Two days later and he and Yoongi were making their way towards Mark's shared apartment. They stopped in front of a tall building in a decent neighborhood that was a twenty-minute walk away from university. Mark took out his keys from his back pocket and tapped it on to the security block outside, letting the three of them in immediately. After swinging the heavy door, they were faced with a set of identical elevators and a door leading to the stairs. As the pink haired boy made his way towards the door, Yoongi cleared his throat and shook his head.

"There is no way I'm taking the stairs when there are two lifts right here. Are they broken or something?" He asked incredulously, as if he was unable to believe that people would willingly take stairs.

"No, they work fine," Mark responded with a furrow of his eyebrows and Yoongi exhaled, looking visibly relieved at the information.

"Thank God. What floor are you on?" the question was fired as the other student brushed past him.

He began to tap the button for the lifts repeatedly and it took a few seconds of them watching the monitor for one of them make its way from the thirteenth floor to the ground one.

"Ninth," Mark muttered, looking guilty and Kyungsoo's eyes widened at the revelation. How had he expected them to walk up nine flights of stairs? His gym hating self would have perished by the third and he didn't know about Yoongi's fitness levels but the other boy's reaction suggested that they were probably on the same boat. They lived in the modern world which meant that people like them thrived. Besides, what was the use for these kind of facilities if people weren’t using them?

"Ninth?" Yoongi's voice slightly rose in pitch, "now that's just evil," and he looked at Mark accusingly, "were you gonna tell us now or when we died halfway?"

Mark had the decency to look slightly embarrassed as they entered the elevator. He pressed the button for their floor and answered Yoongi's rhetorical question.

"Sorry, I've just gotten so used to taking the stairs that the lift wasn't even an option in my head. Besides, my roommate's obsessed with exercise and its rubbed off on me I guess," he explained with a grimace and the elevator doors began to open.

"It's fine, let's just go," Kyungsoo cut in, wanting this conversation to be over and Mark breathed a sigh of relief. The long corridor of apartments was incredibly quiet and Mark led them to the end, inserting his keys into the keyhole and opening the front door. His key ring was decorated with smileys and other accessories that made the whole thing rattle while he held it.

They had an open plan apartment so the living room and kitchen were both open towards one another. Like they'd been told before, the place was truly quite spacious with no junk lying around and the marble counters were completely bare. White, new looking walls that created a clean presence. He liked it, he’d been worried that he wouldn’t like it and would be tempted to start cleaning the place.

They had one three seater black couch facing a single television and on it, was sitting someone who was presumably the roommate. He had a heavy looking dumbbell in one hand, a TV remote in the other and was casually doing curls with a look of intense concentration on his face. Concentration that broke when his gaze settled on the newcomers.

"Marky! You're back? These your partners?" He asked, gaze fixed on the two. Bowing, he gave them a cheery grin that brightened up his face, "Hey, I'm Mark's roommate and best friend Jackson! Nice to meet you."

Kyungsoo and Yoongi both introduced themselves to the friendly boy, not noticing Mark's eye roll at the title. They sat down on the couch as the black haired, Hong Kong native began to move his sweaty exercise clothes.

"Best friend? Are we five? Stop using that term," he scolded resignedly and Jackson pouted a little, looking disheartened.

"Fine, from now on Jaebum's my best friend and you've been demoted," he petulantly crossed his arms and Mark frowned.

"What do you mean demoted? I've done nothing wrong, stop being dramatic Jackson," he sighed when he saw a familiar, stubborn glint in roommate's eyes, "All right, we're best friends, the bestest..." he grimaced at the cheesy words but it seemed to make the raven haired boy brighten and bound towards him.

"Knew you'd see things my way. Besides, between us guys things like this are fine," he reached out and put his arm on Mark's shoulder leisurely, "I'm off to get some coffee with my friend Jaebum. I'll catch you guys later you're still around, it was nice meeting you," he gave them a wave and suavely winked at his pink haired friend, who looked noticeably annoyed at the mention of Jaebum yet again.

As soon as he left, the walls began to ring with something Kyungsoo hadn't felt since entering. Silence. Both he and Yoongi were sat on the couch and Mark was rubbing the back of his neck self consciously.

"Sorry about that guys, Jackson can be a little..." he paused for a lack of a word to describe the hurricane that had just left a few seconds earlier, "unpredictable. I think it's easier if we just go to my room,"

He gestured them towards another door and his bedroom was littered with Drake and Chris Brown posters. Sections of only wallpaper was rare and there was a double bed on one side and a desk with two chairs on the other. Overall it was impeccably clean and Kyungsoo felt comfortable with the thought of studying productively for the next few hours.

"So, are you guys...?" Yoongi trailed off, not knowing how to phrase the question but it looked like he didn't need to since Mark had understood him just fine as he began rapidly shaking his head.

"Me and Jackson?" He sounded horrified and a little bewildered as he asked the question, "definitely not! We don't see each other like that," he denied, shaking his head and Kyungsoo would have believed him, had he not been a witness to the painfully obvious flirtation that had taken place right in front of him a while ago.

Yoongi merely regarded him with suspicious, narrowed eyes before shrugging, uncaring, "if you say so."

Kyungsoo took out his folder from his bag and took out their module notes. This group assignment was incredibly important and they needed to do well or slay their finals so the grade wouldn’t affect them as much but he wanted top marks. If he was going to suffer doing such a boring subject for the sake of his future, then he needed to get nothing less than a first-class degree. Nothing less than perfect would do.

"Let's start then. We're still doing pretty decent on time and if we split the workload this should be really easy," Mark informed them, taking out one of the project sheets and circling a few of the major bullet points they had to cover, "Yoongi you can do......."

--

Two hours later and they were finally beginning to wrap up their session. Thanks to Mark's knowledge of their research project and his incredibly meticulous nature, everything was running smoothly. They were far from being friends however. Even though neither of the three were particularly unlikeable, they weren't exactly engaging in witty entertaining banter but then again it made sense.

True introverts, they all preferred to get to know someone properly before being entirely comfortable with them. This did mean that whenever they weren't discussing work there was a painful silence that all three were aware of but didn't know how to break. Small talk ensued, it had been boring but it beat staring at Mark's colourful walls. Maybe it would take them a bit longer to get close since they were way too different, having different hobbies and music tastes. Kyungsoo and Yoongi were packing their bags when they heard the front door start rattling.

"HONEY I'M HOME!" A vaguely familiar voice yelled and they both turned towards Mark questioning. The pink haired boy only fondly smiled and held the room door open for them. The stepped out back into the living room and saw Jackson sitting on one of the sofas looking like the cat that got the canary.

"And what's got you looking so happy?" Mark asked with both eyebrows raised, looking intrigued but also very used to this situation. By the looks of it Jackson probably came home this excited often.

"Some guy bumped into me and I spilt my latte everywhere. It was a mess but Jaebum was like 'hold up' and bought me a new one. He was so cool and manly! I'm not gonna a lie, my heart fluttered a little..." his voice trailed off and there was a small pause.

"It fluttered? Over coffee? You sap," Mark looked every bit as unimpressed as his voice implied but it sounded more like jealousy to Kyungsoo. Clearly they were both in denial and it didn’t look like they’d be getting a clue any time soon.

"Hey! It was an honest reaction okay." Jackson attempted to defend himself with a pout that looked way to childlike on the muscly twenty-year old face.

"Honest my ," the pink haired boy snorted.

"Enough about me...Do you guys wanna stay for dinner?" Jackson changed the topic, looking fed up of his roommate mocking his pathetic love life.

"What dinner? There’s no groceries, you want us to order takeaway for them?

Kyungsoo looked around and Mark was right, what dinner? The kitchen looked completely bare and he was touched by their desire to welcome them so whole heartedly. They didn’t have to but they were choosing to.

"Well yeah. Are you lot fine with ordering in? Both me and Mark have dedicated our first born children to pizza, the food of the Gods!" Jackson answered happily, turning towards their two guests and Kyungsoo was a little startled by the sudden attention.

"No, it's fine. I have to get home anyway," he denied politely. It was his turn to make dinner at the dorm and if he slipped out of it, he'd never hear the end of it. Besides, there was a lasagne recipe he found online yesterday that he was dying to try out.

"Same here. I have this thing I'm doing with my friend," Yoongi also denied the offer, grimacing a little regretfully.

"Alright. Maybe next time. Looks like I'll be seeing you guys more anyway," Jackson looked hopeful which was a little weird since they didn't really know each other but his kind nature was sweet. Even though this union was meant for work purposes only, Kyungsoo could see this becoming something much deeper.

"Sure,"

"I'll walk you guys down. Do you think you can make your ways home from here or do you need any help?"

"You're acting like you live on the outskirts. We can manage," Yoongi commented amusedly, shaking his head at Mark's almost chivalrous hospitality.

"Okay but if you guys call me about being lost, just know I'm gonna laugh before trying to help,"

"Laugh and we'll send you the directions to an abandoned warehouse instead. See how you like that," Kyungsoo added, smirking at the thought.

"I'd pay to see that," Yoongi nodded thoughtfully and Mark looked visibly offended at how he was being ganged up against.

"Fine" he muttered bitterly, causing the other two to smile, "see if I even pick up,"

They laughed at that and Mark smiled as he gestured them to the entrance, quickly putting on his sneakers. Yoongi and Kyungsoo did the same, waving Jackson goodbye from the front door.

"So... next week? Where should we meet? My place again?" They were on the lift and they needed to decide where their next meeting point would be.

"If you don't mind. We can go over to mine this time instead though if you do," Yoongi offered.

"I wouldn't mind but Jackson got his business lot coming over and a packed house won’t be nice, so let's just do it at yours," Mark proposed hesitantly, not wanting to overstep his boundaries.

"Great, then it's settled. See you next week," Yoongi didn't look like he minded at all and Mark breathed a sigh of relief in return. Jackson’s business friends must be loud if he was reacting like that. They’d really dodged a bullet there then.

"See you!" Mark called out as he waved at them from the entrance of his apartment building.

Walking away, Yoongi looked over at Kyungsoo. His mint hair ruffled in the wind under his beanie and he was wrapping a scarf around his neck. The short walk back towards university was a comfortable one that involved both putting their ear buds in and admiring the luscious green trees that surrounded their campus. At one point Yoongi took a photo of an ancient looking oak tree with a giddy smile and Kyungsoo was slightly baffled.

The tree wasn't much to look at if he was being honest but what if Yoongi was the sentimental artistic type? But then why would he be studying engineering? Maybe to him, trees had some sort of meaning to him besides the fact that they produced oxygen that we took in. Whatever it was, Kyungsoo was curious.

"Why did you just take a picture of a tree?" He cocked an eyebrow and Yoongi turned to him with a small smile. It wasn't the smartest way to voice the question but be didn't care. Language was meant to get your voice across. Not beautified and waxed lyrical. Short and concise was much better if you asked him.

"It's for my portfolio. I do a bit of photography on the side so nowadays I just snap anything that I want to include and come back for it again if I really like it."

"And the tree...?"

"Look over here," he beckoned him over and got Kyungsoo to look closely at one of the leaves, "see how they've all got different patterns, different scars but they all combine together to contribute to a bigger thing. So similar but so different. See this tree, it's smaller than the rest but thicker in bark. The ivy on it looks older than the tree and it paints this picture I just had to keep in my memories."

His passion came through and was emphasised by the pink flush on his cheeks so Kyungsoo looked, really looked at the tree. He could see the way he looked at it begin to change. He saw the soft breeze tickling the bark and brushing against the leaves, rustling them. He was so used to seeing things in black and white that he realised there was a lot he was missing out on. That childhood wonder and the rose-tinted glasses that had been robbed from him at a young age.

"I see it," he murmured and Yoongi looked over at him with understanding eyes.

"Sometimes, all it takes is a difference in perception. The world doesn't change, only the way you see it," the slate haired student sounded sympathetic as he said that, it looked like he'd gone through some perception changing of his own.

Kyungsoo nodded, "I guess."

It looked like the way he was looking at the world was wrong then. As much as he was content, maybe he was missing out on a world outside his box. He mentally contemplated, as they got to the front steps of the main entrance, while Yoongi opened his mouth again.

"So...I'm waiting for a friend of mine and he's organising a party at his house tomorrow night. I'll text you the details if you wanna come,” Yoongi proposed, looking intently at Kyungsoo.

"I don't think so," the black haired boy denied, not much of a partier but the other student just stared at him with an amused expression. If he was a paranoid person he’d suggest that Min Yoongi right now looked like he knew him better than he knew himself but the thought was ridiculous so he shrugged it off as quickly as it entered his mind.

"I really hope you'll change your mind. Who knows, you might end up having fun. Changing perception remember. I'll send you the details anyway yeah."

Just as he'd said that a brown haired boy came bounding towards them with a fresh grin and a bounce to his steps. "Yoongi hyung, you're early."

The stranger in question, Kyungsoo learned pretty quickly was Jung Hoseok, a first year dance student and self-titled "Yoongi's best friend". A few minutes of talking to him and Kyungsoo felt like he'd known the energetic brunet for a long time. He just had that aura, a real people's person. Not to mention friendliness was oozing out of him in waves, being mean to him would be like kicking a puppy so Kyungsoo kept the short conversation as two sided as he possibly could. Hoseok didn’t look like he’d consider it the same but everyone had different limits when it came to sociability.

"We have to go but it was cool meeting you, Soo," Hoseok called out, dragging Yoongi by the arm. The nickname? Well, it was given to him a few seconds into their meeting and honesty, Kyungsoo was a little blindsided by the whole conversation so he didn't know what to say to the other boy in response to it.

"See you around!" He heard from a distance. That and Yoongi's halfhearted grumbling.