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Soobin sighed in relief once he closed the door behind him. The muffled sounds of the upbeat music, people jumping, laughing and screaming, and the vibrations could still be heard and felt, but not as intense as it was inside the place. He looked up, the glass ceiling perfectly clean, he could see some stars twinkling behind a few clouds. That was better than the crowded space in the party room just a few other rooms apart, everyone packed like sardines. He was sweating and he smelled like an unholy combination of sweat, perfume, makeup, alcohol, some sweet thing that he wasn't even sure what it was, and smoke. "The smell of parties", he thought.
He stood a good while just there, leaning his back against the door, taking some fresh air. He didn't really like parties, especially those, the parties in his uni. But it's not as if he couldn't go, it was a graduation party, everyone was bidding their farewells as they enjoyed the last moments of their youth to the fullest, tomorrow was still uncertain, their adulthood was about to start. So Soobin decided to join his few friends and go.
It's not that Soobin wasn't popular, no, in fact he was pretty popular, he was tall, quite strong and good looking. A lot of people took interest in him, and even if he did have a crush on someone, he was too shy, plus he needed to focus on his major. Soobin was an interesting guy, he was majoring in game design. His dream was to found a gaming company one day. This was odd to most people, how a man like Choi Soobin was so stuck in his youth. But they wouldn't judge, Soobin was quite a great guy, actually.
He finally moved from the door, walking further to the room he entered. He smiled to himself when he finally saw the dim greenish blue lights of the gym's indoor pool. It was a great place, he always hid there whenever the pool wasn't in use and he wanted to be alone. By far, the second place he spent most of his time, apart from his own room at the dorm, the one he shared with Beomgyu and Kai.
He took a sip from the fruit punch cup he was still holding, and kicked his shoes off, removing his socks and quickly washing his feet before sitting on the side of the pool, the water reaching just below his knees. Luckily he was wearing shorts and a sleeveless white shirt, he knew things were going to get pretty hot in the party. It wasn't as terrible as he thought, he drank quite a few cocktails and drinks, just enough for him to start getting a little dizzy, and he even danced a little with Beomgyu, one of his friends that was majoring in computer science. They took a lot of classes together, and they had a good friendship. What really bothered Soobin, though, was Beomgyu's roommate, Yeonjun.
He didn't have anything against Yeonjun, on the contrary, Yeonjun was totally his type. Tall but still shorter than him, fox-like eyes, cute nose, even cuter pouty and plump lips, soft hair that never stayed the same color, smooth pale tan skin, a charming mole under his eye, not to mention his perfect body proportions, not too broad shoulders, a delicate, curved waist, those hips that would always rock around in a sassy way... Soobin had every feature of Yeonjun engraved into his mind. He was struck the first time he saw the boy, not believing that someone that gorgeous existed. He could've just died of how pretty Yeonjun was, honestly. But the thing was, Yeonjun barely acknowledged his existence. Soobin doubted he even remembered his name, Beomgyu only introduced them once, and even though Soobin had some classes with Yeonjun and they even talked a bit, he was sure the older male never really noticed his presence. He even spotted Yeonjun at the party, laughing and living his life to the fullest while he danced with a guy named Wooyoung. He was absolutely breathtaking, using a black tank top under a long-sleeved see-through shirt, red, black and white high-waisted plaid shorts, and timberland boots. He was using his usual hoops earrings, along with a thin black choker around his neck, and a light white shirt tied around his hips. Looking like some of Soobin's wildest dreams. Soobin stared at him for quite some time, and even though Beomgyu, Taehyun and even Kai were telling him to "stop being a coward and go talk to him", he just didn't know how. Yeonjun was the perfect guy in uni, incredibly handsome, extroverted, popular and a true social butterfly, majoring in modern dance. There was just this something in him that intimidated Soobin too much to make a move, and he knew damn well he had some strong competition. Take Wooyoung for example. Same major as Yeonjun, almost the same personality. One of his best friends. Then there's also Changbin. And Felix. And Jungwon. The list kept growing, to the point where Soobin just plainly gave up, but his crush on Yeonjun only got worse as time went by. He hated seeing how cuddly and touchy everyone was with him. He hated how Yeonjun was so warm and welcoming to them. He hated not being able to do that as well, he'd give everything just to sit close to Yeonjun during their breaks.
He took another sip of his cup, sighing deeply. Running his fingers through his jet black hair, Soobin could only think about the future. Was he a total coward and a fucking loser because he didn't even try talking with Yeonjun? Yes. But what is done, it's done, he thought. Tomorrow morning, all of the students would go home, it was their last day there. He wouldn't miss Taehyun and Kai as much as he thought, though, as the two planned on moving to Seoul as soon as they could. Beomgyu still had some stuff to take care of in Daegu, but he also planned on moving. In fact, Soobin even offered to share the apartment he rented with him. It wasn't much, but they could live comfortably there. He could quit his waiter job at the restaurant next to the uni as soon as he got accepted in something better. His life was looking promising.
But it felt so dull.
It wasn't easy just hopping into adulthood like that. Soobin spent five years in the uni, he was already in his twenties now, but it wasn't easy to accept the fact that he was only getting older from now on.
He was sipping on his punch when he heard a door opening. His head immediately moved to the gym door, wondering who else would leave the party and sneak into the pool room. His eyes widened when his vision got used to the dim light, and his gaze connected with Yeonjun's. What was he doing there? He thought Yeonjun loved parties.
"Oh, sorry, I didn't expect someone to be here already, I'll leave you alone." Yeonjun apologized, already turning, and Soobin almost panicked and ran after him just to spend a few more seconds in his presence, but he held himself back.
"No, no, it's fine, you can stay." He thanked all of the gods out there in the universe for not stuttering or sounding too eager. Yeonjun turned to him again, his dark brown hair a little messy from all the action in the party room. He approached Soobin slowly, still looking at him, making Soobin turn his gaze away, embarrassed. He heard Yeonjun's steps getting closer, until they stopped right behind him.
"... Wait, I know you." Yeonjun blurted out, making Soobin look at him again, a surprised expression on his face. "You're Beomgyu's friend." It wasn't a question.
Soobin was shocked that Yeonjun somehow remembered him, even after being introduced to him only once. But he tried to play it cool.
"I wouldn't say we're friends, we're most like, enemies in some kind of a truce." He joked, earning a smile from Yeonjun. His heart skipped a beat at the sight.
"I can tell why, that guy has some kind of evil spirit possessing his body." He took a sit besides Soobin after removing his boots and socks. "But why are you here, Soobin-ah? Why aren't you in the party with everyone else?"
Soobin almost choked on his drink at the mention of his name, especially in such an informal way. He swallowed hard and looked at Yeonjun again. He was considerably close, to Soobin's doom.
"I could ask you the same thing, Yeonjun... Hyung." He tested the waters with the word. Yeonjun didn't look bothered a single bit. Instead, he just shrugged.
"A bit too much, even for me." He sighed. He also had a cup, Soobin couldn't tell what he was drinking, but it was a milky drink. The coconut smell somehow told Soobin that it was a piña colada or something like that. "Besides, I'm a bit worried. This whole thing about leaving uni finally hit me." Yeonjun downed the content of his cup in one go, and looked at the glass ceiling.
"A bit hard to swallow, huh?" Soobin tried. He had no idea how to keep that conversation going, he just knew he wanted to keep talking with Yeonjun.
"Yeah. I spent quite some time here. Made a lot of friends. I majored in the thing I wanna do the most, but in reality, I don't know what to do." He looked down again. Soobin's gaze was stuck on his face, under the dim greenish blue lighting of the pool lights and the moon above them, Yeonjun looked straight out of a dream. "I'll probably try auditioning for a music company, but I really have no idea of what to do if I get rejected."
Soobin didn't know what to answer. He just stared at Yeonjun, his mouth slightly open. His eyes landed on Yeonjun's pink lips, and Soobin felt a wave of heat running through his whole body. Yeonjun noticed he stopped talking, and looked right back at him, smiling at his expression. "You're staring."
Soobin immediately turned away. "S-sorry. I just... Don't know what to say. I'm not good at keeping conversations, sorry." He admitted, blushing. Yeonjun giggled at his reaction, Soobin was quite a big man, but he was so cute.
"It's okay. Sorry for just venting on you like that, we barely talk besides those brief conversation we had during classes." Again, Soobin was surprised to hear that. Choi Yeonjun, the it boy himself, remembered Soobin like that? "What about you, Soobin-ah? Do you know what to do after leaving uni?"
Soobin looked at the pool, swinging his legs in the water a little.
"Well, yes. I'm going to quit my job and try finding something to do in an IT company or whatever. Gyu's previous neighbor in Daegu works at one here in Seoul, maybe he can help us getting a job." He finished his drink. "He's only finishing some stuff in Daegu before returning to Seoul, he's going to move to my apartment."
A shadow passed through Yeonjun's face, but Soobin was sure it was just the wavy lighting of the pool.
"I see." Yeonjun looked at the pool again. "You're pretty close to Beomgyu, aren't you?"
"Ah, yes. That sucker and me had a lot of classes together because of our similar majors. When we least expected we were glued by the hip to one another." Soobin laughed, but Yeonjun didn't.
"Do you guys have something going on?"
The question caught Soobin completely off guard, he almost choked on thin air.
"What?!"
Yeonjun smirked.
"I mean, he was my roommate, but he was always talking about you. Yeah, he mostly complained about how stupid you are, but still." Yeonjun looked at Soobin again, as of trying to read through him.
"Ew, no." Soobin shivered at the thought of dating Beomgyu, his face crooking to a grossed out expression. "I know he had a crush on Taehyun back then, I'm definitely not his type, nor he's mine. Plus we're bickering most of the time. Definitely not. Absolutely not."
Yeonjun laughed at his expression, but somehow he sounded more relieved than anything.
"And are you interested in someone? I know you're quite popular along the girls here. Every time I saw you walking around, a lot of them would stop and shamelessly stare. Even some boys would do that as well." Another shock to Soobin. Yeonjun watched him walking around the campus?
"... Are you asking if I'm single or if I'm gay?" Soobin joked, not expecting an actual answer, but Yeonjun smirked, leaning back on his arms.
"Maybe both, Choi Soobin." His voice was piercing, and Soobin blushed a little under his gaze. What was that conversation, anyway?
"Well... I'm... I had a girlfriend back in high school, but we didn't last long. But I'm interested in... In a guy now." Soobin blushed, and he saw that same shadow on Yeonjun's face, this time not leaving. "So I guess I'm bi?"
"Mhm." Yeonjun muttered, turning his gaze to the pool again. They spent a while in silence, Soobin panicking because he didn't know what he said to upset the older. "Are you planning on ever confessing to him?"
Soobin felt his hands sweating.
"Well... No. I... I never tried to, he's... Out of reach."
Yeonjun arched his eyebrows, sounding surprised.
"What do you mean?"
"Can we not talk about that, please?" Soobin tried his best not to sound rude. Didn't work, his voice sounded a bit too harsh. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Sorry, it's just... A sensitive topic to me, okay?"
"Got it." Yeonjun smirked at him. "You're just bitchless."
Soobin choked on his own spit.
"I'm not bitchless!"
"Yes, you're right, you're just womanless." Yeonjun cackled, making Soobin blush. He hated the fact that he was right. "C'mon, Binnie, what do you have to lose? Grow some balls and confess. It's your last day here anyway."
"... You're right." Soobin sighed. And Yeonjun was right, but like hell he'd confess in a moment like that.
They kept talking for a while, and to their own surprise, talking with each other was surprisingly easy after that. Yeonjun quickly opened to Soobin, finding out the younger was so understanding and sweet, and Soobin found out Yeonjun wasn't exactly like he thought, he knew about his existence. But as he himself said, he always seemed a little distant, so Yeonjun didn't want to bother him.
"Why would you, out of everyone, bother me, hyung?" The honorific was escaping easily now, Soobin was feeling close to Yeonjun for the first time in years.
"Ah, I don't know, sometimes I tend to get a bit carried away." He laughed. "I mean, you saw it yourself a while ago, when I said you're bitchless. Which you are." He clicked his tongue and Soobin groaned. Not this again. "Plus, most of the times I saw you, you were with Beomgyu, and with that guy's constant comments about you, I assumed you guys had something."
"Again, fucking ew." Soobin sticked his tongue out. "My standards are higher than that."
"Oh yeah?" Yeonjun then looked at him with those dark, penetrating eyes, a dangerous smirk playing on his lips. "And do I fit in those standards of yours, Choi Soobin?"
Soobin froze in place. He was sure his brain was about to have a short-circuit, he opened his mouth in hopes of saying something, but Yeonjun laughed and pushed him jokingly. To his doom, though, he was caught off guard, and he lost his balance, falling right into the water.
Luckily the pool wasn't that deep, but Soobin fell in an ugly way, getting soaked from head to toe. He recovered his balance and stood on his feet, the water reaching just under his chest, and was welcomed with a laughing Yeonjun.
"I'm sorry!" He said, between wheezes. "I didn't want to push you into the water!" His eyes were tearing up from all the laughter. Soobin just stared at him in disbelief for a while, before pushing his hair back and smiling a bit. Yeonjun was so cute.
"You're laughing." Soobin said, sighing, and Yeonjun looked at him, his eyes lingering oh Soobin's wet figure a little longer than necessary. "A man falls into the water, almost drowns, and you're laughing."
"I'm so sorry!" Yeonjun bursted out in laughter again. "But you should've seen the way you fell!"
Soobin shook his head slightly, smirking.
"You're a funny one, Choi Yeonjun." Soobin approached Yeonjun, not noticing how the older stared at the shirt glued to his body, slightly see-through because of the water, but noticing he got distracted by something, and that was his opportunity. "Too bad I can also be."
In a quick motion, Soobin brought his hands to Yeonjun's hips, and in a moment, both of them were in the water, Soobin being the one laughing now.
"Oh you little motherfucker." Yeonjun smirked at Soobin, who immediately got the message and started putting some distance between them, since they couldn't exactly run in the pool.
The gym echoed with their laughter and the sound of them splashing water on the other, them going to the deeper part of the pool almost not noticing it. Yeonjun noticed it first, being the shorter one between the two. He stopped chasing Soobin.
"Ya, you punk, if you want me to drown you can just throw me deeper into the water." He complained, and Soobin turned to him, laughing.
"If you insist..."
Yeonjun was about to get away from him and complain, but Soobin was quicker, easily lifting the older on his shoulders, and throwing him in the water again, under Yeonjun's screams of protest.
"F-fuck-" Yeonjun gasped for air, the place he fell in was a bit too deep. "Choi- Soo-b-bin I d-don't know how t-to s-swim-"
Soobin reacted immediately, diving into the water and holding a struggling Yeonjun against his body, slowly but certainly pulling him to the shallower part, regret already burning in his chest.
"Fuck, I'm sorry, I didn't know you couldn't swim- are you alright?" Soobin turned Yeonjun to face him, holding him a bit above the water level, so he had to actually look up. Yeonjun coughed a few times and rubbed his eyes.
"Y-yeah" he coughed again. "Just don't- don't fucking do this again." Yeonjun looked down to Soobin, not exactly angry, and held his shoulders to help balancing him. "I saw my life passing in front of my eyes now."
"Ah, c'mon, it wasn't that bad." Soobin rolled his eyes, he barely knew Yeonjun but he could tell he was a drama queen.
"Sure, Soobin, I almost died and it wasn't that bad." Yeonjun pouted.
"You're not going to die while I'm here." Soobin said, holding him in place. It sounded a bit too romantic for his taste. Fuck.
Yeonjun looked at him, not expecting the comment. Only then he became conscious of their position, with Soobin's arms around him, their bodies pressing on one another. His eyes scanned every single one of his features. Those wolf-like eyes, the heart shaped lips, his soaking wet hair pulled back, his strong arms exposed and wet like that... Yeonjun couldn't help but blush. He already knew that, but Soobin was truly fucking handsome.
"Hyung?" Soobin tried, noticing Yeonjun had gone quiet.
"Soobin-ah" Yeonjun looked at him, his voice barely above a whisper. His fingers played with Soobin's wet hair, and there was a soft smile on his lips. Soobin swallowed hard. Too close.
He froze in place when he felt Yeonjun's lips brushing against his.
"Y-Yeonjun hyung" he babbled, the ghost of Yeonjun's lips still there. His eyes were wide open, and his face was turning crimson red.
"Is it weird that I really want to kiss you, Bin-ah?" Yeonjun said, his voice sweet as honey. "You had me waiting for quite some time."
"W-what-"
"You know what I'm talking about, silly." Yeonjun giggled, and pressed his lips against Soobin's, this time in a proper kiss.
Soobin could only let himself be kissed, too stunned to do anything back. Yeonjun tasted like alcohol, pineapple and coconut, just like the piña colada he was drinking a while ago, and his lips were plump and soft, with just the right amount of lip gloss. Almost addicting, in Soobin's opinion. When Yeonjun pulled back, laughing at his reaction, Soobin could only stare at him.
"H-how did you-"
"Ah, Binnie, I'm not dumb. I've seen the way you look at me. I waited for you to grow some balls and come to me, but you never did." Yeonjun sounded disappointed. "And I didn't want to make you uncomfortable by going to you."
Soobin stayed quiet for a while, processing it. There's no way THE Choi Yeonjun just confessed to him like that.
"So you're interested in me?" He asked, still not believing it.
"Since Beomgyu introduced us, Binnie. Since day one I've been dreaming about kissing you.," Yeonjun brought his lips close again, but Soobin pulled himself back.
"So that's why you came here? To confess?"
"Would you believe if I said no?" Yeonjun giggled. "I was a bit frustrated with everything, including the news that I would have to move on from you and I just lost my party mood. I didn't expect to see you here." He giggled again, and Soobin's heart just warmed at the sound. Seeing Yeonjun happy because of him... It was almost a dream.
"I'm sorry, but this is a bit too much for me to process." Soobin smiled, a bit awkward. "I can't believe the guy I've been crushing on for the past five years just said he likes me back."
"What if I kiss your doubts away?"
Soobin clicked his tongue.
"We can try."
Yeonjun just laughed and pulled Soobin closer, glueing their lips again. The kiss was soft and refreshing for both of them, not only because of the pool, but also because they felt like they dropped a heavy weight off their backs. Their lips fit together so we'll, almost like they were made for each other, and Yeonjun was slowly burning under the touch of Soobin's big hands on his body. He tugged at his shirt, separating them and now cursing himself for making the white shirt stick even more to his torso, revealing a good build, wide chest and the beginning of an abs.
"I'd die to see what you hide under all of that, Soobinnie." Yeonjun whispered in his ear, making Soobin shiver and grip his waist.
"... Today's out last day, right? Let's make the most of it."
With another kiss, they dove into the pools of each other's hearts.