Chapter Text
Hyunjin couldn’t be more glad that Felix had ended up in his dance class. They had been in the same class the past year too, but Hyunjin had found out from a couple of seniors that the schedules were getting shuffled tremendously. He could already feel his nerves be calmed when the sight of the music department came to him, having dance studios on the ground floor, musical instrument storerooms on the floor on top, and a range of recording and producing booths above them.
The actual area for music instruments to be played was in the building in between the art department and music department, given that—even though all the students were skilled enough not to burst someone’s eardrums with shrill violins notes gone wrong, the sound could still be distracting.
He wondered if he should make a beeline to the washroom to wash his paint-stricken hands from his previous mistake of volunteering to help his professor clear out the table after everyone had left. He decided on not doing so. Not only was he late, he had an array of colors on his hands—which, a part of his brain, still stuck in the literature class, would claim was adorned with creativity. He mentally groaned, holding tightly onto his bag’s strap as he pulled open the door to the ground floor and stepped inside, he could already hear the squeaks of shoes against the linoleum floors and a vaguely familiar song.
The class he was assigned this year was B-2 , an upgrade from the one he had last year, where he remembered him and Felix sagging to the ground with bodies wet from sweat due to the lack of fans and appropriate air ventilation. He exhaled a sigh, and walked into the building, rubbing his hands together in a futile attempt to rub the paint off as though it were acrylic. Too bad for him, the professor had a penchant for oil-based paints.
Before he could continue his trudge towards his assigned studio, he realized that there was a different set of squeaks of shoes coming—not from his class, but the class that was before it. Hyunjin approached cautiously, and peeked inside.
Hyunjin didn’t know the name of the man who was dancing fluidly, his body practically hitting every possible bass note in the song. It was a bit like Hyunjin’s own dancing style, sharp, but not sharp enough to feel as though he were jabbing—it could be close to the way water rushed through a bamboo-pipe system, following the direction it was to go with waves and patterns of its own.
He stared. Blatantly stared. The man —Hyunjin had seen him once or twice around the campus, never more than in the corner of Hyunjin’s eye—gone before Hyunjin could catch him in his line of vision and arrived when Hyunjin wasn’t aware. He didn’t know his friends, and didn’t know the exact description he could give to anyone to find his name and let alone his class schedule. Hyunjin sucked in a breath when he noticed that the dancer was doing something close to a windmill , but it wasn’t completed since he lay on his back and matched a few steps to match the slowing tune of the bridge of the song.
Only when the song approached its upbeat pre-chorus, did the dancer jump to his feet by pushing himself to lift off the ground. In no way was it not hard, Hyunjin knew that because he had never really achieved a kick-up at par with the music. The man continued dancing, his face appearing serious and his eyes fixated on the reflection of his own body as he ended the dance with not any power moves, but rather a fluid motion like the song itself. Hyunjin watched in amazement as the man ran a hand through his dark locks before resting his hands on his waist as he caught his breath.
Come to think of it, the latter was wearing a black turtleneck, topped with a loose AC/DC shirt that complimented the biker pants that he wore (the belts of them hanging near his thighs, swaying as if to prove the motion was no joke), to top it off, were his black Doc Martens . The man was a walking—
“Excuse me?” a voice interrupted Hyunjin’s thoughts, making him jump a step ahead and away from the sight the dance room’s door allowed. His eyes caught the source and he nearly doubled over in relief that it wasn’t some random person before he scorned.
“What do you want?” Hyunjin asked, eying the latter. “...Yeonjun.”
“I’m older than you, Hyunjin-ah, it’s hyung,” Yeonjun offered sweetly. “And yes, I’m here to guide your forgetful ass back to the right class because your introduction is the only one left and it’ll be worth our time for your embarrassment.”
Hyunjin could already feel the embarrassment. It was alright when everyone did the introductions together, but him alone now? He sighed, and when Yeonjun had turned his back away from him, he quickly tilted his head back to peek into the dance room. The man seemed as though he hadn’t been bothered even the slightest by the commotion outside, in fact, he was sitting down against a foam board and looking through his phone.
“Oh, you found him,” Yeonjun piped, and Hyunjin jumped again, pushing the taller man away from him.
“Lead the way,” he demanded.
Yeonjun scoffed, but did as Hyunjin asked anyway, turning around and stuffing his hands into the pockets of his baggy pants, which gave his lanky frame more lankiness . But Hyunjin supposed it was good fashion sense.
As Yeonjun entered the dance studio with a small sign that jutted out and indicated B-2 , Hyunjin glanced back at the studio in which he had seen the other man. Was he an instructor? Probably not since he didn’t look as though he had even crossed his twenty-five year mark. Hyunjin took a deep inhale and forced himself to look at his own little predicament of having to voluntarily embarrass himself.
Despite it all, he couldn’t help but think about the dancer he had seen. How someone could have such an intimidating aura that his own presence rose over that of the music he danced to. Hyunjin swore if he ever did try to talk to the latter, he’d stumble over his words stupidly simply because… well, the latter man’s eyes were really pretty, and he looked quite handsomely scary.
Hyunjin internally groaned.
The introduction went surprisingly fine, without much trouble and giggles, since the only people he seemed to know were Yeonjun and Felix, and some really tall man by the name of Choi… Soobin? Whom he happened to know through some mutuals, so there weren’t many giggles thrown around.
At the end of it, Hyunjin dramatically launched himself on Felix once the dance instructor had dismissed them and left the class, presumably to grab something she left in the staff room.
“There, there.” Felix patted his head in faux sympathy, a smile growing on his features. “And I was wondering what made you so late.”
“I kept my sunshine waiting,” Hyunjin gasped, his eyes widening, making Felix let out a soft giggle at that, causing the both of them to shake a little in their embrace. Hyunjin let himself exhale a sharp breath and press his face into Felix’s hair, smelling his shampoo and a hint of his cologne. “Missed you,” he confessed, squeezing Felix.
“ ‘Course you did, you’re a bunny, you’ll die out of loneliness even if it’s one forsaken day,” Felix mused, “we met yesterday, Hyunnie.”
“I know,” Hyunjin hummed, pulling away from the embrace and sending a grin down at Felix. “I feel like my emotions and all stats have been restored to a full hundred-percent.”
Felix chuckled again.
“Ew.” Hyunjin and Felix didn’t bother turning to find the source of the comment. It was obvious.
“Hi, Changbin hyung, hi, Yeonjun, again,” Felix greeted, turning away from Hyunjin and waving at the pair that stood at the doorway. A part of Hyunjin could never get over how ironic the two of them were. Yeonjun, tall and lanky and whiny while Changbin, short and buff and also whiny. Physical opposites also attracted, it seemed.
“Anyways, Yeonjun-ah has another class, he is heading over right now,” Changbin informed. “Me and Chan hyung are going to be waiting for you in the cafeteria if you decide to show up. So, uh, correction: Chan hyung wants to see you guys because he feels like a dad who’s been away from home for months since he hasn’t seen you two in three days.”
Yeonjun snorted, and Changbin did too, as if they had their own inside joke about Chan’s notorious parental behavior. The two of them eventually left Hyunjin and Felix alone, making their departure as loud as they could possibly make it by smacking each other and making a run for it like kids.
Felix sighed heavily, and Hyunjin followed.
“Anyways, Hyunjin-ah,” Felix muttered, “do you want to put Chan hyung into a dilemna or actually go there to meet him and cure his anxiety?”
Hyunjin shrugged, and his eyes glanced over Felix and at the same man, who had exited the dance studio he was in prior. “Do you know him?” he asked Felix.
Felix followed his line of vision and found the man, his eyes catching him for a few minutes before he disappeared into a hallway. “I’ve… seen him in passing,” Felix murmured, tearing his gaze away from the doorway and at Hyunjin. “I saw him dancing earlier…it was …entracing.”
“I know,” Hyunjin replied wistfully, “that’s why I was late.”
Felix looked at him. “He’s… cute,” he murmured.
“Way to go, Lee Felix, call another man cute right in front of your boyfriend,” Hyunjin groaned. Felix huffed a laugh, walking over to the wall to pick his bag up and sling it over one shoulder.
“We have the same taste in everything except for Slipknot ,” Felix replied, “there’s no way you wouldn’t even have had the tiniest, littlest, smidgiest—”
“I get it Lix-ah—”
“ —thought that he was cute in your inner-most subconsciousness?” Felix asked, glaring at Hyunjin in the most non-intimidating way. Hyunjin broke the gaze and let out a tired groan as Felix picked up his bag as well and tossed it for Hyunjin to catch. “Anyhow, even I missed you, Hyunjin-ah, let’s trouble Chan hyung again.”
—
It seemed as though it was a coincidence. But Hyunjin was sure there was some kind of old saying that said that once you saw or came to know something new, you saw it often. It was like when he had found some new word in literature, that he felt quite proud knowing of, only for him to find it repeatedly everywhere—in corners of newspapers, in magazines, books, etcetera. It often left him with the feeling as to— why hadn’t he seen it before?
It was akin to how often he and Felix saw the man from the dance studio everywhere. They had seen him everywhere except for the dance studio—sitting in the cafeteria a few tables away from their friend group along with a boy Hyunjin knew through Chan and Changbin as Jisung. The other boy was Seungmin, who happened to be in Hyunjin's art class.
Hyunjin knew that the easiest way to find out more about the dancer he had seen, was through them, since a part of him didn't have the courage to talk to said man himself. And courage was one thing Felix and Hyunjin seemed to not possess. Even if it was a month of them not-so subtly eying the unnamed man.
It was obviously an attraction or something, Hyunjin didn't want to spend too much time thinking about it, because then he was sure he'd be cursed to daydream about Mystery Boy in the middle of art class and accidentally end up painting him. His classmates had already teased him enough for painting Felix's face a couple hundred times, so it would just be the cherry on top for him.
The next time when Hyunjin and Felix saw the dark haired dancer was when they were entering the dance studio to run through some practices for the project their instructor had dumped on them. Mystery Boy was in the midst of stepping out of the dance studio he had previously been using, and Hyunjin squeezed Felix's hand in retaliation. Okay.
He could do this.
"Hey," Hyunjin called.
Felix glanced at him with piqued interest and a part of Hyunjin wondered if the younger would interject too. The unnamed man was wearing black sports shorts today, topped off with a black full-sleeved loose shirt. He wore a black and white beanie with a small emblem of some moderately known company, and what caught both their eyes were the black rose earrings that dangled off his ears.
"Excuse me," Hyunjin tried again, but the latter man simply turned in the other direction, with his back to Hyunjin as he began taking his phone out and holding it in his hand.
Once the other disappeared, Hyunjin blinked. Was that rude? Probably. Did he feel hurt? A little chafed. "Do you think he heard me?" Hyunjin asked Felix.
"I did, you weren't talking to yourself," Felix confirmed. "Maybe… he wasn't in the mood for conversation?"
"Couldn't he have at least declined talking to us and stepping away?" Hyunjin grumbled.
Felix blinked at him, before he entwined their hands again. "Relax, Hyunjin-ah, you're sulking because a pretty boy rejected talking to you. Plus, maybe he hadn't heard properly, did you see if he was wearing wireless earbuds?"
"I wanted him to talk to us ," Hyunjin mumbled. "And no, I didn't specifically look at that."
"Well, you have more chances, don't worry," Felix hummed, leading the both of them towards the dance room. “Plus, I’ll try talking to him too, ‘kay?”
Hyunjin blinked at Felix, and then grabbed the younger man’s hand, squeezing it as they made their way to the dance room. Their instructor gave them a look, but didn’t say much other than shrugging her shoulders for them to get inside the room. “Where are all of you in your projects?” she asked, looking at everyone in the room. “The due date is in four days.”
“Jihye seonsaengnim, is it possible for you to extend the deadline?” a girl asked. Felix had mentioned her name was Yuna or something—as far as rumors went, Hyunjin knew she carried many faces.
To her question, their instructor scrunched her nose in thought for a few moments before she finally exhaled. “I suppose,” she murmured. “I’m unable to guide some of your performances due to time restrictions… How about you submit it next week? I’ll have some help by then.”
The class nodded, and Hyunjin internally sighed. Even though it was individual with Felix and him helping each other through it, there was a typical guide that was missing. Apparently the TA from last year had quit since she didn’t have enough time to balance out her majors, which had made it difficult for their instructor to help everyone.
So, he thought, help. Help either meant a new teacher or a new TA.
Felix nudged his shoulder when the instructor was walking over to the speakers. “Warm up,” she commanded.
—
“Hyunjin-ah, sit still,” Felix chided as he straddled Hyunjin’s lap with the eyeliner applicator in one hand and the bottle in the other. Hyunjin hummed, resting his hands on either side of Feix’s waist. He closed his eyes and let Felix have his way with him, leaning in close and applying the liner with a steady hand.
“Eyes close, Hyunnie,” Felix huffed, closing the bottle and grabbing another cosmetic product which Hyunjin couldn’t guess. He felt the fan of a soft brush against his cheekbones and later the soft tip of another brush on his eyelids. He took a deep breath, making Felix chuckle. The younger man then opened another bottle, and Hyunjin knew it was lipgloss by the sweet smell of it. Felix did apply some more products to his lips before he finally applied the glossy substance over it, and once he had done so, he pressed his lips against Hyunjin’s.
Hyunjin hummed when Felix kissed him deeply. “You look really nice,” Felix muttered. “And taste sweet.”
“Just nice ?” Hyunjin asked, opening his eyes and smiling. “Be a bit more accurate, Lix-ah.”
Felix stuck his tongue out at him and Hyunjin leaned ahead to kiss him about, easily slipping his tongue into the younger’s mouth. When they pulled apart, Felix whined. “You messed up the gloss.”
“Sorry, it was your fault.” Hyunjin shrugged, unable to stop his giggles when Felix forced his weight on him, making him fall back on the bed.
“Who’s hosting this party again?” Felix asked.
“One of Jisung’s friends,” Hyunjin replied, pushing himself to sit up and adjust Felix’s weight on his lap. “Not the pretty ones, this one is rumored to be a stoner.”
“Sick, plan on getting high?” Felix fixed his brooch, and not so subtly opened another button of his shirt.
“Nah, my art teacher already suspects me of being on drugs. That’s sufficient,” Hyunjin groaned, squeezing Felix’s waist before he kissed the younger again. “Let’s go?”
“And give Changbin hyung and Chan hyung a heartache for being single?” Felix asked, getting off Hyunjin’s lap. “Count me in.”
Hyunjin was never fond of parties like these, especially those hosted by the rich druggie students. Sure, the alcohol was alright, but there was a perpetual humid cloud of musk and smoke that would stick to his garments no matter what.
Hyunjin and Felix easily followed Changbin and Chan into the kitchen, where an assortment of various drinks were adorned. There were pre-made whiskey-colas filled in red cups, while a bottle of vodka sat perched dangerously on the corner of the kitchen island—some weird combo of fruit punch was kept suspended in a glass dispenser. few snacks, and more drinks—beer, glass bottles of various sojus. Hyunjin made his way to grab a cup of whiskey cola, and found himself lifting the cup at par with Chan. “Hey—who even drinks whiskey cola ?” Changbin asked. A part of Hyunjin was surprised he could hear the latter over the weirdly sensual yet upbeat music that was playing in the living room.
“Uhm,” Chan huffed, offended, gesturing to himself and Hyunijn.
“Wanna have some beer?” Felix asked, ever the angel, distracting Changbin from sending glares their way for consuming the ‘abomination’ of a drink. Thankfully everyone including him were weak to Felix’s persuasion, and the older man huffed at Hyunjin and Chan before he let Felix lead him to grab the scissors to rip open the bear bundle.
“We have some taste, no?” Chan chuckled.
Hyunjin hummed, the cup close to his face. “It’s not the best, but I feel like they’ve pitched the vodka with water, so… the only good thing that’s available.”
“Agreed.” Chan smiled at him. “Do you mind if I go talk to one of my friends?”
“No, not at all,” Hyunjin replied, moving out of the way and letting Chan walk through the narrow entrance of the kitchen towards a girl, who was standing there with expectant eyes. Hyunjin was sure that he had seen her try to hit on Chan ample of times, and honestly wished he could give her the advice of being straightforward since Bang Chan was a dense yet caring idiot.
Hyunjin leaned against the counter and sipped the drink quietly, eyes scanning the living room through the kitchen. It was a cliche party, when he’d arrived at the university for the first time he had been entranced, but now there was nothing surprising about makeshift neon lights filling the living room and dimmed kitchen lights.
Ironically he could see Felix dancing with Yeonjun and Changbin, his blonde hair a hard miss, since they’d take up any shade that the neon lights changed into. He couldn’t help but smile fondly, his eyes captured by the pretty smile on his boyfriend’s face as he and Yeonjun pulled off some moves which Changbin couldn’t follow.
Once the cup was over, he made it a point to fill it up with his own ratios of the two drinks. When he was done, and had gotten back to his previous position, still continuing to watch Felix, his eyes trailed past the younger and towards the sofas that were pushed to the corners of the room. His eyes widened.
There was the Mystery Boy, with his legs crossed and his lips pursed. He was wearing a sleeveless black turtleneck with a loose full-sleeved shirt that hung off one shoulder, giving a peek of his skin. He yet again wore loose black pants and the platform Doc Martens. Hyunjin hadn’t seen the latter wear anything other than his perpetual black.
He held the same look in his eyes again, the dark—thoughtful look that would make anyone step back. Although that wasn’t all, Hyunjin followed the line of the other’s vision to see Felix. He blinked. Why was the latter man looking at Felix?
He turned away from Felix and felt his heart pause in his throat for a second when he locked eyes with Mystery Boy. He inhaled, and didn’t blink—because, well, the other didn’t. Eventually a hand passed in between him and the unnamed man’s eyelock, and Hyunjin blinked, flinching slightly. He glanced to his side and noticed Jeongin looking at him with a confused expression.
“Are you drunk?” he asked.
Hyunjin sighed, ruffling Jeongin’s hair—making the younger let out a scandalized sound and push Hyunjin’s hand away. “Just a lil’ tipsy, Jeongin-ah,” Hyunjin huffed. “Whatcha looking for?”
“Shots,” Jeongin replied.
“Take your watery shots,” Hyunjin said, giggling when Jeongin made an annoyed sound. “The soju and beer are what I’d trust.”
Once Jeongin moved away from in front of him, Hyunjin searched for where Mystery Boy had been prior, and he saw him, on his phone this time, messing around with something. However, he noticed the bobbing of his leg, and the agitated readjustments of his hand. Come to think of it, he had never seen the latter at any parties. It could be because of the different friend groups, but he wouldn’t chalk it up to anything.
Maybe this was his chance to talk to him.
Hyunjin, fueled by a little alcohol, managed to make his way into the living room, squeezing past the hot and humid dancing bodies to the couch. He sat down next to the Mystery Boy and crossed his legs to mimic the other’s posture. The latter turned to face him at the dip of his weight—that was when Hyunjin noticed that he was wearing black jade earrings that reached to his chin.
“Hello,” Hyunjin greeted.
Before the other could open his mouth, Felix was suddenly on him—sitting on his lap, and excitedly glancing at the man the two of them had made many (futile) attempts in talking to. “Hi,” Felix said, beaming.
The other blinked at the two of them, before his lips parted slowly. “Hi.” he said.
Hyunjin glanced at where Yeonjun and Changbin stood talking with Jisung and squeezed Felix’s waist once before he hummed. “Are you okay? You don’t seem so comfortable… here.”
Hyunijn averted his attention back to Mystery Boy, who blinked at him for a few moments before his leg was bobbing in what Hyunjin definitely knew was nervousness. “Sorry… is it possible for you to look at me and speak?” he asked Hyunjin.
Hyunjin’s brows furrowed, but he shook it off as the obnoxiously loud volume of music. “Are you alright?” Hyunjin asked again, and noticed the way the other man’s eyes were focused on his lips.
The latter then met his eyes. “Yeah, uh, I’m good,” he replied.
“You seem uncomfortable, though,” Felix murmured. And Hyunjin knew his boyfriend was just as observant as he was—if not, more. But he also noticed the other man’s eyes flashing to Felix’s lips before he looked up.
“Am I?” The man in front of them chuckled. “Yeah… I got roped here by one of my friends, I don’t… party.”
“Ah, explains, I’ve never seen you during these events,” Hyunjin said, facing the other this time, noting how the other stared at his lips again.
“Yeah.”
There was a slight lisp to the other’s voice, that he couldn’t pronounce certain words clearly, and despite all the tough and intimidating stature, the other seemed… soft. “Do you mind if we offer you company for a while?” Felix asked.
“Oh! Uh, yeah, I—I don’t mind.”
Hyunjin smiled a bit. “What’s your name?”
“Lee Minho,” Minho replied, smiling back at Hyunijn. “What’s yours?”
Hyunjin was about to open his mouth, but Felix beat him to it. “Lee Felix, and he’s Hwang Hyunjin.”
Minho blinked at them before he ducked his head a little bashfully. “Sorry… uhm, could you write your names? It’s easy for me to pronounce them like that.”
Write our names? Hyunjin’s brows furrowed in confusion. Regardless, he reached into his pocket and typed his name out, and then showed it to Minho.
Minho stared at his phone for a few moments. “Hwang Hyun-Jin ,” he said. There was a slight tonal change in his name, that Hyunjin couldn’t help but find cute. He then pointed at Felix before typing out a name and showing it to Minho. "Lee Yongbok?”
Felix made a small sound of irritation. “It’s Felix ,” he huffed, then paused, facing Minho. “Can you read English?”
“Uh… so and so, mostly for signs,” Minho replied.
Hyunjin shrugged his shoulders. “Can’t write Felix in Hangul since I know it simply won’t sound the way you want it to,” he said, poking Felix’s tummy. “It’ll sound more like… I dunno, something, but definitely not Felix .”
Felix made another annoyed sound. “Nice to meet you, Lee Minho-ssi,” he greeted, his previous predicament forgotten.
Minho gave a small smile. “Nice to meet you too, Yongbok-ssi.”
Hyunjin rolled his shoulders. “How old are you?” he asked.
“Twenty-five,” Minho said.
“Should we call you sunbae?” Felix asked, blinking at Minho.
Minho laughed a little, and Hyunjin could only say it sounded cute. Adorable. Endearing. It was a breathy laugh ending with a small ah . “You’re making me sound old,” he chuckled. “If you’re younger than me, hyung’ll do just fine.”
“Minho hyung,” Hyunjin tasted the words on his tongue. “You aren’t one for honorifics, are you?”
“Nah, it takes too much time to know one and another in that case,” Minho said, “And it sounds like the speakers are leagues apart in some sort of status.”
“Wise-man,” Felix hummed.
The evening went on mostly with them talking to each other about superficial things and Hyunjin dwelling more and more into wonder as to why Minho was staring at their lips so much? He shook it off in the end, when Felix was telling yet another story of how he thought people overlooked the difficulty of actually cooking.
Minho mostly listened and provided some input here and there, but that was it. It wasn’t until Felix was midway of asking another question that a voice made the both of them jump.
“Hyung!”
They glanced at each other and then at Minho who didn’t seem the slightest bit bothered by the outburst, and was looking at them in confusion. It wasn’t until a panicked Jisung arrived behind Minho that the elder jumped and touched his shoulder, turning to face Jisung. “Oh shit, I thought you—” the smaller man practically dove headfirst into Minho, knocking him back so that his body was practically pushed to wedge in between Hyunjin’s side and shoulder. “I’m sorry, hyung.”
“Jisung-ah,” Minho sighed. “I need you to look at me, idiot.”
Jisung panicked again, looking up at Minho. “I’m sorry, hyung. I shouldn’t have just left you alone. I’ll never force you—”
Minho cleared his throat, and gestured up, and Hyunjin almost felt the embarrassment that Jisung did when he realized Minho wasn’t alone. “Oh,” Jisung muttered. “You’re with them.”
“Yeah,” Minho replied, pushing Jisung off him, causing the younger to cling to his side as Minho tried prying him away. “What did you want?”
“Your safety,” Jisung replied, suddenly remorseful. “Sorry.”
Hyunjin wondered if the current scenario was in any way hilarious to the eyes of an outsider. Felix was sitting on one of his thighs while Minho was wedged between Hyunjin’s side and the couch’s backrest as he tried to push Jisung away from him, to which the younger clinged harder to his body.
“Get off , Jisung,” Minho said, his voice suddenly stern, a stark contrast to the honey Hyunjin and Felix had heard from him prior. “I don’t need to be babysitted.”
Jisung shifted again, and actually got off Minho, standing up near the sofa as Minho sat up and fixed his hair. “Go away, enjoy however you want, and I can get home by myself if I feel I need to.”
“That’s not what I meant, hyung—”
Minho stood up suddenly, his eyes once again morphing into the cold demeanor of unapproachability that had been prior. “Bye, I’m going,” he declared, making Jisung stammer but let the elder go regardless.
Hyunjin and Felix exchanged glances, before they were following Minho through the thicket of the crowd, eventually seeing him exit the house and walk over to the curbside to lean against the light pole. He didn’t seem aware of their relatively loud footsteps until Felix gently touched Minho’s shoulder.
“I said I don’t need you to babysit me, Jisung—”
Minho turned around and his eyes widened. “Oh,” he muttered. “You’re here?”
Hyunjin nodded, lips pursed.
“I don’t need any pity, sorry,” Minho scoffed. “If Jisung put you up to this—”
“I’m sorry, pity for what?” Felix interrupted, and Minho’s lips parted.
“He didn’t tell you?” Minho asked, his voice quiet.
“No,” Hyunjin said cautiously. “Tell us what?”
Minho quickly shook his head. “No, no, nothing.”
“Hyung?” Felix said, blinking up at Minho. “Do you live in the dorms?”
Minho’s brows furrowed, before he nodded. “Yeah,” he replied. “Why?”
Hyunjin smiled. “We were planning on heading back soon, this party isn’t worth it anyways. Do you wanna come with us? We could stop by the street vendor that sells tteokbokki.”
There was retaliation in Minho’s eyes before he huffed out an exhale. “Hyunjin-ah, it’s past twelve, the vendor closes by then.”
“Wait, we’ve been talking to you for the past three or four hours?” Felix asked, hands defaultly making gestures. Minho took another breath and Hyunjin expected him to chide Felix a little, but Minho smiled a little and ruffled Felix’s hair.
“Yeah, that’s a first for me too,” he said, then averted his attention to Hyunjin. “Lead the way?”
“Of course,” Hyunjin said quickly, unable to shake away the weird feeling that there was no way Minho was suddenly so close to them. Felt so close to them. Maybe it was how he and Jeongin had clicked out of nowhere when they both had gotten stuck underneath the roof of the old art department during rain and had spoken a little about animals and exchanged numbers and then met each other regularly.
The three of them didn’t talk much on the twenty minute walk to the campus and an additional five minutes to the dormitories. Minho asked about them a little bit, Felix explaining that he had opted to continue practicing martial arts but later decided that he wanted to continue in dance, so he ended up starting late. Hyunjin explained that he and his family had decided that he should finish his military training before thinking about careers.
Minho seemingly listened to most of it, agreed that he had also done what Hyunjin had done, but a year later, that was how he ended up a year back than where he should’ve been.
And that was it. Minho’s dorm was in the other building, and they bid him goodnight before turning to their dorm building. Felix wasn’t Hyunjin’s roommate, but Hyunjin's roommate happened to be good friends with Felix’s roommate, and they had made the shift happen.
“I hope I see hyung again,” Hyunjin murmured, laying on the bed lazily as he waited for Felix to finish brushing his teeth and join him.
“We’ll see him,” Felix affirmed, voice muddled behind the brush still in his mouth. “Hopefully.”
Hyunjin groaned, his lips pursing into a pout before they parted. “Hey, Felix-ah,” he said, “What do you think hyung was thinking when he kept staring at our lips?”
“I choose not to think about it for the sake of me,” Felix replied, the bathroom door opening as the younger stepped out, switching the light off behind him before he walked over to the bed. “Maybe it’s… I don’t know, I don’t want to jump to conclusions.”
“Hm,” Hyunjin hummed. “I’m tired.”
Felix giggled, leaning down to kiss Hyunjin’s nose. “Of course, you are.”
—
Hyunjin didn’t see Minho for the week and wondered if the elder was avoiding them or whether Hyunjin had slipped back into his previous state of blindness that he simply couldn’t see Minho when he wanted to. Felix said that he saw Minho in the music department and they waved at each other, but didn’t really exchange many words.
It wasn’t until the coming Monday, when Hyunjin was running late to his dance class again that he saw Minho. He was wearing a simple black tee this time, with loose black jeans and matching studs. “Oh, Hyunjin-ah, you’re just a minute late,” his instructor said, and shrugged her shoulders for Hyunjin to stop gaping like an idiot in the doorway and get in.
“So.” She averted her attention to all the students. “As I was saying, this is Lee Minho, he’s going to be your new TA. He’s experienced—he has participated in the World of Dance , and has made choreographies for various k-groups. The reason it took a while for me to introduce you to him was the paperwork being delayed due to inconsistent management. Regardless, I hope you respect him and give him a proper welcome.”
Hyunjin blinked. Oh . That explained the flawless dancing—and the reason he saw Minho often go to the staff room. Jihye’s phone rang and she raised a hand, gesturing that she was leaving the class, and then making another gesture for Minho to continue. Minho nodded, he clasped both his hands together.
For some reason, his demeanor was still cold, not the warmth Hyunjin had seen at the party when the latter had spoken to him. “In case you want to tell me anything, please feel free to ask. Let’s begin with warm-ups, ‘kay?”
There was a wave of hushed whispers and Hyunin could barely catch on to what they were saying.
“Why’s he here?”
“So what if he participated there ?”
“Incapability and selectivity.”
Hyunijn frowned. Had they even seen Minho dance? He was probably better than most of the people here. Hyunjin glanced at Felix and noticed that the younger one was looking back at him with one of his cheeky smiles. Hyunin sighed, and glanced at the mirror as he removed his jacket and tossed it onto his bag before taking formation. He caught Minho’s eyes in the mirror, and only for a second did he see the water under the ice that cracked.
The class went fine, Minho’s warm-up was pretty long and left most of them drained and exhausted when they were to showcase their projects to the class. It went fine, save for the whispers. Most of which were looking down on Minho.
Hyunjin frowned again. But then he caught Minho's eye in the mirror, and recieved the slightest smile. Damn the other's opinions. Hyunjin reciprocated by shooting a brighter smile.
Dance would definitely be worth looking forward to more.