Archive of Our Own ^beta

Fuck Hoseok. Fuck this Econ test tomorrow, and fuck the fact that Hoseok decided to fucking ditch him so he could drive down to his hometown this weekend and visit his damn girlfriend.

There might just be a place in hell for him, a place called "I'm-not-an-econ-major-so-I'm-not-going-to-study-the-day-before-this-huge-exam".

More than that, he hates the fact that Hoseok probably doesn't even have to study. Seokjin wants to be born with the ability to fall asleep in class and still get A's on all his tests like Hoseok.

While he's simmering in his pre-exam regrets, Hoseok and economics be damned, someone taps his shoulder softly. "Excuse me?"

Seokjin looks up from his textbook, something about oligopolies and demand supplies, to see a guy with bright platinum blond hair with the sides shaved, staring down at him. He's got these giant, bright blue headphones that could probably double as a pearlescent strobelight. What the hell?

"Sorry," the guy says, and points to the seat on his right, "do you mind if I sit here? All the other tables are taken."

He knows its a busy day, midterm week and all, but wow, now that he actually looks up from his books, every single table at the library has some student or three sitting at them. At least he's not the only one currently suffering. "Yeah," he says, scooting his chair over a bit. "Of course."

Blondie With Shaved Sides gives him a grateful smile and he slides into the seat. "Thanks," he says, and that's that. He pulls his headphones over his ears and dumps a giant linguistics textbook onto the desk, the rest of the world forgotten.

Midterms week can go get the flu or something. Day three of being cooped up in the library and Seokjin just wants all his midterms to end. Two more, he tells himself. Just two more, and he's free. These two place over the course of one and a half weeks, but that also means that Seokjin doesn't have to pull an allnighter two days in a row, so score there.

Apparently everyone else is on the same schedule as him, because the library hasn't looked like a single student has left it. If anything, it seems more crowded than before, or maybe Seokjin's just gotten too familiar with this vandalized wooden table he's been sitting at. He picks at the heart filled 'KM + JS' scratched on the table, just to make it a little different.

"Hey," someone says, followed by a tap to his shoulder. "Can I sit here?"

He looks up, and oh, there he is again, Blondie With Shaved Sides, blue headphones switched out this time for simple white earbuds. He looks a little more normal, even with his crazy hair.

"Oh," Blondie breathes, looking over Seokjin. "It's you. Hi."

"Hey," Seokjin mumbles, thumbing over his International Economy textbook. "And yeah, sure, go ahead."

He doesn't scoot over this time, figures Blondie has plenty of space, and goes back to his books. Blondie does the same.

Third time's the charm, Seokjin supposes.

Or maybe it's just become routine now. A three day long routine. Blondie asks to sit next to him again, except this time he just greets him with a "Hey! Do you mind, again?" and Seokjin shakes his head, and moves his stuff so there's space for Blondie. Except this time there's talk.

"You're definitely a Business major, aren't you?" Blondie asks with a raised eyebrow.

Seokjin looks up from his Political Econ book. "Hm? Oh, yeah. Economics. Exam Thursday. You?"

"Rough. Linguistics, with a focus in English and Japanese."

"Cool," Seokjin says, and lets the silence fill in between them like cement. Maybe he should be a little more outgoing, but he has an exam soon and he hasn't slept a full night in a week.

Blondie doesn't seem fazed. He reaches out his hand, actually. "I should probably introduce myself. I'm Kim Namjoon, the guy who's been stealing all your study space."

"Kim Seokjin. I don't mind as much as you think."

"Awesome," Namjoon says, smiling. "I'll leave you to your things, then."

Seokjin's grateful for that much. If there's anything Seokjin's bad at, it's introductions. He's only ever made friends by being introduced to people by other people, and then only joins in conversations after he's watched them for a bit. The silence between them is comfortable though, and Seokjin uncaps his highlighter again to get back to business.

"Are you always in the library?" Namjoon asks. This time, he just flops onto the seat across from Seokjin without asking and pulls out his laptop.

Seokjin thinks about it. "Not always," he mumbles, and figures that's probably only half a lie. "But usually. I like quiet, and I can't do anything productive in my room."

Mainly because his room always smells like weed, thanks to his roommate, Yoongi, who is not that bad of a person, but just really sucks at getting the smell of late night parties out of his clothes.

It doesn't help that all of his friends are underclassmen, minus like, Hyosang, who sends more time with his girlfriend, Sunyoung, in one day combined than with Seokjin the whole week. Seokjin's already awkward enough by himself as it is, he doesn't need to also third wheel.

"Makes sense," Namjoon says, and then pauses. "How'd your exam go, by the way?"

"Huh?"

"Exam," he repeats. "You said you had an Econ exam on Thursday."

"Oh!" Seokjin wonders how the hell he even remembered that. He's pretty sure Namjoon has more important things to remember than his exam schedule, like which bright colored headphones he's going to wear today. Speaking off, he can see the wire of lime green headphones peeking out of his backpack. "It... went okay, I guess. Can never be too sure; gotta wait for my grade."

"The worst part," Namjoon says, sighing. "Hang in there, I'm sure you did great. I've never seen anyone as concentrated in their work as you."

Well, Seokjin thinks, blinking, that was unexpected. "Thanks?" he asks, and laughs when Namjoon scratches the back of his head nervously. "What about you?" he asks, just because this poor kid has been asking him questions the whole time. "Are you here to just do homework?"

"Oh, I wish," Namjoon sighs, but his eyes brighten, like he's been waiting for Seokjin to ask him something about himself this whole time. "I've got an English exam on Wednesday. English grammar is so confusing. But I actually usually do homework here, I'm just usually on the third floor."

"I wish you luck," Seokjin replies, "I'm usually right here, really. This table might just have an invisible 'Reserved for Kim Seokjin' nameplate on it."

Namjoon grins at him. "I wish I had that. I have to fight for my spot every day." He presses something on his laptop and hums. "I guess maybe that's why I end up here each time. Maybe you're my nameplate."

Seokjin smiles pleasantly at him, trying to think of a decent reply, but his mind fizzles out and maybe he even blushes. Crap, no. He can't think of that, not when he's got a Research Ethics paper due tomorrow.

"Okay, I'm going to tune you out now to work," Namjoon says, and Seokjin nearly collapses onto the floor in relief.

"Cool," he mumbles, and fishes his iPod out of his bag.

Monday.

Seokjin's got one more exam tomorrow at 8AM, and he's got at least five cups of coffee spiraling through his veins right now and holy crap there are four e's in this word, that's so weird. Four e's.

Thank god he's got a laptop open because he doesn't think he could hold a pencil and write legibly because his hands are shaking so much. Coffee dehydrates you, right? He wonders if you can get coffee hangovers. Coffee hangovers, that sounds awful.

Another thank God that the library is practically empty. Most of the midterms were last week and the week before, so the only people inside right now are late stragglers like Seokjin, or people who usually spend their time in the library, which is also like Seokjin.

"You're still here?"

He doesn't even need to look up to know who it is now. He looks anyway, because Namjoon's face doesn't have any words on them that have to deal with the statistics of the economic growth of Seoul after World War II. "Yup," he says, "unfortunately. One more exam tomorrow, and oh god, I'm going to fail? Also hi."

Namjoon peers closely at him, and Seokjin would feel self conscious if he could concentrate on one spot, but he can't hahahah, wow look at that, Namjoon's got nice looking eyes actually, they're more cute than anything. It doesn't match his hairstyle, or his headphones. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Seokjin says, way too quickly. "Why?"

Namjoon's still staring at him weirdly. "You're shaking. Are you okay? Are you on drugs or someth-"

His voice cuts off and when Seokjin follows his gaze, it ends up landing on the coffee cup.

"You... how many cups of coffee have you drank?"

"Um," Seokjin pauses, and for a second it almost seems like the world has paused too, except Namjoon takes a step back and the answer swings into his head. "Five!" he says, proud of himself for remembering.

"Stay here," Namjoon says, and then he's gone, and Seokjin's staring at the white pillar behind him and what just happened?

Namjoon's left his bag here, so he probably hasn't run away forever, unless he's planning to donate his laptop to Seokjin, which he wouldn't mind all that much, but doubts that's actually what happened.

"Here," he hears Namjoon's voice ring, followed by an ice cold sensation pressed against his cheek that makes him jolt in his chair.

"What the hell–-" But then Namjoon places the water bottle on his desk, condensation creeping onto the wood, and takes his place next to Seokjin.

"You're going to crash," Namjoon says. "Why'd you drink so much coffee?"

"Exam tomorrow," Seokjin says. "At 8AM. I know nothing at all –- I spent so much time studying for the other two exams that now I'm fucked for this one tomorrow and oh god, I'm going to fail-"

Oddly enough, Namjoon doesn't stop him. Seokjin can feel the gazes of other students on him for being so loud, but Namjoon still lets him prattle on.

"Oh god," he finally finishes. He catches the eye of a girl sitting at the next next to them and she gives him a sympathetic glance before turning back to her work. Behind her, Namjoon is looking at him, and Seokjin looks back, expectant, even though he doesn't know what he's expectant of.

"You good now?" Namjoon asks, and Seokjin nods stupidly. "Good. Now drink water and take a nap. I have a paper to write so I'll be here for a while."

His fingertips freeze where they touch the bottle, and the feeling of ice water stuns his body for a moment, caught between shaking from caffeine and shaking from cold. He gets stuck in the middle, frigid in his seat, and when he makes eye contact with Namjoon again, he bursts into laughter.

"What?" Seokjin asks.

Namjoon shakes his head. "Nothing," he says. "Just - your face was funny."

Seokjin stares at him, unsure or whether that's an insult or not, but forgoes it in favor for water.

"Really," he hears Namjoon say in the background. "Just, relax. You'll do better this way, trust me. I'll wake you up in twenty minutes."

Seokjin groans, fishing around for his phone. It's 7:30, which is just enough time to put on a shirt and run to his exam. Somewhere under his sheets, his phone is blaring one of A-Pink’s newest songs, and it takes all of his concentration to find it. When he does, it comes along with a text message from an unknown number. Good luck on your exam! You can do it! :-)

Seokjin should probably worry about who that is, but he's got an exam in twenty minutes and he still hasn't brushed his teeth yet, or put on a shirt. At least, thanks to all the coffee he drank the day before, he crashed by the time he went to sleep, and he's not as groggy waking up as he usually is, so that's a score, maybe. Either way, he'll take all the luck he can get.

"I'm gonna cry," Hoseok says when he walks out the classroom. "What the hell was that question about the difference between social-market economy and corporate capitalism?”

“I didn’t get that question,” Seokjin mumbles, pulling out his phone, and Hoseok groans even louder.

"How do you think you did?" Hoseok asks as Seokjin stares at his screen.

“I don't know what day it is," he replies, and Hoseok pats him on the back sympathetically.

"I feel that," he says. "Where are you heading after this? I wanna eat and play Mario Kart for the rest of the day. Wanna join?"

Seokjin thinks it over. Technically, he's already done his homework, and he doesn't have any more exams to study for, so he doesn't have to go to the library, but at the same time he kind of really wants to. Something to do with obnoxious bleached hair and wide, gummy smile. Maybe. "Nah, I gotta look over some things I forgot for another class. I'll see you later?"

Hoseok grins at him with a glint in his eye, and Seokjin gulps. "Yeah," he says. "Alright. See you then!"

"Didn't you just have an exam?" Namjoon asks, eyebrow raised as he pulls out his bright orange earbuds. How many earphones does he even have?

"Y...eah..." Seojkin mumbles, looking around for an excuse. Maybe he should have thought this through before. "I wanted to see how I did on the exam?"

Namjoon snorts and closes his textbook. "That's just gonna screw with your mind. Here, I don't actually have to do this now, so do you wanna do something?"

"Do something?" Seokjin asks, and watches the edges of Namjoon's lips curl up.

That's how Seokjin ends up back in Hoseok's apartment, rubbing his shoes together and staring at the ground.

"Seokjin hyung!" Hoseok greets, bright smile and all, "You decided to come after all. And you know Namjoonie?"

"You know Namjoon?" Seokjin asks, even though it makes more sense that they know each other. They're both loud and vibrant people, unlike Seokjin who seems to dullen everyday and fade into the background.

"We went to high school together," Hoseok explains. Seokjin tries his best not to feel like an outsider, especially when they high five each other and hug. Namjoon slaps him on the back until Hoseok is hacking, and Seokjin rolls his eyes. Hoseok laughs. "Aw, don't do that hyung. You know you love our manliness."

"You both smell like douche," Seokjin retorts.

Namjoon raises his hands in mock offense. "Wow, okay. I was gonna go easy on you in Mario Kart, but now I can't."

Hoseok wins. He wins because he's a dirty cheater, but he's too lame to admit that.

"You're awful," Seokjin accuses. "Cheater."

Hoseok doesn't deny it. "You just need to concentrate more on the game," he says, grinning.

"I want a rematch," Namjoon says, and Hoseok throws a chip at him.

"Wanna lose again?"

"I'll win even with your cheating. I'll make up for me and Seokjin hyung.”

That's kind of sweet, Seokjin thinks. In a weird, not really heroic but kind of heroic way. He needs to stop thinking. What time is it?

"Oh Jesus, it's nine. I may have accidentally skipped a class."

"Oh, so have we," Namjoon says. "Except not so accidentally."

"Stop negatively influencing me. This isn't good for my academic career."

"Hyung," Namjoon replies slowly, "you're a junior. You don't have much of an academic career lef-"

Seokjin puts a finger to his lips and shushes him loudly. "I don't know what you're talking about." He also tries not to think about how soft Namjoon's lips feel against his finger. God that's so creepy. Seokjin, be less creepy.

"Let him wallow in his old age later," Hoseok says. "Don't even mention the j-o-b word to him."

Seokjin glares at him. "Wow, look at the time. I suddenly have a thing to do back at my dorm that always smells like weed and alcohol. Guess I'll see you guys later."

"Yoongi hyung isn't that bad."

Seokjin glares at him again. Yoongi is a great roommate, which is why they've been living together for the past two years, but his room still always smells like weed and alcohol. He never fails to tell Yoongi this every day, and Yoongi never fails to not give a shit. Thank the lord for fruity body sprays, honestly. "But really," Seokjin says. "I have an 8AM class tomorrow, so I really should get back. I have homework for it and everything."

"Oh," Namjoon and Hoseok both say. Namjoon continues speaking. "In that case, should I bounce too? Hoseok's no fun by himself."

Hoseok grins and kicks him in the shin. "I'm plenty of fun by myself, just ask my dick."

"Dude," Seokjin groans. "Dude. This is why you're single."

"Yeah, that's our cue to leave," Namjoon says quickly. "I'll walk with you and talk about all of Hoseok's dirty secrets."

"I don't have secrets," Hoseok replies as Namjoon slides his flip flops on. Seokjin rolls his eyes, because Namjoon would be that douchebag that wears socks and sandals in March. Namjoon opens the door as Hoseok continues, "But whatever you can say, I can assure you that it will be dirty."

"Leave, leave, leave," Seokjin hisses, backpack already slung across his back. "See you later Hobi."

He hears what is probably a goodbye, but in actuality sounds the a satanic ritual. Makes sense.

Right, so now it's just Namjoon and Seokjin. Outside the library. It's cool, everything's cool. Seokjin is a cool person, he's chill. Kind of.

"So where do you live?" Namjoon asks, looking ahead of them both as they walk away from Hoseok's dorm. He wonders how his roommate, Jimin, deals with him. Then he remembers exactly who Jimin is and pretends he never asked himself such a thing.

"Off campus," Seokjin sighs. "Well, it's on campus, but it's off campus housing. It's a little down the road from the library. What about you?"

"I live right next to the library!" Namjoon says cheerfully. Seokjin tries not to think about how there are stars in Namjoon's eyes, that reflect and burst in Seokjin's heart, and wow, fuck. Fuck no. Seokjin's not that in deep, not yet. "Great, we can walk back together."

Seokjin's not much of a talker, so it's a good thing that Namjoon is, because he keeps the conversation going without Seokjin needing to worry about keeping up with exaggerated hand gestures and old high school stories of how Namjoon and Hoseok met, or that one time where Hoseok was trying to tell his crush a joke and laughed so hard at his own pun that orange juice came out of his nose. Seokjin interjects when he feels his comment is worth saying, says how in his freshman year, his friend's roommate may have been a murderer, because when they first met his greeting words were, "These walls are really soundproof. You could kill a man in here and no one would hear him scream." Namjoon gets a kick out of that one.

"There was one time where this guy I used to like gave me his number and I found out way too late that my friends fucked with my keyboard shortcuts, so 'hey' turned into 'come touch my dick'. He doesn't talk to me anymore."

Seokjin feels really bad for laughing, but before he knows it, he's leaning against a streetlamp and trying to relearn how to breathe all over again. "Come touch my dick," he wheezes. "You have some great friends."

"I do," Namjoon says, sounding much more proud than Seokjin expected. "I have you and Hoseok, my friends are awesome."

Friends. Seokjin hadn't actually considered them friends before. They were some sort of weird friend-acquaintance library buddy thing. "I don't even have your phone number, friend."

Namjoon stops in his tracks, eyebrow raised. "Yes you do?"

Seokjin frowns. "I don't?"

Namjoon laughs and holds his hand out, and Seokjin places it into his hand. "Who do you think texted you good luck on your exam? I'll type in my name, since you didn't get it."

It's when Namjoon's punched half his name that it hits Seokjin. "Wait, Namjoon, are you gay?"

"Yeah." Namjoon, unfazed, doesn't look up from his phone, "there's an LGBT pin on my backpack. You never noticed?"

Seokjin leans over and finds out that there is, indeed, a giant rainbow colored pin on his backpack, among all of the other bright trinkets and pins. "I didn't," he says. "I just... You're the first other gay guy I've met on campus?"

Namjoon has his eyebrows scrunched together when he hands Seokjin's phone back. "We have a gay frat, y'know? I was gonna rush for them when I was a freshman, but decided against it last minute since I hadn't come out at the time."

"Wow," Seokjin breathes. Namjoon hands his phone back to him, and they continue to walk. "So much has changed since I first came here. They just created a Gay-Straight Alliance club in my high school last year. My friend asked me to come, but I'm not the most attention seeking person, so I didn't go."

"I don't think that has anything to do with being attention seeking," Namjoon points out, but Seokjin just shrugs. They both know what he means. "But, you know, if you ever need like... support or something, you got me. That's someone at least. It sucks being alone."

Seokjin stares at the ground as he walks, one foot in front of the other. "Thanks," he mumbles, not quite sure if Namjoon's heard it until he hears a little scoff and then a finger digs into his back. Seokjin yelps, and Namjoon starts to laugh in earnest.

"What are you thanking me for? I’m just doing what any good friend should do, you know?"

"Yeah," Seokjin says. "Yeah."

They arrive in front of Seokjin's apartment, and Namjoon gives him a little wave. "I'll see you later then? Are you gonna be at our library date tomorrow?"

Seokjin laughs. "Of course. Two o'clock, don't be late."

"I won't. Good night!"

"Good night."

Seokjin doesn't even mind when Yoongi's passed out on the beanbag chair, bottle of vodka sitting dangerously close to the edge of the little coffee table they have. He caps the bottle and puts it in the fridge, staring down at his roommate and wondering what the hell he should do with him. It's a Tuesday night, so he knows Yoongi isn't being too irresponsible since he doesn't have class until five tomorrow, but still. He should probably get this lump off of the couch.

"How was Hoseok's place?" Yoongi groans, and Seokjin nearly drops the shot glass.

"You're awake?"

Yoongi grins up at him, bringing the pillow to his chest. "I only had two shots, Seokjin. Who do I look like to you?"

"Borderline alcoholic," Seokjin grumbles under his breath. "It's a Tuesday, and you're drinking alone."

"I couldn't sleep."

"That's the worst reason to drink alcohol for," Seokjin scolds, and fishes a water bottle from the fridge. "Now drink this and go to bed. This is as much as I'm cleaning up for you."

"Yes, wife," Yoongi groans. "And I'm sure there's worse you can drink for. You still haven't answered about Hoseok's place."

Seokjin tosses the bottle to him and sits on his bed. "It was fun. We played video games, nothing big. Namjoon was there, too. I don't think you know Namjoon."

"Nah, I know him," Yoongi says, uncapping the bottle. "I've heard of him, at least. Chill guy. Hell of a partier, but he's chill. Hyosang knows him."

"Hyosang?" Seokjin blinks down at Yoongi, who ignores him in favor of chugging the water bottle. "Hyosang's known him this whole time and hasn't told me?"

"Is he supposed to?" Yoongi asks.

Seokjin scoffs. "It's Hyosang, obviously. Especially when it's someone like Namjoon."

Yoongi rolls his eyes and drains the rest of the bottle. "You mean especially if it's someone you like. Seokjin, you're so readable. Do you even know if he's into guys?"

"Why do you always crush my dreams? And yes, he told me he's gay today."

"Oh," Yoongi breathes, then gets off the couch, shooting the water bottle into the trash can next to Seokjin. "In that case, proceed. He probably likes you back."

"What makes you say that?"

Yoongi shrugs. "Intuition. Also I'm used to you hiding your sexuality from most of the world."

Seokjin groans. He hates this talk. He doesn't want to have this talk at all. Best to stop it in it's tracks before it grows. "Yoongi, you know why I don't-"

"I know," Yoongi sighs. "Parents, jobs, life, all that crazy stuff. You have your reasons, that's cool. I'm just saying, I'd look into it."

"He has an LGBT pin on his backpack," Seokjin grumbles.

"Isn't he an English workshop mentor? I thought they have to have those pins," Yoongi points out. "To show that they're allies and all, ‘all students are welcome’, even if they’re not. It's a really cheap tactic, it's why I don't do tutoring anymore."

"Oh," Seokjin mumbles. "So what are you trying to say?"

Yoongi shrugs. "I'm not trying to say anything. But I'm glad you came out to him. He's a good dude, I've heard. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to do homework and pass out again."

Seokjin watches as Yoongi drags himself up off the beanbag, grabs his books, and stumbles out the door into the lounge. The door slams shortly after and Seokjin sighs, rubbing his temples absentmindedly. "I expect the room to be clean by tomorrow!" Seokjin yells, just because he can.

2PM, second floor of the library, Seokjin's got a different table in the back corner, for a second, he almost wonders if Namjoon will find him this time, since he usually sits on the opposite side of the room, but a tired looking bleached hair boy with pink earbuds trudges in ten minutes later and plops down next to Seokjin. "Why are you so tired?" he asks.

Namjoon mumbles something into the wood, and Seokjin pretends he understands.

"Okay," he replies, "so why are you here?"

"Still have work," Namjoon sighs. "Got more work. I don't have much exams, but all these papers."

Seokjin considers patting him on the back, but decides against it. "How many left?"

"Three. Well, two. I'm just about to finish this one." Namjoon slowly, and very begrudgingly, gets out his laptop and starts it up, blinking at the screen like it personally offends him. Seokjin watches with uninhibited curiosity as Namjoon yawns, taps his password, then groans when it's wrong and face plants onto the table. "Good night," he says.

"O...okay," Seokjin mumbles. "Good night, I guess." He turns back to his Econ textbook.

Two hours later, the body next to him stirs, and Seokjin, again, watches Namjoon blink the sleep out of his eyes and lean back in his chair, turning his head to face Seokjin. "What time is it?" he groans.

"Four thirty," Seokjin answers robotically.

“F-Four thirty?” Namjoon jumps up in his seat, trying to frantically rub the sleep out of his eyes. “You should’ve woken me up earlier, hyung.”

Seokjin scoffs. “Your hyung aegyo isn’t going to work on me. And I let you rest. Stay here, and I’ll be back, okay?”

Namjoon mumbles something under his breath as Seokjin stands up. Truthfully, a sleeping Namjoon was a rather nice Namjoon to have next to him. Well, an awake Namjoon isn't too bad either. They're both nice, Seokjin thinks as he walks to the vending machine downstairs and gets two coffees. Namjoon in general is really nice, which is something Seokjin probably would have never guessed from looking at his bleached hair and weirdly colored earbuds (how many does he have?).

They don't seem like the type of people who would get along, but they kind of go together, like milk and coffee! Seokjin laughs as he pours the creamer into Namjoon's cup. He remembers Namjoon bringing in cups of white chocolate mochas and caramel brulee lattes during exam week. A freshman standing next to him takes a step away from Seokjin and grabs her cup as quickly as she can and runs.

He guesses that's what happen you just click with someone. Clicking over things like exams and papers and that same wood table in the back of the group study lounge on the second floor. That doesn't make sense, does it?

Seokjin places the coffee cup next to a dozing Namjoon, fingers sliding over the keyboard sloppily. "Hurry up and finish your essay. You have two more to write."

"Hyung, why?"

Seokjin smiles and pets Namjoon on the head, who gives him a look but doesn’t say anything, as he lets out all his complaints about his professors and his classes and No one really talks like this in America, and Seokjin listens carefully, pulling out his own highlighters to start studying.

They spend the day working alongside each other quietly except for the occasional nudge of encouragement, and when Seokjin finally leaves for his evening class, he thinks he could get used to this. Is used to this. Doesn't want to ever end.

They could be like Bonnie and Clyde. Well, sort of. Minus all the conning and theft. And almost everything else. Seokjin needs to get a new definition of romance.

It's just that he really likes Namjoon and that's kind of scary.

The problem with Seokjin is that he's too damn shy. He'll be the most awkward and quiet person at a group gathering, even if he knows everyone there. When he doesn't, then, well, it's a trainwreck for Seokjin. Something about initiating conversation. It's anxiety-inducing.

Namjoon seems to be the exception to this rule. He may have been hard to be around in the beginning, what with the stress of midterms and having to share a table with a stranger, but the feeling fled nearly as quickly as it came. Now, it almost feels empty, and lonely, when Namjoon isn't here.

His phone beeps at that moment, taking him out of his thoughts. Have fun in class! Namjoon says, and Seokjin looks at the ground, smiles, and walks along to class.

"You should go out more," Namjoon says one day, while Seokjin is reading the new article his professor emailed the class. "Do you ever party?"

Seokjin raises his eyebrows. "Yoongi parties enough for the both of us, I already get a headache trying to clean up after him."

Namjoon pouts. "You should come out one day. Come to my party! I'm throwing down on Saturday. Be there."

"Is this how you invite people?" Seokjin asks, looking up from his laptop. "It's not very charming, you should find a new method." Namjoon purses his lips, but he still has this hopeful glint in his eye, and Seokjin really doesn't want to let him down. Truthfully, Seokjin does kind of want to go. Not for the party, he's never been into that scene, but at least to see Namjoon. Seeing Namjoon outside of the library would be pretty cool. Seeing him and actually meaning to see him outside the library.

"You haven't answered," Namjoon says. "You know you want to come. I've never seen you party before. Do you drink, hyung?"

"Not often," Seokjin sighs. "I'll go, but only for a little bit. You clearly haven't seen me dance, because once you do, you're gonna tell me to leave."

"I'm pretty sure I've seen much worse," Namjoon says. "And plus, I don't really dance. I just stay upstairs with a few friends and chill. Sometimes I come down, but not for long."

"Ooh," Seokjin teases, "am I going to be a part of the cool kid's club? I get to hang upstairs with all the important people."

Namjoon laughs. "The only important person is you, don't think there's any cool people. The coolest person is me. Hoseok will try to say he is, but Hoseok is always wrong."

Seokjin blinks at him. "What did you say?"

"What?"

"You said something," Seokjin says. "What did you say?"

Namjoon raises an eyebrow, but Seokjin sees his face start to flush. "Hoseok is wrong?"

"Before that."

Namjoon bites his lip, and Seokjin laughs, which then earns him a glare. "Hoseok is going to try to say he's cool, but he's not."

Seokjin grins. "Alright, I'll take it. But we both know what you said."

"Hyung!" Namjoon calls out. "I didn't think you'd really come! And what's that?"

Seokjin holds up a bottle of whiskey. Fireball, to be exact. Yoongi gave it to him, as a present, or something. He's not sure what that means exactly, but he did say that Namjoon liked whiskey. "I stole it from Yoongi," he lies. "Don't tell anyone."

Namjoon laughs and pulls Seokjin inside, closing the door behind him. "You're rebellious stage came pretty late in life, didn't it?"

Seokjin grins. "I tried my best. I'm definitely a cool kid now, aren't I?" He can feel the bass thumping from underneath his feet, and the chattering of people from the other rooms.

"Oh, yeah, definitely. And like we don't already have enough alcohol. You sure you're not going to get in trouble with Yoongi? He's scary when mad."

Seokjin shrugs. "After all the times I've cleaned up after his lazy ass, I deserve something. He has no right to complain."

Namjoon laughs, and it's then that Seokjin notices the colorful earbuds switched out for a simple black stud, hair also gelled back. Seokjin almost feels self conscious in his simple jeans and tshirt, but Namjoon doesn't look like he cares at all. He looks like the epitome of frat boy, after all, in his tight black muscle shirt and faded dark blue jeans, accompanied by the ever-so douche chain hanging around his neck.

Seokjin had maybe sprayed two extra pumps of his cologne. "Well," he says, looking in the direction of what he thinks is the kitchen, "Are you gonna show me around or are we gonna stand at the door the whole time?"

"Oh, right," Namjoon says, flustered, "yes, come in! I'll give you a mini tour of the house. As much of a tour I can give you with drunk people everywhere. So, directly on the right is the kitchen, as you can see."

Seokjin follows his way through clusters of people, gradually pushing himself closer and closer to Namjoon until they're touching at the shoulders, and groans every time someone yells something drunkenly at Namjoon. He gets it, it's his party, he knows everyone, so Seokjin just has to stand it for now.

"Sorry," Namjoon wheezes after being pulled into a hug by one of the girls by the kitchen table. "That was Sojin, she's awesome. Also kind of magical."

Seokjin laughs as Namjoon leads them away. "Magical?"

"Magical. The only way you could describe someone who's doing mechanical engineering and has a 4.0 GPA, and parties every weekend. Sometimes during the week, too." They walk back where they came from and across the foir to the living room. There, Seokjin finds the kid from his Political Econ class making out with a girl on the couch, hand already down her pants. Namjoon coughs. "I'll go tell Youngjae to tell them off or something. Let's just go upstairs." He motions to Seokjin to walk by himself, and turns to yell something into the kitchen, and Seokjin barely manages to see a boy with blonde hair yell something back and walk towards the living room. "Sorry about that," Namjoon sighs. "House rules, we decided in the beginning of the year. Sexy times only in your rooms, and only people who live in the house can have sex in the house. In their rooms."

Seokjin doesn't see the need to know this rule - party or not, a stranger shoving their hand down another stranger's pants in front of you is never exciting to look at. Or well, he guesses they're not really strangers, since they're at Namjoon's place.

"Alright, so, we have four people living in the house. We all have our own rooms, praise the lord. That one on the far left is Youngjae's, the one next to it is Taemin's, then is Jiho, and finally, on the right is my room. You can actually bring that to my room," Namjoon says, nodding his head towards the bottle in Seokjin's hand. "My room is usually where my friends sit and just chill."

Seokjin raises his eyebrows. "I thought you were the dancing kind of guy."

"See?" Namjoon says to himself, exasperated, "Everyone thinks that! I actually don't dance at all, I'm awful. I hate dancing anyway. Everyone assumes I like to dance." He opens the door to his room, which, surprisingly, turns out to be empty. "Do I really look like I dance?"

Seokjin shrugs. He just assumed that from his general pseudo-fratboy vibes. "You have a dancer body?" he tries.

"What's a dancer body?" Namjoon asks, grabbing the bottle of Fireball and placing it on the counter.

"I dunno," Seokjin admits. "Lean?"

Namjoon pouts. "And here I thought I was getting jacked from going to the gym so much. Gotta work harder. And hey, have a seat. You can just sit on my bed, or I can steal a chair from Taemin's room."

"Nah, it's fine," Seokjin says as Namjoon pulls out his phone to look at a text. "Your room is interesting."

Namjoon's room is much more plain than Seokjin expected it to be. It's got a desk, a drawer cabinet, and a bed. The wall has a few posters, a picture of Kendrick Lamar, a Star Trek poster, and a fake motivational poster that says, 'Simplicity: The simple solutions are often the cleverest. They're also probably wrong.' The picture in the poster is a right triangle asking to find x. It's circled, and next to it is written "here it is." Seokjin laughs at it, loud enough for Namjoon to look up from his phone in questioning until he sees where Seokjin's looking.

"Oh, that," he laughs. "Hoseok gave it to me in our freshman year. I actually did that on one of my exams. Got detention for it in high school."

"Detention?" Seokjin asks. "For circling an x?"

Namjoon grins. "Let's just say it was the straw that broke the camel's back. I was a smartass in high school."

"You're still a smartass," Seokjin retorts.

"Wow," Namjoon says, holding his hands to his chest in mock hurt. "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words cause psychological wounds that never heal."

Someone laughs from the door, and Seokjin and Namjoon look to see Hoseok and Hunchul standing at the doorway. "Jeez, overdramatic much. Don't worry Seokjin," Hunchul says. "Namjoon just has no chill."

"Compared to you?" Namjoon scoffs. "Get out of here."

"I brought shot glasses!" Hoseok says. "You can't kick me out. Also, Taehyung and Jimin just came, so we came to avoid the hot mess that is going to happen."

"Oh god," Namjoon groans, then turns to Seokjin. "Nothing good happens when Jimin's here. Do you know him?"

"Isn’t he your roommate?” Seokjin asks Hoseok. “I’ve heard some horror stories, but that’s it. Who is he exactly?"

"A menace," Hoseok says as he puts the shot glasses on Namjoon's desk. "That's who. That's when the party transitions from casual dancing and chatting to body shots and sex on the deck."

"Uh," Seokjin stares at Namjoon, who grins back at him. "Oh no?"

"I dunno," Namjoon casually says, "I'm feelin' a little wild tonight. Ready for shots?"

Seokjin didn't really know what he was expecting to see when he came to Namjoon's place, and he's still not really sure if he's surprised or not, but a new sense of nervousness bubbles up in his stomach and Hoseok pours out four shots and hands the small cup to Seokjin.

It's not that Seokjin hasn't drank before. He's 21, he's done his share fair of drinking. Maybe not as often as most people, but enough. It also helps that he's a natural born tank, so alcohol doesn't do much to him, except for that one time he drank two whole bottles of wine because his favorite character in one of the books he was reading died. But that's a different story.

The reason why his hand shakes (only a bit, he swears) as he gets ready to tip the glass back is because Namjoon is grinning at him expectantly, eyes twinkling as he counts, "three, two, one!", and they all drain their glasses.

The liquid burns as it usually does when it goes down Seokjin's throat, but it's not the worst thing in the world. The cinnamon makes it slightly more bearable, but next to him, Hunchul coughs and Hoseok blinks his eyes furiously.

"So much for sitting around and talking," Namjoon says wistfully, but Seokjin catches something not quite honest in his tone. Something short of playful, short of mischievous. "Another?"

Half an hour later, they're five drinks in, Seokjin's pouring himself a sixth because he just barely feels a slight fuzzy feeling in his head, but not enough. Namjoon is sitting on his bed and laughing at something Hoseok's just said, laughs hard enough to flop over onto his pillow clumsily.

"Seokjin," Hunchul says, "not that we've been the best example, but now's probably the time to slow down on the alcohol. I'm thinking of heading downstairs in a bit."

He shrugs. "This much is close to nothing to me, to be honest. I'll let you know when it gets there, though. You can stop me at eleven, if I really go all out."

"Eleven?" Hoseok asks incredulously. Namjoon stares at him from the bed, mouth agape. "How drunk are you trying to get?"

"Drunk?" Seokjin asks. "I'm not trying to get drunk. I'm alright with getting tipsy though."

"I see why Yoongi is your roommate now," Hunchul slurs, sitting up again. "The two tanks would live together."

Namjoon groans. "That's not fun. Come downstairs with me, I can grab some vodka in the freezer. I'll steal Youngjae's powerade, he owes me anyway."

Seokjin shrugs. He doesn't have anything else to do, and Hunchul and Hoseok wave them off with being tired and not wanting to deal with Jimin's madness. He's actually rather curious to see who this Jimin is and what impact he has. He has noticed a sudden increase in music volume, but figured that was just due to the alcohol, and thumping bass isn't exactly rare at house parties.

Namjoon stumbles when he gets on his feet, bumping lightly into Seokjin, and Seokjin grabs his arm to steady him. His skin is hot to the touch, compared to Seokjin's own, and Namjoon hisses at the contact. "Why are your hands so cold?" he asks. Seokjin shrugs.

They make their way to Youngjae's room, and Namjoon grabs two bottles of Powerade and then they make their way downstairs, and that's when Seokjin sees all the difference.

There's twice as many people as there was when he first came, all stuck together in a giant, sweaty human mess. Namjoon grabs onto Seokjin's wrist as he pulls him through the crowd, and Seokjin nearly screams when he sees someone lying down on the kitchen island, a few girls around.

"God dammit, Jimin," Namjoon yells, "get off the fucking table."

Oh. So this is Jimin. This Jimin person leans up, little drops of liquid running down his body, and Namjoon looks at Seokjin, and glowers at his widening eyes and open mouth, because he pushes Seokjin behind him and crosses his arms.

Jimin pretty much looks like he's what would happen if you took a Greek god and a fratboy and shoved them in a blender and then spit them out in Korea. His arms might be bigger than his head, and his abs definitely have more definition than any part of Seokjin at all. His jaw is probably as sharp as a blade, except his smile is blinding as he laughs.

"Namjoon! I was wondering when you'd come down. Who's that behind you?"

"Oh, this is Seokjin, the one I was talking to you about the other day. Seokjin, this is the infamous Jimin."

"You were right about the body shots," Seokjin laughs, stepping forward and taking Jimin's hand and shaking it.

Jimin shrugs. "I did it once, and then I was just suddenly known for it. Gotta stick with the image, you know?"

Seokjin nods, even though he definitely doesn't know.

"Anyway!" Jimin suddenly says, grinning at Namjoon and Seokjin, and Seokjin has a very bad feeling, "I know you both would love to drink beer off my body Namjoon, but I'm more about the girl life, so let's just grab the good stuff in the freezer I know you have."

As he walks off, Namjoon sighs. "Jimin's also aggressively heterosexual," he says. "Not that it affects me, but he's the one that wears basketball shorts in the snow."

Seokjin wrinkles his nose, and Namjoon laughs as Jimin comes back and he puts the bottles of Powerade on the table. The bottles opened and more glasses are poured, and soon Seokjin's got himself a nice mix of Powerade and three? four? shots of vodka. Namjoon's shaking his own concoction as they watch Jimin drain the rest of the Powerade bottle mixed with god who knows how much alcohol. "How much does he normally drink?"

"No idea," Namjoon says, "but he's a serial blackout-er. We usually end up having to tell him what happened and how many he went home with."

"That's uh... that's nice," Seokjin mumbles. Namjoon laughs, walking away from the kitchen.

"Let's leave that one to his own devices. I'll show you the basement where everyone's dancing."

"I'm not a dancer," Seokjin warns and they make their way down the stairs. Namjoon snorts and gives him a look in reply, and that's really all he needs, considering Namjoon.

Now the music is blaring in his ear, and Seokjin is reminded why he never goes out to parties. Namjoon says something to him, but he can't hear it over the bass of some indie rap song. "What?" he yells.

"It was a lot nicer before," Namjoon screams back. "I'm not drunk enough for this."

Seokjin watches as he takes a very, very long swig of his alcohol concoction thing. Seokjin wonders if he should too, and figures why not, he's just tipsy.

Namjoon's eyes are diluted, and he's not sure if it's because he's drunk or because it's pretty dark in the basement, but both are pretty good guesses. "Go dance," Seokjin says, as they move to the side, away from the speakers. "Since you're so good at it."

"Well, I mean, you said you were so much better, so why don't you show me how it's done?" Namjoon slurs, and Seokjin casually - or as casually as he can - takes the bottle from Namjoon.

"I said no such thing." He knows how this game is played. There have been other instances of people trying to get Seokjin to dance with them the same way. He wonders how bad Namjoon's beer goggles are.

Seokjin really just wants to maybe go back upstairs and chat meaninglessly for an hour or two. Or three.

It turns out that he doesn't have to stall any longer because Hoseok and Jimin come hollering down the stairs, barreling into Namjoon and knocking the wind out of him. Seokjin takes the chance to make sure the coast is clear and then toss the plastic bottle over his shoulder. They'll find it tomorrow.

"I think this is my cue to leave," he says to himself, after Namjoon gets carried away in the wave. The last thing he wants to do is dance, so he makes his way back up the stairs and into the kitchen, then back out again, because Jimin has at least four girls around him and that's pretty weird.

Upstairs it is. Namjoon's room was the one all the way on the right, he tells himself, and walks in, collapsing on the bed.

Seokjin wakes up feeling like his head is empty. It's a weird feeling he doesn't like too much. At least it's better than a hangover, but it’s still not the most pleasant feeling in the world. It's another one of Seokjin's weird drinking effects, also why he doesn't drink very much.

He glances at his phone and thinks back to last night. For what it's worth - for what he expected of Namjoon - the party was pretty tame. They drank, sat around, kind of danced, and talked. Nothing crazy. It's not Seokjin's first party, and definitely not his wildest. If anything, it's probably not even close to Yoongi's tamest party.

It takes a moment or two to realize that he's not in his bed, and that's kind of alarming. There's also someone else in the room.

He peers over the side of the bed and finds Namjoon on the floor, wrapped in a thin bedsheet. Whoops.

Oh, he realizes. Seokjin fell asleep in Namjoon's room last night, after running away from the party downstairs. He had expected Namjoon to wake him up, but apparently not.

Well.

Now comes the question of what to do. Does he go home? To go home without telling Namjoon is kind of excessive; this isn't a one night stand or anything. But he should probably tell Namjoon, so at least the poor thing can sleep in his own bed. But if Namjoon wakes up he'll probably talk. He'll probably also have a hangover.

The door knocks then, and Seokjin debates opening it until he hears Taemin yelling, "If you don't say anything, I'm coming in!"

"Uh, come in?" Seokjin asks, not quite sure what the protocol is. Taemin barges in anyway, regardless of whether he heard Seokjin or not.

"Oh," he says, looking at Seokjin. "Uh, hi. Namjoon hasn't got laid in a really long time. I was wondering when that would change."

Seokjin coughs. "I'm not- I'm not a one night stand. I just fell asleep here last night. No sex."

Taemin doesn't look like he believes him. "That's what they all say," he replies, confirming Seokjin's suspicion. "Where is he, anyway?"

"Down there," Seokjin says, pointing to the side of the bed Taemin can't see. He walks over to see Namjoon passed out on the floor and and sighs.

"Wake up, dumbfuck," Taemin says, nudging Namjoon's leg. When nothing happens, Taemin gets out his phone and grins at Seokjin. "I really hope you're not a one night stand, because this spectacle would be a shame to waste on a no one."

He presses buttons on his phone and a loud blaring erupts from it, causing Namjoon to scream and flails upwards, confused for a second before he sees Taemin and attempts to swipe in his direction, but it’s slow enough to have Taemin jump back, cackling. Seokjin slowly realizes that the blaring is actually someone screaming in some language he can't recognize.

"That's not funny!" Namjoon yells, but Taemin's cackling anyway, and Seokjin can't really find it in himself to conceal his amusement, so he laughs too, and that's when Namjoon looks up at Seokjin, eyes still blinking sleep and hatred away.

"What's that supposed to be?" Seokjin asks.

Taemin grins. "Namjoon said he believes in ghosts, so I tried to summon one in his room. He didn't like it, so I changed it to a demon summoning."

"The audio is him yelling it at me as I threw things at him,” Namjoon explains bitterly.

"He didn't have holy water so he thought a good replacement was whiskey."

Namjoon tries to defend himself, but Jiho takes that moment to come into the room to bark at them, "If you guys really don't want chocolate chip pancakes, that's cool, Youngjae and I can eat them all - hey Seokjin - but if you want any, comme des fuck downstairs and eat, like Taemin was supposed to tell you."

"Hey," Seokjin says, getting out of Namjoon's bed. "Um. I should probably get back? Yoongi's probably wondering where I am."

"Don't be stupid," Taemin says, "Yoongi probably doesn't give a shit, but I also bet you Yoongi would want chocolate chip pancakes, so join us and take some back to him. Or don’t, and brag about how you had chocolate chip pancakes.”

Taemin's right. Yoongi probably doesn't give a shit. Seokjin had approximately 0 texts and 0 missed calls when he checked his phone this morning, but at the same time, Yoongi is probably nursing a very big hangover and sleeping off the effects of a much more intense party.

Seokjin ends up finally going back to his dorm three hours later, after pancakes, Youngjae's retelling of "what an extreme and unhealthy piece of shit at dancing kind of person" Namjoon was last night, and a demon incantation from Taemin. Seokjin's not quite sure what to think of the last one, but the house hasn't set fire yet, so it probably isn't as serious as they make it. Apparently everyone in the house has been woken up by Taemin's demon summoning rituals at least twice.

He gets back at the same time Yoongi does, both of them nearly knocking into each other in the front of their dorm room door. "Hey," he says, and Yoongi grunts.

"Too loud," he says, opening the door and nearly falling face front on the mat. "Hangover bad."

"What did you do last night?" Seokjin asks, gingerly walking around Yoongi, who immediately collapses onto his bed. He beckons Seokjin to toss him a water bottle.

"Many things. Many people. Uh, don't mix Tequila and Rum. No, do actually. It's great. Just hydrate yourself before. And after. Always hydrate yourself. Also, keg stands are only great for the first ten seconds."

"I'll try to remember," Seokjin replies, snorting. He grabs a water bottle from under his bed. "I went out too - I went to Namjoon's place. Remember him?"

Yoongi laughs. "How can I not? He's a hard person to forget. Your crush is more than obvious, even if I didn't."

"I don't have a crush!" Seokjin half yells, throwing the water bottle much harder than he should. Yoongi, having been in worse situations, catches the bottle easily. Well, Seokjin thinks, now that Yoongi's laughing even harder, he needs to think of some excuse that redirects this train of thought. "I just think he's interesting. I mean, you said yourself, he's a hard person to forget."

"Hard to forget doesn't mean I think about him all the time," Yoongi replies. "But whatever. Not my love life. Oh wait, what love life- Ouch! You little fuck, I gave you that whiskey."

Seokjin chucks the tylenol bottle at him, smacking him right in the middle of the forehead. "Who needs love lives?" Seokjin huffs, opening up his laptop. "I just need Netflix. Fuck your whiskey."

"Don't fuck the whiskey," Yoongi mumbles as he empties the water bottle in one go. "Have they fixed the water filter in the hallway yet?"

Seokjin shrugs, having already launched himself onto his own bed with no plans to be productive for the rest of the day.

Monday comes, and Seokjin finds himself too lazy to actually go back to the library. The prospect of seeing Namjoon is tempting, but not tempting enough as his bed and shrimp crackers.

He does manage to get himself into his classes and out, barely, and congratulates himself by cooking himself kimchi jjigae and smacks Yoongi's chopsticks away every time he tries to steal a piece.

"Don't you have to go meet your date?" Yoongi grumbles, finally stealing a piece of kimchi when Seokjin looks up in confusion.

"Namjoon?" he asks, "I'm sure he'll just study with another friend. I deserve a break."

"It's surprising he hasn't texted you," Yoongi replies. "I always thought of him as the clingy type."

"We're not actually dating," Seokjin says, promptly ignoring Yoongi's yeah right. "We just study together. And we study a lot, so."

"Namjoon studying is like me staying sober," Yoongi says, "are you sure he doesn't just go on Tumblr next to you? He seems like the type to have an anarchist poetry blog."

"Even if he does," Seokjin says pointedly, "the library is not the worst of places to hang out."

Yoongi snorts. "Fuckin' nerd."

Seokjin shrugs and clicks the next episode of Running Man.

Seokjin finds Namjoon in their spot of the library before him, which is weird because Seokjin is pretty sure he has a class right now.

He mentions this as he tosses a bag of chips onto the table, followed by a plastic bag, placed down more gently. Namjoon looks up at the sound, then down at the back, and Seokjin watches his eyes light up and mouth curve into a smile. "You got bubble tea?" he asks excitedly.

"I didn't know what flavor you liked," Seokjin explains, "so I got black milk tea, if that's okay. I got taro, but if you like that better you can have it."

"Black milk tea is perfect," Namjoon replies, fishing it out of the bag. "And I didn't go to class. It's just a bunch of presentations, and I don't go until Tuesday anyway."

"Bad student," Seokjin chides as he gets his stuff out of his bag. "Your professors probably think you're that artistic rebel kid. He motions to Namjoon's outfit, bright green earbuds and OBEY snapback. He's even wearing a black tshirt with an anarchy symbol on it.

"Well they wouldn't be wrong," Namjoon says. "Does everyone think you're the good by-the-books teacher's pet? Sometimes I wonder how Yoongi is your roommate."

"Me too," Seokin mumbles, opening up his notebook. "Hey, do you have an anarchist poetry blog?"

"Do I have a what?"

"Never mind, just a random thought I had," Seokjin says quickly, trying to hide his grin. As he flips to a blank page, something flops onto his head, and he looks up to see the brim of Namjoon's snapback.

"You actually look pretty good in my snap," he says, running his fingers through bleached hair. Seokjin wants to touch it maybe. "Keep wearing it."

"It doesn't match my outfit," Seokjin says, looking down at his plaid blue shirt.

"Snapbacks go with everything," Namjoon says. "Have you met Soojung? She wears snapbacks with flower dresses all the time."

"You know too many people," Seokjin sniffs. "Hurry up and concentrate on your presentation."

Namjoon laughs, but doesn't take his hat back. "Whatever you say."

Seokjin ends up accidentally wearing it back to his dorm.

"So how's your boyfriend?" Hyosang asks.

Seokjin looks up from his ramyun. "Boyfriend? I don't have a boyfriend."

Hyosang stares at him, eyebrows raised, until Seokjin has to prompt him to speak. "Namjoon's not your boyfriend?"

Seokjin shifts uncomfortably in his chair. "Namjoon? He's not - we're just friends. And frequent study partners."

"Whatever you say," Hyosang says, bringing his glass of water to his lips. "I'll get it out of Namjoon."

"Well," Seokjin gulps, not entirely sure what that means. "How's your exam week going?" he asks, changing the subject.

"Awful," Hyosang replies. "I hate school."

"At least you don't have an exam Monday morning."

"True."

Seokjin laughs, slurps some ramyun, and tries not to think about what Hyosang meant before.

Seokjin doesn't even go to his dorm after the exam. He heads straight to the library and to a very sleepy Namjoon reading over his essay. Before Namjoon can say anything, Seokjin digs his head into his shoulder and groans, "good night," before closing his eyes. He feels Namjoon shaking slightly beneath him.

"Good night to you too," Namjoon replies, amused.

About two hours later, Seokjin wakes up not on a table but not on the floor. His head isn't on anything hard, actually. In fact, it feels a lot like denim. Jeans? It doesn't hit him until he hears the clicking of Namjoon's keyboard above him. He would manage to fall asleep on Namjoon's lap, though he's not exactly sure how.

Fingers touch his hair, then retract, and Namjoon looks down at him. "O-Oh, you're awake?"

Seokjin rubs his eyes. "How did I get down here?"

"You kept falling off my shoulder, so I just maneuvered you onto my lap. "Rest well?"

"No," he mumbles, turning to the other side. This leads to him facing Namjoon's stomach - more importantly, his dick, and turns back around. His head is still pretty much situated on Namjoon's crotch, and now that this fact is in Seokjin's head, he doesn't think he'll be able to get it out just yet. Welp. Might as well get up before he does something more awkward than it already is.

Namjoon laughs when Seokjin sits up in his chair. He looks over when Namjoon doesn't stop laughing, even after he's turned on his laptop and everything.

"Your hair," Namjoon explains, after looking at Seokjin's befuddled face. "it looks like a piece of art, honestly. Abstract art. Or like, modern art. Abstract modern art. I feel inspired just looking at it."

"What kind of inspiration does it give you?" Seokjin questions mid yawn. Normally he'd care, but he's still tired and really just wants to go back to sleep. Preferably on Namjoon's lap, but that's something he'd rather not elaborate on.

"Like- a romantic poem. Or something," Namjoon says, face abruptly turning bright red. "Never mind. Just, art, yknow?"

"Sure," Seokjin says, reaching up to fix his apparent Picasso hairstyle. It isn't until he's patting down his bangs until he realizes what Namjoon said. Romantic poems. Seokjin's messy hair makes Namjoon want to write romantic poems. Well. Well then.

"Anyway," Namjoon says, clearing his throat. "My friend Jackson was asking if he could join us studying. Is that okay with you?"

"Oh, uh, yeah," Seokjin says, still thinking about poems that are romantic. Namjoon doesn't even seem like the type to write poetry, or anything. Then again, Namjoon is supposedly an English major. Now he really wants to see Namjoon's poetry. If he has any. Which he doesn't, Seokjin's sure. But hypothetically, if he really were to, that would be something that Seokjin would hypothetically want to see.

Jackson shows up and studies for a bit until Seokjin has to leave for his evening class, and they all bid each other goodbye.

The week continues like that, weirdly enough. Apparently, according to Namjoon, word has got out that he’s a lot more studious than he used to be, and now a few of his friends want to see what’s up and possibly also be studious now that the nightlife has lulled in sight of the second round of midterms. Seokjin takes it as initiative to invite some of his friends, too, the very small amount of friends that he has, and then it’s a party.

On Tuesday Namjoon shows up and slides a cup of hot chocolate across the table to Seokjin, who smiles and accepts it graciously. “Not coffee?” he asks.

“You drink too much coffee,” Namjoon replies. “You have an exam coming up don’t you?”

Seokjin sighs, thumbing the tiny mouth hole on the lid. “Yeah. I won’t be getting much sleep this week.”

Namjoon grins. “I guess that’s more hot chocolate then,” he says, and Seokjin laughs incredulously.

It turns out to be true.

Seokjin goes through the next week sleeping nearly four hours a day, drowning himself in coffee during the day and tea during the night and Namjoon pats him on the head and encourages him when he needs and it makes him rest when he needs that, too. It's very weird, the way they click together, two very different people who shouldn't fit at all but somehow the disjointed sides fit together perfectly like a puzzle piece.

On the days Seokjin is nursing himself with a coffee, Namjoon comes in and slides a cup of hot chocolate across the table, smiling sympathetically.

"You should get a medal award," Seokjin groans, staring at the bits of pink and blue highlighter that have bled onto his hand. "You're amazing."

"A medal award," Namjoon repeats, and lets the awkward phrase hang inbetween them. "Maybe you should get less coffee and more sleep."

"Can't do," Seokjin groans. "This exam will be the death of me, I swear. Why am I even an Econ major? I should've just done philosophy or something."

Namjoon flicks him in the middle of his forehead. "Hey, philosophy can be hard too. Don't hate on other people's majors."

Seokjin sighs and mumbles something under his breath and turns the page. "From now on, I hate the colors pink and blue. They're awful. I should've gotten a yellow highlighter."

"You say that every time," Namjoon says. "Have you even read anything worthwhile in the past ten minutes?"

Seokjin thinks about it. Looks down at his textbook and at the multiple highlighters and pens scattered across the table. "Uh. I tried?" He flips back a page and sees if there's anything that he actually remembers.

Well. He does remember looking at that graph, so that counts for something, right?

Namjoon shakes his head. "Nope. This isn't going to work. Pack your things up, we're leaving."

Seokjin's head snaps up. "What? No, we can't just- What are you doing?"

Namjoon grabs his textbook and puts it into Seokjin's bag for him. "You're not studying, even if you think you are. Studying at your textbook for half an hour doesn't count, nothing happens from doing that. We're going on. We're gonna go on a date."

"What?"

Seokjin mind shuts down. Date? They're going on a, what? A date? That doesn't make any sense, they're not even, they haven't-

"A date," Namjoon repeats, then looks at Seokjin with thinly concealed amusement. "We're just gonna go to the cafe and chill for a bit. Seriously, you look like you need some rest. I'd rather just take you back to your dorm and make you sleep, but I don't think you'd actually listen to me, so we're just going to get a sandwich or something. Then, after you have properly relaxed, you can go back to the books."

Seokjin is still trying to calm down from the word 'date'. Okay, so not a date. Just a, a hang out? Yes, that. Whatever you call that. It's not a date though. Dates involve things like feelings and actually liking the other person! And Seokjin definitely does not like Namjoon. Not in that way, at least. Definitely not.

Namjoon picks up Seokjin's backpack for him, and it's at this point where Seokjin realizes that Namjoon doesn't actually have his own backpack with him. "Where's your stuff?" he asks.

"Hm? Oh, I only had my laptop, so I just kind of stuffed it into your backpack. If that's okay with you."

Seokjin shrugs. "Well. You are the one carrying it, so I don't see why I have any reason to complain."

"Then let's go!" Namjoon says, grinning, and Seokjin trails a step or two behind him as they walk out of the library. "What's your pick, Starbucks or Tour Les Jours?"

Seokjin wrinkles his nose. "Tour Les Jours. Starbucks is overpriced and lame. Also not after their recent controversy. "

"The recent controversy." Namjoon repeats to himself. "I didn't think you were into that kind of thing. Social justice and whatnot. Especially since you're an Econ major. Are you?"

"Hm? Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?" Seokjin asks. "Are you?"

Namjoon laughs, but his eyes light up in this way that Seokjin’s never seen them do before. "I'm a social justice minor, come on, didn't you know that? What do you think all these papers I write are? Linguistic analyses?"

"Yes?" Seokjin asks meekly. "Are they not?"

Namjoon shrugs. "Sometimes they are. But that's cool, I didn't know you were into that kind of stuff. Most guys aren't. The only guys that I know of that are are usually also gay, or at least in the LGBT community. Wait, this makes sense."

Seokjin laughs.

They finally approach the cafe, and Seokjin looks around at the order list. Maybe he shouldn't get coffee, like Namjoon said. What else is there besides coffee, anyway?

"Try getting an iced drink," Namjoon says, as if reading his mind. "It's... refreshing."

Seokjin snorts. "Wow, where did you get that idea from? I had no idea they could be refreshing. What a new concept."

"Shut up," Namjoon sniffs, giving Seokjin mocking pouty lips. Seokjin tries his best not to think about how kissable they may or may not look. (They don't! Not at all. Just a teeny bit. But miniscule, really.)

"Go," Seokjin says, pulling out his wallet. "I'm the hyung here, I'm gonna pay. Tell me what you want and then go get us a table, okay?"

"That's not fair, you've never used your hyung card before. You barely even qualify as hyung!"

"Did I ask for your qualifications?" Seokjin snaps. "Either tell me what you want or I'm going to buy you a large Americano."

Namjoon wrinkles his nose and glances up at the menu. "Just get me an iced tea or something.”

Seokjin beams at him, teeth and all, until Namjoon glowers and walks away to find a table for them to sit at. He turns back just in time to find the cashier beckoning him, and orders a medium hot chocolate and a large iced tea.

When he scouts out the table Namjoon found, there's two more people sitting there, two faces Seokjin recognizes very well. They turn to him at the moment and grins. "Hyung!" one of the yells.

"Taehyungie! Jungkookie!" Seokjin calls, laughing. "You were here? You know Namjoon?"

The three of them grin up at Seokjin as he places Namjoon's drink in front of him and takes the last seat remaining at the table next to him. He hasn't seen Taehyung and Jungkook in almost a month, all of them having been busy with their own schedules. The last time he hung out with them, Taehyung was trying to teach him out how to longboard, and it didn't turn out well for anyone.

"We were here together studying for our Chemistry midterm on Thursday. We saw Namjoon and called him over! But hyung, how do you know Namjoon?"

"Me? What does that mean, we're closer in age than you are, I should be asking you that question. We just study together a lot at the library."

Namjoon laughs. "Yup. I hit him a lot on the head."

"It hurts," Seokjin grumbles, sipping his hot chocolate.

"We know Namjoon hyung from our Comparative Literature class! We had a project together. He kept calling us the breakfast club, because none of us really seemed like we clicked with each other, but we all actually got along really well. Actually, speaking of, did you heard about Soojung? She and Minhyuk just had their one year anniversary. I'd like to claim all the hard work and ownership for that couple. It was all us, right Namjoon hyung?"

Namjoon nods. "It was. Soojung was a brat and didn't want to do anything about the fact that both she and Minhyuk liked each other, and both of them knew it. That's sort of how we became in class friends to just friends in and out of class. It was pretty cool."

Seokjin nods and listens to the stories the three of them had to tell. Seokjin himself has always been a quiet one, never one to go out of his way to create a distraction, and by default, never one to have any cool stories to tell. Or any stories at all. But he likes listening, and he likes dreaming. They go hand in hand, right? It's not the worst thing in the world. Sometimes he gets jealous, looks at everyone around him and thinks about how they're probably having a much more fun time than him, but also revels in the fact that he can relax and just read a book and hang around people he likes. And those people usually have stories to tell him anyway, so it's not that big of a loss.

"And basically, that was the time Taehyung wasted perfectly good food. I'm still mad at him about it."

"It tasted bad anyway," Taehyung grumbles. He then shifts in place and looks at Seokjin. "What about you, hyung? What have you been up to?"

"Uh." Seokjin hates this question. "Nothing much, really. You know me guys, just hitting the books and going to sleep. My life is boring. I've got this guy," Seokjin pokes Namjoon in the side for emphasis, grinning victoriously when Namjoon groans, "to keep me up."

Taehyung and Jungkook stare at each other. "To keep you up...?"

Seokjin stares at them. "Yeah? When I sle-" It hits him then, what they're thinking. "Oh! Guys, no, what are you idiots thinking? When I fall asleep in the library, dumbasses. Get your head out of the gutters."

Namjoon attempts to stifle a laugh behind his hand and fails. "It did sound that way, hyung. You really do need to work on your wording sometimes. First medal award and now this?"

Seokjin shrugs. "My mind is all over the place, I don't know how to concentrate anymore."

"Uh oh," Jungkook says, "that's not good. Do you have an exam, hyung?"

Seokjin groans and tries not to faceplant into his drink. "It's his International Econimics class," Namjoon says for him, gently patting Seokjin on the back. He feels fingers tickle at his nape, then massage gently. It feels kind of nice.

Taehyung and Jungkook share a look as Namjoon pulls his arm back and clears his throat. "Wait, so what major are you Jungkook? I know Taehyung is doing Astrophysics."

"I'm biochem," Jungkook says, and Seokjin wrinkles his nose.

"Ew, science majors."

"It's okay, because we're gonna be ballers one day," Taehyung says, laughing.

"No, we're going to be stuck in labs," Jungkook shoots back, and Taehyung wilts.

"I'm going to work for KARI," Taehyung mumbles under his breath. Seokjin laughs as he draws little nondescript figures on the table with his fingernail.

"What's KARI?"

"Korea Aerospace Research Institute," Jungkook explains. "Taehyung's lifelong dream is to build a spaceship."

"He's going to be the space monkey on the ship," Namjoon says, and they all laugh at Taehyung's hey!

Namjoon tells them all about his dreams to travel the world and be a translator. Seokjin is content they don't ask him what he wants to do, because he honestly doesn't know. He'd rather work for a company with a 9 to 5 day job, but he can't really say that, so he doesn't, and no one infringes. It's always interesting to see what everyone wants to do though, and he feels pretty good about his friends when they leave to go back to the library.

"See?" Namjoon says. "That was relaxing. Now you don't have to be so fidgety."

"I guess," Seokjin sighs.

Seokjin’s exam comes and goes, and on Thursday he shows up with a box of munchkins to cheer on Namjoon as he finishes his final paper for his Gender Studies class.

“Munchkins?” Namjoon asks, eyes lighting up. “You really are my angel!”

“What does that mean,” Seokjin laughs. “Your angel?”

“Oh, uh, nothing,” Namjoon mumbles, laughing a little nervously. He clears his throat uncomfortably. “Hoseok and I were joking around. It’s nothing.”

“Uh huh,” Seokjin says, letting it go anyway, mainly because he’s too nervous himself to investigate further as to what that means. “How far along are you in your paper?”

Namjoon groans, throwing his head back and pen forward onto the table. “I have.. half of it outlined. I may have been playing League for the past hour and a half.”

Seokjin stares at him, sliding into the chair next to Namjoon. “Seriously? Your paper is due tonight! What the hell?”

“I don’t wanna do this...” he whines. “Will you write this paper for me for 20,000 won?”

“20,000 won? At least 200,000. Not including taxes. And then a personal tip on top.”

“Do I look like the CEO of Samsung to you?” Namjoon asks.

“Obviously not, if you did, you wouldn’t be writing papers about gender studies.”

“Ouch,” Namjoon says. “That cuts deep.”

Seokjin laughs. “Not as deep as the cut in your GPA if you don’t finish this paper.”

“Alright, well. True. What about you?”

Seokjin shrugs, digging into his backpack. “I have a group project, so I was gonna delegate jobs and stuff to everyone else in my group, because I don’t trust any of them.”

“How cruel,” Namjoon sighs. “You really are gonna be a future CEO.”

“Shut up and write your paper,” Seokjin says.

Namjoon takes one final look at him and grins, turning back to his laptop and notebook.

Namjoon finishes his paper about five hours later, right before the cafeteria closes, and Seokjin forces them both to go. Nearly five minutes into their meal, Seokjin feels someone looming behind him.

“Thought we’d find you here,” the someone says, and Seokjin looks up to see Hoseok grinning. “It was either here or the library. And where ever you were, Namjoon would probably be there too.”

“What does that mean?” Namjoon asks between a mouthful of tofu.

“You know exactly what that means,” Hoseok sing-songs, and Seokjin flushes. Namjoon looks at him for a brief moment, to see if Seokjin’s looking at him, and then glances away when he is. “Anyway, do you have room for two more? I was with Yoongi, and the only thing Yoongi does beside drinking is eat, and I have meal swipes to get rid of, so we’re here.”

“Yeah, of course,” Seokjin says quickly. “Want me to help pull up a table?”

“Nah, we got it,” Hoseok replies, then turns around to wave over Yoongi, who’s standing a few feet away.

Namjoon swallows his food and extends a hand out to Yoongi. “Hey, I’m Namjoon. I think we know each other, but never actually met?”

“Oh yeah,” Yoongi replies, shaking his hand. “Yeah, heard a lot about you. From this one,” he gestures to Seokjin, “and through Sojin. She was a big fan of you.”

Namjoon laughs, looking over at Seokjin really quickly. “Oh yeah, Sojin’s the best. We had class together last semester. It was a shitty class, and we ended up getting shitfaced a lot together.”

“That does sound like the things I’ve heard,” Yoongi says, also glancing at Seokjin.

He tries not to feel like his roommate is meeting his boyfriend for the first time (because that’s Not what is happening), and his said made up boyfriend is trying to win over roommate’s opinion, because that is definitely what it’s starting to feel like.

“So after second round of midterms end,” Hoseok cuts in, looking between everyone, a certain knowing in his eyes, “I plan to get very drunk? Because I have an Anatomy exam on Friday, and that sucks. You all should join me. I already know Yoongi is going to join me. Namjoon, you don’t have a choice, Taemin’s hosting the party.”

“Does that really leave me with a choice?” Seokjin says, laughing. “My roommate and my friend are both gonna be out partying and leave me by myself?”

Hoseok gives Seokjin his signature toothy grin and laughs. “Perfect! Jimin’s not coming, by the way. I figure we should clear that up now, so we know what to expect.”

Namjoon swallows hard and Yoongi sits back in his seat, arms crossed, looking like a won some sort of competition. Seokjin isn’t sure what just happened, but he’s also a bit too scared to ask, so he doesn’t.

“So you finally met Namjoon today,” Seokjin says after he comes out of the shower. “Thoughts?”

Yoongi flips over a page in his textbook, looking very bored. “I’ve seen him before you have, why are you asking me?”

“But you guys never met, right? How was it, finally seeing each other, in the flesh and all.”

“Seokjin,” Yoongi groans. “It was half a meal, how do you expect me to have an opinion? And you’re not cool, stop saying shit like that.”

“Rude. And I mean - you’ve been more opinionated about people you’ve met for less time,” Seokjin replies, running a towel through his hair. He hopes he sounds as casual as he looks. He thinks he looks casual. This is casual, right?”

“If you’re asking me if I approve of him as your boyfriend, then I have no opinion and refuse to comment.”

“Why not?” Seokjin whines, then pauses. Shit. Fuck. “I mean-”

“See?” Yoongi snorts. “You’re completely see through. And so is he. Go have transparent sex or something. Now leave me alone, I have to actually study.”

Seokjin snorts this time. “I haven’t seen you study in three years.”

“I haven’t seen you get laid in three years, yet here are. Now go away.”

Seokjin is tempted to tell him that they live in the same room, he can’t go away, but his face burns and he’d much rather leave, so he disregards that fact and runs down the hallway to Hyuna’s room.

Namjoon isn't in the library the next day - Seokjin gets a text message about having to go to office hours, and without any bright earbuds or weird rap music to accompany him, Seokjin also doesn't go to the library. He ends up lounging on the top of Hyosang's dorm, accompanied by said individual, as the sun sets over the skyline of Seoul.

"So how's the boyfriend?" Hyosang asks, after attempting to shoot the crumpled up wrapper into the trash bin. He misses.

Seokjin groans. "I told you last time, he's not my boyfriend."

"At least you know who I'm talking about," Hyosang replies, shrugging. "That says something."

"Only because you already asked this," Seokjin retorts. Something about Hyosang knowing he likes Namjoon is very embarrassing. Probably because Hyosang has a big mouth, and if Hyosang knows, in the next two days, so will the rest of campus.

"But you do like him," Hyosang confirms, and Seokjin finds very little willpower in him to deny it, so he doesn't. Figures that he wouldn't even need to tell Hyosang for him to know.

"Unfortunately," Seokjin says, "but it's okay. I'll get over him soon. There's a month until finals, plenty of time."

"Why do you have to get over him?" Hyosang asks, grabbing Seokjin's ice cream wrapper. He tosses it at the trash can as well, but gets it in this time. Grinning, he turns to look at Seokjin, running a hand through his hair. "You're so weird.Take a chance, damn. If things don't work, who gives a fuck? It's not the end of the world. Things happen because we make opportunities for ourselves in life. No one gives it to us."

Seokjin snorts. "That's the smartest thing I've ever heard you say in your life."

Hyosang laughs. "But you do agree that it's smart, yeah?"

"Whatever, I'm tired man. This crush business is exhausting."

"It's true," Hyosang replies, pulling out his phone. "But it's worth it, in the end."

"Is that your girlfriend?" Seokjin asks, watching Hyosang tap his screen lightly.

"Hm? Oh, yeah. We're supposed to watch a move tonight. Something about aliens. I dunno, she's a weird one, man."

"Perfect for someone as crazy as you," Seokjin states. "I still need to meet her. And go, dude. You're gonna be late again."

Hyosang says something about patience, but ends up leaving anyway. Seokjin picks up Hyosang's first ice cream wrapper that missed the trash can and tosses it in on the way back to his dorm, and ends up staring at the past few exchanges between Namjoon and him on his phone. For a while he had been wondering if it was worth liking Namjoon, or if he should try to stop (as if these things are voluntary, Seokjin muses). Maybe he should give it a shot. He's not entirely sure what "giving it a shot" entails, since Seokjin doesn't plan on confessing anytime soon. Maybe something will happen - magic, if you will. Or an opportunity. An opportunity presenting itself would be nice.

He recalls what Hyosang said previously, about creating opportunities, and sighs. This stuff is too stressful, he decides, in the end, and distracts himself when a message from Yoongi pops up on his phone.

Thursday comes around, and Seokjin ends up dragging himself to the library with nothing better to do. There, he finds a very familiar blonde haired man in his usual seat. That’s weird, Seokjin thinks, because Namjoon’s paper was due the other day, and he doesn’t think there’s any other midterm that Namjoon has to really study for. Something, intuition, or maybe just hope, is telling Seokjin that maybe he came here just for him. “Didn’t you hand in your essay already?”

Namjoon jumps in his seat, and Seokjin laughs. “Jesus,” he says. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Seokjin says, pulling out the chair and plopping himself down. “So what are you doing here?”

Namjoon scoffs. “You had your exam on Monday, I could also ask you the same thing. Why are you here?”

“Because Yoongi and his friends are getting drunk in our room, and I’m not really about the day drinking life. Or the drinking life in general. What’s your excuse?”

“I was bored,” Namjoon says adamantly. The lie is written all across his face, and by now Seokjin thinks his intuition was right, but he wants to get it out of Namjoon himself.

“You were bored,” Seokjin repeats, “so you came all the way to the library to sit by yourself in a corner?”

“Come on,” Namjoon whines. “Do I really need to have to be doing schoolwork to see you?”

Seokjin almost feels bad, but he’s never seen Namjoon blush before, or pout, so he doesn’t really feel all that bad at all. “You have my number,” Seokjin says, instead of making fun of him. “You could have just texted me. Where do you wanna go?”

Namjoon stops to think about that. “Wanna go see a movie?”

“A movie? We’d have to take the subway,” Seokjin mumbles. He hasn’t been off campus much, since Seokjin comes from the suburbans outside Seoul and doesn’t know much about city life, therefore sticks to the pathways of his university and doesn’t wander much outside unless it’s with a group of people that do know their way around Seoul. It’s also a thrilling idea, leaving campus, a little getaway from school work - and with Namjoon, on top of that.

“I know one that’s nearby. Well,” Namjoon says, “it’s an hour away, but it’s the best option. I know how to get there, since it’s near my old high school. What’d you say?”

“Sure.”

The words leave Seokjin’s mouth before he can even think about it, but there’s no time to backtrack, especially not when Namjoon’s tossing his all his stuff into his backpack without a single glance back at him. “Awesome! Let’s drop our stuff at my place, then we can head out.”

Namjoon spends the two minute walk back to his apartment explaining exactly how to get to this movie theater and what it's near, and Seokjin pretends to understand exactly what he's talking about.

"I don't even know where the subway stop is," Seokjin admits, after Namjoon's tossed both their backpacks on his bed.

Seokjin jumps, but Namjoon just groans when a high pitched scream comes from the direction of Taemin's room. "You can't summon a demon, I have holy water in my room!" Namjoon hollers, kicking Taemin's door. He then turns to Seokjin. "Oh, really? It's behind the math and science building."

"That's why I don't know."

Namjoon laughs as they go down the stairs. "I hate science, too."

"Is Taemin doing a weird ouji board thing again?" Jiho asks from where he's watching TV.

"Yeah," Namjoon calls out, and opens the door for Seokjin.

Seokjin hears Jiho snort, "Stupid fuck," as the door slams behind them.

"You guys really are used to Taemin's weird shit," Seokjin says, amazed.

"Usually happens when he's stressed," Namjoon explains, and points in the direction of the subway stop. "I think he has an exam on Tuesday, so that's probably why. Organic Chemistry, or some shit."

"Science," Seokjin says bitterly.

By the time they get into the subway, Namjoon's told him all about how he got into a fight with his professor and walked out of class. In turn, Seokjin tells him about the time they dyed Yoongi's hair in the communal bathroom, and had Jongup walk in the moment they were washing the red out of his hair and thought it was blood.

Namjoon laughs as he taps them both in with his metro card, and they sit next to each and discuss what movie they want to watch. They decide on the new sci-fi movie, based off of some book, and spend the rest of the subway ride in silence.

Namjoon drags Seokjin out of the station and into the streets, and he looks up at the skyscrapers and feels a little tiny, a little lost amongst everything, but Namjoon nudges him with his foot and they move along slowly.

The university they go to is a small one, located near the edge of Seoul. It's actually closer to Seokjin's home than it is to Namjoon's, who actually lives in the city.

"Why do you walk so slow?" Namjoon asks, slowing his pace so that it matches Seokjin's, who looks down at his feet, then up at the passerbys who quickly overtake him.

"I didn't know I walked so slow," Seokjin mumbles, then yelps when Namjoon places his hands on Seokjin's back and pushes him forward. "What are you doing?"

"Hurrying you up," Namjoon snaps, "the movie starts in fifteen minutes, and I want nachos."

Seokjin rolls his eyes and picks up his pace, and Namjoon finally falls back into place next time, their shoulders bumping against each other.

Halfway throughout the movie Seokjin turns over in his seat to Namjoon fast asleep in his chair and groans. Thankfully there's only three other people in the theater with them, down in the front, so they don't hear him, or see him when he pokes Namjoon in the side. It does nothing, not even when he throws popcorn at him.

"Why'd we even go see a movie if you were going to sleep though it?" Seokjin nags as Namjoon orders drinks for them at a nearby cafe.

"It's not my fault!" Namjoon argues, thanking the cashier when she gives Namjoon his change. "The plot was so cliche, the characters were underdeveloped, and the dialogue was so sloppy. My little sister could have written a better script."

"What are you, some type of high fashion movie critique," Seokjin snorts. "I liked the animation."

"The animation was a 6.5 at best," Namjoon states.

"You didn't even watch it, how would you know?" Seokjin snaps, hitting Namjoon on the head with a napkin. "Shut up and go get us a table."

Namjoon says something under his breath but does what he's told anyway, and Seokjin brings them their drinks later, quite liking the high table Namjoon picked by the window.

"It's really late now," Seokjin notes, watching the sun go behind one of the skyscrapers.

"Yeah," Namjoon sighs. "Thankfully tomorrow's Saturday, so we don't have any classes."

"Hoseok and Taemin are having that party," Seokjin reminds him, "at your place. You're going to be busy."

Namjoon sighs again, and Seokjin kind of pities him. He's fortunately never had the misfortune of Yoongi hosting a party in their dorm - which would be a pretty stupid idea, considering how small their dorm is, but if Yoongi wasn't so lazy, Seokjin can guarantee that he would try. "You're coming, right?"

"I guess so," Seokjin says. "Yoongi's also going, so probably."

Namjoon nods, and they finish the rest of their drinks and talk about the mundane things that have happened inbetween their many library meets. Seokjin's finds himself willing to talk and not so insecure about what he's saying, even ends up being told by Namjoon to "calm down, we're in a public place, use your inside voice".

Love is a weird concept to think about, but Seokjin does think there's something quite special about Namjoon, and the way they connect. It's not that they just connect, it's also Seokjin doesn't think he wants to connect with anyone else this way, and is glad it's Namjoon.

They leave close to closing time, getting back to campus rather late, and this time it's Seokjin who drops Namjoon off at his house and grabs his backpack before he goes back to his own dorm and crawls into his bed somewhere around three in the morning.

Seokjin starts his Saturday relaxing in his dorm room and reading a book while Yoongi sits across from him on his own bed, watching TV shows on his laptop. The only time he moves is when Eunji comes to their room with cookies she and a few other kids on their floor baked together downstairs in the communal kitchen. Seokjin spends that hour in her room, hanging out with her, Mark, and Yura.

By the time he comes back to his own dorm room, Yoongi’s gotten food for the both of them, which means Seokjin really isn’t going to leave his room until it’s time to go to Namjoon’s place.

“I heard you went on a date yesterday,” Yoongi casually says as Seokjin munches on dried seaweed.

“That wasn’t a date,” Seokjin groans. “It was like... bros hanging out.”

“Bros who wanna fuck,” Yoongi clarifies, and Seokjin sighs and rolls over in his bed.

“No one said that, you have no proof.”

Yoongi flops down onto his bed. “But you haven’t denied it.”

“I figured as much was obvious,” Seokjin says, shoving another piece of dried seaweed into his mouth and chewing furiously. “Why waste my breath?”

“Yeah,” Yoongi retorts without missing a beat, “gotta ration oxygen for make out sessions.”

“Shut up you-”

“Oh look, I’ve lost interest,” Yoongi replies, flops down onto his bed. He shoves his earbuds into his ears as he says, “Make sure you’re ready by like, 10 or 11. Wake me up.”

Seokjin makes faces at his back and throws a wrapper at him. It lands on the floor in between their beds.

Seokjin makes up for his missed throw from before where he throws crackers at Yoongi's bed and earns a well earned grunt from the massive pile of pillows and crackers.

By the time Seokjin forces Yoongi out of bed and into clothes, he's received five messages from Hyosang, Hoseok, and Taemin respectively asking where they are.

Seokjin ends up heading there first without Yoongi, thanks to said roommate going back to sleep and promising he would come by later with a few beers or something.

Hoseok appears to already be thoroughly drunk and greets Seokjin by yelling wildly in his face, followed by a hug, followed by a, “Yooooooo, man, you came through!”

“He’s really drunk, if you couldn’t tell,” Taemin calls out from behind him, cider beer in hand.

“Yeah,” Seokjin says. “Is this where I’m the awkward sober person in the middle of the party?”

Taemin shrugs. “Namjoon hasn’t really been drinking, neither has Minah.”

“Where’s Namjoon?” Seokjin asks, waving weakly when he hears someone inside also scream his name in what he assumes in a greeting. It sounds like Hyosang.

“Lounge,” Taemin says, motioning to the left.

Seokjin quickly walks in past Taemin and Hoseok, mumbling a hi to the both of them as he passes, and into the lounge, where Namjoon and a few other guys and girls are settled around a TV. Some gag show is on, Seokjin briefly glances at it before turning back to the rest, who all turn to greet him. He recognizes maybe half of them.

“Seokjin!” Namjoon yells, grinning from ear to ear, “you finally came! You’re late.”

“Yes, well, you know,” Seokjin mumbles, “Yoongi’s fault."

“Is he here?” Namjoon asks, looking behind Seokjin. “I don’t think I saw him.”

“He’s not here yet,” Seokjin replies, “can I sit next to you?”

Namjoon pats the space beside him. “It’s all yours. There’s not a lot of us today - it’s not really a party, more of a rather big hangout, so we’re not doing much, aside from like watching random TV shows.”

“You’re not drinking?”

“Not feelin’ it,” Namjoon says, shrugging. “How’d you spend your day?”

Seokjin smiles, waving at Jiho as he walks by. “I slept. All day. It was great.”

Namjoon laughs. “Spent your day very productively.”

“Seokjin!” someone yells, and Seokjin screams when two arms wrap around his neck in a hug. “You didn’t say hi to me!”

“Hyosang,” he groans. “Please, don’t kill me.”

“Yeah,” Taemin says. “I need virgin blood for my next sacrifice.”

“Hey!” Seokjin yells, and Hyosang and Namjoon laugh around him. They spend the next hour sitting around the lounge and chatting mindlessly. Seokjin grabs a beer at some point and casually sips it as the night goes on. Yoongi comes in later with a few more drinks, and eventually the conversation tapers off into smaller groups, leaving Namjoon and Seokjin to their own devices.

“Is that water in that bottle or is that some discrete way of drinking alcohol without showing anyone that you’re drinking alcohol?” Seokjin asks.

Namjoon laughs, peering at his water bottle. “No, it’s just your regular old tap water, refilled after I finished it.”

“Do you happen to have any more?” Seokjin asks. “This beer isn’t really doing anything, and I’m kinda not feelin it.”

“You’re barely drank any of it,” Namjoon points out.

“I’m really not feelin’ it,” Seokjin emphasizes. “Not quite sure why I even came, I’d rather be under my blankets still.”

“Wow, well I see how it is,” Namjoon says, feigning hurt. “I was gonna invite you to grab a water bottle from my room, but now I won’t.”

“That’s just rude,” Seokjin retorts.

“Yeah, rude,” Namjoon mocks, but he stands up anyway. “Hurry up or I’m gonna drink the water myself.” Seokjin shrugs and places the beer bottle on the table before following him up into his room. “I keep them under my bed,” Namjoon says, leaning down to grab one. “In case there is a bad drinking night. And there are many of them. Yesterday was a bad drinking night after I came back from the movie.”

Seokjin isn’t listening to him though, because he’s seen something rather odd. “You were watching the League Championship Series?” he asks, looking at Namjoon’s laptop screen. “You’re such a nerd.”

“Hey!” Namjoon yells, banging his head on the bottom of his bed. “How did you get onto my laptop?”

“It was open,” Seokjin says, followed by a, “nerd.”

Namjoon reappears from under his bed, rubbing the back of his head and wincing. “That hurts, dude. LCK is serious business. It’s at the semifinals now.”

“I know nothing about computer games,” Seokjin mumbles. “But you’re still a nerd.”

“I think on the scale of nerdiness, I’m definitely much lower than you.”

Seokjin considers this, because true, well played, but then says, “Yes, well. You watch League. You watch League.”

“You’re just a hater. Allow me to show you!” Namjoon says, grabbing his laptop. “Onto the bed, because I only have one chair.”

He hops on, and after watching Namjoon shuffling around, asks, "Seriously though, do you have an anarchist poetry blog?"

That is how Seokjin ends up watching computer games for the next hour and a half, settled in next to Namjoon in his bed. They end up along the way on YouTube, both of them pressed up against each other.

“Hey,” Namjoon says suddenly, turning to look at Seokjin. “Can I kiss you?”

Seokjin’s mind falters. Where did that even come from? “What?”

“I really want to kiss you,” Namjoon says slowly, reaching up to place his hand on one side of Seokjin’s face.

Seokjin’s throat dries up as his eyes meet Namjoon’s, half lidded and full of want. He should probably say something, maybe like how he does absolutely want to kiss him, that he wants to do more than that, really, but Namjoon is still quietly watching him, thumb resting on his cheekbone. Seokjin really wants to kiss him, just can't make the words come out the way he wants to, or at all. He leans his head in slightly, and jesus, finally Namjoon gets it, because he leans in and kisses Seokjin slowly, softly, and Seokjin very carefully places his hand on Namjoon’s hip, not entirely sure of what’s okay and what’s not. He hears soft laughing against his lips, and pulls back.

“So I know this is the wrong order to do things in,” Namjoon says, “but will you go out with me?”

“You’re not a very orderly person,” Seokjin replies, letting his hand stay put on Namjoon’s hip. Just in case. “It was expected, well, not really, but you know what I mea- I mean. Yes. You’re my boyfriend now, no takebacks.”

“Wow,” Namjoon whines. “It’s almost like I got a say in this. Almost.”

“Yes, well you know what we should do less? Saying. Less saying and definitely lots of more kissing,” Seokjin states.

Namjoon shrugs. “Can’t really argue with that.”

When Seokjin has to climb over Namjoon to get the remote, he’s met with hands on his hips, and looks down in confusion. “What?”

“Nothing,” Namjoon says, thumb idly stroking the skin of Seokjin’s hipbone, and someone yells from the kitchen.

“Stop fucking on the couch!” Youngjae calls out. "We ran out of air fresheners, and Taemin's banned from having candles."

Taemin snorts as he walks past them, towards the back door. “They're too tame for that. Probably have only confessed and like, hugged.”

“Are you holding a skull?” Jiho asks, incredulous. “Dude, you have to tell me if we’re going to be expecting cops soon because like I already got caught with weed-”

“Your house is really noisy,” Seokjin mumbles, digging his head into Namjoon’s shoulder. “Is it always like this?”

“Yup,” Namjoon confirms, wrapping his arms around Seokjin. “You’re gonna have to get used to it.”

“Fuck.”