Luhan is passionate, Minseok thinks as he sets down his Nintendo 3DS on his lap and wraps an arm around the shoulders of the boy sitting next to him, looking at his own device’s two screens, an aggrieved expression distorting Luhan’s child-like features. His body in Minseok’s grasp screams dejection, and if competitiveness hadn’t been engraved deep within his very being long ago, Minseok would definitely be feeling sorry for Luhan right about now, but he isn’t. Not really. The boy is secretly relishing in his victory as Luhan mopes for the twenty-third time that afternoon, losing all but one race to Minseok and his stupid tactic of leaving everything to luck; which really shouldn’t work because it never does for Luhan but obviously luck has favourites and Minseok is definitely one of them.

 

It’s not that Luhan is bad at playing video games. In fact, he can beat Minseok most of the time if he’s challenged (and all the time if he’s feeling particularly competitive) to play a match on Mortal Kombat, Tekken or others similar to those because he’s good at them. They’re his type of games. Racing karts and shooting turtle shells at other players whilst trying to avoid getting inked on or falling off the edge of the racetrack? Not so much. He’s lost so many times to Minseok that he can no longer remember how many times he has, he just knows that every time he loses, Minseok gives him that smile that he hates but also loves, the kind that makes him want to punch the guy and also kiss him. Hard.

 

“It’s not fair.” Luhan complains, quitting the game and shutting his 3DS before throwing it aside into the cushions next to Minseok. “Why can’t you let me win once?”

 

Minseok shrugs, looking at him with an amused expression on his face. “I did. It made you so happy, but I have decided that you don’t need to win to be happy because I’m he-”

 

“It’s not the same.” Luhan scrunches up his nose in protest, getting up from his comfortable sitting position on the sofa to get a glass of water from the small kitchenette at the back of the room. “I’ve lost to you like a million times and converting that into bragging rights ... that’s way too ing much.”

 

Minseok laughs at that, mainly because he has never actually used any of those rights and bragged in Luhan’s face that he’s won any of the races, because he knows that would make Luhan feel worse than he already does. Sometimes he thinks Luhan might feel better if he would just use his bragging rights, but he still doesn’t, waiting for the right time to actually use it when it really counts. All of it.

 

Luhan walks back to take a seat by his side with two mandarins in one hand. He peels both of them and gives one to Minseok, who ends up feeding Luhan all of it because the mandarin turns out to be a lot sweeter than the one in his hand. Minseok takes Luhan’s mandarin and stuffs it in his mouth, immediately regretting it as the sour taste hits his senses.

 

Once they’ve had a break and it’s just about four-thirty in the afternoon, Luhan picks up his hand-held console once again and starts up Mario Kart 7, not bothering to skip the intro that plays before displaying the home screen. He watches it intently, as Minseok takes his own 3DS and follows Luhan’s example. They are on a long-weekend break, so wasting time on gaming like this is perfectly reasonable, except both Minseok and Luhan have important assignments due in a couple of weeks and neither have even started. At this moment, Mario Kart is more important than a report worth 15% of their grade for the semester.

 

“I want a rematch.” Luhan demands, voice strong with resolve. “All or nothing.”

 

“By all or nothing, what do you mean?”

 

“We’ve got to bet on something.” Luhan explains. “Like if I win, I can make you do something for me, and vice versa.”

 

This sounds awfully familiar, Minseok thinks to himself. He recalls the time they first played Mario Kart with their friends and with each other, putting things on the line through bets and consequences for the losers. Minseok can still remember winning second place so he had been safe from the punishments, whilst Luhan came last and hadn’t been so lucky. Actually, if Minseok could say so himself, Luhan was lucky, because his punishment had been to kiss someone in the room while blindfolded, and his lips just happened to land on Minseok, and they just happened to like each other and date after that.

 

They have never played against just each other like that before, because frankly it is always a lot more enjoyable with a bunch of friends to dish out ridiculous dares that half the time no one wants to do but end up doing anyway. However, Minseok is more than intrigued by Luhan’s determination to make it as motivating as possible for himself to win at least one race, because if Luhan does win and asks him to do something, he’s pretty sure it would be something along the lines of surrender-your-Mario-Kart-Champion-status-to-me-so-we-can-stop-this-endless-battle. The thought makes him laugh a little as Luhan explains the conditions of their next race, earning a frown from the speaking boy.

 

“-can’t tell each other if the thing we want the loser to do is a dare or a punishment or anything. It’s a secret until the end.” He finishes, clearing his throat. “Up for it?”

 

“Only if we promise we won’t be cruel with the punishments? I’m sensitive to pain.” Minseok says, raising an eyebrow, and Luhan nods to say that he promises. The boy can’t even imagine causing Minseok unnecessary pain, so keeping true to his word won’t be a problem. “Awesome.”

 

Luhan isn’t the type to be nervous about video games, particularly racing ones since he has gotten used to losing so much, but this time he can’t help the race of his heartbeat quickening as the camera in-game pans over the track it had chosen randomly for the two of them to race in. He hears Minseok say something that sounds like a curse under his breath next to him, and Luhan immediately knows it’s because this is the track that not only Luhan struggles in, but Minseok too. Despite wanting to beat the game as a whole, Minseok tends to stay far, far away from Rosalina’s Planet, ice being his most disliked aspect of the entire track.

 

He looks over at Minseok for a brief second just before Lakitu, the turtle on the cloud holding a traffic light by a fishing pole begins his countdown, and sees the boy’s expression change from worry to confidence within the second. Luhan knows he should keep his eyes on his own screen instead of Minseok’s face, especially when he sees Minseok boost just as the number 2 appears on his screen reminding him that he too needs that extra advantage to get ahead in the race if he wants to win.

 

Luhan messes up his timing and fails to boost but shoots off anyway once the race begins with a start, Minseok successfully gaining second place up ahead with his character Koopa Troopa, several CPUs closely following his tail taking all four of the item boxes available at the beginning of the track much to Luhan’s dismay. Luhan’s not that far off, coming in fifth as they reach the half-pipe, the gaping pit on the right edge of the track threatening to Luhan in as he drifts the bend, trying to resist the slippery surface of the track as well as avoid getting close enough to the edge to fall off. He knows that if he does, he’ll be done for.

 

Passing through a cavern and a well-timed aim to drive right into two coins, the track opens up into an iced lagoon-like environment, and Luhan doesn’t hesitate to jump into a large hole cut into the ice, taking himself into an underwater cavern that he remembers from previous races holds a few more coins for him to collect. He makes sure he checks his bottom screen for the items the other players got, wary of the blooper carried by one of the CPUs. He looks for Minseok on the rankings to find that he is naturally in first place, saving three banana peels to evade a red or green shell if ever they are used against him by the other players on the track.

 

Luhan makes it through the first lap without much trouble in fourth place after Daisy gets knocked off the last bend by an explosion of a bob-omb, and manages to score an item box for himself a quarter of the way through the second lap, speeding past Mario and Shy Guy in their respective karts, acquiring second place by the time he’s half way through the track.

 

He can definitely see Minseok’s kart in the distance, and as Luhan looks to check what item he got from the item box, he feels rather confident and relieved, certain he’ll make it to first place by the third lap if things don’t go wrong.

 

He decides to use the lightning bolt to minimize all of his opponents once he sees Minseok drive into the tricky bend right at the beginning of the track just as another player decides to use their spiny shell with intent to remove Minseok off his throne. Koopa Troopa’s avatar on the bottom of Luhan’s screen spins wildly in its place on the map and then stops completely, and it takes Luhan a moment to realise Minseok has fallen into the pit. There’s a disgruntled groan from Minseok as he tries to recollect himself, starting to look more worried by the second as the clock ticks and Luhan surpasses him with a gleeful chuckle.

 

This sudden change of events does enough to change the rank on the top right hand corner of Luhan’s screen from second to first, and Luhan squeals because he’s just so close. He gets up on his feet and steps onto the couch in excitement, not even bothering to look at where he’s going. All he has to do is survive the next few seconds in the game without getting hit by anything, and he can be the winner.

 

Finally.

 

As they both realise they’re crossing into the last half of the last lap of the race, Minseok starts grunting in frustration, unable to keep calm any longer as his kart refuses to move faster no matter how much he tries to boost himself out of second place. Luhan’s basically trying to stop himself from screaming in exhilaration as he drives past swimming penguins, jumping out of the water and back onto the dryer part of the track, mindful of the distance between him and Minseok on the map displayed on his bottom screen.

 

It’s like fate has something against him, Luhan begins to think because just as he emerges from the water, Minseok somehow obtains a red shell. This advantage of Minseok’s is indicative through his laughter because they both know that Minseok’s incredibly good at aiming, and Luhan forgets he’s driving into a risky part of the track where if he loses here, he won’t be able to catch up. The finish line is literally a stone’s throw away from where he is ...

 

And yet, he manages to things up by driving straight into an icicle obnoxiously protruding out of the ground. He irritatedly curses (“Who the put that there?!”), trying to recover by fumbling with the buttons on his console but Minseok is right there to shoot him efficiently with a red shell, dragging Luhan back to second place with a triumphant cheer. Luhan’s kart flips and his ranking slips into third and fourth and so on as the other players begin to whizz past one by one, and he begins to feel the largest heartbreak in his life in that moment as the race ends and he resigns himself to last place.

 

He had been so close, and he let a stupid icicle sink his freaking dreams. Luhan buries his face in his hands, instantly regretting making a bet in the first place because god only knows what Minseok will make him do. He remembers a time a friend of theirs lost a bet with Minseok, and lost about half of their hair to an ugly mix of brown and seaweed green. The other half Minseok intentionally shaved off because it actually turned out a nice colour of green. In the end, Jongdae had no choice but to go bald, which was apparently Minseok’s initial plan but went about it ‘creatively’ as he liked to say.

 

“I’ve never felt so accomplished finishing this track,” Minseok says with a smile he’s obviously directing at Luhan, and stands up to stretch after placing his 3DS on the table.

 

“I want a rematch,” Luhan pushes for another chance, his voice muffled by his hands. “I was obviously in an unfair situation being distracted like tha-”

 

“That was the rematch,” Minseok counters, raising an eyebrow. “Besides it isn’t my fault you got distracted.”

 

“Come on,” He whines reaching out for Minseok’s arm, intending to pull the boy back onto the couch to fill the space next to him. “You always gave me a chance before, why not now?”

 

“This time is different. There’s actually something on the line, which by the way is-”

 

“I’m not shaving off a single strand of hair on my body or head. I’m not going to pay for your daily trips to the ramen shop down the street-”

 

“Whoa, why not?!” Minseok cuts in, looking slightly offended at the ramen related declaration, but Luhan continues, his face growing redder and redder as he recalls every dare or punishment that has ever come out of Minseok’s mouth.

 

“I’m not going to climb a tree to save your neighbour’s cat, I’m  not -”

 

“Hey! That wasn’t my neighbour’s cat! That was Chanyeol’s neighbour’s cat! And that’s not even that bad-”

 

“I’m not going to buy your sister Tsum Tsum stuffed toys-”

 

“But she loves those-”

 

“And I’m not having you sleep in our room tonight.” Luhan finishes, biting his bottom lip as he takes a long deep breath through his nose, lungs filling with as much air as he can possibly take in before he lets out a shaky exhale. “You’re sleeping on the couch.”

 

Minseok almost starts laughing but catches himself upon seeing Luhan’s seriously serious red face. Luhan doesn’t look the least bit like he’s joking and Minseok stammers a bewildered “What?”

 

“You heard me.” Luhan says, crossing his arms over his chest and maintaining a stern expression. If Minseok didn’t feel so baffled and if Luhan actually looked like he is somewhat joking around, then maybe Minseok would’ve commented there and then on how cute Luhan looks like that, but he keeps his mouth shut. “You’re sleeping out here.”

 

There’s silence as Minseok tries to make sense of the situation, his brain having been stumped so terribly that he needed more than a few seconds to register what Luhan had just said. “You can’t be serious? Over this ?”

 

“Yeah. Over this.” Luhan confirms, furrowing his eyebrows in such a way that it cast shadows over his eyes. “Get your pillow and your blanket before 9 o’clock because I won’t be letting you in there after then.”

 

“Luhan, what?”

 

“I’m serious.”

 

“You’re sure you’re serious? We don’t even sleep that early.”

 

“So?”

 

“We only have one blanket.”

 

“Get another one.”

 

“What is even going on?” Minseok asks to no one in particular but Luhan immediately answers his question. “You won so you’re not going to sleep next to me tonight.”

 

“Keywords:  I won.” Minseok tries to point out, feeling slightly annoyed that he seems to be the one being punished here for not losing.

 

“Yes. Exactly.”

 

It’s like Minseok suddenly found himself talking to a five year old Luhan, or maybe even a toddler Luhan because nothing coming out of his mouth is currently making sense, or maybe it is just because Minseok has never been told to sleep away from Luhan before. In the two years they’ve been living together, not once has Minseok been told, let alone banned from sleeping next to Luhan, and the thought of it makes Minseok feel weird and kind of scared. Luhan is, though he doesn’t necessarily like to say it to anyone, his most favourite pillow. He hasn’t slept a single night in the past two years without the sound of Luhan’s heartbeat in his ear, and his warmth constantly on the surface of Minseok’s skin, and to have that not be there even just for one night -

 

“Fine.” Minseok says, smiling so widely that Luhan’s heart begins to sink. He hadn’t thought that Minseok would give in so easily. The boy barely even questioned him. “I’ll sleep out here tonight.”

 

“Good.” Luhan reaches out for his 3DS - game already long forgotten, turning it off as he walks away from the couch where Minseok had sat down during their little argument - if one could even call it that. As he turns into the corridor that leads into the rest of their apartment, he just about hears Minseok’s faint “Great” and can’t help but feel a bit of regret begin to solidify within his conscience.

 

His resolve begins to dissolve into nothingness the moment he sees Minseok carrying his navy blue pillow and his favourite fleece blanket out of their room at around seven o’clock in the evening. It’s still too early and Luhan almost tells him to take it back until he plans to sleep, but he knows Minseok is fully aware of the time and that he’s taking Luhan seriously. The boy has barely spoken to him, nor has Luhan to Minseok, and neither have done anything together since Luhan practically exiled Minseok from their bedroom.

 

At eight o’clock Minseok calls a few friends on Skype to play Minecraft with him, and Luhan takes himself to their bedroom, lying down on the bed. It doesn’t take him that long to notice how incredibly empty the bed feels when Minseok’s pillow and Minseok himself isn’t on it. The regret by then has doubled, maybe even tripled, and his heart is heavy with longing, and the voice in his head keeps on telling him he’s made a mistake.

 

True, Luhan admits to himself. I miss him already.

 

But Luhan is a man of his word, and his pride, wounded countless times already, doesn’t want to face another cruel blow. So, he sticks it out.

 

He soon finds ‘sticking it out’ incredibly difficult. Maybe even impossible. He watches the pink analogue Hello Kitty clock that Yixing had gotten him as a Christmas present one time on his bedside table, counting the seconds till both the first and the second hand hit the twelve on the face of the mechanism. It’s amazing how time conveniently slows down when he least wants it to, especially since Minseok still hadn’t spoken to him in the past few hours, and had already fallen asleep when Luhan had just about had enough and was about to call him back to bed. Unsuccessful and doubly guilty, Luhan ended up returning to their bed alone, wondering what part of him actually thought making Minseok sleep out there is a good idea.

 

He spends the next half hour wide awake, regretting his decisions, cringing at his immature and childish behaviour as he recalls the memory, and just wishing he could take back his words and bring Minseok back into the room to sleep next to him like nothing had happened. He considers texting the boy, just so he can talk to him again, because for some reason Minseok is giving him some kind of silent treatment and not a single part of Luhan likes that Minseok hasn’t been interacting with him at all. However he manages to hold back seconds after he finishes typing up a message, deleting every word so the text message can never see the light of day or the inside of Minseok’s inbox.

 

By quarter to one, Luhan decides he needs to go to the toilet, feeling the urge to pee - or so he likes to think. He shuts off the lights in the bedroom, so to make it seem like he had been sleeping, and carefully opens the door, stepping out into the hallway as quietly as possible so that he doesn’t end up waking Minseok.

 

He reaches out for the door to the bathroom, his hand just barely grasping the door handle when it suddenly opens, Minseok appearing on the other side of the door while Luhan lets out a small yelp of surprise.

 

“Oh,” Minseok says, throat a little dry by the sound of his voice. “You’re awake.”

 

Luhan almost replies with a quick I haven’t slept yet but stops himself just before he does, remembering why he currently stands outside the bathroom with Minseok who is blocking the doorway with his body, most likely in an intentional way. “I needed to go to the bathroom.”

 

Minseok nods, takes one look at Luhan and walks off. A part of Luhan, particularly his conscience begins to hope that this time, maybe out of habit, Minseok will walk into their bedroom and sleep there for the rest of the night. But the boy continues on, down the corridor and disappears around the corner into the living room, making Luhan’s heart sink deeper and deeper with every step he takes. He shuts the door behind him, and goes on about his business with a guilty heart, then tries to wash away his regrets with soap and water, before drying off the remains of his childish behaviour from earlier on with a towel.

 

He returns to the lonely confines of their bedroom, sitting on the edge of the bed with his legs crossed after he notices the chill that’s hovering just above the ground, realising that the low temperatures of the early morning are settling in before dawn. Luhan looks over his shoulder to check the time, finding himself not any less disappointed that the time is going as painfully slowly as it had been ten minutes ago.

 

Luhan, with tons of time on his hands, and a mind that seems to not want to let him sleep, and a boyfriend who hasn’t spoken to him in more than the acceptable amount of hours, ends up cleaning the entire bedroom. From folding clothes that had been strewn half-assedly into the closet, to changing the sheets and covers of the bed, as well as finding the need to fluff the rest of the pillows and the duvet. He tries to play a few other games on his 3DS, like Super Smash Bros and Animal Crossing, only to quickly get bored of them and turn the handheld console off almost as soon as he had turned it on.

 

Two hours later, Luhan finds himself peeking through the door separating the living room from the hallway, trying to see whether Minseok is still fast asleep. From the gap between the door and the wall, he can just see Minseok’s bare feet sticking out from the edge of the couch, and the reflection of Minseok sleeping on the front of the small aquarium they keep by the kitchen to inhabit their pet fish.

 

He tries to ignore the grumbling of his stomach and turns around to walk back to where he had come from, because Minseok looks to him like he is sleeping just fine and Luhan doesn’t want to wake him up by whatever he does to try get something to eat in the kitchen, but the boy is hungry and fully aware that standing here, looking through a gap between the door and its frame is kind of a little creepy.

 

Listening to the impatient growling of his stomach (and also his guilty heart), he carefully and quietly opens the door and tiptoes through the living room and into the kitchen. He opens up the fridge, praying to some kind of food god that there would still be something to eat in there, and fortunately he finds a container of leftover butter chicken from two nights ago when Yixing dropped by with Indian takeaways, some cheap beer, and an action movie for them to watch together.

 

He transfers the meal into a bowl with some rice and places the dish inside the microwave, intending to heat it up for a minute or two, except the microwave wouldn’t cooperate. No matter how many times he pressed the button - or any button for that matter, nothing would appear on the tiny digital screen. He tries opening and closing the microwave, followed by pressing the same buttons but it still wouldn’t work. The light inside the machine doesn’t seem to turn on either when he opens the door of the microwave, and Luhan begins to think that it’s broken.

 

He steps back for a moment to look for the manual of the machine, opening drawers and cupboards, careful not to make much noise as he does so. At some point he grabs an apple because his stomach has become bothersome with the amount of noise it is making, taking bites out of it as he searches.

 

Once he finds the manual, he’s dismayed to see that it had been written completely in Korean, and as much as he can speak the language, he’s not entirely good at reading it - at least not well enough to read an entire manual on how to fix a microwave. The only person he knows that can, and who he can reach, is currently not speaking to him.

 

Luhan takes out his bowl of butter chicken from the microwave and considers eating it cold, but that doesn’t entirely appeal to him. He will still have to tell Minseok that he may have, possibly, somehow broken the microwave by just touching it in the morning or before Minseok goes to use it, and if he is going to do that anyway, it might as well be now. His butter chicken is waiting after all.

 

“Um,” He makes his way towards the clearly passed out Minseok, readying himself to shake him awake. “Minseok?”

 

It takes more than a few Minseoks to even make the boy stir in his sleep, but when Luhan finally manages to make Minseok open at least one eye enough to look at him, he holds out the manual for Minseok to take, earning quite a confused expression from the older boy.

 

“Um,” Luhan stutters, pointing towards the microwave in the dark. Minseok tries to follow his gesture, blinking a few times to clear his vision and mind of sleep, hand loosely wrapped around the manual. “I think I broke the microwave?” He says in a kind of questioning tone.

 

“Broke the microwave?” Minseok repeats, rubbing an eye with the heel of his hand.

 

“I was ... just -” He frowns, finding it hard to explain exactly what he did. “I was just using it ... like you would a microwave.”

 

“What?” Minseok slowly sits up, yawning as he straightens his back and does a little stretch.

 

“I was just going to heat up my butter chicken and-”

 

They both walk to the kitchen together, Luhan still trying to explain what happened to the microwave. Minseok seeming a little dazed and drowsy from sleep, looks blankly at the manual in his hands and then at the microwave before going ahead and doing the exact same thing Luhan had done earlier.

 

After a few seconds, Minseok turns to look at him with an amused expression, pressing the manual against Luhan’s chest as he begins to walk off with a grin. “It’s unplugged.” He says, biting back a laugh and shaking his head.

 

As Luhan hears those words come out of Minseok’s mouth, he immediately feels the heat flush into his cheeks because of embarrassment, clutching the manual and exhaling slowly. He steps over to the microwave, checking behind the appliance to find that the plug is indeed nowhere near the socket, rendering the machine quite useless. He sighs, bringing his hand up to scratch his head before plugging the microwave in and heating up his butter chicken.

 

While he waits for his food, Luhan looks for Minseok who has just returned to the couch he’d been sleeping on, about to resume his sleeping position. He tries not to be obvious, but as soon as his eyes land on Minseok’s face, their gazes meet and Luhan’s eyes widen in surprise, as if they’d never made eye contact before, and he quickly averts his eyes to look at something other than Minseok.

 

He notices that the other boy still has a bit of a smile on his face from Luhan’s slight obliviousness, and Luhan watches from the corner of his eye as Minseok pulls up the blanket to cover half of his face in an attempt to hide his expression from Luhan who begins to look away.

 

He hears the beeping of the microwave and removes his food from within the machine, looking around for a place to eat his meal since the only options are the couch - where Minseok currently lies, and the makeshift stools on the other side of the kitchen counter. Luhan awkwardly settles for an in-between, deciding to eat while standing over the kitchen sink.

 

There’s nothing but the sound of Luhan’s spoon hitting the porcelain surface of the bowl for a while, until Luhan suddenly hears Minseok opening the fridge, startling him so badly that he almost drops his half-eaten food into the sink.

 

“Is there any more of that?” Minseok asks him, reaching into the fridge to move its contents around so he can see what’s in there better.

 

“Uh, no. I’ve got it all in here.” Luhan points to the bowl in his hand, and Minseok sighs disappointedly. “Why? Are you hungry?”

 

Minseok nods, straightening up and closing the fridge door. “I didn’t eat dinner.” He says in a tone that suggests to Luhan that it might be his fault. He doesn’t need to hear Minseok say ‘I couldn’t eat alone, could I?’ to know that that’s what the boy in front of him is implying. In the end he doesn’t bother to ask why and instead steps forward to hand his bowl to Minseok.

 

“I’m full anyway, so you can take this.” Luhan says, feeling apologetic. Minseok doesn’t say anything back but takes the food and begins to eat. Luhan can’t help but smile because he’s finally gotten Minseok to speak to him after so long, going off to the pantry to distract himself for a bit so that he doesn’t make it obvious that he’s actually extremely happy that Minseok’s spoken to him.

 

After a while, he sees Minseok walk over to the sink and begin washing the bowl and spoon they used. By this time, Luhan’s gathered enough courage to ask if Minseok is okay sleeping on the couch, and if he needs anymore blankets or a thicker jacket, maybe even socks because it’s starting to get much colder, but the boy only shakes his head, smiles and walks back to the couch without much more to say.

 

Minseok doesn’t intend to go back to sleep yet, but obviously Luhan misreads him because the boy begins to make his way back into their bedroom, hands dug deep into his jumper pockets with his head lowered and eyes looking down at the floor.

 

Minseok knows that Luhan is upset Heck, the boy is awfully obvious. Minseok has known him for long enough to know and be able to read Luhan’s emotions whether he wants to show them or not. Admittedly, Minseok’s been lonely the entire night, but he had wanted to see how Luhan would fair facing the consequences of his actions earlier - kind of like his punishment for losing to Minseok during the race. Cruel but fair in a way, Minseok thinks.

 

“Hey,” Minseok says, stopping Luhan in his tracks before he could disappear behind the corner and into the corridor. It is just about time for him to stop the act, Minseok thinks. “Have you gotten any sleep yet?”

 

The answer doesn’t come until several seconds later, seconds which Minseok spends waiting and wondering if Luhan had slipped into the bedroom before he could stop him in time. But then Luhan backtracks enough for Minseok to see him again in the dark, giving him a quiet but honest answer. “No, I ... haven’t.” He’s hesitant but continues on to explain himself. “I’ve been cleaning the bedroom and sorting through stuff and-”

 

Minseok smiles. “I know, I heard you.”

 

“You heard me?” Luhan takes a step closer to him as Minseok sits up, pulling his knees up to his chest to give Luhan some space to sit down, but the boy doesn’t seem to get his silent offer so he pats the space next to him until Luhan sees and takes a seat, his posture a little tense and reserved.

 

“You don’t clean very quietly. I could hear you swear every time something fell.” He allows himself to laugh a little, and just as he expects, Luhan begins to relax but keeps his head and gaze lowered. “Hey ...” He nudges the boy, trying to get something out of him, but Luhan briefly looks at him sadly.

 

“I’m sorry.” Luhan says, refusing to look at Minseok in the eye. “For earlier. I wasn’t thinking when I said that, I was just really upset and I know that was really childish and immature of me and I really shouldn’t have done that. I started to regret it the moment I told you not to sleep in our bedroom tonight but my pride got the best of me and I couldn’t take back my words. I understand if you’re probably really mad at me. I’m so-”

 

“Luhan,” Minseok cuts in, reaching out to squeeze one of Luhan’s hands in a reassuring manner, flashing the other boy a gentle smile. “I’m not mad. You’ve known me long enough to know that I can’t ever get mad at you. And I forgive you. To be honest, if I had been you I would’ve also banished you ...  maybe. ”

 

Luhan cracks a smile at that, hitting him playfully on the knee. “As if.” He mutters.

 

“Yeah, you are kind of a sore loser.” Minseok admits, gaining another, much harder punch to the arm. “It’s the truth!”

 

“Yeah, but you don’t need to actually say it.” Luhan snaps back, crossing his arms. “I missed you, and this is what you give me?”

 

“For the record, I was freezing out here.” Minseok retorts, pointing to his blanket. “This blanket is made for two-people-cuddling, not for going solo.”

 

Luhan shakes his head. “I knew you were lying.”

 

“The point is,” Minseok says. “I want to cuddle, so can we?”

 

“Are you serious?” Luhan asks, and Minseok rolls his eyes at him impatiently.

 

“I thought you missed me?”

 

Luhan allows his body to answer that, moving closer to Minseok so that the two of them can settle into a comfortable position with arms around each other’s waists and Luhan’s head pressed against Minseok’s chest, the sound of the heartbeat he’s missed the past several hours in his ear.

 

They’re quiet for a while, Minseok pressing random kisses on the top of Luhan’s head, as well as on his forehead and temple. Luhan’s hand is rubbing circles on Minseok’s lower back, a spot that Minseok particularly likes to be touched by him, while the other hand is intertwined with that of Minseok’s. Eventually fatigue overcomes Luhan and he falls asleep, content in Minseok’s hold.

 

“Hey,” Minseok says, gently shaking Luhan awake a few minutes after he notices that the boy is sleeping. “Luhan?”

 

“Mm?” Came his sleepy response after Minseok nudges him several times to bring him back to consciousness.

 

“Am I still banned from our bedroom?”

 

Minseok waits for a response since Luhan seems to be taking his time. But when a few minutes pass after Minseok asks his question, and Luhan still hasn’t answered, Minseok takes one glance at Luhan’s sleeping face and can’t help himself from smiling. “That’s fine. You can answer when you wake up.” He reaches for the blanket, pulling it up to cover both of them sufficiently before closing his eyes and allowing himself to sleep.