Minhyuk wasn't one to hate people, nor was he one to destroy precious art pieces. But there he was, cursing Kihyun's name and tearing apart everything he had ever made with the man's face on it.

How could Kihyun leave him like that? After all he had done, all he had sacrificed, all the effort he had put into their relationship—How could Kihyun so easily bring his boyfriend into his home, their home? Why was it so easy for Kihyun to cheat, when all Minhyuk did was love him?

Of course, they hadn't technically seen each other in three months, aside from their (previously) nightly video calls. With Minhyuk spending the semester in France and Kihyun stuck at the college dorms, it was impossible for them to go out in person.

It was only three months, though. Kihyun couldn't wait three months?

Minhyuk remembers everything about his last video call with Kihyun, and how he had been the one to call in the middle of the night, because Kihyun was supposed to call him but didn't. The pink haired male had said that he was very busy with homework, but Minhyuk could keep the video open if he wanted. He did. Back then, he had wanted to watch Kihyun, even if he was only studying.

Now, he wanted to kill him.

That last night of his trip, when he had his last video call, he painted a picture of Kihyun with his nose buried in a textbook. "I have a surprise for you when I come back," he said happily, unknowing of what was going to come. "I can't wait to see you again."

Kihyun only smiled.

When Minhyuk got off the plane after his twelve hour flight from France to Korea, there was no one to greet him at the airport. However, his dorm room was quite full, he realized, when he unlocked the door to find Kihyun and a blonde student lying on a bed. "I'm back," he said tiredly. "Who's this?"

Kihyun opened his mouth to speak, but the blonde man beat him to it. "Shin Hoseok. Kihyun's boyfriend."

"Your what?" Minhyuk shrieked, marching the few steps across their dorm to where Kihyun stood. "Did he just say—"

"That's my boyfriend," Kihyun said with a nod. "Shin Hoseok, meet my roommate Minhyuk."

The brunette gasped. "Roommate? Roommate, is that all I am now?" He hiccuped as tears streamed down his cheeks. His head was pounding from exhaustion and anger. "Was I always just a roommate to you?"

"Good boyfriends don't leave their boyfriends alone in their dorm for three months."

"I was studying!" Minhyuk's voice cracked as he yelled. "You're acting like I was partying for three months." He looked at the blonde man sitting on the bed in shock. "How long has he been in here?"

Kihyun didn't answer.

Hoseok spoke up. "I didn't know about this."

"Leave."

Kihyun whipped around to face Hoseok. "Stay." The man looked around nervously.

"Did you ing just—"

"How about you leave, Minhyuk? You've been gone long enough."

The brunette gasped and wiped at the tears on his cheeks. "Yoo Kihyun, you are a bastard. A ing bastard. You'd rather have this over me—"

"Don't talk about him like that," Kihyun scowled. "Hoseok had nothing to do with this. It's your own fault."

Minhyuk swallowed a lump in his throats and pushed his way towards his desk, where sketchbooks and paintings were still where he left them on his shelves. He piled them up neatly and worked on fitting them inside his portfolio. None of them said a word as he packed up his things to leave. Thankfully for him, all of his clothes was still packed away in his suitcase, along with his art supplies. With his messenger bag and portfolio in one arm and his suitcase in the other, he nodded goodbye and left. As he walked down the hall, he could hear screaming coming from his former room.

He hated everything.



So there he was, sitting in the room of a nearby hotel. He rented it out for the night until he could find someone to stay with. He considered asking Son Juyeon, a girl in the GSA club that he was somewhat close to. She was the only person he could still call his friend.

Everything will be okay, he told himself as he sat amidst torn drawings, ripped canvases, and crumpled tissues. Everything will be okay.

Before he went to sleep in the saggy hotel bed, he opened his messages and sent one to Juyeon:

im back and i need help.



The next morning, he woke up on time for his classes (probably because he had barely slept the night before). His head was still throbbing, so he took a few pills that were in his backpack. He made instant coffee with the complimentary Folger's packets near the sink in the room. It tasted stale, but it was better than nothing.

Before leaving to go to his classes, he stuffed the small hotel toiletries into his bag. He wasn't coming back, and he could only hope that Juyeon would let him into her room. He called her a few times, but she never picked up. Probably at work, he concluded. If worse came to worse, he could always ask that tired boy that sat near him in ceramics.

Minhyuk payed for his stay at the front desk and walked to school, all of his belongings in tow. He prayed that Professor Ahn, his first teacher that day, would let him leave his things in the back of his classroom so he didn't need to carry them around all day.

The college was not too far from the hotel, which was very convenient for Minhyuk. He only had to lug his things around for fifteen minutes before finally reaching the campus.

"Minhyukkie! Wait!"

Minhyuk turned at the sound of his name being called and smiled at the girl running towards him.

"I saw your message a little while ago. Did something happen?"

Minhyuk nodded sadly. "I'll tell you later, Juyeon, because I really don't want to walk into my first class crying. Do you think it’s okay if I stay in your dorm until I find an apartment or something?"

"Sure. I have two classes back to back today, so I won't be back till around twelve. I'll give you the keys." She reached into her bag and fished out a keychain. "Xiao will still be sleeping in there, so make sure she knows you're entering before you just barge in. It makes her uncomfortable." Xiao was a Chinese exchange student and a dancing major. She was always exhausted after a day of speaking a foreign language and rehearsing.

"Thank you so much. I owe you one."

"Damn right, you do." Juyeon flashed one last smile before running off to her first class.

He walked silently to Professor Ahn's room in the Fine Arts building. It was his art history class, and he was apparently quite early, seeing as there were no students in the room when he entered. "Welcome back, Mr. Lee," his professor said in his soft voice.

"Hello, Professor Ahn. It feels like I haven't seen you in three months. How have you been?"

The old man laughed. "Wonderful, thank you, although I'm even better now that you're here. And I'm guessing it's the same for you. It looks like you were so excited to come to my class that you never went to your room."

Minhyuk scowled, despite knowing that Professor was innocent. "Sir, I did go back to my room, but I've been kicked out."

"Oh, my apologies," Professor Ahn said, sounding genuinely sorry. "You'll find somewhere else to stay?"

Minhyuk nodded and looked away.

The old man smiled. "Minhyuk, don't look so depressed. You're in this classroom! There's nothing depressing about learning art history. Aren't you excited to learn about Dark Romanticism during the nineteenth century?"

Minhyuk laughed. "Sir, I don't know how Delacroix is going to cheer me up."

"Don't worry," Professor Ahn said with a wave of his hand. "We're not covering him this class. Today, it's mainly Gericault and Fuseli."

"Oh joy," Minhyuk said with a laugh.

The professor patted Minhyuk on the shoulder. "I'll let you get settled down now, Mr. Lee. You can put your things in the back of the room so they don't get in the way of traffic."

"Thank you, sir."

Professor Ahn had been right: there was nothing depressing in learning art history. Even Gericault and Fuseli made him smile (maybe because he sympathized with their morbid feelings) and he completely forgot about his worries. The only disappointing part was that it ended so quickly. An hour after he entered the classroom, he left and headed off to the girls' dorms.

He could only pray that no one stopped him on his way in with all of his belongings.

Once safely inside, he lugged his things down the hall to room number 67 and knocked quietly. "Xiao, it's Minhyuk. Are you up?" He heard the bed creak and waited a minute. "Xiao?"

"Huh?" came the muffled reply from inside the room.

"It's Minhyuk. Can I come in?"

"What? Yeah," she groaned.

Minhyuk smiled and fished the key out of his pocket. It was a good thing Juyeon gave it to him, since it didn't seem like Xiao was planning on getting out of bed any time soon. He opened the door to find the girl wrapped in a hoodie under a few blankets. "Can you breathe?"

Xiao mover her head around to get her sweatshirt away from and answered, "Barely. You staying for a while?" She pulled one hand out from under the covers and pointed to the bags being pulled into the room.

"Until they figure out I'm in here, yeah."

"Cool," she said drowsily. "What time is it, do you know?"

"9:20 sharp."

Xiao groaned and rolled over. "I know we haven't talked in like three months, Minhyukkie, but I'm so tired." She mumbled something in Chinese before drifting back to sleep.

Minhyuk sat on the floor between the two beds and leaned back on his bag. Hopefully, the girls could spare a pillow, or at least a blanket, but beggars can't be choosers. At least he had friends who were willing to take him in.

"Thank you," he said before falling asleep.

Minhyuk woke up to Juyeon standing near him, facing Xiao's bed. "Wake up, babe. You've been asleep all morning."

Xiao said something in Chinese.

"You know I don't understand you when you talk like that. Xǐng lái," she said in a thick accent.

"I want to sleep."

"Well, you already slept for a long time. You need to get up. We can get takeout and share with Minhyuk."

Xiao groaned. "How long is he going to be here?"

"As long as he needs to, or until someone says he needs to leave. Is there a problem with that?"

"No. I love Minhyukkie. The only thing is, I'll have less time...with you."

Juyeon laughed. "We'll be sleeping in the same bed. Isn't that enough."

"Well..."

Minhyuk smiled. "Aren't you two cute?"

Juyeon whirled around and Xiao leaned over the bed. "Thank you very much, Mr. Nosy Pants."

"Wow. I'm so offended," he laughed. "Are we going to buy takeout?"

Juyeon nodded. "Yeah. Probably chicken. There's this place Xiao really likes, and the prices are low."

"Sounds like a plan. Um...I have no money because I spent it all on my hotel stay, but I brought back these mini shampoos. Really nice stuff, actually." The girls watched in disgust as he pulled out the miniature hotel shampoos. "And some soap, too."

"Thanks, Minhyukkie," Xiao said. He knew very well that they probably had their own special shampoos, but who knew when there was an emergency.

"Great. So after I order everything, do you want to tell us why you're here?"

Minhyuk nodded. After listening to Juyeon ordering three different kinds of chicken, he took a deep breath.

"You don't need to say anything if you don't want to."

"I'm fine," said Minhyuk, shaking his head. "I guess the bottom line is I can't go back into that dorm ever again because it's not mine anymore. Kihyun's not mine anymore."

The two girls' mouths dropped.

"Yeah. Everything was going fine, I thought, since I would video call him every night while I was in France. He always said he was busy with homework, so half the time we called it was pretty quiet and I just practiced drawing him. I drew him so many times, God. I could probably draw him in my sleep. I was going to give them all to him as a gift when I got back. I'd always paint him or sketch him, then give the pieces to him as a gift." He pursed his lips, images of the canvases and papers tearing apart has he destroyed them. "Anyways, he didn't come to pick me up at the airport, which I can understand because he doesn't have a car. But he didn't send me a message either. I just figured he was asleep or busy with some class.

"Well, I walk into the room and he's sitting on his bed with some blonde guy. Shin Hoseok. The guy introduced himself as Kihyun's boyfriend. He didn't even know about me. Kihyun completely lied to me and Hoseok. I don't know how long they'd been together, but it must not have been for more than those three months that I was gone. I can't believe that Kihyun picked up a new guy the day I left, though. It had to be at least one month into the semester, don't you think? But it was only three months. He couldn't wait three goddamn months for me to come back?" His face started to heat up and the tears fell. He turned away embarrassedly and wiped his cheeks.

"I dedicated everything to him," he hiccuped through his tears. "He was my muse. He was literally everything. A roommate: that's all he called me when he was introducing me to his boyfriend. I was probably nothing more than a roommate, his toy, this whole time."

"Minhyukkie," Xiao said, crawling out of bed to give him a hug. "It's terrible, but it's best that you found out before things got too out of hand. You obviously deserve more than him, that disgusting—" She paused, probably unable to think of the right word. "You'll find someone better really soon. I know it."

"I loved him," Minhyuk howled, clinging onto Xiao's sweatshirt.

"I know. It's going to hurt. Just get it all out."

Minhyuk forgot about any last bit of pride he had and bawled his eyes out. He knew he was getting Xiao's sweatshirt wet with his tears, but it didn't matter. He knew that she wouldn't mind too much. He felt a hand rub circles on his back.

When the tears had finally stopped falling, he sniffed. "Your s are in my face."

"Okay, you can get off her now," Juyeon demanded.

"Jeez, don't worry. It's not like I'm gonna steal your girl. I don't even like girls."

"Damn right you're not gonna steal my girl." She sighed, then pointed to the wet spot on Xiao's chest. "Those are all your tears, you looser."

"There's about a gallon of tears on my sweatshirt."

"I'm sorry," Minhyuk frowned.

"It's okay, baby boy. You can cry whenever you want."

He smiled. "I feel like you guys are making fun of me."

"Just a little bit," Juyeon said. "But don't worry. We take everything you say seriously, and we know how much this is hurting you."

They sat in comfortable silence before Juyeon hissed and jumped to her feet. "Shoot. I have to run downstairs for the chicken guy." She ran out the door wearing nothing but socks on her feet, leaving Xiao with her face in her hands.

"She's so dumb."

"Yeah, but she's getting us chicken."

"True. I guess she's good for some things."

"Come on, you love her."

Xiao's cheeks were flushed red as she smiled.

The very loved Juyeon came back five minutes later with a container of chicken wings. They ate and talked happily until Minhyuk freaked out over the fact that he had a class starting in fifteen minutes. "I gotta run," he said, pulling on his coat and slipping on a pair of sneakers.

It was a good thing that the dorms were close to the visual art building. He ran into the room just on time.

“Minhyuk! It's so good to see you back here. Class wasn't the same without you,” said Miss Yoon.

“Aw, thanks I missed you, too.”

The woman smiled and asked him about his semester in France. Students were walking in, and class probably should have started, but Miss Yoon continued talking. “Oh, by the way, you missed a pretty important lesson. If it wasn't so important to what we are doing right now, I wouldn't make you do it. It's just figure drawings, though.”

Minhyuk sighed. Anything else would have been fine, but now he had to sit alone in a room with a model. “Are you sure I need to? We've already covered figures in the past.”

Miss Yoon shook her head. “You still need to do them. Don't worry; there aren't too many to do. It's just three well-done fifteen minute sketches. You can do them all at once with the model we used.” She wrote some information on an index card and handed it to the student in front of her. .

Minhyuk looked at the card. It read: Son Hyunwoo. With the campus swim club after 3 every day. “Thank you, Miss Yoon,” he said with a forced smile, then went to go sit down.

After his three long class, he started on his walk to the Student Recreation Center to find Son Hyunwoo. “He's probably going to be so annoyed,” he thought aloud. Assuming that he's still in the building… It was almost five, and he wasn't quite sure about the other student’s schedule. He would just have to check for himself.

Minhyuk was not quite familiar with the recreation center. He had never been into sports or exercising, so he never had a need to go into the building. However, the minute he walked in, he wished that he had discovered it earlier. Light from the windows shown on the rows of clean workout machines. Students were lifting weights, doing push-ups, and running on the treadmills. He walked over to a girl lifting dumbbells. “Excuse me? Where’s the pool?”

“Third floor,” she answered. “The swim club’s using it right now, so it's probably crowded.”

“That's perfect. Thank you!” Minhyuk ran up the stairs to the third floor and was immediately met with the smell of chlorine. The lanes were filled with graceful swimmers speeding back and forth. A few were standing off to the side, chatting while they waited.

“Excuse me,” Minhyuk said timidly. He wasn't normally a shy person, but a room full of barely clothed men was enough to make him flustered.

One guy turned towards him and smiled. “Hey there.”

“I–um, do you know Son Hyunwoo?”

The guy nodded. “Lane four. I think he's going to be finishing up pretty soon.”

“Thank you,” Minhyuk said before turning away. He stood off to the side for a while, eyes on the swimmer in lane four. It was hard to tell how he looked, but Minhyuk was sure that he had broad shoulders and visible muscles, just like every other man on the floor (except Minhyuk).

One minute seemed like eternity. Finally, Hyunwoo pulled himself out of the pool. Minhyuk had to consciously keep his mouth closed. Hyunwoo was stunning, to say the least. No one would know it, considering Minhyuk’s past partners, but he had a thing for tan guys and thick muscles. Oh god.

Minhyuk gathered the courage to walk over and say hello. Hyunwoo was in the middle of pulling off his goggles. “Hey.”

“Um...you're Son Hyunwoo, right?” How could someone look so good with a swim cap?

The man smiled, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “That's me. You are—?”

He focused on the wall behind Hyunwoo before answering. “Lee Minhyuk. Art student. I wasn't in class for our figure drawings course, and my teacher asked me to come to you.”

Hyunwoo nodded. “I remember that. It was two months ago, though.”

“Yeah. I was in France last semester.”

“That's cool. Was it fun?” Minhyuk nodded. “Are you going to draw me like one of your French girls?” Hyunwoo laughed. It was cute, the way the sound seemed to rumble up from deep inside his chest. He calmed down very quickly (almost too quickly) and Minhyuk wished he could hear it again.

“I–I didn't draw any French girls. That's why I need to draw you.”

Hyunwoo exhaled through his nose and nodded his head, obviously not over his joke. He's so disgustingly cute, Minhyuk thought. “Right, right. I'm free right now. We can head over to my dorm, if it's okay with you. That way your paper won't get wet.”

Minhyuk’s face instantly turned red. He was going to be all alone in a room with this deliciously handsome man while staring at his body for fifteen minutes at a time. How would he survive?

“Um, unless it makes you uncomfortable…”

“No! No, actually right now is fine. It's great, actually,” he said nervously.

“Cool. I need to dry off and get into my clothes first. You can come to the locker room or wait here, either way is fine.”

Minhyuk’s eyes widened. “I'll go to the locker room, I guess.”

He followed Hyunwoo through a door to the left of the pools. The room smelled like sweat and chlorine. Yellow duffel bags were strewn across the floor. He followed Hyunwoo through the locker room to the showers, then sat on a bench to wait.

He pulled out his phone and sent a message to Juyeon:

guess what? im gonna go draw a hot guy. won't be home for a while hopefully

It took her two minutes to respond with a voice message saying, “Go get ’im, champ.”

Hyunwoo didn't take long showers, it seemed, because five minutes later he was already walking towards Minhyuk, fully dressed. (And it was safe to say, he looked just as handsome dressed as he did undressed.)

“Ready?” Hyunwoo asked. His voice sounded pleasant, but his face was quite emotionless.

“Yup.”

They walked in silence to the student dorms. The entire way there, Minhyuk had to remind himself that he was only going to draw. It wouldn't be painful.

It turned out that Hyunwoo's dorm was extremely neat—almost too neat. It looked as if there wasn't a college student with loads of textbooks and binders and papers to be thrown across the desk. The only evidence that someone actually lived there was the water bottle on the table near the bed.

Hyunwoo put his duffel bag at the foot of his bed. "Tell me what to do," he said while pulling off his shirt.

Minhyuk had to take a deep breath because, damn, Hyunwoo really didn't know how hot he was. "You can do whatever you remember standing up. A–and please leave your underwear on!" he yelped before Hyunwoo could tear away the last of his sanity.

"Oh." He said it in such a serious voice. "When I posed for the art class, I didn't wear anything."

"Yeah, it's just personal preference." (The truth was, Minhyuk would have preferred to draw a completely model, but it wasn't going to happen with Hyunwoo.)

Hyunwoo shifted his weight to one foot and put both of his hands behind his head. He was looking off to the side, showing off a gorgeous profile. Minhyuk's hands were shaking as he pulled out his phone to set a timer. "Fifteen minutes starts...now." He grabbed a piece of charcoal from his box and started blocking in the figure. You're drawing. This is art. You don't mess up with art. You can do this, he mentally cheered.

Everything in front of you is just a model, something you need to draw. It's not a person you need to get with. It's not a person you love.

He managed to break the piece of charcoal, something he hadn't done since he learned to loosen his grip. Hyunwoo was straining to look out of the corner of his eyes at the artist. "Just broke my charcoal, don't worry." Hyunwoo's head bobbed once in a nod, then he went back to being perfectly still.

Fifteen minutes passed with no further mistakes or interruptions. Hyunwoo's body relaxed and Minhyuk finally built up the courage to look him in the eye and smile. "That wasn't too hard," he said, mostly for himself.

Hyunwoo nodded. "What do you—"

They were interrupted by someone entering the dorm room. Blonde hair, obnoxious blue bangs. The student’s eyes widened.  “Minhyuk? I—I didn't get to tell you this but I'm so sorry. I really feel terrible about...that.”

Minhyuk swallowed a lump in his throat and managed to say, “It’s okay.”

“What's going on?”

Hoseok cautiously looked at Minhyuk, who almost immediately felt hot tears roll down his cheeks. “I–I should get going now.” He wiped at the drops on his cheeks as he packed his art supplies. “I’ll come another time, Hyunwoo.”

For someone who didn't show emotion very often, Hyunwoo looked quite confused as he watched Minhyuk pack his things and hurry out of the room.

"Why back so soon?" Juyeon asked when Minhyuk came through the door scowling.

"His roommate is the guy that was on Kihyun's bed. I couldn't stay."

Xiao, who was under the covers of her bed, beckoned him over. "Minhyukkie, it's okay." He sat on the edge of her bed. “What did he say?”

He picked at his cuticles. “He didn't say anything wrong. He said sorry, and that he felt terrible. I believe that he felt bad, and I know it's not his fault, but I really don't want to look at him.”

Xiao grabbed his right hand. “Don't do that to your fingers. And don't worry. I'm sure he knows that your relationship is uncomfortable. As long as you didn't say anything bad, it'll all be fine.”

“Right. I just...can't get over him. Why couldn't he wait for me to come back? He didn't even love me. I guess—as much as I wish I was still with him and all—it's better that I could get him out of my life.” He took a deep breath. “I need to write a report now.”

Juyeon slapped his back. “You do that, buddy. Get your mind off of things.” He nodded and unpacked his laptop. “By the way, that bed is yours. The sheets haven't been washed since I slept there, but beggars can't be choosers.”

Minhyuk laughed. “Thank you so much. I owe you one, especially since you're letting me use a bed.”

“Eh, it's not that much of a sacrifice,” she joked, flopping onto Xiao’s bed. “But still, if you want to repay me, I take gifts in cash and candy.” Xiao loudly slapped her arm.

“I’ll see what I can do.”

Minhyuk wasn't looking forward to doing more gesture drawings, but Miss Yoon was getting impatient. It had already been a week, and she couldn't understand how her most talented student was taking so long to turn in fifteen minute sketches. Everyday she asked him if he had found Hyunwoo, and he replied that he did (but he didn't know how to explain that he couldn't go into his dorm because of his roommate). However, he really needed to finish those two sketches.

At three o'clock sharp, he was marching across campus to the Student Recreation Center to find Son Hyunwoo. Again. He was going to finish his last two sketches, then he would never have to see Hyunwoo or his roommate in the future.

Well, seeing Hyunwoo every now and then wouldn't be too bad.

Inside the building, he trudged up the stairs to the third floor. He scanned the swimming pool for Hyunwoo, who was in lane four, just like last time. Minhyuk had no idea what he was doing, but he sure looked wonderful. Hyunwoo was a natural in the water.

He sat on a bench positioned against the far wall of the swim area. It wasn't too wet, thankfully.  He took out his sketchbook and a pen and roughly scribbled out the shapes of the swimmers as they glided through the water. Long, sleek lines for their arms and backs. Some detailed sketches of their muscles, for the ones who swam back and forth a few times. Even the flirtatious smirk of the guy in lane eight. Everything he saw went in his sketchbook as he waited for Hyunwoo. The whole page was filled by the time Hyunwoo pulled himself out of the pool.

Minhyuk peered over the top of his sketchbook to watch him. Hyunwoo pulled his goggles off and shook the water droplets out of his eyes. He didn't seem to notice Minhyuk sitting on the bench, because he walked into the changing rooms without sending a glance in his direction.

Minhyuk packed his things and headed outside to wait for Hyunwoo. The weather had been getting colder and it was freezing outside. He pulled his jacket closer around his body and waited.

Thankfully, Hyunwoo exited the building before Minhyuk could freeze to death. “Minhyuk? What are you doing here?”

“Waiting for you,” he stated. “I need to finish my sketches and you're the only model I know.”

Hyunwoo’s plump lips stretched into a gentle smile. “Let's get going, then.”

They walked quickly to the dorms. The whole way there, Minhyuk told Hyunwoo random things, like how his day went, or his favorite movie. “You should go see it sometime. It's still in theaters.”

Hyunwoo didn't sound at all annoyed from Minhyuk’s babbling when he said, “I should. Maybe you could take me.”

Minhyuk almost stopped in his tracks, but shook any hopeful thoughts out of his head. “That sounds great. You could be my model and my movie buddy,” he joked to cover up his embarrassment. Hyunwoo gave that sweet laugh, and Minhyuk felt the vibrations go straight up his spine. He chose to ignore the heavy thumping in his chest and walked along in silence.

When they reach Hyunwoo’s room, it was empty, thankfully. Minhyuk set his things on the floor and began unpacking his supplies.

“Minhyuk, do you want tea or something?” Hyunwoo asked, something in his voice sounding a bit timid. “We have a microwave…”

“I'm fine, though if you want something, I sure can wait. You went out in the cold after being in the pool. You must be frozen.”

Hyunwoo shook his head. “I'm okay, don't worry about it.” He slapped his hands on his legs awkwardly before saying, “Should I take off my clothes now?”

Minhyuk’s head instantly shot up and he on his lower lip. “I just need to ask, do you know how insanely suggestive that sounds? Like, its not the first time you’ve said something like that, and I’m not sure if you’re just really innocent and don't get it or if you actually mean to sound—” His sentence trailed off as he watched Hyunwoo’s hand come up to rub the back of his neck. “Not complaining or anything,” Minhyuk said.

“Well, I feel embarrassed now.” Hyunwoo looked around awkwardly. “You sure you don’t want tea?”

“I’ll have tea if it makes you feel better,” Minhyuk said, a smirk growing on his face.

“It would make me feel better.” The other turns to a shelf where a few mismatched mugs are stacked. Minhyuk watched as he poured water from a gallon jug into each cup. It was nice to watch Hyunwoo make tea. Sadly, it took no longer than three or four minutes to make two mugs of tea.

Hyunwoo sat down on his bed and Minhyuk was still sitting on the desk chair. They sat drinking in peaceful silence before Hyunwoo cleared his throat. “Can I ask something?”

Minhyuk held his breath and nodded. He was prepared for the worst.

“Are—are you okay?”

“Excuse me?”

“Are you okay?” Hyunwoo repeated, not meeting the art student’s eyes. “Hoseok told me what happened. He’s beating himself up over it because he thinks you’re not doing well.”

Minhyuk’s eyes widened at that. “I am...fine. Tell Hoseok not to worry. It’s not him that I’m mad at. He said he didn't know; he was innocent.” He took a sip of his tea and left it at that.

However, Hyunwoo was not interested in ending the conversation there. “Are you sure you’re okay about...the whole thing? Do you want to talk about it?”

Minhyuk shook his head violently. Don’t break down, he told himself, but his body disobeyed. His bottom lip began to quiver as he held back his tears.

Hyunwoo’s mouth hung open. “Oh, god, I’m sorry! Minhyuk, please don’t cry.”

The other shook his head again as tears rolled down his cheeks. “I-I’m sorry!” he blubbered, not even sure if Hyunwoo could make out his words. Minhyuk heard the soft thuds of the other student’s feet coming towards him, and a tissue box was shoved under his nose.

“Don’t say sorry.”

Minhyuk took a tissue wiped at his eyes. “I really need to not cry so much. I’ve been crying over him e-every day.” He blew his nose loudly, not even ashamed anymore. He was too sad to be ashamed.

Hyunwoo sat on the floor in front of Minhyuk and looked up at his face. “I’m not good at talking.”

“Are you good at hugging? Because the only people I’ve gotten hugs from are girls and they feel different, but you don’t—woah!” Minhyuk yelped as Hyunwoo pulled him off of the desk chair and onto his lap. He wrapped his legs around Hyunwoo’s waist and his arms around his neck. His tears were getting all over the place, but the swimmer didn’t seem to care. He simply rubbed Minhyuk’s back as he cried.

Between the exhaustion that comes with crying and the gentle hand on his back, Minhyuk was struggling to stay awake. As much as he did not want to let go he dropped his arms and stood up from Hyunwoo’s lap. “Thank you,” he said, sitting in the desk chair again. “I apologize for taking up so much of your time.”

Hyunwoo raised an eyebrow. “No. I...actually needed a hug, too.” There was a long pause, but Minhyuk could tell that Hyunwoo was still trying to finish his thought. “It worked out well, I guess.”

“What exactly worked out well?”

“Um,” Hyunwoo scratched his head. “Me being your model and everything.”

“M-maybe you could be my model more often. Like, for a long time.”

Hyunwoo played with the edge of his pants. “That sounds like a good idea.”

(Minhyuk did not end up drawing that night, but Hyunwoo still took off his clothes.)