wonwoo knows that he has two things to regret about, one is the fact that he skipped one of his important lectures, two is probably the idea of actually drinking the cup of coffee.

but maybe the second isn’t really considered as a regret, the coffee doesn’t taste entirely bad, it didn’t taste as bitter as before, only hints of saltiness remains in his tongue. to put it bluntly, it wouldn’t be considered as pleasant as well.

“so…?”

wonwoo doesn’t know for what his sharp intake of breath is for but it hit right on the roof of soft palate and before he could give comments, he’s choking on air. coughing quite disgracefully, he holds up a hand in the air as he tries to speak through his coughing fit.

“i think you put too much salt,” he says at last before exchanging a queer look with the other.

“what? no way!” the other argues, already moving and taking the cup from wonwoo’s hands.

the tips of fingers connecting with the back of wonwoo’s hands in short moment has wonwoo floating back into his reality. jeon wonwoo, the guy who wouldn’t even budge when someone accuses him of copying his assignment because he’s too lazy to argue and he is always sure that he has more evidence in his hand to show authorities that the work was indeed his to begin with, is here sitting with a complete stranger discussing and experimenting on coffee with salt.

weird.

wonwoo observes the other’s nose scrunching up in displeased and turning over to look apologetically at him, “sorry, think i may have put too much, was supposed to be a pinch.”

wonwoo stares at him. his eyes twitching as he raises his index finger pointing at the half-emptied sachet of salt, “that does not look very ‘a-pinch’.”

all he receives is another sheepish smile, “so um,” he starts shyly, “i’m kim mingyu.”

“i didn’t ask,” wonwoo retorts.

“oh, i just—“

“i was just joking, i’m wonwoo,” he clears his throat, “jeon wonwoo.”

+++

days passed by quickly when you’re flooded with work and work and more work. so, it’s only common sense that wonwoo is making a trip down the street again, eyes searching for sweet blessings to clench his stress over the weeks. normally, he would’ve gone on the frozen yogurt down the street but just out of the corner of his eyes, a height that caught his attention has his heartbeat pulsating and his feet stopping in tracks.

“what the ,” jeonghan curses as he runs into wonwoo’s back abruptly. his eyes following the direction of wonwoo’s.

they’re both looking at mingyu now across the street with a group of people. mingyu is wearing a plain white t-shirt with black jeans, simple and yet he stood out in the crowd, hair combed back today so wonwoo could take a good look on his face. and wonwoo must confess, mingyu certainly looks stunning.

“what are you,” jeonghan asks, “fawning over a boy who doesn’t even know your name?”

“what boy?” seungkwan pipes in, eyes squinting in the direction as well, “which one guys?” he asks; hands on wonwoo’s shoulder.

with three boys standing and staring daggers in a direction can raise many questions, but people would disregard it, weird things tend to happen every now and then anyway, a common trend.

though not weird to anyone but enough for mingyu to raise his eyesight to meet wonwoo. he smiles broadly, teeth blaring out reacting like the situation was a miracle. but when wonwoo wouldn’t budge, eyes stuck  on him, mind left somewhere deep in the cup of coffee they shared, mingyu does a double-take, looking behind him like an idiot (a cute one, wonwoo remarks) thinking if wonwoo was staring at something else behind him.

he looks back again and this time acknowledging jeonghan and seungkwan’s presence, he mouths a silent ‘yes?’

and wonwoo visibly gulps. he’d only talked to mingyu that one time in the fast food restaurant, they never exchange numbers, they haven’t exchange any form of greeting, hell he hasn’t even seen mingyu once since that ‘bad’ day. so why is he getting butterflies in his stomach.

“dude, he wants the tall one in his pants,” seungkwan remarks, earning a snicker from jeonghan.

the comment makes its way into wonwoo’s system, snapping himself out of his trance as he turns around to look at seungkwan, glaring his life down every second before storming away half-angrily and half in awe.

“yeah ditch us!” jeonghan yells behind, but follows wonwoo anyway.

“i’m not,” wonwoo stops in mid-sentence, turning around, his eyes falling on mingyu again, “ditching!” mingyu once again directs his gaze at wonwoo, this time wonwoo smiles back.

wonwoo makes a mental note that mingyu has quite a lot of friends and considering the fact that he was nearly swamped by girls around him, he must be well-liked.

+++

two days later, wonwoo is battling against his own denial.

he settles with i don’t like him, i just have a good feeling about him.

but of course, his friends never shut up about mingyu ever since.

they’re sitting by the cafeteria table, it’s three in the afternoon so the cafeteria is rather empty and quiet enough for wonwoo’s liking.

“look, i’m not in love okay,” wonwoo sighs exasperatedly for the fifth time while stabbing the last piece of pancake.

“you shouldn’t put your hopes up, he doesn’t even know your name,” jeonghan comments thoughtfully and he does this twirl with his fork in the air.

“he does know my name…”

“so, you’re saying that you’re in loove with him?” seungkwan chimes, dragging the o.

“i—“

“i saw your blush!!!”

wonwoo could only roll his eyes. he decides that he should just let it slide. until seungkwan speaks again, “well you can see him in jeonghan’s art class.”

“what?” jeonghan and wonwoo asks in unison. both eyeing one another. “he’s in this school?”

“wow, you guys are dumb as hell… he’s an art major student, pretty damn famous, everybody likes him,” seungkwan answers then taking a deep breath and he made a motion as if he’s flipping through his book of stalking evidences, peers up from his non-existent glasses, “kim mingyu right?”

wonwoo nods blankly, “yeah, so…”

“yeah, there’s no mistaking, even some people from my film and media classes know about him, well you’ve got to admit that he’s got looks and stuff, like i’m saying if i curve that way, i would curve his way and i’ve also heard him had dates with girls and stuff so—“

“hello wonwoo.”

wonwoo nearly spits at seungkwan at the sight of the person behind him. both said friends turn around raising their heads only to see a tall, attractive mingyu. mingyu doesn’t falter, he held his stance, undisturbed by the rude stares as he nods in acknowledgement, “hello wonwoo’s friends.”

“are you sure he’s in my art class?” jeonghan asks again as if mingyu isn’t standing right in front.

“i am, i sit behind you though, well you always take the front seat,” mingyu says casually, smiling again. he looks over to wonwoo expectantly, like he’s waiting for a reply.

“uh… hi,” wonwoo says softly. “so… is there something you want from me?”

mingyu, for a second, looks like he’s thinking hard, “well, no, i just thought i wanted to say hello.”

“oh,” the three friends say together.

mingyu quirks an eyebrow, “am i missing something here?” he laughs nervously.

“well—“ seungkwan starts before wonwoo raises his voice abruptly, “nothing! w-we uh… we just didn’t expect to see you here, i mean it’s a rare sight to see you around because yeah, we totally weren’t talking abo—“

“wonwoo, just shut up,” jeonghan hisses.

and wonwoo does, it’s then he realizes he hasn’t been breathing well, and damn, why is his heart beating so quickly. none of them spoke then, just sharing glances with each other awkwardly.

then mingyu shrugs putting two of his hands in the pockets of his jeans, a small smile emerging on his vibrant face again, “well, i guess i’ll leave now…” he says slowly and pretends to turn around to look at the wall clock.

wonwoo gulps, he wants to say something, but his chest is leaping and his stomach hurts.

“i’ll see you around then, wonwoo,” mingyu declares later.

“y-yeah, see you around too wonwoo,” wonwoo replies and before he could realize he just called his own name and looked like a complete idiot, mingyu’s already chuckling. “i meant to well, i didn’t, you, i meant to say mingyu.”

wonwoo is honestly trying hard to hold his composure but all these stuttering isn’t helping and the grins from his friends are definitely not helpful.

“yeah, bye,” mingyu manages before waving and turning around, striding and disappearing from wonwoo’s eyesight.

“look, i’m not in love okay,” seungkwan mocks.

“shut the f—‘

“i-i-i meant to say mingyu,” jeonghan mocks, voice in a higher pitch than usual.

“i do not sound like that.”

“have you seen yourself? people would’ve thought you peed in your pants. nice try in lying, but try harder,” jeonghan smirks and it makes seungkwan laugh harder than he’s supposed to; hands repeatedly slapping on jeonghan’s arms as his eyes turns into little crescents.

“disgusting,” wonwoo mumbles under his breath as he sets the his fork down, giving up on the last piece of pancake.

later, a little voice in wonwoo’s head admits that he’s quite very fond of mingyu.

+++

it also doesn’t help the fact that nowadays, mingyu seems to walk pass wonwoo more in the corridors, hallways, by the vending machine, basically around the campus. the event also intensifies the cooing, grinning and smug looks done by both his friends. wonwoo really is thankful for them, but in this moment, he wants to crush the both of them until their remains no longer exist in the surface of the earth.

he makes it to his morning lectures on time, sat in the class, doodling and taking notes. today’s nothing special, except that seungkwan and jeonghan both have a small test to sit for so that leaves wonwoo alone until late noon when they’ve decided to have dinner together before his night shift begins. he’s got plenty of some peaceful time alone now that seungkwan’s no longer saying unnecessary things or jeonghan giving smug looks to wonwoo whenever he spaces out.

by nine, wonwoo is walking towards the vending machine, praying that no pennies will go missing again.

he’s almost at the vending machine before he notices a familiar side profile by the said machine.

it’s not like wonwoo cares about his appearance a lot, but somehow his hands absentmindedly reached for his hair and straightened his shirt a little, clearing his throat as he walks forwards.

“hey,” he says trying to sound casual but unfortunately his voice cracks a little and he flushes a light pink because oh god oh god, is mingyu going to judge him, he clears his throat again “mingyu.”

mingyu turns to the side, almost beaming at wonwoo, “good morning,” he greets brightly.

and wonwoo notices two things, first is that he and mingyu are the complete opposites; he could definitely not greet someone that happily in the early morning, especially since it’s in the campus when he could be still fast asleep on his warm bed and not having to deal with people or assignments (seriously these two things need to have a term since they bring similar sufferings). the second is that mingyu was holding onto his phone and that its cover was decorated with little pandas.

“so, what are you up to wonwoo?”

wonwoo shudders at how his name rolled out of mingyu’s tongue, “buying packet juice,” he replies blankly.

mingyu chuckles, “which one i’ll get it for you still got some change in my purchase.”

he starts listing the name of the juices out while pointing cutely on the glass, wonwoo gets lost at the first juice’s name (probably is watermelon) because now he’s staring at mingyu’s fixation on the vending machine and he wonders what should he do next? should he just stand around and talk somemore? should he just pretend to have class? what if he becomes awkward again?

“so… which one do you want?”

he freezes on the spot and before his brain could think twice, “number 5,” earning a raised eyebrow from mingyu.

“i didn’t know people drink that,” he remarks, the machine makes a beeping sound as the packet of juice rolls away from its colony and falls on the collection with a thud, “well, now i know one person.”

wonwoo almost died when he felt mingyu’s hands on his hands. a warmth starts spreading across his cheeks and he prays to god for mingyu to not realize the slight tremble on the tips of his fingers as he placed the packet of juice in wonwoo’s palm.

their eyes meet again, first time standing and looking like they have a proper conversation, “um, thanks.”

“yeah, no worries,” mingyu replies benevolently, like it’s the most natural thing to offer packet of juice to someone at nine in the morning.

he looks at wonwoo expectantly again the same way he did back in the cafeteria and wonwoo thinks ok this must be the time for him to speak up, maybe he could ask something like when’s your next class or if he has enough guts he could ask to spend lunch together or even exchange numbers, but being wonwoo he gapes and says, “you’re a great person, i owe you.” and not to mention with his tight expression, he looks dead serious.

mingyu laughs, harder than necessary probably, “don’t say that so seriously, it was just a packet of juice.”

wonwoo smiles a little, he was still tense as hell but hearing mingyu’s laugh makes his heart churned and he felt light-headed but still managed a “i’m being honest.”

“yeah,” mingyu chuckles; shaking his head (cutely), “well i better get running to my class now.”

wonwoo sobers a little, he’d had hoped they could talk a little more. but he gave nod, the grip around the packet juice tightens in disappointment.

“i’ll see around then, wonwoo?”

it takes a while for him to realize that the taller does perhaps want to engage in a longer conversation with him the next time, at least that’s what the ‘see you around’ question seemed to be for wonwoo, so he cheers up a little and nods, smiling for the first time of the day, “yeah.”

mingyu grins back, and then before long he’s gone in the sea of people rushing around the campus.

it’s then, wonwoo takes a look at the packet of juice, the shape—a little disoriented by the squeezes, but thankfully it didn’t pop because that would’ve been embarrassing.

on the label, clear arial font words written in purple and bolded read “PRUNE JUICE”. wonwoo mentally slaps himself, he doesn’t even like prunes.

then his eyes would shift to his hands, that mingyu has held for a short while back then, he feels giddy again. before he could make any logical plans, he fishes his phone out and opens the chat room with the title “seungkwan is really cool” and types furiously.

so,

i just met mingyu.

we talked a little.

he bought me packet juice, held my hand for a while.

i mean nothing too physical you know just grabbed it for a bit.

and now i’m drinking prune juice.

(seungkwan)

what?????????

you don’t even like prunes???

(jeonghan)

love really makes us blind.

word count: 2608

i like the concept of shy wonwoo a lot /////// not a very informative chapter, but i just wanted to show the little progress made (and maybe i like writing about a flustered wonwoo and a smiling mingyu). honestly do people plan their work? like i literally only had the idea of salt and coffee and how the ending is going to pan out i literally do not have any plans of what the hell is going to happen in between. lmao ok. i’ll try to make every chapter with almost the same length and update frequently haha. thanks for reading!