Work Text:
- you and hansol are partners for a project, so while you both strongly dislike doing work for this class, you suppose it could be worse. you could be paired with someone you didn’t already know
- you decide to meet at hansol’s place because you dorm and he rents a house with a bunch of friends. other than whoever josh is, the others will be out for the weekend, and josh is probably going to study in his room all day anyway
- “let’s get this over with.” you flop onto hansol’s bed with a groan. on the floor, he has his notes laid out in order. “where do we even start?”
- “how about with some snacks?”
- “dude, we haven’t even started yet??”
- “exactly. this is how we get our energy up, brb”
- and then he just leaves for the kitchen??? whatever. you pull up the textbook on your laptop and type out important notes from the chapter for later because citations are probably the most tedious part of every assignment
- in the middle of figuring out what the heck the book is saying, hansol’s door opens
- “hey, what’d ya get?”
- “vern, can i borrow your charger?”
- you and this random guy, probably the josh your friend was talking about, look at each other, realizing that the subject of both your questions is definitely not there. he gives you this awkward wave before slipping back out of the room, and all you can do is stare blankly at the wall
- you don’t even blink when hansol comes back, carrying chip bags and plates of veggies and hummus
- you’ve known this guy for three semesters, and he failed to mention that he had incredibly attractive friends. like, incredibly attractive. though you did meet jeonghan once and fawned over him for a week
- …on second thought, maybe this is why hansol refuses to talk to you about his friends. unfair. do good-looking people only hang out with other good-looking people?
- while you’re taking joshua’s sudden appearance in stride and refocusing on your work, on the other side of the house, the guy in your thoughts is not having a Good Time
- joshua’s a social person. he’s dated before. he really shouldn’t be this flustered over someone, much less a random stranger. you could be a really rude person for all he knows, though hansol getting snacks for you suggest otherwise because he doesn’t share with people he’s not close with
- but josh doesn’t need to worry because this will probably be the last time he sees you, right?
- wrong, unfortunately. or fortunately?
- you and hansol work so well together that you end up choosing each other as partners for the rest of the semester, so, like, rip joshua. he sees you everywhere. when hansol brings you over, when you study in the library, when you eat together. seeing you physically doesn’t help him forget about you
- and because joshua’s normally suave ways crash and burn at the sight of you, it doesn’t take long for hansol to catch on. takes him even less time to hatch a plan once he confirms your own feelings for his friend
- it’s such a dumb plan, but it somehow works. hansol calls up each of you, tells you to meet him at an off-campus diner for some reason or another, and then doesn’t show up. when joshua pulls up and sees you at the door, looking up and down the street for your mutual friend — the status of friend currently pending — he’s about to turn around and go home
- but you’re both already there, so he might as well take advantage of the situation and beat hansol up later
- “hey. vern rope you into this, too?” he asks once he gets closer, hands in his pockets
- you’re surprised to see him. a good surprise, thankfully, because you smile and tilt your head
- “sounds like he’s scheming something”
- “if he planned it alone, i wouldn’t be too worried. jeonghan, though, i’d worry about.” he nods towards the diner. “wanna get something to eat?”
- pls say yes, his heart is beating out of his chest right now
- it doesn’t get better as it goes on
- you’re funny, just the right amount of nice, and have the cutest laugh like wtf wtf w t f he can’t do this
- and he swipes the bill before you do, sliding his card in and handing it to the waiter before you can even touch your wallet. it annoys you because you’re a struggling college student, yes, but you can still pay for yourself
- you compromise by making him promise to let you pay for the next time, and he’s too hung up on the fact that there even is a next time to argue back
- so there’s a next time
- and one after that
- and another after that
- and yet another after that
- because you keep taking turns paying for each other, you have to take care of the unresolved debt somehow
- he doesn’t want to read too much into it, but after your nth movie outing, a few months after the first diner trip, he comes home to see junhui on the couch, eating his ice cream straight out of the carton. glowing in the after effects of your presence, joshua’s in too much of a good mood to care
- “so are you two, like—” he waves his spoon in a circle— “dating or something?”
- “what? me and y/n? no. nah, no, we’re just friends”
- “cool, they’re pretty cute. i might ask them out”
- “do that and i’ll take every left sock from your dresser”
- his expression doesn’t change, which is what makes junhui shut up and go back to eating. still, josh is rattled by the idea that, if he doesn’t confess to you soon, someone else will ask you out first
- so when you text him about a new cafe opening up downtown and ask him to go with you, he replies with, “cool, it’s a date then”
- before chucking his phone across the room, burying his face in his blankets, and going tf to sleep because he refuses to check your reply
- gets up to grab it five minutes later to see your yes, though
- and hansol? josh hit him in the shoulder for pulling the first stunt. then promptly pulls him into a hug cuz now josh has you