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Personally, Renjun did not understand why he was here. Well, he did know why he was here, but he wished he wasn’t. His university required that every single student had to take an upper-division class outside of their major. So realistically he could have just taken an upper-level writing class or something close to his actual art major. Still, instead, he was stuck in this microbiology class for the semester. Now you are probably wondering, why in the world would he, a non-science major take a science class for an upper elective? Well, the simple answer was all his friends hated (convinced) him to.
“Renjun come on, it would be so fun if we had a class together. The last time we had classes together was when we were taking our gen eds together,” Donghyuck whines.
“Yeah cause you are a biomedical engineering student and I do visual arts and graphic design. Of course, there is not going to be any overlap.”
“But Junnie,” Jaemin whines, “Donghyuckie is right we should all take a class together. Besides, it would be easier if all of us were in the same upper elective so we could help each other out.”
Jaemin had a point there, if his friends were going to rope him into a stem-related class, at least they would be able to partner up and help each other with everything. Right?
Wrong, he was so wrong. Which put him into this spot, spending two hours of his precious day in a lab twice a week with bacteria and watching his friends shamelessly flirt.
Personally, things could only get worse from here.
He spoke too soon since they only did get worse.
The first couple weeks of the lab were god awful, none of his quadrant streaks culturing correctly nor were his stains even working. He just sat there on the other side of the bench trying to ignore his friends shamelessly flirting with their boyfriends. Disgusting. When he agreed to this whole charade, he did not think that his friends would rope their boyfriends into this as well. Because seriously, what were the odds they also chose the same section as well.
At least his lab partner wasn’t that bad, he guessed. Since it was mainly independent work, they didn’t interact too much, except for sharing the bunsen burner.
Liu Yangyang wasn’t a terrible partner and Renjun appreciated that. He learned the other was apparently also roped into taking this class as well by none other than Mark and Jeno. Renjun was starting to think they were just trying to make everyone miserable on purpose, by one sticking them in an upper-level biology class when a majority of them were engineering majors (or art in his case), and two having the rest of the class witness their flirting. Well, mainly the TA since the class was only eight people, to begin with.
Xiaojun and Hendery were often in their little world half of the time, so it was like they were completely immune to everything. Lucky assholes.
----
But the lab did end up getting better for Renjun, as in he was getting his quad streaks to actually work and did a successful gram stain (finally). His friends were still insufferable but that was expected of them. They did mostly quit on the whole flirting part a little bit, which made the lab a little bit more bearable.
The lecture part of the class was his favorite part though, for the sole reason that he could just spend the whole time drawing and he would be fine. The professor was extremely chill and just went through the slides quickly, so he often got out of there early. It was nice to have his friends in his class for once, he did have to admit. Just something about being able to sit next to people who you knew the entire hour was a nice feeling.
It was interesting though to see how Yangyang was beginning to be a part of his friend group as well. It was nice to have someone else who was single to relate with and his also being able to speak mandarin was a perk as well. The most shocking thing to him though was the fact he and Yangyang got along well. Almost a little bit too well. They ended up spending a lot of time with each other outside of the lab, and having a lot of mutual friends helped a lot.
“Wait, you know Ten ge?”
“I mean yeah he is my brother after all.”
Yangyang and he would often eat at this hole-in-the-wall hotpot place, right by campus whenever they hung out together. It was often a staple of them hanging out at this point. They first had gone together when they needed to work on an assignment for lab together and then just kept continuing to go there together. Yangyang was soon starting to become someone to Renjun that sure he associated with the crazy biology class he got roped into, but also someone that he was beginning to associate with as home.
He didn’t realize it at first, but as he and Yangyang continued to hang out more often, there were some subtle changes between the two. Yangyang was always unconsciously reaching out for one of Renjun’s hands, often covered in paint. He would just randomly start playing with his fingers during lectures or when they were sitting across from each other while eating.
It felt oddly domestic. Renjun wasn’t complaining though, as he was always subconsciously wanting to lean into the other as well. It was certainly confusing at first, why in the world was he doing this? He never wanted to do this to his other friends and he had known them for a long time by this point. But something about Liu Yangyang made Renjun’s stomach twist and turn in the best way possible.
Renjun wanted to always see the other’s cute smile and be the cause of it. He was lovesick at this point, well maybe not exactly in love yet. Either way, he wanted whatever this feeling was to not go away. Who knew a bunch of microbes could help him find a boyfriend of all things?
The real kicker though was going to see if the other boy felt the same.
----
After his revelation, Renjun took every opportunity to just observe how Yangyang interacted with him. He would discreetly ask Jaemin and Donghyuck what they thought as well, but that backfired horribly leading to them figuring out about his crush. They teased him relentlessly saying it was payback when he did it to them when they were crushing hard. What great friends he had.
But they assured him that Yangyang was totally interested.
“Renjun, if you saw the way he looked at you when you weren’t looking… god it's gross actually how whipped he is,” Donghyuck commented.
“Right, like every time Yangyang sees Renjun already sitting at his seat when he comes into the lab is disgusting,” Jaemin said with a disgusted look on his face.
“Like you guys are any better,” Renjun scoffed, “you guys are just as whipped and foolish for your boyfriends as well.”
“Ohh, so you do agree you are whipped for Yangyang as well.”
If Renjun could, he would wipe the smug smirk on Donghyuck’s face right off. Instead, he just settled for throwing his pillow at the other, causing Jaemin to have a laughing fit at Donghyuck’s shocked face. Donghyuck and Renjun did end up in a pillow wrestling fest after that, with Jaemin laughing at them the entire time.
It was another normal Tuesday and Renjun was once again stuck inoculating microbes for two hours. He and Yangyang got into a good routine between the two during the lab. They would make small talk while doing their task and it was quite nice.
Yangyang was making a bunch of bad jokes today, trying to get Renjun with his best science-related pun. He decided to switch it up and went for the “best” pickup line he had instead.
“You’re hotter than a bunsen burner set to full power.”
Except he made the mistake of saying it when it was dead quiet. Renjun was flabbergasted, did Yangyang seriously just say that?
“God that was awful, never do that again,” he groaned.
“But come on you got to admit it wasn’t that bad,” Yangyang protested, “it makes perfect sense considering we are using the bunsen burner too!”
“Yangyang just because you are cute does not mean that was a good pickup line whatsoever.”
“Oh, you think I’m cute?”
Shit, he didn’t mean to say that the other was cute. But with one look at Yangyang and Renjun’s faces, you could tell both of them were blushing.
“Shut up, I don’t know what you are talking about.”
Renjun looked away from the other and made eye contact with Jaemin who gave him a very suggestive look. He just rolled his eyes and ignored him. He had plates to culture after all.
----
The couple of days following Yangyang’s flirting attempt were weird. They kind of danced around each other, in this weird limbo of sorting being more than friends but also not. For the most part, they acted the same but there was something for sure different. Neither of them brought up the failed flirting and Yangyang did not try to flirt again.
Renjun was getting irritated at the whole thing. He thought by now that Yangyang would have said something, anything but alas he was going to have to be the one to say something. At first, he would have done it during lab considering they developed their relationship from being partners there, but that's weird to confess to a guy during lab.
So he decided his best bet was going to be at their go-to hotpot restaurant. They both are sitting down at their usual booth, sitting in a weird silence. Usually, Yangyang is rambling about how his chemistry professor sucks or about some other crazy thing that Hendery did in their apartment. Except now he is sitting there silently playing with his hands.
Renjun can’t take this weirdness between them anymore, so he blurts out, “You are the one that is hotter than a bunsen burner. If anything you are like an exothermic reaction.”
Yangyang looks shocked at that, clearly not expecting Renjun to just say that out of the blue.
“Do you mean that? Are you flirting with me?”
“Of course, I am Liu Yangyang, I wouldn’t say science pick-ups of all things to you if I didn’t mean it.”
“Aww, Junnie you are so cute. I was so worried when I blurted that out in the lab because at first, I thought you wouldn’t get it. But then I figured you did but you were not going to appreciate me flirting with you. So I decided to just not talk about it I guess? Based on the conversation now, I shouldn’t have done it.”
“Yeah, probably not. We could have been dating already now if you didn’t chicken out.”
“Excuse me you could have easily said something earlier too!”
“I was waiting for you considering you made the first move.”
“Ugh we are so stupid,” Yangyang groans.
“Says you,” Renjun snorts.
“Is this any way to treat your boyfriend, Mr. Huang?”
“Well Mr. Liu, you are not my boyfriend so I can do whatever I want.”
“Hmm, I think that is going to change don’t you think,” Yangyang says leaning in.
“I think so,” agrees Renjun, also leaning in.
“So what kind of soup bases were you-”
The two jump apart at the sound of the waitress's voice as they approach the table. The two of them quickly order, ignoring the fact they were almost caught in an odd position. When the waitress finally leaves, the two let out a sigh of relief before giggling. The rest of the meal goes fairly well, the two catching up on all that wasn’t said during their weird avoidance phase. Yangyang passionately discussed how crazy his chemistry professor was and Renjun complained about his portrait assignment due at the end of the month.
He missed this, the easy conversation that flowed between them. It was a good thing that they got everything sorted out now and he now even had a boyfriend.
Maybe the microbiology class wasn’t that bad after all.
A few months later:
Renjun woke up to two things, him comfortably snuggled into Yangyang’s body and someone outside his door insistently knocking. He could feel the body beneath starting to move as the knocking got louder.
“Renjun, are you awake? Renjun?”
“Ugh who is knocking so early in the morning,” Yangyang grumbled, “whatever happened to letting people just sleep in.”
Renjun looked down at the other boy and hummed, “Baby sorry to burst your bubble but it is almost ten o’clock already. Now let me go so I can see who it is.”
He started to get up before forcefully flopping back down, Yangyang refusing to let him get out of bed.
“If we wait long enough then they can leave and I can get more snuggles.”
“You’re so clingy, did you know that?”
“As if you are complaining.”
Renjun just makes a face of disagreement before slowly leaning down to kiss his boyfriend. The person at the door could wait.
“Renjun I swear if you don’t open this door right now I will bust it open! I know you are in there as well Liu Yangyang so if you don’t open up I will be exposing your ass to your boyfriend.”
“Why does it sound like that is Ten at the door?”
“Probably 'cause it is Yangie. Now let me up before he breaks in here.”
Yangyang just groans and relents, knowing that his brother in fact would figure a way into the apartment either way. Renjun carefully maneuvers himself off of Yangyang and out of the bed. He pads over to the door and opens it to reveal a very annoyed Ten.
“Finally one of you answers. I was about ready to break in. Now get up, lovebirds, we are leaving for brunch in twenty minutes.”
Ten proceeds to sit down on the couch, considering his job done. Renjun just offers anything to drink before making his way back to the bedroom to get Yangyang up. When he gets there, it seems the other finally at least got up. He perks up when Renjun enters the room, making his way over to the other boy.
“I never got my morning kisses, baby.”
Renjun thought Yangyang could not get any hotter at the moment with his morning voice, shirtless and demanding kisses. He quickly pecks the other’s lips knowing that they had to get ready quickly and had no time for anything else. Yangyang had other plans though, recapturing Renjun’s lips as soon as they left his own.
God Yangyang was the best kisser ever. Renjun could honestly just do this forever but he knew that they were going to have to cut this short soon. They both pull away to grasp for air, but Yangyang wasn’t going to let that last too long as he was already leaning in again.
"Nuh uh uh, Yangie we have to get ready. You can't keep distracting me with kisses."
"But Junnie I don't want to go," he whined. "I just want to stay home with you, not go out to brunch with my brother and his boyfriend."
"If you go to this with me, I can promise a lot more than kissing when we get back."
"Fine but I get to choose everything then."
"Deal now come on baby, if we don't get ready Ten will be pissed at you for running late."
Yangyang just grumbled again but begrudgingly started to walk towards the closet to pick something out. Renjun smiled unconsciously. His boyfriend was so cute when he was like this.
It was always fun to learn more about Yangyang, how he loved to cuddle, or how he sang along to whatever was playing while completing chemistry homework. If you told Renjun a couple of months ago he would have gotten the cutest boyfriend, he simply wouldn't have believed you.
The two of them do end up getting ready in Ten's twenty minutes. They set out to this new bistro Ten had wanted to go to for a while now, exclaiming the whole way about the food and decor of the place. Renjun would hum along in agreement while Yangyang ended up sleeping on the car ride over.
Brunch itself was a calm affair with Ten and his boyfriend talking most of the time for everybody. There was minimal teasing of the new couple which Yangyang had appreciated. Until of course when Ten brought out the baby pictures to show Renjun. Yangyang just groaned the whole time and tried to get his brother to put his phone, while Renjun just cooed at every single picture shown to him.
Brunch was good if Renjun had to say so himself. Yangyang would disagree with the fact, but he was the main source of his brother’s teasing the entire time. The two of them ended up back at Renjun’s apartment afterwards, declining an invitation to spend the rest of the day with the older couple. After all, Renjun had a promise to keep to Yangyang. A promise that he also enjoyed very much.
----
If you had told Renjun that he would sign up and complete an upper-division biology class for his university requirement, he would have said you were crazy. If you would have told him that his future boyfriend would also make a terrible pick-up line in an attempt to woo him, he would have laughed in your face. But life is mysterious, leading him to take a biology class but get a super hot boyfriend out of it. Sure, the said boyfriend was a bit different from him in so many ways, but at the same time his perfect pair.
Renjun would not trade anything about this past semester for anything. Even if he had to suffer through his friends gross flirting or with how bacteria ruled his life for the past four months, he wouldn’t trade it for anything. Especially since he got a hot engineering boyfriend who thought he was the hottest man ever (1500°C hot apparently). After all, he was hotter than a bunsen burner set to full power.
“You are the hottest, sexiest person I know.”
“Hotter as a bunsen burner as you said, right?”
“Ugh, I can’t believe you still hold that against me,” Yangyang groans.
Renjun just snorts in response, “well you were the one to basically confess your undying feelings for me in a lab of all places through a bad chemistry pickup line at that.”
“I hate when you are right.”
“No you don’t,” Renjun smugly says leaning in.
“You’re right I don’t.”
Who knew that microbes were going to be the best matchmaker after all?