Chapter Text
Seungmin woke to a strong, steady knock at his dormitory door. For a moment, he couldn’t register what exactly the sound was. Then, he noticed how bright the room was, sun filtering through the windows in a way that was definitely mid-to-late morning.
“No!” He shot upward, blankets pooling around his waist.
It was obvious that he’d slept through his alarm - or perhaps forgotten to even set one last night.
What day was it? Tuesday? Had he missed his nine o’clock class? There was a quiz today…
More knocking threw Seungmin from his thoughts.
He looked around wildly. The room was a mess. Scratch that - it was complete chaos. His desk was piled with dirty dishes. Clothes, papers, and other items were scattered on the floor.
The thought of someone seeing the state of his room was incredibly embarrassing. There was once a time when messes always bothered Seungmin. As a child, his bedroom had always been kept impeccably neat.
Lately, it had just been too stressful to keep up with everything. By the time he got himself awake, dressed, and fed, it was time to go to class. By the time he arrived at his dorm, he needed to finish his homework and find something for dinner. At that point, he was usually too exhausted to do anything other than sleep after eating.Cleaning had just been put on the back burner - only now he was truly regretting it.
Seungmin could guess who was behind the door; It was without a doubt either Bang Chan or Lee Minho, the two Caregivers assigned to monitor him this semester (and probably all the way to graduation).
If he failed another surprise inspection, he’d be at three strikes.
Three strikes meant they’d force him to move into the Little Dormitory, where he’d be under the watchful eye of Caregivers full-time.
Most Littles who attended university happily stayed there, although the overall enrollment of Littles was low in the first place. Most opted to go straight to ‘Adoption Centers’ to be matched with a permanent Caregiver after turning eighteen. They were under the mentality of ‘why pursue a higher education when you’ll be taken care of for the rest of your life anyhow?’
Seungmin didn’t hate being cared for - but he also valued his independence, and his learning. He’d always enjoyed school, and he’d even earned a scholarship for all of his hard work.
To Seungmin, the Little Dorm sounded like a pain. Caregivers lived there full-time, and they enforced rules like ‘no staying up after ten’ or ‘you have to sign out if you’re leaving campus by yourself.’
If Seungmin had any hope of staying at the top of his class, he didn’t have time to follow all of those silly rules. He always studied late at night - it was the best time for peace and quiet.
That was why, after reading the rules and expectations of the Little Dormitory, Seungmin had applied for an appeal to stay in regular housing. It was approved, but only on a tentative basis. He was assigned two Caregivers who he had to check-in with weekly, in person, and was subject to surprise inspections to ensure his well-being.
That was where Chan and Minho came in. They were nice enough, but clearly disapproving of his choice to steer clear of the Little dorm.
The two Caregivers took their job of monitoring Seungmin very seriously. They seemed to look for any and every reason to give Seungmin a strike. He’d earned his very first one only three days after the semester had started, when Minho found that he’d been skipping breakfast.
‘Littles need plenty of nourishment. If I find out that you’re skipping meals again, then it’ll be another strike.’
Then, two weeks after that, he’d earned his second strike when Chan did a ‘surprise’ night check and found Seungmin up at three in the morning finishing an essay.
‘Littles need lots of sleep - ten hours at the latest, unless you take naps. I’m afraid I’ll need to count this as a strike, Seungmin…’
Seungmin’s predicament was just like baseball: Three strikes, you’re out! That was why he needed to fix things, and quickly.
As soon as Seungmin rolled out of bed, he winced. His bottom felt uncomfortably cold, wet, and was beginning to sting. He needed to change straight away, except the knocking continued, sounding more urgent this time.
'I’ll just pretend that I’m not here,’ Seungmin thought to himself, trying to quiet his breathing. ‘I’ll change, arrange to make-up my quiz, pick up my room, and then when they come back everything will be-'
Suddenly there was a sharp click, and the doorknob turned.
“Seungmin?” It was Chan who stepped into the room, looking worried. As soon as he laid eyes on the Little, he relaxed a bit.
“You have a key to my room?” Seungmin asked, glaring in betrayal. He could only imagine how many times they might have come in here to snoop around while he was at class. “That’s not fair!”
“Neither is trying to ignore us,” Minho, who was behind Chan, countered easily as he entered the room.
Uh-oh. Both Caregivers were here at once? This couldn’t be good.
“Your professor reported you as absent this morning,” Chan informed him, looking far too concerned. “She contacted us right away.”
“Yeah, I- I must have forgotten to set my alarm.” Seungmin said, his throat suddenly feeling much more tight. “I missed my Statistics quiz…”
Chan reached out, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Seungmin-”
“I’ve got to go talk to Professor Choi and arrange for a make-up session,” Seungmin interrupted, taking a step back. “Can this wait until later? And listen, I know my room is messy, I really do, but midterms are coming up, and I’ve just fallen a little bit behind. I’ll clean up as soon as I get back-”
He stopped talking abruptly, suddenly hyper aware of the silent conversation Chan and Minho seemed to be having between themselves. It made the hairs on the back of his neck suddenly grow stiff.
“Seungmin, Sweetheart,” said Chan, turning to face him with a look that was a mix between empathetic and finality. “I think we need to have a talk…”