisation dawning on his face. He sits down again. 'Carry on.'

'I'm not the asshole roommate, you are!' Jisung shouts back at Hyunjin.

'You drank my Americano!'

'You stole my charger!'

'That was you, you moron!'

'Oh.' Jisung seems to deflate a bit. 'Well, you stole my headphones!'

'Still you.'

'Damn it.'

'Okay, guys.' Chan tries to intervene and Minho already knows it won't go well. 'Let's calm down and talk things out like adults.'

'You call this five year old an adult?' sneers Hyunjin and Jisung puffs up with freshly brewed rage.

'What the fuck?' Minho hears Jeongin mutter. Minho mentally agrees and goes back to sit beside Seungmin, watching the drama continue.

'You didn't turn the faucet from shower back to regular in the bathroom!' says Jisung. 'I went in there and got completely drenched.'

Hyunjin has a surprisingly good villain laugh. 'Well, yeah, that was revenge.'

'You son of a-'

'Guys.' Felix gets up and steps between Hyunjin and Jisung, both of whom look like they were ready to throw hands. 'Brownie?'

Minho gets very impressed by how they both positively melt.

'No brownies until you both calm down', says Felix, sweet but firm.

'And we thought our roommate fights were bad', Seungmin mutters and Minho smiles.

'We used to banter. This is straight up war.'

'True.'

'Now, first of all, what's your name?' asks Felix, staring at Jisung intently and it finally clicks in Minho's brain why Felix had gone slack jawed earlier.

'Han Jisung', says Jisung, already chewing on a brownie.

'And you?' asks Changbin.

'Hyunjin. Hwang Hyunjin.'

As Felix and Changbin both try to have the two roommates talk it out while simultaneously flirting with Jisung and Hyunjin respectively, Seungmin speaks up again. His voice was low so only Minho could hear.

'You remember the biggest fight we had though?'

Minho does.

°

Minho grumpily made his coffee, looking over to the door to Seungmin's door to see if he would come out or not.

Not.

Minho sighed then went back to aggressively making coffee again. It had been three days of deafening silence from Seungmin. How had a ridiculous thing escalated to something this sickening... Minho didn't know. He did know that exactly five minutes later, when he would go into his room, Seungmin would hear the door close then emerge and do whatever he did.

So five minutes later, the door closed and Seungmin emerged and then froze at the sight of Minho who was standing right by his own door, hand on the knob, smiling victoriously.

Minho felt proud to have to idea to fake his own departure to draw out Seungmin right up until Seungmin promptly went back into his room.

Enough was enough.

He walked up to Seungmin's door and knocked, then pounded on it, demanding a certain Kim Seungmin to come out and talk to him.

After a fair amount of noise pollution, Seungmin came out. Minho was about to say, 'Now, let's talk, shall we?' but his words didn't make it past his lips.

Seungmin looked mad. Really mad. Minho had never seen Seungmin look so mad. In fact, he looked positively murderous. There was a tired undertone to it as well.

It scared Minho and broke his heart all at the same time.

'Really, hyung? You want me to talk? What about you? When will you talk?'

'I-'

'You are so frustrating! You avoid a question I ask you and make me feel like shit for days! And then you come back acting like I was the one ignoring you. What's wrong with- Just why? Please tell me why. You could have just told me no, you know that right?'

'Seungmi-'

'I'm not done yet!' yelled Seungmin and then immediately went quiet. His face crumpled, and he started retreating into his room. 'Sorry, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have shouted at you, I'm sorry-'

Minho grabbed Seungmin's face with both hands and kissed him. He didn't know whether he did that to shut him up or because he had wanted to do this for long, too long, now. It was a relief though, especially when Seungmin's hands came to circle his waist and he began kissing Minho back. It was a relief to get it out. Minho's mouth had failed him many times before this when it came to forming words and replies but at least it didn't fail him in the kissing department.

Seungmin was the one to break the kiss. 'Hyung, you can't just kiss me, you know?'

Dread filled Minho as he stepped back immediately. 'Oh. Oh. Seungmin, I'm so sorry-'

'No', said Seungmin, hurriedly and gave a light laugh. A laugh. Minho felt happy beyond measure. 'I wanted to kiss you too, trust me. I enjoyed it. I kissed you back.'

'Right', said Minho, relieved.

'But you can't just come up to me and kiss me. We need communication. We need to actually talk. We need to talk about why you... why you did whatever you did.'

'I am an idiot, that's why', said Minho. 'I- I got scared.'

'You got scared?' asked Seungmin, incredulously. 'Scared of me asking you out?'

Minho nodded, practically drowning in shame now. 'I have liked you for a long time now, Seungmin. But I decided at some point that I won't date you.'

'Why?'

'I don't know!'

Seungmin grabbed his hands and squeezed them gently. 'Try.'

Minho stared at him, trying to understand where so much patience came from.

He took a minute to organise his thoughts.

'Yeah, well, so, I liked you from the very instant you walked through that door the very first day', began Minho and cringed. 'Sorry, that was too-'

'No, go on', said Seungmin. He was smiling but it wasn't a teasing smile, meant to embarrass Minho. It was a kind, encouraging one.

'Well, I realised it later. And I thought you didn't like me back. So I used to...,' Minho took a deep breath, saying his next few words in a rush, 'think about you. You know. Like think about you but I convinced myself I can't date you. I just can't. I don't know, it was some weird defense mechanism. I stuck to it like my life depended on it.'

'Oh', said Seungmin softly.

'So when you asked me out, I panicked. I simply short circuited. And I shut you out completely and began picking on you for small things.'

'You always did that', Seungmin said, a fond smile on his face. Once again, Minho could never understand where so much patience and kindness came from. 'It just began feeling less light hearted and more mean spirited.'

'Exactly', said Minho. 'I suck. I am shit. I am sorry.'

'Which one?'

'What?'

'Which one are you?'

Minho blinked in confusion. 'I don't understand.'

'You are either shit, or you are sorry. Which one are you? Pick.'

Minho opened his mouth, then closed it. Then opened it again. 'Are you making jokes right now?'

'No', said Seungmin, looking completely serious. 'If you are shit, you wouldn't have felt sorry. If you are sorry, you are not shit. It's simple. You get to pick which one you are and then we can put this whole thing behind us.'

Minho imagined this is what love must feel like. Everything about this man was perfect and he was in love with him. Yes.

'What if I'm shit?' asked Minho.

'Then I will never talk to you again. I don't talk to shit people.'

Both of them were smiling as Minho put his hands on each side of Seungmin's face, bringing them closer. 'And if I'm sorry?'

'Then I will forgive you and take you out on a date, that is, if you give me permission to.'

The single, dangling ornament on Seungmin's right ear shone a little in the light as Minho kissed him again, short and sweet.

'I'm sorry.'

°

'So wanna tell us why you are dressed in matching shirts?' asks Chan, after the chaos has calmed down and Hyunjin and Jisung are sitting in two far off spots of the room.

'We made a pact', says Changbin. 'It's stupid. We drank a little and-'

'You drank?' asks Chan, looking downright mortified. 'Alcohol? It's barely noon!'

'Jisung was depressed about his roommate problems', says Changbin, shrugging. 'I was giving him advice. And we began drinking at some point. Don't worry, we are not drunk. Fully.'

'What's the pact?' says Jeongin.

'Oh yeah, right. So we were lamenting about our lack of partners-'

Hyunjin makes a scoffing noise and says something which sounds like 'Who will date him?'

Felix and Chan have to physically restrain Jisung from hurling himself at Hyunjin.

'So we made a pact', says Changbin hurriedly. He is sitting right beside Hyunjin and is looking at him cautiously, 'and decided that if neither of us are married by forty then we will marry each other.'

'So why aren't you married yet? You both are forty right?' says Jeongin, giggling when Chan smacks him lightly.

'So then we decided to dress up in couple clothing and tell you about the good news of us not dying single.'

'What if you die before forty, unmarried?' asks Minho.

'Let's change the age to thirty-five', says Jisung, finally cracking a little smile. 'Changbin hyung?'

Changbin nods. 'Thirty-five', he says, then looks at Hyunjin with literal heart eyes. 'If I don't get married by then.'

Jisung notices and makes a disgusted sound. 'Great! All my friends taken away by this dude and now my possible future husband crushing on him as well.'

'What?' asks Hyunjin in confusion. He looks at Jisung then at Changbin. 'Oh.'

'Please get out of our house before two you kiss or something', says Minho.

Hyunjin and Changbin both go red. But Hyunjin does ask Changbin for his number.

'And can I have your number by the way?' says Felix and Jisung's eyes go comically round. 'I mean, you are pretty handsome and cool.'

'No one's ever said that to me before', says Jisung in awe.

'Because you aren't-'

'Hyunjin, shut up. You had your moment, let me have mine.'

Hyunjin does shut up, miraculously, letting Jisung have his moment with Felix.

°

Once all the hooligans leave their home, Minho gets ready.

He takes out the ring and presents it to Seungmin when Seungmin is cleaning the kitchen. 'Hey, I was thinking. Wanna get married?'

Seungmin goes very still and looks over his shoulder to take a peek at the ring.

'Is that a plastic ring?'

'Yeah, I decided to make some effort.'

'Should have gotten down on one knee or something.'

'The floor is nasty.'

'So are you.'

Minho stares at his boyfriend who goes off into peals of laughter. 'I'm proposing to you and you are calling me nasty?'

'I ruined the moment, huh? Sorry. Let's try again. Go ahead, present the fake ring to me.'

'It's not fake. Just cheap. I didn't have time okay?'

'Okay, okay.'

'Kim Seungmin, will you marry me?'

Seungmin strokes his chin and pretends to think. 'I'm sure I've got better things to do.'

Minho keeps the ring on the counter beside Seungmin and turns on his heels. 'Alright, I'm leaving.'

Laughing, Seungmin hugs Minho from behind, not letting him go away. 'Yes', he says and then plants a small kiss behind Minho's ear which triggers little sparks of joy throughout Minho's entire being. 'I will marry you.'

'Roommates to husbands, slowburn?' Minho says and turns around in Seungmin's arms to face him.

Seungmin smiles and Minho is once again in love with how his eyes sparkle when he does that. 'Put the ring on my finger hyung.'

'That's awfully close to what you had said to Jeongin.'

'Oh, sorry.'

'Just kiss me. That will be our engagement.'

Seungmin kisses him deeply and Minho doesn't miss the way he starts guiding him to the bedroom.

'What are you doing?'

'First night with my fiancé. Do you mind?'

Minho doesn't.