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Heeseung is quite literally having the worst day in his life. Maybe that one time, during their freshman party, when Jay pulled him to a side and asked him to socialize more, he had made several points. Because right now, only 1 week left in his semester and he is about to fail his core paper because nobody has told him about the deadline. Is it really his fault he muted his college group chat? Those kids spammed it with unfunny memes 24/7 and who the hell thinks it is a good idea to put their exam notice in that place? He is not about to take the whole class again just because their stupid BMC professor is a fucking slacker.
Chugging down on the leftover orange juice in his freeze he let out a curse as his pinky hit hard on his study table. His head hurt, his room felt suffocating. You see Heeseung is known as one of the smartest among his peers but he may have made some not-so-smart decisions choosing to live in this apartment for the four years of a hellish college life. But once you hit adulthood there are very few things you can choose liberally, right, perhaps a small, cramped apartment is just perfect to reflect Heeseung’s poor luck. Locking his room from the outside, he takes the stairs to his left. After almost tripping for the third time in a row, he opens the door of the topmost floor. There he enters the communal dining hall. After the services have closed down, nobody comes there anymore. It is almost a little secret of his. He stands in front of the large window and breathes heavily. Unlike his room, the air here is fresh and therapeutic. His mind instantly starts reflecting on his whole day. He feels tired and helpless. Maybe it is the pretty weather doing wonders to his brain but he feels tears pooling in the corner of his eyes. Oh great! He is about to get a breakdown now can you believe it?
Leaning on the railing, he covers his face with the back of his hand as a sob makes its way past his mouth. And another. Another. In no time he is full time bawling his eyes out of frustration. While he is immersed in his sorrow, he completely misses the presence of another person behind him.
“Hey are you okay?”
His head shots up in surprise. Well, fuck . Somebody saw him having the worst time of his life. He simply doesn’t wanna live anymore. He briefly considers jumping from the window and opening his eyes in a hospital bed instead of facing whoever the intruder behind him is. But oh no, he can’t stand listening to Jay and Jungwon nagging him for even a minute. So he makes an attempt (note: a poor attempt) to brush his obvious tears away and turns around expecting one of his neighbourhood old ladies. But instead he is faced with an extremely attractive boy around his age with clear worry present in his eyes.
Fuck.
You know what? If it was one of those old ladies he could allow himself to confess he was having a hard time, he is sure they’d offer him dinner even. But showing his tear stained face in front of a very cute stranger? Yeah nah. He makes a run for it, or rather he tries. He feels a sharp pain around his forehead and it takes him a few seconds to register that he has indeed run into the wall instead. Wonderful! Now the very cute stranger comes rushing towards him, obviously very perplexed by the whole scene that took place before his eyes. The very cute stranger closely observes his forehead and rubs gently on it. Heeseung can’t do this anymore. Just how much worse is his day gonna get? He feels his eyes getting wet again. But before he could try to dip one more time he senses warm arms around his neck pulling him closer. The very cute stranger lets him rest his chin on his shoulder and carefully strokes the back of his head.
“Hey it’s okay, you don’t need to run.”
Okay yeah the very cute stranger has the most soothing voice Heeseung has ever heard and it makes him immediately melt against his body. He stands there awkwardly while the other boy keeps stroking his hair. He smells like baby powder and orchids and Heeseung realizes he doesn’t mind smelling him as long as possible. He almost dozes off against the stranger’s shoulder until both of them jump at the same time hearing a sharp noise which apparently happens to be the cute stranger’s ringtone. He apologetically glances at Heeseung and takes his phone out to take the call. Now that he doesn’t feel like crying anymore, he finds himself quietly observing the boy before him. He has pretty fluffy brown hair parted in the side and a blue sweater paired with straight ripped jeans. Oh he has a nice fashion sense. He was tall enough to hover over most average people but still a few inches shorter than Heeseung. For some reason he is holding a vanilla coffee in his right hand that Heeseung has failed to notice before.
“Yes Sunoo, i will be there in a minute. Just wait.” He cuts the call and smiles at Heeseung. Oh he has a little dimple when he smiles.
“I am sorry but i need to go somewhere” The boy scoots closer and hands his vanilla coffee to Heeseung.
“I will give you this.” Then smiles again. “Don’t cry anymore okay?”
And he is gone.
Heeseung stands there with his mouth open. Hands full of vanilla coffee and head full of thoughts of a cute guy he didn’t even get to ask the name of.
***
A week has passed since Heeseung encountered the sweet boy in the dining hall. After that he went there every other day in case he could meet him again but there was no sight of him anywhere and of course Heeseung was too shy to ask his landlady who the new tenant was. Aside from the obvious attraction he feels towards the boy, he also needed to thank him properly, for both comforting him and the drink. He chuckles to himself. After that incident, his professor called him in the next day and announced she would give him another chance to take the exam only because he never missed her class before. He felt elated. Maybe the cute boy brought him more luck than he deserved. He really needs to meet him again.
And he does meet him. On a day he is not expecting it too.
LIke usual he locks his room and takes the stairs to the dining hall. It is late at night and he is already in his pajamas. Then he suddenly spots a mop of brown hair near the window and his breath hitches. The stranger quickly takes notice of him and waves his hand. Maybe cute boys like him shouldn’t be wearing little bear printed pajamas because he looks insanely adorable and Heeseung’s heart is immediately thrown into a fit of somersaults.
“Hi” Heesung mutters meekly.
“Hello there, how are you feeling today?”
Heeseung’s face reddens at his question remembering the events of last time. He brushes his bangs away and looks up at the boy properly.
“Thank you for that time and oh it actually got resolved so thank you- I really mean it.”
The said boy lights up hearing him and jumps to pull him in a hug again. Heeseung who is clearly not used to so much physical touch automatically stiffens up in his embrace and it makes the other retreat back apologetically. Heeseung regrets and whines internally because today he has the same smell of baby powder and orchid, mixed with soft laundry detergent fragrance and he wishes he can smell him for a long time.
“Ah I’m sorry if that made you uncomfortable. It’s a habit. But I’m really happy to hear that.”
“No it’s okay, don't worry. And yes, thank you so much.”
The cute boy smiles at him again and Heeseung decides he’s tired of calling him that in his head. So he asks, “I never got the chance to ask your name by the way. I’m Heeseung.”
“Oh hello Heeseung, I’m Jaeyun but you can call me Jake.”
Jake.
“Did you recently move in here? I haven’t seen you before.” Heeseung leans on the railings beside the cute boy, now namely Jake.
“Yes! It’s only been two weeks? Oh that reminds me you don’t mind me coming here do you?”
“What- No, why would I?” Heeseung panics for a millisecond worrying if he accidentally said something rude to Jake for him to ask such a question.
“Oh that’s a relief then!” Jake grins to himself, “The landlady said this was your favorite spot so I was wondering if I was bothering you by coming here.
“Not at all. Anybody can come here after all.” Plus I do not mind sharing my little secret place with a cute guy like you but he decides against saying that out loud.
Jake clasps his hands together in joy, “You are really kind.”
He and Jake have more things in common than he initially thought and it just makes him more attracted to him. He learns many new things about him as they talk. Jake used to live in Australia, which is pretty obvious from his thick aussie accent, he loves dogs, has his own one named Layla, plays soccer, likes maths and physics and he sings too, well isn’t that sweet! He learns many new things Jake doesn’t tell him too. Like how he makes sure to smile at every single maybe not-so-funny jokes Heeseung makes, how his facial structures often resemble a puppy every time he says something excitedly, how his eyes often turn into small crescent moon with all his laughs and wow he has very pink soft looking lips as well doesn’t he? Oh no Jake is looking at him now. Has he been caught staring at his lips?
Jake doesn’t say anything though, he merely smiles at him wider. And well if that isn’t even more embarrassing. Heeseung looks away and clears his throat. Right, he needs to thank him properly first. Shameless ogling can come later.
“Can I treat you to lunch? You know, as a thank you for last time…”
Jake waves his hands in the air, “Hey no you don’t need to. It was nothing at all.”
“Do you not want to?” Shit, he didn’t mean to word it like that.
“Oh, hmm do I now?” Great, now Jake is already poking fun at him for being so goddamn obvious. He wishes he is not so transparent with his feelings. Noticing how stiff he went, Jake pats him in the back.
“Hey I was joking. Sorry for teasing you, you just sounded so cute.” He laughs at Heeseung. Oh hell no, did you just call me cute? “Of course I’d love to go with you for lunch!”
Heeseung almost doesn’t hear him saying the last bit because his pinning brain cells are still too focused on the cute part. Once he collects himself again he takes out his phone from his pocket.
“Great. Is it alright if we exchange contacts? For deciding time and place and all you know…”
“Yes, sure!”
***
“You seem too happy looking at your phone these days.”
Heeseung looks up from his phone and points his gaze towards the younger boy sitting before him.
“What do you mean, Jungwon?” He asks even though he is pretty much sure of what the other meant.
“You are seeing someone.” Jungwon points his finger at his phone and then to Heeseung’s face, “Or rather hopelessly pining after someone.” Well now that was mean.
“I am not pining after anyone.” He lies but Jungwon doesn’t need to know that.
“Lemme guess, it’s that ‘cute guy with a heavy aussie accent who also happens to have very pink soft lips’ you met in your apartment right?”
“I didn’t say anything about his lips and his name is Jake.”
“You mean Jake Shim?”
Both of them looked up at the new voice.
“What? Jay-hyung do you know that guy?”
Jay takes a seat beside Heeseung and grabs one of the sandwiches before him, “Of course. Who won’t? I am in English class with him and damn, he is really popular.”
Jungwon dramatically gasps, covering his mouth and looks at Heeseung, “Seems like you got a lot of competition going on, hyung.”
“Oh shut up.”
Jay seems confused, “Wait, that’s the guy Heeseung has been talking about non-stop for the past week?”
“For the record I did not talk about him non-stop.”
Both Jay and Jungwon ignore his protests and continue on with their food.
Heeseung sighs. There was no point talking about this anymore. Plus his friends are not wrong. Better shut up instead of embarrassing himself anymore. He hears his phone ring again. Jake and he have been exchanging messages since that day. And he is just as sweet as always. He never forgets to greet him good morning and good night before going to bed. Has he mentioned how much Jake loves using emojis while texting? And Heeseung adores that. They have decided to go out for lunch this upcoming weekend and Heeseung has never wished for the week to pass any sooner. He takes out his phone and smiles after checking the new message from, you guessed it right, Jake.
Jake
hey! im free ^^ we can totally go
see you on saturday then!
“See he is making that lovesick face again.” Jay and Jungwon are a laughing mess and Heeseung wishes he had something to throw at them to shut them up.
***
Saturday finally comes. After much thinking, Heeseung has decided to take them on a ramen date (note: platonic date). As much as he'd like to take Jake to an expensive restaurant, he has to remind himself that they have known each other for merely two weeks and he still has a huge student loan to pay before he dies. But Jake seems elated after seeing the ramen shop and Heeseung makes sure to thank god for giving them the same taste in food. They sit beside the window and Jake gingerly goes through the menu on the table. Cute cute cute. Heeseung almost forgets to order his own food, too busy staring at the younger boy.
As they wait for their food to come, Heeseung realizes that he enjoys Jake’s company even more than last time. Despite it being only the third time they meet, their convos never stop and there was not a single moment of awkwardness between them. Jake was both a pleasant talker and listener. And oh Heeseung loves talking with him so much.
Suddenly he notices a smaller boy with foxy eyes coming in and the said boy’s eyes get bigger in shock once he spots Jake eating with Heeseung.
“Hey Jake-hyung!”
The boy comes closer to them and Jake looks up from his ramen to greet him back.
“Sunoo, did you come here just now?” Sunoo? He has heard that name before.
“Yes! My friends are coming soon. But more importantly-” He pauses and takes a better look at Heeseung, dramatically gasps and covers his mouth with his hand. He reminded Heeseung of someone awfully familiar right now.
“-- that’s the hot guy you mentioned? No way! You’re so lucky, hyung.”
“Hey!”
The smaller boy chuckles loudly,”Don’t worry we will be sure to sit far away to not disturb your little date, hm?” and with that he runs away towards the other end of the shop.
Jake mutters something to himself and then looks at Heeseung, “Hey, I’m sorry about that. He just likes to say whatever comes to his mind.”
“Oh? Ahh- No it’s fine.” Heeseung looks down immediately and starts slurping on his noodles like his life depends on it. Jake’s friend referred to him as a ‘hot guy Jake mentioned’. Yeah he is gonna think about it for a very long time.
***
“So you’re the type of person who can live off pure coffee?”
“Once you’re a senior you will understand it too.” Heeseung grins. They were finished with the lunch and decided to walk around for a while instead.
“Nah I need my beauty sleep first.” Jake is walking on the pedestrian road markings, trying to balance himself with his hands in the air. Once they reach the corner around their apartment, it suddenly starts pouring.
“Oh shit” Jake quickly grabs Heeseung by his hand and makes a run for it.
“Hey we should take a shed or something, no?”
“Let’s just run for it hyung our apartment is close anyway.” Jake was laughing. He sounded like a child who was playing in the rain for the first time in his life. And perhaps laughs are contagious after all, at least for Jake’s. Because very soon, Heeseung finds himself grinning like a little kid as well.
After they reach their home, he notices their hands are still interlocked and Jake has no intention of letting him go and who is Heeseung to complain.
“That was so fun!” Jake beams loudly and looks up at Heeseung.
“Yeah but be sure to go dry yourself now.”
“Yes sir!”
Heeseung reddens up at that remark and Jake was quick to take notice of it as well.
“Oh do you like being called sir? That's kinky.”
Before Heeseung could open his mouth to yell at him Jake simply drags him again, “Sorry, sorry you are just so fun to tease.”
They get in the elevator, yes, they are still holding hands. And Heeseung almost had to reconsider he is not dreaming when he feels Jake rubbing his thumb over their joined hands. He wishes the elevator gets stuck or something, oh he is getting so hopeless now.
But the elevator doesn’t get stuck and it reaches Jake’s floor quite soon. He now has to let go of Heeseung but does it only after giving his hand a final squeeze.
“Be sure to dry yourself too, okay? Also if you don't mind I’d love to go out again.” Jake waited for his reply.
“Of course, it’s a plan then.”
And once the elevator door closes and Heeseung was out of Jake’s sight, he is on cloud nine. Jungwon was right, he has fallen too deep.
***
Heeseung lets out a breath of relief. After going through three almost-breakdowns and five cups of bitter coffee and god knows how many hours of sleep in the past two days, he is finally done with his mid-sem assignments. Now he needs his dose of serotonin aka Jake. They have been talking to each other for almost a month now and Heeseung is still head over heels for him. He takes out two cans of vanilla coffee from his freeze and goes upstairs. Heeseung from a month ago wouldn’t even go near those because of how sweet it tastes but it reminds him of Jake so what other choice does he have besides filling up his whole space with several cans of it. He takes out his phone and shoots Jake a message.
Heeseung
hey do you wanna meet up at our usual place?
i just finished my work.
Jake
hey
sure! i will be there in a sec
Heeseung leans against the window and takes a long breath. He has been the happiest this past month ever since he moved in and Jake did all that. He cannot explain how blessed he is to have someone as bubbly and supportive as Jake in his life and he wishes he can be the same to him. He wishes to be more than that too, actually. But he is still not sure if the younger feels the same way towards him at all. Sure, they always do this platonic flirting all the time but that doesn’t mean anything deep, right? Jake is playful at heart and as much as Heeseung adores that part of him, sometimes he wishes to have all his attention to himself. His thoughts come to a pause once he senses the boy coming towards him.
“Hey.”
“Hi.” Jake greets him back.
“Here this is for you.” Heeseung hands him one of the vanilla coffees he brought.
“You ended up liking this as well didn’t you?”
Heeseung hums in response and opens his own can. Sweet. He feels the liquid fill up his taste buds in a pleasant way. They stand there for a while before Jake speaks up, “Can we go to our room?”
Heeseung chokes a little on his drink accompanied by the younger boy gently patting his back. Jake giggles at his reaction, “Oh what were you thinking of just now?” He smiles mischievously, clearly aware of the effect he has on Heeseung.
“I’m actually not finished with my final project so I was wondering if we could hang out in our room instead.”
Heeseung feels a little guilty for calling him so late, he hasn't considered Jake might have his own stuff to do as well.
“Hey I’m sorry, you didn’t need to come just because I texted you suddenly.”
“No! I want to spend time with you.” Jake leans onto him and pleads with his puppy eyes, “Please come?”
And how could Heeseung say no to any of Jake’s requests. So now he stands awkwardly in the middle of Jake’s room not knowing where to sit.
“Make yourself comfortable.” Jake sits down in front of his chabudai and pats the space beside him, signaling Heeseung to sit there.
Heeseung doesn’t realize how long he sits there with Jake. One hour? Two hours? Even more? All he knows is that he feels very pleased just by sitting beside the other boy and even though he is scrolling through his phone while the other does his own work in silence, it never feels uncomfortable. It is always like this with Jake.
He is reading a twitter post very carefully when all of a sudden he hears Jake shriek in fear and impulsively cling to Heeseung.
The lights have gone out for some reason, “Are you okay?” Heeseung uses his phone torch to light up the space around them and it makes the younger loosen his grip on him.
Heeseung stands up to take a look around his room. Once he reaches the door he opens it and peeks around for a few seconds.
“Jake, I don't think it was a power cut. The other rooms have their lights on.”
“Do you think something happened to my room’s light?”
“Lemme check.”
Oh, has Heeseung mentioned he’s an extremely smart engineering student? After searching around for a few minutes he comes to the conclusion that something indeed has happened to their light. But no worries, Heeseung has taken enough electrical courses in his first year to know how to fix a blown light. All Jake needed is to hand him a screwdriver and hold his torch out for him. In no time Heeseung reconnects the damaged wires and the bulb lights up again. He finds the younger boy clapping his hands at him.
“You are so amazing, hyung!”
The way Jake is looking at him is doing things to his stomach and suddenly he has the desire to fix all the blown lights in the world.
“Mention not. It’s no biggie.”
Jake sits on his bed this time and gingerly pats on his thighs.
“What?”
“Lean on me, I will give you a massage.”
“What- why? Don't you have your project to finish?”
“It’s almost done! Plus I want to thank you for fixing my light.”
Heeseung shrugs and sits on the floor, just before where Jake is sitting on the bed. He must admit Jake is quite good at giving a massage. He is a little tired after finishing all his assignments earlier so he doesn’t mind this. He soon relaxes into Jake’s touch, the latter has really nice hands he thinks.
“Do you work out, hyung?”
“Haven’t gotten the time in the past months, but why?”
“You have really broad shoulders.”
Heeseung chuckles a bit. “Really? I think they’re average.”
Jake tries feeling him up a little more this time, “Hmm? They do feel big though--wait I didn’t mean anything weird-”
“It’s fine.”
Heeseung turns around and rests his head on Jake’s right thigh. Jake’s ears are slightly tinted red. For someone as playful and touchy as Jake, he never thought the latter would get embarrassed because of their intimating position. Heeseung suddenly feels brave.
“You can touch me.”
And so Jake does. He brings his hand closer to Heeseung’s face and plays with his dark locks. His thumb slightly grazes under his eyes and Jake’s gaze looks so fond Heeseung thinks he might cry any moment.
“I like your eyes, hyung. They’re so pretty. I like them so much.”
“I like you. ”
Ah, he did not mean to say that out loud.
Jake looks mildly shocked at first, “Oh-” then a pause, “that too-” then a big smile takes over his features, “- a lot actually.”
Heeseung can’t believe what he hears. He sits up and presses his hands on either side of Jake, leaning in. “Is this okay?” He asks, clearly nervous as he doesn’t know how far he is allowed to go with the other.
“Thought you’d never ask.” Jake grins and wraps his arms around the older’s neck, bringing him even closer, lips almost touching. And Heeseung is the one to close the gap. Jake’s lips were plush, even softer than how they looked and Heeseung wishes he can keep kissing him forever. Jake pulls him down on the bed, hands still wrapped around his neck. Heeseung balances himself with his arms and rests them on both sides of Jake’s head. He crashes onto his lips again, a bit more aggressive this time. Jake’s hand roams in his hair, sending shivers to his body. He swipes his tongue on the other’s bottom lip and Jake obediently complies, letting him in. Their tongues collide against each other and Heeseung thinks his head is spinning from how hot he feels. After they part for the need to breathe, he takes a better look at Jake. His hair is all dishevelled, face flushed pink and his lips a little red from their intense make out session. He cups Heeseung’s face and runs his thumbs over his cheekbones.
“I think it’s a dream.”
“Then I don't want us to ever wake up.”
“Hey! That’s a scary thing to say.”
***
Jake leans against the dining hall window. Now he thinks about it, he should probably thank this place for letting him meet his boyfriend of three months. He fondly stares at his phone screen.
Jake
hey babe im here already
where are u
Heeseung
im sorry jake our professor held us back
i will be there soon pls wait for me
babe
Jake can’t help smiling to himself. Even after months of dating, his boyfriend is still shy using pet names with each other but he appreciates the effort of course.
Jake
hurry
i have vanilla coffee saved for you ;)