Falling into place

Then there was really no time to think about anything at all, because the term was coming to an end with a menacing week of finals to make it all worse.

They didn’t see each other, not even passing in the halls, both far too busy.

Taekwoon had to cancel several practices because he couldn’t even find time to pick up his guitar, much less actually practice. And he knew that Jaehwan slept in the art building after getting fed up with his idiotic neighbor and the old lady living on the second floor who complained about the cigarette smoke that constantly drifted up from the fire escape.

Exams passed in a blur of caffeine and lack of sleep, like always. Then the crash, sleeping for 24 hours or more to not really recover before heading home for the winter break.

It wasn’t until Taekwoon was rushing around, throwing clothes into a bag and rolling his eyes at his sister over the phone that he realized he didn’t say goodbye to Jaehwan.

Then he immediately wondered why the hell it should matter, and his next words to his sister were perhaps a bit cooler than they should have been.

Later, as he ran out to catch his bus, did he notice a familiarly annoying note taped to the outside of his door. He snatched it, glancing at it to confirm that it was indeed the imp’s stupid handwriting before stuffing it into his pocket and bolted for the bus station.

Once he called home, that yeah he would arrive soon, did he take it out of his pocket to inspect the note closer.

I’m sorry for not checking if the exams managed to kill you after all, but my holiday plans changed last minute and I’m flying over to Jeju with Hyuk and the others.  Have no idea when we will be back, you know how it is with the kid. So Merry Christmas to you, your family, and your smile (it should be back no? haven’t seen it in a while) Jaehwan

It was all topped with little sketches of reindeers and a Christmas tree.

Taekwoon rolled his eyes and folded the note back into his pocket, frowning slightly to himself as he stared out the window.

Just who were those others?

~*~

By the time they landed Jaehwan’s cheeks hurt from laughing and he was at one point mildly afraid they would be kicked off the plane for all the noise they made.

But that was the usual occurrence when one travelled with Hakyeon, Jin, Wonshik and Sanghyuk.

Especially when Hakyeon accidentally mentioned that cute med student girl from his afternoon dance classes and Hyuk was quick to exploit the new teasing material much to Wonshik’s amusement.

Then they rented a car and Jaehwan got the honor to drive them around, Jin telling him that it was always an adventure - especially when Hakyeon sat on the passenger seat, serving as a distraction as they sang to girl group songs and danced the choreographies.

Wonshik looked mighty pale on the backseat, but Jin was kind enough to pat his shoulder reassuringly as Hyuk sang along.

‘So how is it going with Taekwoon-hyung?’ Hyuk piped up suddenly between two songs and Jaehwan nearly hit the brakes in surprise.

‘What?’

‘I heard it through the grapevine that you are awfully cozy in your shared annoyment.’ Hyuk grinned at him through the rearview mirror and much to Jaehwan’s horror the others seemed equally interested.

‘Nothing like that, we are just sorta friends.’ Jaehwan said, pouting for good measures when Jin coughed something that sounded suspiciously like bull.

‘So if I said that he finds you cute, then it absolutely wouldn’t matter?’ Wonshik asked, with a teasing raise of his brows.

‘He did what now?’ Hakyeon shrieked, with a much too wide smile as he turned back towards Wonshik.

‘Of course it wouldn’t.’ Jaehwan whined, trying to be heard over his hyung’s excited blabbering. ‘Hey now, don’t forget who is driving!’

That resulted in a flurry of fake apologizing and Jaehwan was left to smile softly to himself with a slight blush.

~*~

Taekwoon hated being the youngest.

Especially the youngest of four.

Being the youngest meant that everyone ganged up on him or if they didn't, then they were trying to mess with his personal life or pinched his cheeks. Sometimes he just wished he was an only child.

There were enough embarrassing meddling on his three sisters’ and his mother’s part that he felt thoroughly sick of family, though his little nephew managed to be the saving grace of the holidays along the cups of tea he shared with his father and brother-in-law after noisy dinners.

He was dreading the Korean New Year already…

So really, he was more than happy to get back to his apartment and flopped onto his couch to enjoy the silence.

He’d been back all of ten minutes when he realized that there was no food in the kitchen, well except those tons of side dishes he hauled back with him, and he was starving.

With a long sigh he pulled on his coat and scarf and boots and walked to the elevator. When it opened on the ground floor he found himself face to face with Jaehwan, burdened with several bags and he was sure he heard Wonshik’s voice coming from the street and the honking of a car.

They stared at each other for a moment, and then Taekwoon decided to just stay in the elevator, reaching out to take the bags cutting into Jaehwan’s palm.

‘Thank you.’ Jaehwan smiled, soft and surprised and Taekwoon was a bit happy he was the cause of it. ‘How was your holiday? All family, right?’

‘Yeah…’ That thought brought the pang of a headache back, and sent a glare at Jaehwan when he chuckled at his obvious distress. ‘And I also got your stupid note, imp.’

‘Then I guess your smile is still on a vacation.’ Jaehwan grinned. ‘But if it makes you feel better I just spent two weeks with Jin, Wonshik, Hyuk and Hakyeon-hyung... And I’m fairly sure the stewardess was sharpening the metal chopsticks to off us after the first ten minutes…’

That actually made him chuckle and had to swat at Jaehwan when he overreacted in his surprise.

‘It’s back! Your smile is back!’

‘Shush you.’

‘A miracle, I tell you hyung.’ Jaehwan laughed still as they walked together to his door and the younger fished for his keys.

After a moment of internal debate Taekwoon cleared his throat. ‘Brat, you obviously just got back so I doubt you have food. I was planning to grab something to eat, if you want to come.’

Jaehwan blinked at him, clearly startled, then smiled wide and warm and – Taekwoon couldn’t think of a better word – fluffy. ‘Food that was not made by Jin and destroyed by Hyuk sounds wonderful! I would love to, hyung.’

It didn’t occur to either of them how much it looked like a date as they told each other their holiday stories over sizzling meat and warm rice.

~*~

Jaehwan’s apartment was always a mess when he was working and his friends tried to avoid the landmine of paint tubes and sketches and unrecognizable entities littering the floor around the easel as much as they could – namely avoiding his apartment altogether.

Then again Taekwoon might not think of himself as his friend as he decided to occupy a mostly harmless patch of carpet, laptop and books and notes marking his territory of the chaos.

Really there was a full on war on his floor.

‘They are fixing the air compressor, can’t hear my thoughts.’ was all that Taekwoon’d told him when he knocked on his door and Jaehwan assumed it was only fair to let him in.

He didn’t even comment on anything - no sarcasm, no remark, no nothing - as he settled down and they worked in that silence ever since.

Jaehwan found it oddly domestic and decided to let it be, only nodding in thanks when Taekwoon made them coffee and placed the mug cautiously on the table next to him.

Okay, there was an exasperated eye roll when Taekwoon hardly found a safe place on the table. But Jaehwan could only agree with a grin.

It was odd, but domestic.

Fascinating.

Jaehwan couldn’t stop smiling.

Winter was struggling to keep the last days of February cold, and the wind howled bitingly under his window but inside it was warm and comfortable and the only thing disturbing the silence between them was the sound of turning pages and Taekwoon’s soft humming as Jaehwan sketched out that feeling with the soft of a pencil.

Spring arrived in a sudden wave, cold fog and snow giving away to warm rain and soft colored blossoms.

Jaehwan loved the change, wandering around the many parks of the city to sketch and finally be out without freezing, fascinated by the wonder of people as they walked around dazedly under the trees.

He had a break between his classes and decided to run home for a lunch, because Sandeul was busy and he was too lazy to call anyone else. There was actually sun in the sky so he opted to make a detour to the park nearest to campus to stretch his muscles after hunching in front of his easel all day.

The path he choose took him into a section of the park where the trees were a bit denser and everything was quieter, beautifully eerie in the pale spring sunlight and he caught a flash of sunlit blue, vaguely familiar, and he nearly tripped as he turned to look. Quickly he stepped behind a tree, peering out as he carefully pulled out his phone to snap a photo.

Taekwoon had spread out a thick blanket on the ground and was stretched out on his stomach. He was dressed warmly in his usual blackness and he must have been researching for his thesis at one point, since there were several printed papers stacked on the blanket around him, and a book open in front of him. But his head was pillowed on his arms and he was asleep in the peaceful sunlight.

Yet it wasn’t what had Jaehwan staring at him in delight and awe – at least, not entirely. Hunched at the side of the blanket, whiskers twitching as it investigated Taekwoon’s elbow, was a small black cat.

As Jaehwan watched, the cat sneaked closer cautiously, wanting to investigate that strange denim and leather hill. After another long, cautious pause during which Taekwoon stayed unmoving, she climbed closer again. This time she moved onto the textbook to sniff at his folded arms and face.

Her whiskers must have tickled his cheeks, because Taekwoon opened his eyes slowly and the cat froze in her observation.

And Jaehwan would later swear that the smile that overtook Taekwoon’s features, entirely warm and absolutely captivating, was what trapped the cat too, because neither him nor the cat moved for another long second as Taekwoon reached over to caress her back.

Then the cat, after rubbing against Taekwoon’s hand in glee, was on her way and Jaehwan was sure that her muddy print in the textbook would be as good of a memory as the pictures he took…

And even better was that smile, he failed to capture.

~*~

Jaehwan was in his apartment again, and Taekwoon wasn’t entirely sure how he got in.

He woke to the smell of frying vegetables and eggs and the sound of someone humming. He needed a moment to figure it out that yes, he was still in his own apartment.

He needed another moment to decide that no one would break in to cook him breakfast and then mean him harm, so he was not terribly concerned as he hauled himself out of bed and to the bathroom to wash his face and attempted to brush his hair with his fingers. At least he looked less like a serial killer in need of a coffee.

Then he padded out into the main room of the apartment, frowning at Jaehwan standing by the stove with a spatula and an absolutely determined expression.

‘What the hell are you doing in here, imp?’

‘Coffee things are there for you on the counter.’ Jaehwan said, entirely too cheerful. ‘I know better than to attempt to make one for you.’

There was already a mug by his elbow, Taekwoon noted, as he probably helped himself to his share already.

‘You didn’t answer my question.’ Taekwoon mumbled, voice rough from sleep and it was way too early to deal with the brat and his cheerful sass. But settled down to make his coffee anyway.

‘Making eggrolls, if you must know hyung.’ Jaehwan said, really maddeningly cheerful and Taekwoon opted to throw a spoon at his back. The brat only laughed at that. ‘Hakyeon-hyung called me earlier. He said the hospital was chaotic yesterday and you looked pretty run down. I thought you would like to have a hot breakfast before another shift.’

Taekwoon frowned, debating to fling another spoon. ‘Hakyeon was there yesterday?’ he paused, thinking about who he was talking about there. ‘Was he flirting with Eunji again?’

Eunji was a med student too, though a few years under him and attended the same dance classes as Hakyeon, so there was that. She also volunteered at the hospital so Taekwoon knew her quite well.

‘He’d better! I spent my winter break talking courage into him.’ Jaehwan chuckled, pushing the eggroll out onto the waiting plate. ‘If he was there for anything else, all of us would have gotten a distressed call to come to his sick bed to pamper him.’

‘True enough.’ Taekwoon agreed, rolling his eyes. ‘How is Jin? I run into Hakyeon, even if I don’t want to, so I know enough about him.’

It was true, Hakyeon always managed to find whichever department he had his actual internship period at.

‘Good.’ Jaehwan nodded, placing a plate in front of him and Taekwoon was actually impressed. ‘Swamped with schoolwork, same as the rest of us. Last time I talked with him he was scrambling to finish a paper on some psychological thing or another.’ he waved a dismissive hand.

‘Sounds great.’ Taekwoon said, with obvious sarcasm. ‘I have to conjure up some citations too about an obscure protein reaction in the human digestive tract that causes-.’

Jaehwan leaned over and flicked him on the nose before he could finish. ‘No talking about bodily functions at the table.’

Taekwoon slapped Jaehwan’s hand away with an annoyed frown. ‘What are you, my mother?’

‘Nah, simply a non-medical student.’ Jaehwan smiled mildly. ‘But your mom makes a mean kimchi and I would like to keep it in my digestive tract.’

‘Brat.’ Taekwoon rolled his eyes, but refrained from more detailed medical talk.

And they shared a breakfast like that - as if they were two very old friends for all that they’ve only known each other for a few months.

Hakyeon’s message came at the end of his shift, and Taekwoon was glad of the distraction since the gynecologist that pestered them that day was more than annoying.

Busy tonight?

Taekwoon raised a brow before typing back a quick why.

The reply came nearly immediately, though Taekwoon was sure that Hakyeon was supposed to be in class.

Study party at our place, 7 sharp. was the message and several silly emoticons and animated animal figures followed it.

Taekwoon rolled his eyes as he left that unanswered, knowing Hakyeon a bit too well and sure enough, Hakyeon sent another message a few seconds later.

Okay, fine, you win. It’s a chicken and pizza party.

Who? Taekwoon wrote back, smiling slightly in triumph but thinking back to the times these things turned out to be those “let’s see how many people we can shove into a two bedroom hole” parties.

He definitely didn’t want any of that, the time to defend his thesis along with the final finals were too close to waste a night on it.

You Me Jin Jae Eunji and Jae’s friend.

Commas. Taekwoon typed back absentmindedly, wondering which of Jaehwan’s friends it might be.

He knew a couple of them, vaguely and mostly from Jaehwan’s ramblings, and Sanghyuk also mentioned some of the ones he knew and Wonshik too, because he modeled for the art department whenever he didn’t have a gig with the band or was not busy composing… Hakyeon also mentioned a girlfriend before… And a sort of boyfriend too…

Taekwoon had to physically shake himself because he was thinking too much about irrelevant things again and typed back a quick affirmative before refocusing on the case they were supposed to listen to.

It was just a small gathering, it couldn’t hurt to go and see what they were up to.

He showed up at Jin’s and Hakyeon’s apartment a bit before 7 that night to find Eunji already there, greeting him enthusiastically while sitting next to Hakyeon on the floor, their books spread out before them on the coffee table.

They were trying to pretend it was a study party, all right, but he didn’t miss the fact that they were sitting close to each other with matching wide smiles.

Taekwoon let Jin take the beer and coke from him, because no chicken was right without those, and followed him to the kitchen to be out of the love birds’ way and barely asked if he could help when Jaehwan swept in without bothering to knock.

His arms were full of boxes of chicken and gladly deposited the entire mess into Taekwoon’s arm then nudged him with his hip, giving him an impish grin and Taekwoon was not blushing. ‘Just so you know, these are from the place you recommended, hyung. So go share it with the class while I bother Jin into making those pizzas quicker.’

Taekwoon was about to retort that he was not his errand boy when Jaehwan turned back to add as an afterthought.

‘Also, the pizza goes into the oven and I’m pretty sure you don’t know how to use that, cat-hyung.’

Taekwoon scowled, kicking at Jaehwan but he couldn’t chase the laughing brat down because Hakyeon was leaning over his shoulder to fish through the uppermost box.

‘Can’t you wait?’ he snapped, directing his ire at Hakyeon instead and turned to put the chicken down on the kitchen table to serve it, glaring daggers at Jaehwan’s back all the while.

The imp seemed cheerfully oblivious, already pulling on an apron to help Jin with the toppings.

It was a new thing, where Jin began to make his own pizza dough and the entire student body took turns to try his newest creation on tiring weekdays. Hakyeon didn’t seem to mind either, so their apartment was more than once occupied by loud cluster of people from different departments.

Like them.

Taekwoon just managed to fit as many plates into Hakyeon’s arms that he could probably navigate into the living room when the doorbell rang and he went to open the door.

He found himself looking at a guy about Jaehwan’s age, dressed in flannel and odd colors with clay smears on his jeans and a chubby cheeked smile peeking out from behind a big bag of cheese and drinks.

‘Hey.’ he greeted but before Taekwoon could greet him back Jaehwan was already there, holding half a stick of chili pepper as he hugged the guy to himself.

‘Sandeul!’ he laughed, grabbing the bag out of his hands and moved back towards the kitchen. ‘Come in, I promise Taekwoon-hyung doesn’t bite.’

‘Usually.’ Jin chimed in from the kitchen.

‘Sandeul does though.’  Hakyeon called from the living room and Taekwoon was rolling his eyes and Sandeul was rolling his too, telling him not to worry, he didn’t know why he was friends with them either.

Several eventful minutes later they were all seated in various states of sprawl around the apartment. Taekwoon and Jin were sharing the couch, Sandeul was sitting in the armchair with papers he had to grade, Eunji was kneeling on the floor and Hakyeon sat beside her with a smile that threatened to stay permanently and Jaehwan was leaning against the wall where he could move to the kitchen once the pizza was ready.

They were talking about everything and nothing, Jin and Jaehwan obviously angling the talk towards Eunji, and Sandeul was quick to catch up too. Taekwoon just leaned back and offered his own replies in one or two words.

‘I’ve always loved biology.’ Eunji said, idly flipping through one of Taekwoon’s book he brought along. ‘And I decided to help humans thanks to that.’

‘Do you live on campus?’ Sandeul asked, his mouth full of chicken so it was barely intelligible at all and Jin leaned over to smack him calmly over the head.

Sandeul whined and Taekwoon was the only one looking in the right direction to see Jaehwan’s accurate reenactment of Sandeul’s stuffed cheeks, and he had to muffle a smile behind a hand as Jaehwan glanced over too.

Eunji just laughed her loud and vibrant laugh, nodding in answer. ‘Yeah, but Hakyeon-oppa here already offered to kick Jin-oppa out if I wanted to move in.’

‘You did what now?’

‘Hyung!’

Came the indignant yelp from both Jin and Jaehwan at the same time and Hakyeon could just stammer as he turned a bright shade of red.

But Taekwoon knew they both would gladly sleep under the bridge if that meant that Hakyeon was happy, which was actually really sweet… and sweet was a really weird thought as he glanced between a flailing Jin and a pouting Jaehwan, leaving his gaze on that pouting mouth a bit longer then he would ever admit.

‘What about you?’ Eunji asked over the noise and Sandeul threw a pillow at Jin so he could answer properly.

‘Nah, I share an apartment with some weirdos from the art department.’ Sandeul shrugged and Eunji glanced over at Jaehwan.

‘Hey now, I’m not that bad!’ Jaehwan laughed and Taekwoon huffed in disagreement, but before another round of pillow throwing could erupt, the buzzer went off and the pizza distracted everyone for a few minutes.

There were compliments flying around and beer was passed around and Taekwoon was too lazy to move, curled on the end of the couch as he eyed his bag of notes he should be going over without any intent of doing so.

Jin slid down to the floor, comparing his psychology theories to Hakyeon’s sociology ones and Eunji was ready to give the discussion a medical edge as they bantered over heavy books of anatomy and social ethics and a book about… pottery? Sandeul turned out to be the owner of it, recommending it as a date option to Eunji.

At any rate, they were getting some work done while distracting Taekwoon enough that he didn’t really notice when Jaehwan appeared on the couch beside him or when he shifted closer.

But he definitely noticed when he leaned against his shoulder.

Taekwoon froze, turning slowly to peer down at the imp and wondered if he had completely lost his mind. He could feel his cheeks flush as Jaehwan’s warm weight settled against his side and he failed to notice Jin nudging Hakyeon and even Sandeul fell quiet.

‘Hey, brat, I’m not your pillow-‘

But his voice died in his throat as Jaehwan shifted to look up at him, cheeks pink and eyes bright with something indescribable -so pretty like the star splattered night sky he saw when he was five and travelled to the sea for the first time.

For a minute they just stared at each other from a few inches apart, Jaehwan flush against his side and leaning so very close that it was really hard to breath.

Later, Hakyeon would insist that it was Jaehwan who made the first move, but Jin was sure it was Taekwoon and Eunji would agree. Sandeul wasn’t sure who moved first, and they eventually agreed that it didn’t really matter.

What mattered was that it happened.

Jaehwan and Taekwoon kissed, right there on the couch in Hakyeon’s and Jin’s apartment.

Jaehwan kissed him chaste and sweet, nibbling on his lower lip softly before breaking away and Taekwoon was overwhelmed. And Jaehwan was smiling. And, and…

The other four held their breath, afraid of breaking that moment, whatever it was and someone might had a distinct thought to smother Sandeul before he said something that would get someone killed, but there was no chance for that.

The couch exploded.

And it was up to Hakyeon to follow him home with his books, phone, and other things he forgot when he shoved Jaehwan away and stormed out.

Ah, gentlemen, let me make this cut and dried. You are both gone over each other~
But nothing is that simple, so we'll see how this goes down. ;)

Btw there was a moment when I thought Taekwoon should hide under the table, but then my beta gleefully sent over a Pirates of the Caribbean clip - and maybe reenacting the scene with the dog and the keys in the jail is not exactly dramatic enough... :D
(also, this guy would hunt me down too)


Ps. Next chapter will be another short episode~