So sorry for not updating in weeks! School activities kicked in and before I knew it, I was occupied with so many things every day zzz. However, I managed to carve out some time every day to work on this chapter! Enjoy~

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“Good morning Joshua,” Vernon greeted sweetly. His voice was dripping in honey - almost.

“Vernon, you sound too nice today,” Joshua remarked, slightly disturbed by the extreme sweetness in his voice.

“That’s because I’m excited for my dear Joshua! You’re inviting your crush over oh my God,” Vernon explained while swooning over his ship that consisted of Joshua and Jeonghan. “I think my ship is sailing strong,” Vernon added, before giggling to himself.

Joshua face-palmed and sighed at the incredulousness of his friend, who seemed like he could potentially be casted for Gossip Girl. Although Joshua did not know what Gossip Girl was, he knew that there would be a role for Vernon somewhere in the show, since he acted like a bimbo in front of him half the time. 

“I wonder what it would be like to watch you two perform a duet hehehe,” Vernon started to muse. However, a knock on the door knocked the thoughts out of his head as his attention shifted to the entrance of their dorm.

“I’ll go get it,” Joshua said. He was worried that Vernon would say weird things to Jeonghan and creep him out if Vernon got the door instead of him.

Joshua opened the door and welcomed Jeonghan who stood awkwardly at the entrance.

“G-Good morning Joshua,” Jeonghan greeted while smiling sweetly at him. Joshua chuckled softly at Jeonghan, who seemed to be embarrassed for no apparent reason at all.

“Good morning Jeonghan, ready for practice?” Joshua said in response.

Jeonghan nodded his head and entered Joshua’s dorm.

Vernon saw Jeonghan make his entrance and started spouting nonsense, at least, in Joshua’s opinion.

“Hi hi Jeonghan! Has Joshua said saranghaeyo oppa yet?” Vernon asked way too enthusiastically and laughed.

Joshua jabbed Vernon with his elbow and shot him a glare. He then turned around to flash Jeonghan a sheepish grin, signalling him to just ignore Vernon. Joshua thought, “I completely regret my idea of having Jeonghan and Vernon warm up to each other.”

Joshua and Jeonghan sat down on Joshua’s bed and began practice. Without realising, they looked into each other’s eyes throughout practice. They found comfort in each other’s eyes when they sang and Vernon enjoyed the sight of them gazing into each other. Vernon, being the good audience he was, kept silent throughout, but enjoyed the music by swaying to the beat and giving a satisfied smile.

After singing the song 5 times, they decided to take a break and Vernon joined in on their small talk. Vernon asked Jeonghan many questions, as though he was interrogating his future son-in-law. Joshua laughed and shook his head at the overly excited boy who fired his questions at the long-haired boy who could not keep up.

“Slow down, Vernon.” Joshua said.

Jeonghan smiled at Joshua in relief that he could see that Jeonghan was overwhelmed and helped him voice out what he wanted to say to Vernon.

“Oh, okay,” Vernon replied and turned to face Jeonghan again, “So, Jeonghan, do you think Joshua is cute? I think he has a very innocent face. What do you think? How long have you two been friends? What course do you take? Okay I’ll stop here for now since Joshua looks like he’s going to pounce on me and stuff that sock of his into my mouth."

Jeonghan answered all his questions slowly. The first one was the hardest to answer in his opinion. He responded to that question with, “Well, he is definitely eye-catching.”

Upon hearing that, Vernon gushed over his ship again, leaving Jeonghan confused as to what the foreign-looking boy was swooning about.

Joshua shook his head again and told Jeonghan to ignore him.

“He’s just being a fangirl,” Joshua explained and sighed.

Although Jeonghan was being interrogated by Vernon, he did not mind. In fact, he enjoyed their company very much. He felt at ease. It was a feeling Jeonghan missed in his years of not having any close companions.

Jeonghan left Joshua’s dorm soon after that, as his lectures were starting soon. Seungcheol was going to be there at his first lecture and he felt eager to meet Seungcheol again. In an odd way, Seungcheol also gave Jeonghan a sense of ease. 

Jeonghan entered the lecture theatre. Suddenly, he felt a pat on his back. He whipped his head around, only to see Seungcheol grinning widely at him.

“Good morning!” Seungcheol greeted.

“G-Good morning,” Jeonghan stuttered. He made a mental note to work on his stuttering.

They sat together for the lecture. Jeonghan took his notebook out to take notes and so did Seungcheol.

Just as Jeonghan was getting a little bored of the lecture, Seungcheol placed da small note on his table. Out of curiosity and being prompted to do so, Jeonghan opened the folded note and read its contents.

The note read, “Are you free after 1pm?”

Jeonghan scribbled a yes on the note and discreetly slide it on Seungcheol’s table.

Seungcheol hastily penned down his message and returned the note to Jeonghan. It read, “Great! Do you want to visit this café with me? I’ve asked my friends but they’re all busy and I did not want to go alone :(“

Jeonghan read the note and gave Seungcheol a thumbs up while smiling, to signal his acceptance of Seungcheol’s invitation.

Jeonghan thought he heard a faint “Yes!” coming from Seungcheol and could not help but have his lips curve into a smile again.

“People actually appreciate my company,” Jeonghan thought. His thought made him beam in happiness inside.

Meanwhile, Vernon was talking to Joshua in their dorm.

“Joshua, oh my God, you never told me that you two made so much progress.”

“No Vernon, it was just an accident. Don’t push it.”

“Hehe push, he pushed you down.”

“Vernon, he fell on me, it was an accident. ACK-SEE-DENT.”

“Don’t deny that you didn’t enjoy being dominated.”

Joshua widened his eyes, hit Vernon on the arm and exclaimed, “What are you implying?!”

Vernon tee-heed. “Nothinggggg,” He drawled.

Joshua eyed him from head to toe, trying to see if the human being sitting in front of him was really the friendly Vernon he first met, or not. At least Joshua found out about his true colours. He was a hopeless fanboy at heart.

“Hey man I gotta leave for class,” Vernon said.

“Great, I’m relieved to hear that,” Joshua replied, earning a pout from Vernon who whined, “Why? Won’t you miss me?”

“No. Bye.”

“Aww okay, see you later Angelllll,”

With that, Vernon headed off for his classes.

Joshua suddenly remembered that he needed to get Jeonghan to practise with him for his performance tomorrow. However, he realised that he never asked Jeonghan for his number after fishing his phone out. He knew that Jeonghan’s last lecture ended that 3pm and decided to wait outside his dorm later at that time. Little did he know that Jeonghan would be gone from the campus for the next 2 hours after his last lecture ended…

It was 3pm and Jeonghan rushed out of the lecture hall to meet Seungcheol. Seungcheol was already waiting for him when Jeonghan arrived and Jeonghan apologised for making him wait. They headed off for the café together and made small talk along the way.

“Hmm, I think I’ll get the strawberry shortcake and a vanilla milkshake,” Jeonghan said while scratching his chin. He wanted to try something new, but he enjoyed strawberries and vanilla a little too much to deny the flavours.

“Then I’ll get a brownie with a vanilla ice cream scoop on top of it and a caramel frappe,” Seungcheol ordered. He stole a glance at Jeonghan.

“He’s really pretty… Yet handsome at the same time,” Seungcheol thought.

They sat down and started chatting about their schoolwork. All the while, Seungcheol eyed Jeonghan’s phone, thinking of a way to ask for his number. Usually, he could do it very casually. Usually, it was easy. However, something was holding him back from asking. Was it nervousness? Seungcheol shook that possibility off. How could he possibly get nervous with a guy?

“Seungcheol? Seungcheol?”

Jeonghan waved his hand in front of Seungcheol to draw his attention back to Jeonghan.

“Geez you need to pay attention,” Jeonghan remarked.

Seungcheol blushed, knowing that he was caught for staring into space. Well, Jeonghan thought he was staring into space. Seungcheol was really just staring at his phone, racking his brains for a cool and casual way to get his phone number.

Jeonghan chuckled at the sight of Seungcheol’s embarrassed face.

“So this guy gets flustered too, huh?” Jeonghan thought. He looked down to let his hair cover his face and smiled again. Knowing that even Seungcheol could get embarrassed just makes him more human and relatable to Jeonghan.

“H-Hey Jeonghan,” Seungcheol began, “So, how’s the food and drinks? Are they good?” Seungcheol mentally slapped himself for not asking for his number.

“Yup, they’re very good!” Jeonghan replied while giving a satisfied smile.

“Damn he’s cute too.” Seungcheol thought.

“So uh the next time, if I want to ask you out again… Your number, I need it to contact… You can give me your number. I mean, can I have your number? It makes it easier to contact you.”

Seungcheol mentally slapped himself again for sounding so uncool when asking for Jeonghan’s number.

Jeonghan laughed and gladly gave Seungcheol his number.

Seungcheol did a victory dance in his own head as he took his phone back from Jeonghan.

Looking at the time on his phone made Jeonghan realise that he needed to practise for Joshua’s assessment of his song for the next day and started to panic when he realised that Joshua could be waiting for Jeonghan.

“Oh no… It’s 4.30pm, I hope Joshua won’t get mad…” Jeonghan said. He was very worried, as they did not have much time left and the performance looked important to Joshua because of his seriousness during practice.

“Seungcheol, I have to head back now.”