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“Baby, baby you’re a caramel macchiato”
“Sieun-ah,”
His head snaps up at the sound of Suho’s soft voice opposite him. He blinks tiredly, eyebrows knotting together weakly.
“You’re falling asleep in your kimchi again.”
The statement is relatively humorous but Suho’s gaze is worried. Sieun breathes deeply, staring blankly at the boy in front of him. He spoons a tiny bite of kimchi into his mouth.
“Are you having problems sleeping again?”
Sieun shakes his head and it’s so obviously a lie that even Suho deadpans. Sieun just averts his eyes and continues to chew sullenly on his food. Suho’s tray is clean.
“Why don’t you go to the on-campus clinic?”
Suho is smiling encouragingly, a cautious sort of smile Sieun’s only ever seen him pull when he’s trying to coax him into doing something.
“There’s no need.” Sieun mumbles, “I’m fine.”
“So why did I hear from Juntae that he found you asleep on a bench? Outside the lecture hall.”
Sieun presses his lips into a thin line, guiltily.
“And why did I hear from Humin that he found you asleep in the library?”
“Better question— why was he in the library?”
Despite himself, Suho snorts. He ducks his head, cheeks squishing up by his eyes. Yeon Sieun is probably one of the funniest people he’s ever met.
He watches Sieun spoon rice into his mouth groggily with a fond half-smile. He’s very clearly half asleep.
———
This time, it’s Suho who finds a sleeping Yeon Sieun.
He’s just finished baseball practice and is in the locker room, dabbing the sweat away from his skin when one of his teammates approaches him.
“Suho, I think your friend is sleeping on the bleachers.”
Suho sighs, chucking his towel back into his locker and swinging his gym bag over his shoulder. He mutters a thanks to his teammate before marching back onto the pitch.
Sure enough, Suho can see a sleeping body on the bleachers.
Once he’s reached Sieun’s level, he sits down on the bench beside him. Sieun is laying with his head on the seat, in a fetus position.
“Nice day for watching baseball, huh?”
Sieun jolts awake, body jerking upright. His eyes land on Suho and he sighs, rubbing his eyes with the heel of his palm.
“Or should I say, nice day for sleeping.”
Clearly unamused, Sieun frowns at him. “Your practice was taking too long, I thought I’d…” he pauses, “you know, take a nap?”
Suho ruffles his hair fondly, earning him a glare.
“Come on, let’s go to the clinic. We’ll get you some sleeping pills.”
Sieun sighs but nods his head. He yawns and Suho has to stop himself from teasing him. His face is still puffy from sleep and Suho thinks he looks awfully adorable.
———
A few days after they visit the clinic, Sieun still seems to be having issues with his sleeping.
Hyuntak finds Suho this time, mentioning that Sieun didn’t turn up at their pre-planned meetup at a café to work on a project.
Suho sighs, rolls his eyes and dutifully runs to Sieun’s dorm.
He knocks on the door, and a few moments later a sleepy Sieun opens the door. He doesn’t seem to be very impressed with Suho being there.
“What?”
Suho pushes his way inside. He takes a look around the dorm, there’s mugs everywhere. Half finished mugs of tea— it looks like.
“Do you have a tea obsession or something?”
He peers distastefully into a crusty mug of half evaporated tea.
“It’s supposed to help you sleep better.”
Suho spins around at that, pointing at Sieun.
“Aha!” He exclaims, making Sieun startle. “So you do recognise there’s something going on.”
Sieun sighs exasperatedly and flops onto his bed. The sheets are all twisted and messed up. He looks equally tortured, rubbing at his face.
“Sieun-ah, why can’t you sleep?”
He slowly walks to Sieun who is lying on his bed with his eyes closed. He sits beside him, stroking a comforting hand through his mussed hair.
“I get nightmares.” Sieun eventually utters.
Suho shakes his head, he can’t believe this boy. Sieun’s eyes are still closed but his face is no longer contorted and wrinkled with stress.
“Why didn’t you say so?”
His eyes flutter open and he stares at Suho for a long moment. Suho just continues to pet him.
“I’m not sure.”
His eyes shut again and Suho sees him visibly relax. They stay like that for a while. Suho finds it peaceful and is silently hoping that his comforting head massage can lull Sieun into an undisturbed sleep.
That is until Sieun’s stomach rumbles noisily.
———
Suho stands outside Sieun’s lecture hall, watching the other students filter out of the room. There’s no sign of Sieun, but maybe he’s staying behind to talk to the professor.
“Excuse me?”
He turns his head to see a timid-looking girl in front of him.
“Aren’t you friends with Sieun-ssi?”
Suho nods, frowning instantly.
“I think he’s asleep in there…”
This causes Suho to sigh deeply and push off the wall to venture inside the lecture hall. It’s completely cleared out, except for one all-too familiar head resting on a desk near the front.
He creeps over to him and quietly takes the seat beside him. He can hear Sieun’s faint breathing. His books are spread out beneath him, his hands resting uselessly on his laptop keyboard.
“Sieun-ah…”
He makes a small noise of annoyance, huffing into his arms.
“Sieun-ah, let’s go get you home. Okay?”
His head finally lifts and he stares at Suho with a sad, exhausted expression. It makes Suho’s heart twist.
“Okay.” He whispers, sighing.
Suho smiles and grabs Sieun’s backpack to start packing away his things. Sieun lets him, just watching with half-lidded eyes.
He swings Sieun’s backpack over his own shoulder and stands up, offering a hand to Sieun.
Sieun reluctantly takes it and Suho enjoys the warmth of his hand in his. He smiles to himself, turning his head so Sieun doesn’t see.
“Let’s go!”
Suho says it a bit too loudly and Sieun pulls a face.
They ignore the questioning glances at their entwined hands as they make their way to Sieun’s dorm. He’s still waking up, blinking at his surroundings like he’s in a dream.
He has to take Sieun’s shoes off for him when they get to the dorm since he seems too out of it to remember to do so. Suho has seen this Sieun before, when he’d had important exams and had barely slept a wink.
Suho tucks him into bed, patting the pillows and sheets until he’s satisfied. Sieun just stares at him with glossy eyes the entire time.
“Can’t you…. stay?”
He pauses in his tracks, spinning around to face Sieun. He’s awkwardly shuffling to the side to make space for Suho.
“Are you sure?”
Sieun nods simply and watches Suho tug off his jacket. He pads across the room and tentatively slides into the bed beside Sieun.
They lay there for a minute, Sieun curled up and Suho straight as a plank of wood.
He faintly hears Sieun huff and he rolls over to look at Suho. His eyes are wider now, and are shining in the dim light of the dorm. Suho thinks he might do something stupid if Sieun keeps looking at him like that.
“Are you just going to keep lying like that?”
Suho scoffs out a laugh and finally settles into the bed. It’s actually remarkably comfortable, which makes Sieun’s sleeping issue that more concerning.
He’s still not touching Sieun at all, his arm awkwardly pinned against his side.
Then he feels a light touch on his arm and turns his head to see Sieun’s hand resting on his bicep. His eyes are shut, but his breathing hasn’t fully evened out yet.
Eventually, Sieun falls asleep and the soft sound of his breathing sends Suho to sleep as well.
———
Suho wakes up with a jolt at the sound of a phone ringing.
He’s immediately aware of a weight on top of him and he sucks in a breath when he finally notices Sieun’s sleeping figure draped across him.
Suho has seen Sieun sleep before, but not deeply, and never would he have ever guessed that Sieun would have a sleeping habit like this. He assumed Sieun slept curled up, unmoving for the entire night.
Attempting to avoid waking Sieun, he manages to pull his phone out of his pocket.
“Hello?” He whispers, eyeing Sieun to see if he’s stirring. His voice is thick with sleep.
“Why are we whispering?”
It’s Humin, he realises, and he relaxes a little. “What’s up?”
“Don’t act stupid,” Humin settles on, making Suho’s eyebrows shoot to his hairline. “You went MIA and skipped practice and didn’t think anyone would call you?”
“Huh?”
It’s then that his eyes adjust to the light in Sieun’s dorm. It must be the next day— they must’ve slept straight through the night.
“We were supposed to get Samgyupsal last night with everyone. We couldn’t get a hold of you or Sieunnie.”
Suho has a suspicion why.
“Then this morning, one of your teammates found me and asked where the hell you were since you weren’t at practice.”
Sieun makes a small noise in his sleep and curls against Suho’s body tighter.
“Sorry,” Suho whispers and strokes his hair.
There’s a huff of laughter on the other end of the call.
“Do you happen to be with Sieun right now?” There’s a light teasing tone to his words. “We went to your dorm but you’re not there.”
Before he can open his mouth to reply, a hand shoots out and grabs the phone out of his grip.
“Can you call later? I’m trying to sleep.”
Suho flushes so deeply he thinks he might combust into flames. Sieun just simply hangs up the phone and tucks it under Suho’s chin before settling back down.
“Yah,” Suho murmurs, breathless.
Sieun just makes a vague shushing sound and goes back to sleep.
Unsurprisingly, Suho doesn’t manage to go back to sleep after that. He settles on fiddling around on his phone, replying to missed messages while petting Sieun’s hair.
There’s quite a few angry and concerned messages from the friends he was supposed to hang out with and teammates.
A new one from the group chat consisting of him, Sieun, Humin, Hyuntak and Juntae comes in.
“enjoy your cuddling Suho-yah!”
He holds back a groan and glances at Sieun who is looking unfairly cute right now. He snaps a picture of him, smiling stupidly to himself.