Work Text:
Soonyoung liked to introduce people as, the best god damn ball player you’ve ever seen , as often as he could, claimed that it brought up moral and that really moral was all they needed to finally go all the way so, Wonwoo wasn’t impressed as Soonyoung dragged in a nervous looking kid with a Yankee’s cap pulled low over his face and announced to the entire team that he was, the best god damn pitcher you’ve ever seen.
The kid was tall, taller than anyone else on the team, beating Wonwoo by maybe a few inches. From what little of his face he could see, he seemed to be good-looking with a strong jawline and pretty lips.
Soonyoung pushed the kid forward encouragingly and he visibly gulped. Jeonghan smirked from where he was sitting on one of the benches.
“Hi, I’m Mingyu.” The boy said in an unexpectedly deep voice. He kept the dumb Yankee’s hat over his eyes and resolutely stared at the ground.
Seungkwan was the only one to look interested, standing up to shake his hand and question him about his previous baseball experience.
“I played a little in high school, but I dropped out junior year.” Mingyu said.
Seungkwan easily kept the conversation moving along, talking about his own high school experience as a benchwarmer and how he was happy he was actually able to hit the ball now because their team had barely any players.
Soonyoung looked relieved that someone was interested in his new recruit and went over to talk quietly with Jun, probably trying to get the new kid a uniform and number before he could run away.
They had been having issues finding people to join, while most of the teams around school had at least twenty people they had been stuck at a solid twelve for almost two seasons, and after Soonyoung’s injury they had been playing with the same eleven players for the past eight games. It was honestly getting pretty exhausting.
Everyone was starting to feel strung out due to the constant playing and the fact that the university’s board was determined to shut down their team for whatever reason.
Seungkwan was still blabbing Mingyu’s ear off, probably excited to have someone that would listen to him talk, and Wonwoo decided to consult with Soonyoung, to get the whole story before making the effort to introduce himself.
The last four recruits Soonyoung had found had run off the second they had gotten a practice started.
Jihoon could be intense and Seungcheol took some getting used to.
“So, another freshman? Did you tell him we had cheerleaders?” Wonwoo asked, putting his arm on Soonyoung’s head to get his attention.
“He’s a sophomore, and nah he actually came to me, so don’t scare him away.” Soonyoung replied with an easy grin, “He’s a transfer from some private school somewhere.”
“And he transferred here?” Their school wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either.
Soonyoung shrugged, “He said he wanted something new.”
Hansol and Chan finally wandered into the locker room, arguing about comic books.
Seungkwan squealed excitedly as he pulled them over and introduced them to Mingyu. It was then discovered that Mingyu and Hansol were majoring in the same thing and shared quite a few classes, though they had never talked.
“Hey nerds,” Seungcheol yelled, “Hurry up and get dressed, I have a surprise for you.”
“No one wants to see your dick Seungcheol,” Wonwoo shouted back, pulling his cleats on.
“Speak for yourself,” Jeonghan said, which prompted Seokmin and Seungkwan to start singing a love song.
Wonwoo noticed Mingyu looked a bit overwhelmed, watching the scene play out with furrowed brows.
It was cute.
Seungcheol’s surprise turned out to be a bucket of white paint, which was handed over to Soonyoung with instructions to repaint the field. Jisoo flipped out, claiming that it might aggravate his injuries, and since Jisoo was the one in pre-med, Seungcheol handed the bucket of paint to Hansol, who then passed it down to Chan.
In the end no one repainted the field. Chan managed to trip and spill the whole thing on one patch of grass.
Seungcheol had looked pissed, but didn’t comment, just told everyone to start their laps if they were done stretching.
It wasn’t the most chaotic start to practice, but Mingyu looked like he was witnessing a train wreck. His eyes were wide as he took in the fiasco while doing stretches.
“Alright you know the deal, split into your groups.” Seungcheol yelled, and everyone grumbled as they moved into their designated practice circles.
Wonwoo and Hansol were normally the only two to practice with Seungcheol, but Hansol dragged Mingyu with him, “C’mon, you can pitch to Wonwoo.” He said, snickering with Seungcheol at the innuendo.
Wonwoo rolled his eyes, pushing Hansol out of the way and getting into his stance, “You’re literally the catcher.” He reminded.
Hansol made a face.
Mingyu was nervous, his first few throws were predictable and easy to hit. Seungcheol grumbled as he jogged away to grab the fourth ball Wonwoo had hit over the fence.
Hansol looked bored, he had stopped squatting and was sitting cross-legged with his phone out.
Mingyu fiddled with the hem of his shirt, Wonwoo kind of felt bad for him, but not enough to go start a conversation. He would probably be gone by tomorrow’s practice anyways, so it wasn’t really worth it.
“Hey do you know when that essay thing is due?” Hansol asked Mingyu, Seungcheol had finally started jogging back towards them so he had to put away his phone.
“Which one?” Mingyu answered, looking relieved that someone had broken the awkward atmosphere.
“There’s more than one? Fuck me.” Hansol groaned as he stood up and stretched.
“No one is fucking anyone.” Seungcheol said, panting slightly.
“Yeah right.” Hansol scoffed, “Have you met your teammates.”
“He meant no one is fucking you, which is true” Wonwoo teased, standing up and brushing his pants off.
“You’re a dick.” Hansol stuck his tongue out before pushing his faceguard back down.
“And you aren’t getting any.” Wonwoo stuck his own tongue out.
“Let’s get started again,” Seungcheol interrupted, “New kid, I swear if you let Wonwoo hit this ball that far again, you’re chasing after it.” Wonwoo could tell Seungcheol was joking around, but Mingyu gulped and nodded, his pupils quivering as he lined up to throw a pitch.
Wonwoo didn’t even realize he had thrown the ball at first. It took Hansol’s surprised grunt and Seungcheol’s cheer for him to figure out what had happened.
He blinked in surprise as Hansol yelled, “That’s what I’m fucking talking about.”
Seungcheol ran up and grabbed Mingyu, trying to pick him up bridal style. It failed miserably due to the height difference and both of them ended up on the ground, Seungcheol still cheering loudly.
“Did you see his fucking face?” Hansol whooped, “Holy shit, I wish I had that on camera.”
Mingyu smiled, but he looked flustered as he stood up and wiped off his pants.
Wonwoo felt the same way, “I wasn’t fucking ready.” He whined. He felt hyper aware of the way Mingyu was looking at him, probably hoping for an explanation as to what was going on.
“You bet your ass you weren’t ready.” Seungcheol barely managed to say before he started cracking up at Hansol’s bad imitation of what Wonwoo’s face supposedly looked like.
Hansol ran up to where Mingyu was standing, still looking clueless, “Dude, you’re my new hero. How did you do that?”
“I just kinda, threw it.” Mingyu shrugged, looking sheepish but pleased with himself.
Wonwoo had kind of wanted to punch him, but he looked pretty cute with his pink cheeks and small smile.
Their eyes met and Wonwoo turned away quickly, clearing his throat, “Fuck you Hansol, you can’t even play that’s why you’re a fucking catcher.”
“The catcher is the most important player in the game!” Hansol protested.
“Only catchers think that.” Seungcheol turned to Mingyu, “Throw balls like that and we’ll be champs in no time.”
“Not with Wonwoo as our ace.” Hansol was still pouting.
Wonwoo ignored it and they started up again. Mingyu’s pitches got a lot better now that he felt more comfortable. He even threw a few balls that Wonwoo let hit the ground and Hansol called as outs because he was a piece of shit.
It was nice having a real pitcher throw for him. Seungcheol’s pitches went over the fence more than Wonwoo’s home-runs did.
Practice seemed to move quicker than it normally did and Soonyoung’s team walked by on their way back to the locker room just in time for Mingyu to throw a curveball that Wonwoo missed.
“No way.” He heard Minghao say.
It was kind of embarrassing, but Mingyu looked proud of himself so Wonwoo let him have his moment.
Soonyoung looked the most excited, “You weren’t lying.” He said, patting Mingyu on the shoulder.
“Welcome to the team!” Chan yelled.
The next day Wonwoo was surprised to see Mingyu in the locker room, chatting with Minghao. He wasn’t in uniform but he was wearing basketball shorts and a tank top. Wonwoo tried not to stare at his arms, pitcher’s always had nice arms.
Mingyu had nice thighs too, though you could see those better in the tight sweats he was wearing the day before.
That made Wonwoo sound kind of creepy, he hadn’t been staring or anything it was just hard not to notice.
Minghao finally wandered away to talk to Jun, giving Wonwoo the perfect opportunity to introduce himself.
He was also hoping to officially introduce himself and maybe get Mingyu’s phone number, but only because they were teammates now and texting was a lot easier than trying to navigate the mess that was the team’s group chat.
Unfortunately Soonyoung grabbed Mingyu’s attention before Wonwoo could, and Mingyu was dragged away, probably to get him his new uniform.
Wonwoo finished dressing slowly, making idle conversation with Jeonghan about his upcoming party. By the time Soonyoung and Mingyu were back, Jihoon had already yelled at everyone to get outside.
They all split into groups of three, to practice with new people.
Mingyu was sent off with Hansol and Seungkwan while Wonwoo got stuck with Seungcheol and Jeonghan.
He liked both of them, but not when they were together. Everything just got kind of awkward because everyone knew that there was some weird love triangle shit going on between Jisoo and them.
Wonwoo wasn’t big on the whole talking about feelings thing, but in his opinion those three needed to be locked in a room with each other. Soonyoung and Jihoon told everyone to leave it alone though, so the team pretended to not notice the strange tension between them.
Seungcheol tossed the ball at Jeonghan, who missed wildly. The ball arched over the fence and Wonwoo sighed in relief, “I’ll get it.” He shouted, already jogging away from the uncomfortable atmosphere.
He noticed Seungkwan, Hansol and Mingyu were messing around instead of practicing. Mingyu was laughing as the other two imitated a kung-fu movie.
The ball had rolled up against the water fountain and he tried to ignore how nice Mingyu’s laugh sounded.
Wonwoo had had crushes before, and ninety-percent of the time they ended in a horribly embarrassing fashion, which made the realization that he was probably developing one right now a little bit terrifying.
Seungkwan was the first to notice him loitering. He had to quickly put his head down and pretend to drink water. When he looked back up, Seungkwan was whispering something in Hansol’s ear, who started smirking in his direction.
Wonwoo waved, then turned around and jogged back to where Seungcheol and Jeonghan were sitting, waiting for him to bring the ball. Jeonghan had his head on Seungcheol’s shoulder but he sat up as he approached.
“What took so long?” Seungcheol asked. He stood up and stretched out his arms. Jeonghan didn’t hide his staring.
“Couldn't find the ball.” Wonwoo replied easily, throwing the ball at Jeonghan who let it drop to the ground in front of him.
“If that fucking hit me...” Jeonghan warned, but he was smiling.
“Hit the ball next time.” Wonwoo teased, grabbing his bat from where it was resting against the fence. He needed to release some of the tension he could feel building up in his shoulders.
Wonwoo had been running late the whole day. This wasn’t an uncommon occurrence, but it still annoyed him that he hadn't been able to do his full morning run or eat yet. Luckily the cafeteria was still open as he finally finished his last class of the day.
He grabbed a few things from the fridge and noticed Hansol spread out at one of the window tables.
Hansol looked up as Wonwoo sat next to him, “Yo.” He greeted, pulling his earbuds out and pausing his music.
“Hey, what is all this?” He had never in his life seen Hansol study this hard. Hansol was one of those annoying dudes that were smart without trying to be.
“I was letting Mingyu look at some of my notes, haven’t put them away yet.” Hansol shrugged, trying to take a sip of his energy drink. It was apparently empty, as he grabbed another one from his backpack and popped the tab.
“You take notes?” Wonwoo asked, genuinely surprised.
“Nah, they’re my lab partner’s, she left them at her desk and I haven’t seen her since.” Hansol shrugged, biting into a half-eaten apple that looked like it had been sitting out for a few hours.
“You like him?” Wonwoo asked, pulling the wrapping off of his kimbap. He hoped it sounded nonchalant.
Hansol looked confused, “My lab partner is a chic, with a boyfriend, so no I don’t like her.”
“No, Mingyu, as a friend.” Wonwoo clarified.
“Yeah, he’s chill, he buys me food.” Hansol stole a piece of Wonwoo’s kimbap, “Plus he’s super good at pitching.”
Wonwoo frowned as Hansol took his banana, “Better than Soonyoung?”
“Probably not, no one’s better than Soonyoung but better than Jisoo I guess.” Hansol shrugged, “No offense to Jisoo.”
Wonwoo nodded in agreement, Jisoo was a good sub but he was more suited for batting than pitching. Plus Soonyoung had been one of the best pitchers in the league before he took his injury, which made the shoes hard to fill.
“He’s real good though, don’t get me wrong.” Hansol chewed thoughtfully for a bit, swallowing before continuing, “Throws this curveball that I swear even you couldn’t hit.”
“Doubtful.” Wonwoo smirked, “I’m telling you the only reason he got that one in was because I wasn’t paying attention.”
“Yeah well, make sure you get your shit together and keep your eyes on him if you ever play again, he’s a lot better now that he’s all warmed up and shit.” Hansol got a gleam in his eye that made Wonwoo uncomfortable, “Then again you do seem to have your eyes on him a lot.”
Wonwoo blushed, “What are you talking about?”
Hansol was about to say something else, but luckily Seungkwan started screaming at him to get his ass moving from the doorway.
“Jesus Christ.” Hansol muttered, checking the time on his phone before throwing things into his bag, “We can talk at the party tonight. You’re going right?” Hansol asked hastily, trying to shove his binder down so he could zip up the zipper.
“We gotta’ go!” Seungkwan yelled from across the cafeteria, Hansol flipped him off.
“Jeonghan’s? Of course.” Wonwoo waved at Seungkwan, who in turn flipped him off.
“See you there then,” Hansol yelled, nearly tripping on some girl’s bag as he sprinted out of the cafeteria.
Wonwoo sighed, taking back his banana that Hansol had dropped on his chair as he left. He should finish up his homework, between the party tonight and the game tomorrow he wouldn’t have any time but now.
Seokmin always did his on the bus, but no one else was ever able to. It was hard to concentrate with eleven other people yelling. Especially if one of those eleven people was Seungkwan.
Wonwoo wondered if Mingyu was going to take the bus with them.
Wonwoo shows up to the party late because Jeonghan texted him asking for more chips, beer and wine coolers. Wonwoo doesn’t know who drinks wine coolers, but he doesn’t argue.
Jeonghan actually owns his own place, his family has lived in this area forever and it was his grandma’s. When she passed away, his parents let him have it. It’s small, only two bedrooms, but it’s a lot more than anyone else has.
Plus it’s on some land, so the neighbors are pretty far away and so far the cops hadn’t ever been called on him.
Their campus is on the smaller size, so it’s hard to do anything without everyone hearing about it, including faculty. And the team was already on their bad side for whatever reason, so they didn’t want to push it by getting drunk on campus and causing a ruckus.
It seemed like half the campus always showed up to Jeonghan’s parties, even though most of them didn’t know, or care, that it was for the school’s baseball team. Honestly, most of them probably didn’t even realize there was a school baseball team.
Wonwoo parked down the street a little to avoid his car being puked on and grabbed walked in with his two snack filled grocery bags.
Soonyoung was the first to notice him when he walked in, “Jeonghan, you’ve got a delivery.” He shouted.
It turns out its Jisoo who drinks wine coolers, and he definitely doesn’t need anymore. He was obviously more than just a little drunk as he was trying to figure out what lived in the speaker that made it talk. Jeonghan was recording it on his phone, so Wonwoo was sure he would be able to watch it later on Snapchat.
He scanned the living room; most of the team was there already. Minghao was drinking a glass of what looked like orange juice with Jun who was drinking vodka straight from the bottle. Jeonghan didn’t like vodka, so he had probably brought it from home, which was kind of weird but seemed like something Jun would do.
Chan was talking to a group of girls, Wonwoo was happy to see he had a bottle of water in his hand. Hansol and Seungkwan were yelling about something that sounded really smart but was probably from a video game.
Seokmin watched them with a smile. He had a can of beer in one hand and a wine cooler in the other, neither of which had been opened.
Jihoon and Seungcheol were the only two that weren’t visible, but Wonwoo was sure they were close by. Jihoon always tended to get hammered at these parties and Seungcheol was never far away from Jisoo and Jeonghan.
Soonyoung approached him from across the room, red solo cup in hand. “Minghao is giving rides tonight.” His cheeks were pink but Wonwoo could tell that it was from the heat, not the alcohol.
When Soonyoung was drunk he got clingy and whiny. It was cute unless you had to drive him home.
“Good to know.” Wonwoo wasn’t planning on getting too drunk, but it was nice to know there was a backup if he couldn’t make it home.
Jihoon finally walked in and stalked across the kitchen to the fridge where he pulled out an entire twelve pack of beer.
“Have fun,” Soonyoung said, already heading over to deal with whatever it was that had Jihoon on edge.
“Thanks.” Wonwoo watched them for a bit, Soonyoung managed to take the beer away without getting slapped which was impressive but boring. Wonwoo always stayed clear of Jihoon at parties, he was an angry drunk and there were quite a few horror stories about his outbursts.
Wonwoo mingled for a bit, talking with some girls who were apparently on the water polo team.
He was eventually convinced, by Jisoo of all people, to play a few rounds of beer pong, which he lost horribly to the Jun and Jeonghan team who didn’t look drunk at all even though they were the only ones at the party drinking actual hard liquor.
Seungcheol banging his beer bottle against the table, trying to get everyone’s attention interrupted them. “Shut up for a second.” He shouted, motioning for Jeonghan to turn down the music.
Jisoo started laughing for no reason, and Seokmin handed him a glass of water.
“Yo, so tomorrow we’re gonna’ fucking kill it.” Seungcheol started.
“And we’re gonna’ fucking win!” Hansol shouted, everyone in the room cheered loudly in response.
“That’s what fucking killing it means,” Seungcheol complained, but the attention had already shifted away from any possible speeches.
Wonwoo realized that he was much drunker than he should have been as he tried to walk over to talk to Seokmin but stumbled and fell on his ass. Luckily he fell back onto the dumb sofa that Jeonghan stole from some estate sale and refused to get rid of even though it was probably haunted or something.
“Plan B.” He muttered out loud, standing up and heading towards Chan who was standing with Minghao, watching Hansol and Jisoo attempt to wrestle.
“Wanna’ take my car home?” Wonwoo asked.
They lived close by and Chan didn’t have a car or drink alcohol, it was perfect.
“Why?” Chan asked, then took a longer look at him, “Oh, yeah sure. I’ll leave in a bit. Thank you.” He looked grateful and Wonwoo felt a little bad because he was pretty much using him so he wouldn’t have to find a ride back to Jeonghan’s tomorrow to get his car.
“Just dump it at your place, I can walk over in the morning.” Wonwoo tossed the keys. Chan tried to catch them but failed. Honestly, it was no wonder their team never won any games anymore.
Wonwoo was used to the routine that was Jeonghan’s parties and the antics that his friend’s got up to at them. So it was a shock when he saw Mingyu, his brain couldn’t process why someone who wasn’t normally at the parties was suddenly there.
Wonwoo was trying to hit on a pretty girl whose name started with a J when he accidently made eye contact with him.
Which prompted Mingyu to head straight towards him.
“Hey.” He said as he sat down on the loveseat Wonwoo was currently in. It was too small for both of them to sit so he ended up halfway in Wonwoo’s lap.
The girl raised her eyebrows, “I’m going to go, see you around Wonho.”
Wonwoo wasn’t even to disappointed that he hadn’t asked for her number yet, or that she apparently didn’t know his name, as Mingyu was turning to face him. His pupils were dilated and his cheeks were flushed.
“So, you like to catch or pitch?” Mingyu slurred, getting up in Wonwoo’s personal space. He was very obviously drunk and Wonwoo tried not to stare at his slightly flushed cheeks and the way his eyes gleamed in the bad lighting.
Wonwoo felt himself blush as he processed what Mingyu had said, “Uhhh, I guess in like baseball I hit mostly.”
This was exactly why he didn’t go to parties; he was the worst at flirting and unlike most people, alcohol just made him more awkward.
Mingyu smirked at him, “That’s kind of kinky, but I guess I’m down if it’s you.”
Wonwoo choked on his beer and Mingyu looked shocked for a second before hitting him on his back, “Holy shit, are you dying?”
Mingyu was really strong Wonwoo managed to notice as he died slowly, he would definitely have a strange bruise between his shoulder blades in the morning.
He saw Soonyoung look at them curiously from across the room. He was sitting with Jisoo who appeared to be crying.
“I’m fine.” He wheezed, trying to move away from the onslaught, “I just inhaled wrong.”
Mingyu didn’t look convinced, and he didn’t take his hand off Wonwoo’s shoulder. Wonwoo found that he didn’t really mind, though his cheeks remained flushed. That might have been the beer, though.
They sat in silence for a little bit, watching the party continue around them. It was an odd feeling, being surrounded by utter chaos and still feeling completely at peace.
Wonwoo doesn’t know where the sudden bravery comes from, maybe the alcohol, but he finds himself asking, “Want to go upstairs, I know where Jeonghan keeps the key to his room.”
Mingyu nodded and followed Wonwoo upstairs. The key was above the doorframe, not the best hiding place but most people knew to stay out of Jeonghan’s room so they didn’t bother looking for it.
His room was nicer than any other college student Wonwoo had ever met, it had lots of plants that were actually alive and fairy lights by the window.
There were also a lot of polaroids on the walls with song lyrics or random quotes written in multi-colored sharpies next to them. Hansol said all it needed was band posters to be a teenage girls dream.
The window was open but as someone that sounded suspiciously like Jihoon started yelling, Wonwoo closed it. He turned on the ceiling fan on to keep the air moving.
The quiet was unnerving, the noise of the party was muffled and odd sounding. It felt like he and Mingyu were truly alone now.
“So why did you transfer here?” Wonwoo asked, sitting down next to Mingyu. The mattress sunk beneath them, he always forgot that Jeonghan had a fucking waterbed.
“I don’t like big cities,” Mingyu said. He started to play with his lip. It was probably unconscious but Wonwoo couldn’t tear his eyes away.
“Oh, cool.” Wonwoo winced at how blasé he sounded.
Mingyu just nodded.
“I’ve lived here my whole life, I’ve only been to a big city like twice on field trips.” Wonwoo tried to keep the conversation moving, he wasn’t sure what else he should do.
“You’re not missing much, I moved around a lot as a kid but we had this one house kind of in the middle of nowhere. I liked the quiet.” Mingyu finally looked up and met Wonwoo’s eyes.
Wonwoo laughed, “I don’t think it’s ever quiet around here.” He motioned to the window, even though it was closed the music and voices filtered through.
“It’s nicer though, it’s like real people instead of cars and shit.” Mingyu looked down again, “It’s stupid, but like people in cities are always busy and not authentic, you know? Well, I guess you don’t.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” Wonwoo liked where he lived, it was close to his family and all his friends that he grew up with. Sometimes though he wished that he had at least tried to do something else with his life.
The grass is always greener and all that.
“Like all of this is nice,” Mingyu motioned at the pictures on the wall, “Is this you?” He pointed at a particularly embarrassing photo of Wonwoo in high school.
“We all had an emo phase.” Wonwoo pouted as Mingyu laughed at him.
“My hair never looked like that.” Mingyu snorted, “You all have known each other since high school?”
“Some of the guys, ninety-percent of my graduating class goes here now.” Wonwoo glanced at some of the pictures near him. He remembered when some of them were taken, but some were from before even his time.
Mingyu pointed at a more scandalous one showing Soonyoung giving what appeared to be a strip tease to Jihoon, “Explain this one.”
Wonwoo held his hands up, “That was before my time, Seungcheol would know.”
“What about this one?” Mingyu moved his hand to one showing an extremely young looking Hansol wearing a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles costume while sitting in a grocery cart.
“Honestly, you kind of had to be there.” Wonwoo shrugged, that one was a long story that involved way too many energy drinks and ended with Hansol getting a pink cast on his arm and not letting anyone sign it.
They spent a little more time talking about certain pictures. The Halloween they had tried to spend at the haunted house, the first time they had tried alcohol, Jeonghan making Seungcheol steal a couch for him because he didn’t have enough money to buy one.
“Tell me something about you,” Mingyu said after a moment of silence. The waterbed squeaked as he turned his body to face Wonwoo, “Not like your favorite food, something cool.”
Wonwoo thought for a moment, “When you asked me if I catch or pitch at first I thought you didn’t remember who I was on the baseball team.”
Mingyu cracked up, doubling over. His head hit Wonwoo’s thigh but it felt nice instead of uncomfortable.
“Shit, did I really say that? I’m sorry, I was really drunk.” Mingyu was in tears and Wonwoo started to chuckle too.
“You said I was kinky too.”
“What!” Mingyu squawked, “I hate alcohol.”
“This was like, less than an hour ago don’t act like you don’t remember.” Wonwoo teased, shoving Mingyu’s shoulder.
“I push traumatic events from my brain,” Mingyu explained seriously. Wonwoo could see that he was trying to fight back a smile.
“I was the one that was traumatized.” Wonwoo let himself fall onto the bed. The water swished underneath him. He felt himself sobering up and he wondered how much time they had spent sitting on Jeonghan’s bed talking, “You were apparently too drunk to even remember.”
It was nice, spending time with Mingyu.
Unfortunately, all good things had to come to an end, “Oh shit, you guys aren’t even making out yet?” Seungkwan slammed the door opened and giggled, obviously drunker than he had been when Wonwoo had last seen him, “You kinda’ missed your chance if you were going to, Minghao says if you want a ride with him he’s leaving now.”
Wonwoo jumped up, “Shit, tell him to wait.”
Seungkwan laughed at him, “He’s by the door.”
“I have to go.” Wonwoo looked at Mingyu apologetically, “Do you have a ride home?”
“Yeah I’ll be fine.” Mingyu smiled, “See you at the game.”
“Yeah, see you.” Wonwoo almost kissed him, but Seungkwan cleared his throat and startled him.
He ran down the stairs, nearly crashing into someone trying to climb up them. He ignored her annoyed yell.
The party seemed to be slowing down, only a few people were left loitering around, too drunk to dance or make conversation.
Minghao was by the door, holding up Soonyoung, who was purring. Jun was standing next to them and didn’t look too drunk, but Wonwoo had seen him drinking Vodka from the bottle so he wasn’t fooled.
“Finally.” Minghao said, he sounded annoyed, “I was leaving without you.”
“He was getting laid.” Jun faux whispered.
Wonwoo punched him in the arm, “Shut up.”
Soonyoung barked before collapsing onto the floor.
Minghao sighed, “One of you is carrying him.”
“Carry me,” Soonyoung whined.
Jun and Wonwoo played a quick game of rock, paper, scissors, which Jun lost.
“You always use paper,” Soonyoung noted as he was hoisted over Jun’s shoulder. “What’s up with that?”
“You always get too drunk to walk. What’s up with that?” Jun shot back, stumbling a bit. Soonyoung didn’t weigh much, but he had started squirming.
“I’m going to drop you,” Jun warned.
Soonyoung whined about being uncomfortable but stayed still.
Minghao’s truck was parked across the street from Jeonghan’s. Wonwoo looked around for his car, but it was gone. Chan must have already left.
Jun strapped Soonyoung into the back, complaining the whole time, “I get the front.” He warned Wonwoo.
Minghao has one of those pickup trucks with the criminally uncomfortable back seat but Jun looked like he would be willing to fight for it so Wonwoo let him have it.
Soonyoung unstrapped himself and moved to the middle seat so he could put his head in Wonwoo’s lap, “I’m cold.”
Minghao turned on the heater, entering Jun’s address into his navigator. Minghao had been to all of their houses probably hundreds of times, but he somehow got lost every single time he didn’t use a GPS.
Jun is the closest; he lives off campus in a nice apartment complex. No one is really sure how he affords it.
“Thanks for the ride.” He says as he jumps out, “Are you coming tomorrow?” He asked Soonyoung.
“Of course.” Soonyoung doesn’t raise his head but he shot Jun a thumbs up, “Wouldn’t miss it.”
“Cool.” Jun smiles and waves.
Minghao takes the highway back. Wonwoo watches the cars on the other side of the median drive by as he plays with Soonyoung’s hair unconsciously. The radio is on some Mandarin station and Minghao sings along quietly to a few of the songs under his breath.
The campus was quiet as Minghao drove up to Wonwoo’s dorm and put the car in idle.
“I’ll walk from here,” Soonyoung said as Wonwoo gently pushed his head off his lap.
“You sure? I can drive you the rest of the way.” Minghao turned the music down and turned to look at them.
“Yeah, I’m gonna’ puke if I stay in a car. I need fresh air.”
“You can move to the front.” Minghao tried again.
“I’ll be fine, it’s my arm that’s fucked not my legs.” Soonyoung reached across the Wonwoo to open the door.
“It’s your back too,” Minghao said, but he didn’t stop him from hopping out behind Wonwoo.
“Thanks for the ride, you’re the best.”
“I know,” Minghao said. He still looked nervous about letting Soonyoung walk home, but he really didn’t live that far, if he took the shortcut through the park it would take less than ten minutes.
Wonwoo let Soonyoung lead the way inside the building and up the stairs.
They paused outside his door as he fiddled with his key ring.
“So, you and Mingyu seem to get along,” Soonyoung said innocently.
Wonwoo avoided eye contact, “We were just talking.”
“Spent a long time talking. Do you like him?” Soonyoung asked. It was eerie how quickly he seemed to sober up.
Wonwoo almost lied, but Soonyoung always seemed so trustworthy and he was so easy to talk to, “Kind of.” He answered.
“Did you tell him?”
“No.”
Soonyoung frowned, “Are you going to?”
“I don’t know, you know how I get.” Wonwoo bit his lip, “He’s really nice and funny, we were talking for like half the party and like it was really natural spending time with him even though we pretty much just met.”
“You should tell him.” Soonyoung looks him in the eyes, “You’ll regret it if you don’t.”
“Okay, mom,” Wonwoo says as he tests another key, trying to unlock his door. He has too many keys. He doesn’t even know what most of them open.
Soonyoung yawns as he watches him struggle, “Want help?”
“With my keys?” Wonwoo played dumb. Help might be nice, but Soonyoung would probably go to Jeonghan for ideas on something romantic and Jeonghan would concoct an elaborate plan that would be super embarrassing for Wonwoo.
“With Mingyu.” Soonyoung laughed, “I’m too drunk to be much help with the keys.”
“I don’t know. I’m tired.” He finally gets his door unlocked, “And you are too, so go home.”
“Kicking me out?”
“I never invited you in.” Wonwoo pointed out.
“True.” Soonyoung smiled, “See you at the game.”
Wonwoo woke up to a flood of texts from everyone on the team, and one from his mom.
Apparently, the game had been moved up, and the bus was leaving at eight. Considering it was already eighty-twenty, Wonwoo was fairly certain that he had missed it, which wasn’t too big of a deal because he hated taking the buses when he was hungover.
He called Seokmin back because he was the only one who ever really answered his phone. Seungcheol told him off for not waking up and then passed the phone back to Seokmin who gave him the address and directions.
“Take Mingyu with you, he had a class when we were leaving,” Seokmin told him as someone, probably Hansol started blasting rap music in the background.
“Sure, we should be there in an hour and a half.” Wonwoo tried to hide the trepidation in his voice, the last thing he wanted right now was to be alone in a car with Mingyu for over an hour.
Last night was nice, but he kind of wanted to figure things out.
“Chan brought your car over earlier.” Seokmin added, “So you don’t have to walk anywhere.”
Wonwoo got dressed quickly, hoping to catch Mingyu before he wandered too far away. His phone wasn’t charged because he had been too drunk to think to plug it in last night so he grabbed his cord to charge in the car.
He didn’t know if the car ride would be awkward or not so he also grabbed a pair of sunglasses even though it was overcast.
Mingyu’s class had just ended when Wonwoo pulled into the parking lot by his building, hordes of students filed out of the building, some talking loudly about whatever assignment they had. Wonwoo wound up his windows and put his sunglasses on, hoping not to draw attention to himself.
It took a few more minutes before Mingyu stumbled out, shoving papers into his bag. The area was mostly clear of people so Wonwoo honked, which made him jump and look around.
“I’m supposed to drive you to the game,” Wonwoo said, taking his sunglasses off and unwinding the window as Mingyu jogged over and opened the passenger door.
Mingyu looked a little freaked out at first but quickly covered it with a smile, “Oh good, Jeonghan said I would have to take the bus and I was looking up the bus schedules but I couldn’t figure out which one would get me to the stadium”
Wonwoo scoffed, “He was fucking with you.” Jeonghan was somehow the nicest person Wonwoo had ever met while simultaneously being the biggest asshole in the world. “You would never make it to the game, those things are always hours late.” In his freshman year he had made the mistake of trying to take a bus to the public library and three hours later had ended up two cities over.
“Oh,” Mingyu said, ending the conversation.
They drove in silence for a while, Wonwoo resolutely not looking into the passenger’s seat. He wasn’t sure how much of last night Mingyu remembered, but he definitely did not want to talk about what almost happened.
“Can I turn on the radio?” Mingyu asked after a good twenty minutes of silence.
Wonwoo grunted, wincing in embarrassment as Mingyu turned the stereo on and a boy band’s newest hit blared through the speakers, “Shit it’s connected to my phone, just push the radio button.”
“Do you mind if I keep it? I like this song.” Mingyu asked almost shyly.
Wonwoo’s stupid heart definitely couldn’t handle this, “Yeah, whatever you want.” He hoped Mingyu didn’t notice how scratchy his voice suddenly sounded.
“I always thought you would like American music, rap or something,” Mingyu said.
Wonwoo blushed, “Everyone listens to EXO.” He explained.
Mingyu nodded in agreement, “Hansol likes Girls Generation.”
,
“Fuck no way.” Wonwoo started to laugh. “Asshole acts like he only listens to Kendrick Lamar.”
“I like Girls Generation too,” Mingyu added.
“Yeah, I guess I do too,” Wonwoo admitted with a shrug, wasn’t any more embarrassing than EXO.
He turned into the parking lot of the stadium they were playing at.
“Where is everyone?” Mingyu asked.
The parking lot was strangely empty. No one really cared about college baseball, but it was something to do in a town that lacked things to do and normally the parking lot was nearly full before a game.
Wonwoo parked up at the front, because he could, and grabbed his bag, “Let’s check it out.”
The gate was locked, so they wandered around for a bit. Except for a few pigeons, there was no sign of life. Wonwoo tried calling Seokmin and Seungcheol and Soonyoung, but none of them answered.
It wasn’t until they stumbled upon a banner that told them the dates and times of every single game in the season that it dawned on him, “Oh my go. There was no schedule change.” He hated his friends.
“Wait what? But Seungcheol told me that our game got pushed up.” Mingyu looked confused, putting his phone down and staring at Wonwoo, “Why would he lie?”
“Because he’s a piece of shit,” Wonwoo stated dryly, pulling out his phone to send a scathing message to Soonyoung and Jeonghan who he is ninety-percent sure were the orchestrators of this.
“Oh.” Mingyu realizes, “Ohhh.” He laughs slightly, probably trying to figure out if the tension in the air means Wonwoo is mad.
Wonwoo isn’t sure what the tension in the air means. He is kind of mad, Soonyoung and Jeonghan are shit at their own love lives, so Wonwoo didn’t really want them to get involved in his. At the same time, though, Mingyu looks really pretty in his stupid Yankees cap and slouchy sweatpants.
Wonwoo thinks about last night, how he might have kissed Mingyu if Seungkwan hadn’t interrupted them.
Mingyu looks nervous, “Can I kiss you?” He half-whispers while taking half a step forward.
Wonwoo thinks he nods, but honestly, he isn’t sure. Time seems to slow down as Mingyu leans in and touches his lips against Wonwoo’s cheek.
“Whoops.” Mingyu giggles nervously.
Wonwoo feels himself move closer, and then their lips are touching and Wonwoo’s heart is beating way faster than it probably should be.
When they pull away Mingyu’s eyes are wide and he’s breathing heavily. Wonwoo knows he looks just as disheveled, his lips are still parted, sucking in oxygen like he was dying.
“This means the game’s not for a few hours right?” Mingyu asks, looking at Wonwoo with a smirk, “Let’s give em’ plenty to gossip about.”