Chapter Text
Kai pov
"Take that, you stupid monster!" Kai let out an excited, high-pitched scream as his character charged full on towards the bad guy with a confident grin on his face at the edge of his phone screen.
He immediately felt a glare coming his way, Yeonjun shook his head in annoyance and continued lying down on the two chairs he had set up diagonally to Kai in the study area. He placed his blanket over the top half of his body to block the light, nearly knocking over his half-finished americano on the table in front of him.
It had been a rough week of lectures, seminars and assignments for every student this past week as it was nearly the end of the semester. Yeonjun was a couple of years older than Kai and it certainly reflected in the workload he had been struggling to keep up with.
They were currently hanging out in a study space that was a little secluded than the rest, as it was in the basement floor of the university building and few students actually knew about this location.
The place was pretty small anyway: there was one slightly worn-out sofa, a couple of chairs and a couple of small tables in the room. It was also poorly heated, the walls too thin to retain the warmth for long which made the two students opt to wearing their coats and bringing some blankets with them.
Although the room had its faults, it was the only space that was almost always gauranteed to be empty — minus Kai's shrieking noises every time he decided to play games — and the two boys had made a habit of spending a significant amount of their free time here.
Their bags had been tossed side by side on the ground at the entrance, Yeonjun was currently trying to take a quick break from doing his project write-up whilst Kai had given up altogether on his assignment and had started playing games on his phone, resting his elbows on the side of the sofa.
Kai continued being on his phone but attempted to play a less intense game to avoid getting on Yeonjun's nerves again. He had forgotten how sensitive his friend could be on a busy day.
It seemed that Kai's response to being in a stressful situation was ignoring it completely for as long as it was humanely possible. One time Kai had been sitting in the cafeteria, going over his music paper analysis when Beomgyu, who was also on his course but a year older, had stumbled into him and raised an eyebrow at him questioningly.
"Kai? Aren't you meant to be in class right now?" Beomgyu eyed him suspiciously, to which Kai scratched his back and gave a nervous smile.
"Yeah.. It's kinda far away right now and I probably won't make it anyway." he had replied. Beomgyu got his left hand out of his pocket to point at the general direction of the lecture hall.
"It's literally right there dude. And you're only like, 5-10 minutes late" Kai looked down to avoid eye contact.
The last time he went to his lecture, he had barely managed to leave his dorms on time before running frantically to campus in a disheveled state that was beyond imaginable. He had put on a hoodie last minute, with the hood to cover his messy hair and his backpack slung across his shoulders.
That did not matter much once he had made it to class — barely on time — with some students just glancing at him as he made an effort to ignore their stares to find a seat. Just as he was about to slide into a row of seats, his shoe hit a thermos bottle set on the floor. Desperately, Kai tried to grip onto his surroundings but did not manage to hold on to anything on the short span of time he had. He ended up tripping, his body and the metal bottle hitting the floor with a large thud sound. To his dismay, he let out a dolphin scream as he landed on his face.
Great.
If he had not caught everyone's attention before this, he now most certainly knew all eyes were on him now. He had quickly gotten up, ignoring the stinging feeling from his shattered confidence and from his body, and reassured everyone he was perfectly fine. Sitting for the rest of the lecture with spilled tea over his shoes and still red-faced from hitting the floor harshly or purely from embarrassment, Kai wasn't sure, had not been the most enjoyable part of his day.
He glanced back up at Beomgyu, who was still expecting an explanation from him about skipping class.
"uhh… I tripped last time" he summarised shyly. Beomgyu patted him on the shoulder, trying not to laugh at him and walking away.
So here Kai was, sitting down in a study space and playing games on his phone instead of studying like he was meant to. He got stuck at a particularly difficult level, not even noticing his friend arriving until he felt a soft fabric that felt a little heavy being placed on his lap. Shifiting his attention from the phone screen, he registered the soft object being of his plushies and saw Soobin resting his head on it with his eyes closed as he pretended Kai was melded into the sofa.
Kai smiled down at him and started squishing his warm cheeks sweetly:
"Awww, you're sooo adorable~" he cooed, making Soobin blush slighltly at the attention he was giving him and bursting into a dimpled smile.
"I thought you were meant to be studying, Kai" he nagged, raising an eyebrow at him as he nestled closer to the plushie he had installed on Kai's lap.
"..yeah I was doing just that actually. Until you decided to use me as a pillow instead of going to the other side of the sofa" he replied, despite knowing that Soobin was way too tall to fit on the far end. His feet were already past the edge and he was holding on to Kai a little to prevent himself from slipping away.
Soobin beamed at him and relaxed his shoulders, letting Kai get his attention to his game again. They could hear Yeonjun softly snoring under his blanket which had ducks imprinted on it. They had joked around the first time he had brought it over saying the ducks looked like him because of Yeonjun's pouty lips, making him roll his eyes at them.
Kai needed to find Beomgyu later to ask him about one of the classes he was struggling. He was hopeful that the older boy might be able to lend him his notes from earlier years, provided he even still had them or at least convince him that the professor was not too scary and Kai could just apprach him and explain which parts he found too puzzling to solve on his own. Beomgyu would usually be in the cafeteria around lunch time, hanging out with his friends and talking loudly when he was in a good mood but he had not showed up in a few days. His attempts at messaging him had also been unfruitful with no sign of Beomgyu having even seen them in the first place. He turned his attention back to Soobin to ask him about his whereabouts.
"Have you seen Beomgyu around lately, he's in the same year as you isn't he?" he questioned and placed his phone at his side.
"..hmm?" Soobin replied lazely. It was at that moment that Kai noticed his eyes half-lidded and blinking slowly. He chuckled and started running his fingers through dimpled boy raven-black hair.
"Nevermind~"
Soobin and Kai had met close to the end of Kai's second semester in university last year. It was during an observation event that astronomy students were organising, Kai had mostly showed up because he had been promised free pizza by the president of the student-led group.
Soobin had approached him, asking to share the margherita he had reserved for himself as they sat down. Kai learnt that Soobin was on his 2nd year of his english literature course and that he had mostly chosen it due to his distaste in maths.
That was also how he learnt that Soobin knew Beomgyu, despite not studying the same course. "I was kinda forced to attend a house party last weekend, i met another composing student there but he's in the same year as me. Do you know Beomgyu?" at that, Kai's eyes were glinting with recognition.
"Beomgyu? Yeah of course! He showed a bunch of us around on the first day and gave us his contact details there" They watched the other students set up a table full of refreshments, Kai eyed up some powdered hot chocolate and warm water but he did not want to have someone else grab his seat. He got up promptly and gestured vaguely towards the drinks with his hand.
"I'm gonna go get some hot chocolate, I can get you something if you watch my seat for me?" Soobin nodded along and asked for some coffee with cream. He brushed his dark hair that slightly hooded his eyes, it gave him a rather soft look. Kai had continued running into Soobin after that, often with clothes looking like they were borderline pyjamas and books held tightly against his chest. Having spotted him looking exhausted one day, Kai had decided to reveal his small study space.
Kai stared out the window, still idly playing with Soobin's hair, to find that it had gotten a little dark. Not wanting to leave just yet, he stayed with his friends a little longer and resigned to playing card games when it was clear that no more studying was going to occur that day. Soon, it was time to head back to their dorms so Kai waited Yeonjun to gather his bag and his little duck blanket before waving their goodbyes.
Beomgyu pov, (earlier that day)
Strange crystallised light in the form of a large halo sparkled midair. The source of it, which was now lying on the floor and away from Beomgyu's hands as soon as his thoughts became way too desperate to ignore the magic, was an ancient-looking book with a brilliant cerulean on its edges.
Beomgyu took a big gulp and fiddled with his hands. He had not meant to cause this reaction, he was in fact not even sure if what he was seeing was real. Now that the intensity of the colours had faded a little, he could make out the image of a forest on the other side. It looked so eerily inviting, the trees were strong and towered over the landscape to hide the sunlight and birds hidden deep inside chirped for Beomgyu to join them.
"I want to escape" were the last word he had muttered, regretting how left out he was feeling at the time. He was chatting to people on the same course as him, watching everyone have a good time without him. He would raise his voice to say something and then get dismissed so easily. Sometimes his interests did not seem to be important to his friends, if they did not agree with his opinion then having to hear him out appeared like a waste of time to them.
It was not fair. When it made him visibly upset, his friends had joked around with him to try and rattle him.
A part of him knew he was probably just being petty but it had still put him feeling under the weather for the whole day. It had been so easy to internalise all his emotions, digging his fingernails harshly into his skin to distract himself from the mental state with physical pain. A way out is what he wanted. Some other place, maybe some other people that was so far away. If it meant feeling like he could wash his worries and doubts by a gentle river and watch them as they drifted away, all would be well.
Now, the image before him seemed like an impossible dream. If it was real, did that mean that Beomgyu accidentally had wished the magic into existence?
He took a deep breath, way too mesmerised to turn his back now. The book waited for the magic words to be spoken and he abided, wether it was willingly or not was not important anymore. He did not recall deciding to take a few steps forward but found himself walking closer to the other wise nevertheless. With that, the world he was familiar with collapsed, seemingly out of existence to allow the new one to take its place.