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Kyungsoo’s boyfriend was the golden retriever type.
Always bubbly and smiling. The kind to laugh at everything with his high-pitched laughter, who would pout cutely when things don’t go his way or when he is upset.
The tall dance major student would enter a room, and it would suddenly feel all bright and warm, all rainbows and sunshine. At times, Kyungsoo thinks that if you look hard enough, you could probably see a halo on top of the tan-skinned man. A hopeless romantic who obsesses over dating shows and gushes over couples like an 80-year-old grandma. Quite the opposite of Kyungsoo, who felt that relationships were a pain, that was, of course, before he met Jongin.
The first time Kyungsoo met Jongin was straight out of some comedy drama courtesy of Jongin’s clumsiness.
Kyungsoo was minding his business, walking down the corridor to get to his morning class, squinting his eyes because he forgot his glasses. Kyungsoo started thinking that maybe he should get contact lenses, but then they feel uncomfortable, an intrusion in his eyes and wearing glasses isn’t that bad, as all the teachers deem him to be a top student and do not bother him by asking too many questions, plus his squinting, when he occasionally forgot his glasses, keeps the over-pestering classmates at bay, his train of thoughts was doing all this analytics when he heard someone say—
“Watch out!”
And all of a sudden, a cold liquid splashed all over his white t-shirt.
“I am so, so sorry, I shouldn’t have tried to balance my latte on top of all these books.” The boy said, on the verge of tears, panicking.
“It’s alright, I wasn’t paying attention. It’s kind of my fault, too.” Kyungsoo said dismissively, not trying to engage and panic the boy further.
But apparently, the boy had a different idea in his mind, because in the next moment, he was dragging Kyungsoo to the men’s room, mumbling apologies and saying how he shouldn’t let the stain sit, or it would be difficult to get rid of it, which Kyungsoo should know because he is a culinary major but he really doesn’t want to engage with this energy ball further so early in the morning.
Then again, Kyungsoo thought, if he protested, it would only lead to more interaction with the anonymous boy, so he just let the boy lead him to the restroom, figuring it would be quick. He was still debating whether he should say anything at all when he realised they were already in the men’s restroom. Luckily, there weren’t any people inside except for them.
“Okay, now take off your t-shirt.” The boy said a tad chipper for Kyungsoo’s liking.
“What?” He replied, staring blankly at the tall boy in front of him.
“I need to clean it, but I can do that if you’re wearing the t-shirt, plus what if your pants get wet too.” The boy explained, fidgeting on his legs.
“You know what, it’s alright, you don’t have to clean it, I’m completely fine leaving it this way.” Kyungsoo argued. They have to wear an apron in class anyway, so it will not be noticeable.
“No, no, I insist, please, I will feel bad.” The boy pleaded, trying to take hold of Kyungsoo’s t-shirt.
Kyungsoo immediately grabbed the boy’s hand on his t-shirt, trying to tuck it back. They were going back and forth with the boy insisting on helping while Kyungsoo was saying it’s alright when they heard someone humming while entering the restroom, and Kyungsoo turned to look. He was fairly relieved to see it was his friend Baekhyun.
“Ah Kyungsoo-yah hel–
He paused mid-sentence, eyes travelling towards Kyungsoo, then back at the boy, then at Kyungsoo's t-shirt ridden up in the hands of the anonymous boy.
“Ahh ha oh sorry I-I didn’t mean to interrupt.” He said, stammering a little, trying to consecutively hide his grin and failing miserably.
Realisation dawned on Kyungsoo faster than the speed of light, and he blushed a deep red at Baekhyun’s speculations.
“Wh-what! It’s not like that!”
But before he could say anything else, Baekhyun was bolting out the door to give the two of them some ’privacy’. Amidst all this commotion, Kyungsoo found the golden opportunity to run from the restroom too, without sparing the other boy a glance.
"So Kyungsoo-yah, I didn't know you swing that way." Baekhyun said with a smug smile plastered across his face, referring to today's morning mishap while he, Kyungsoo and Chanyeol were sitting on the cafeteria table for their lunch break.
Kyungsoo glared at Baekhyun, trying to murder him with his gaze, but if only that would have worked. "I told you it was a misunderstanding. If you bring it up one more time, you will regret it." He said.
“Wait, what did I miss?” Chanyeol said in between bites of his lunch.
Baekhyun was about to say something when Kyungsoo shot him another glare and a kick from under the table, which made him shut his mouth, still grinning heavily.
A couple of moments passed, and their lunch break was about to end when Baekhyun leaned towards Kyungsoo to whisper something along the lines of “Your boyfriend’s here” and got up so fast, dragging Chanyeol with him.
“Hello!” Someone said from behind him. Kyungsoo turned to see, but to be honest, he already knew who it was thanks to Baekhyun’s very obvious heads up.
“H-Hi.” Kyungsoo said. Now that he had his glasses with him, thanks to Chanyeol, he could finally make out the person's face who was the reason behind Baekhyun’s endless teasing.
He looked up to see the boy, and that was probably a mistake because his ability to form sentences was suddenly taken away from him. He only had one word to describe the man, and it was Beautiful. The next minute, whatever the boy said went straight in one ear and out the other. Kyungsoo was full on zoning out.
“So, what do you say?” The boy asked, smiling, and Kyungsoo thought it was the most dazzling smile he had ever seen.
“Huh uh yeah sure.” He agreed without knowing the question and did not bother asking again because he didn’t want to look stupid.
“Great, we can meet at the coffee shop near our campus at three, again I’m so sorry, bye then.” The boy said and left, and Kyungsoo could only stare at his retreating figure.
He never thought that agreeing to that meeting would lead to him falling for the boy. The countless coffee dates, the late-night walks, whispered confessions, from sharing likes and dislikes, to sharing dorms, to sharing every single detail about their lives with each other.
Kyungsoo thought that if he stayed in his bubble and interacted, when necessary, his college life would albeit a little boring, be quiet, ideally how he wanted it to be, never going out of his way to talk to somebody new, sitting on the benches alone under the cherry blossom tree and having lunch (when Baekhyun or Chanyeol weren’t there to annoy him) but that would be fine.
What he never knew was that meeting this sunshine of a guy who would drag him out of his little bubble, would talk to him about everything and nothing, who would always say “Kyungsoo isn’t quite you, just need to know how to approach him" make his life exactly the opposite, but he wouldn’t trade it for the world.
He chuckled to himself, reminiscing about the past.
“What are you thinking about?” Jongin asked, sprawled across the bench they were sitting on, head on Kyungsoo’s lap.
“You.” Kyungsoo simply said as he looked down. It was a nice spring day, and both of them were lying on the bench under the cherry blossoms’ shade in their rare free time together from their schedule.
“More specifically, when we met the first time,” Kyungsoo added.
“And what did you think of me when we first met?’ Jongin asked with curiosity, evidently dancing in his eyes.
“Hmm, that…you talk a lot.” Kyungsoo said, laughing a little.
Jongin's smile turned to his signature pout, which Kyungsoo found adorable. "Yah!" He said, sitting up and crossing his arms over his chest.
"Well, I didn't have my glasses with me, plus a stranger spilled his latte on me, then dragged me to the restroom all in a span of minutes and kept on trying to take my t-shirt off so..." Kyungsoo justified. "But...when I did see you for the first time, I thought that you were beautiful." He continued averting his gaze, a little embarrassed.
"What about you? What did you think of me when we first met?" Kyungsoo asked to avoid any follow-up questions from his boyfriend, who was currently throwing heart eyes towards him.
"I... well, it's not necessary to know that I m-mean who cares about that stuff." Jongin said, stuttering, to which Kyungsoo just shot him a look, raising his eyebrows, clearly curious and some part amused, so Jongin gathered his courage and said, "Well, I knew about you from before the accident, the boy who kept glaring at everyone like he was plotting their murder, we also met during the sports fest when Sehun introduced me to Chanyeol you were there too, I think near the benches but you probably didn't see me since you weren't wearing your glasses and was most definitely glaring/ squinting at us, you seriously should you are always sending mixed signal to everyone-"
"And what did you think of me? You still haven't answered the question." Kyungsoo said impatiently. "Well, I-I thought you were an asshole before that, and when our little accident happen, I thought you were scary....” Jongin said in a meek voice and quickly added, "But after I invited you to the coffee shop and got to talk to you, I thought you were really kind because even though you didn't like socialising much, you always accompanied me whenever I asked you for lunch, you never got annoyed when I clung to you whenever I got drunk when we were out drinking with our friends, you would always make me hangover food, took care of me when I got sick, you would always massage my shoulders when they got sore from my dance practice and you always watch me dance with so much adoration, your cooking is so amazing that I could literally die for it, also you are too cute whenever you are just sitting doing nothing and your heart shape-mmph"
Kyungsoo put both his palms on his boyfriend's mouth, trying to shut his rambling, head tilted downwards, ears turning red at the never-ending compliments and heart ramming against his chest "You really do talk a lot, Jonginah."
Kyungsoo immediately removed his hands when he felt Jongin lick his palm, rubbing it on his jeans. He looked up to glare at Jongin, only to see his boyfriend running towards the dorms.
“Come back, you!” Kyungsoo shouted, running after Jongin.
“Catch me if you can!” Jongin shouted back, in-between his high-pitched laughter.
“We live in the same dorm, Idiot!” Kyungsoo said, laughing as well, trying to catch up to Jongin. He definitely doesn’t need his quiet life before meeting Jongin back, because Jongin was the colour to his otherwise grey life.