Jongdae was a patient person or so he believed himself to be. He was patient when his best friend Baekhyun was being overly dramatic claiming, that his lecturers formed a secret alliance against him to stop his genious, and spent two hours providing several “proves” and “facts” such as Mr. Lee and Mrs. Ahn quietly gigging to themselves when he greeted them (that had nothing to do with the fact that he had a piece of clothing glued to his forehead, of course not). He was patient when Chanyeol kept on babbling about Baekhyun’s perfect voice and sinful hips (Chanyeol’s words, not his). He even was patient when his idiots of best friends spent 5 years pinning after each other until Sehun, his groupmate and Baekhyun’s brother, locked the lovesick idiots in his bedroom and promised not to let them out until they sorted their “pathetic crush” out. He suffered through this with his typical cat-smile and caring attitude, because that was what everyone knew him as- the caring guy with a cat-smile.

However, a certain duo was unconsciously trying to bring out a side of Jongdae even he didn’t know of. The certain duo being the senior year student Luhan and a guy, whose face he didn’t see.

He was sitting in the library. It was the finals week so the library was filled with sleep deprived students and their unfinished assignments. Jongdae was now suffering trying to find more information about his research topic that was written in a language he understood. Studying music sounded fun, however, it was certainly far from it. Finding information about Irish folk music while studying in South Korea and having a 3-year-old child’s English vocabulary wasn’t exactly an easy task. So here he was, sitting in the very back of his university’s library chugging his third cup of coffee and trying to at least find a page’s worth of information before he had to try finding an English major and begging them for help.

Luck wasn’t on his side today, because even though he went to the very back of the library and tried to avoid the noise of others' soft murmurs, twenty minutes later 2 students came and sat right in front of his desk. One of the boys he recognized immediately. It was Luhan, his senior and more importantly his cousin Minseok’s boyfriend. Somehow Minseok never mentioned having a boyfriend even if the whole university knew about them. So Jongdea just pretended he had no idea since he knew how Minseok liked to keep things to himself. He usually just greeted Luhan like he would his seniors. Today he was free of that duty since Luhan didn’t seem to have noticed him. He was with a bit taller boy and was talking with his hands which he usually did when he got super excited because of a football match he won or a song he composed for their shared class.

Normally he wouldn’t mind nor pay attention to them, but it was the finals’ week and he had an unfinished and even unstarted 15-page research paper and they just kept on babbling loudly. At first he tried to ignore and put his headphones on, but even the loud music didn’t stop him from hearing Luhan’s anecdotes or the other guy’s quite irritating (and if he was being honest with himself- very cute) laugh. The conversation being in another language and his already consumed three cups of coffee only worsened his situation. His patience was wearing thin and he was going to burst at any sec…

"CAN YOU TWO JUST SHUT UP FOR A SECOND?!"

He really didn’t mean to be so rude especially to his dear cousin’s boyfriend, but he is a mere mortal and even Jongdae has limits. The two boys, on the other hand, looked astonished, to say the least. Luhan’s eyes nearly popped out of his eye sockets the way he was staring at Jongdae, obviously not being used to being shouted by the younger. The other guy had wide open and seemingly paled. Jongdae already wanted to apologize when Luhan spoke.

"The hell man? Don’t you have manners? Even if we were a bit loud, it’s no excuse to shout at us like that! Who do you think you are talking to? Honesty if I didn’t love Baozi that much I’d totally beat your for this. I can’t believe Mini has such a terrible cousin. Jesus…"

He shook his head at the younger and seemed to think about something for a moment before turning to the other guy and saying something in Chinese. Jongdae didn’t know Chinese but judging from the duo collecting their stuff he assumed Luhan suggested going somewhere else. The other guy just nodded and followed him suit. Jongdae sighed with relief before he saw Luhan marching back to his desk.

"Please don’t tell Baozi I told you that we are dating. He is kinda trying to keep it a secret." It was funny how frowning Luhan turned into a pouty baby in a few seconds. Minseok always had that kind of effect on him. It was kind of cute.

"Well, you didn’t even say anything about dating him, but I’ll keep that in mind," Jongdea couldn’t help but smirk after seeing how Luhan paled hearing this. The other guy called him and Jongdae was finally left alone in peace. This whole situation was awkward but at least Jongdae forgot about his paper for a few moments. Now all he had to do was to actually do the assignment, no biggy.

×××

Eventually, Jongdae was done with finals and could enjoy a few weeks of peace. He was walking to Mr. Lee’s cabinet to give his proposal for the music festival when he saw someone plastered on the coffee machine. When he came closer, he realized that he didn’t recognize the guy, which was weird since he knew everyone. He wasn’t a social butterfly like Baekhyun, but he was friendly enough to know everyone (or at least know their faces) in the music department. He definitely didn’t know him, he would remember. He was wearing an oversized yellow sweater with black jeans. His shoulders were wide and his hair seemed soft, the way it swayed every time the guy moved. For a few seconds all Jongdae could think was how good hugging this guy would feel. He thought he should at least see his face before having a crush on him. He was civilized like that.

"Can I help you with anything?"

The guy turned around quickly as if he was caught stealing from the coffee machine. Knowing their coffee machine it was probably the vice verse. The guy seemed to think for a moment so Jongdae used this time to study him. He was probably the most handsome guy he ever saw and Jongdae didn’t care how Baekhyun-like he sounded in his head. He had jet-back hair, hooded eyes and full lips. Jongdae wondered what those lips would taste like, probably strawberry or cotton cand…

"Oh you are the rude guy from the library!" exclaimed the taller guy. Well, there goes Jongdae’s hopes and dreams. Of course the hot guy he just met had to be Luhan’s friend at whom he shouted a week earlier. What even was Jongdae thinking? Of course it had come to bite him in the . The least he could do was to apologize and then go home to eat ice-cream and wallow in self-pity.

"Um… Sorry about that. It’s just…. Well, it was the finals’ week and I was really stressed and I didn’t sleep well for a week, and the day we kinda met, I was having a hard time doing an assignment and I already had 3 cups of coffee and coffee usually makes me jittery and Seok always tells me not to drink it but it’s the finals and I had to…" Jongdae knew he was rambling but he couldn’t stop himself, not when the cute/hot guy was looking intently at him farrowing his brows and pouting slightly. So cute.

"Okay, okay. I forgive you. Just please talk slower I’m not fluent in Korean yet. I didn’t understand half of the things you said," he smiled sheepishly. Jongdae thought he would die from all the butterflies in his stomach. No, Jongdae, concentrate, keep talking, we will deal with the butterflies when we get home. Don’t stare, answer him for ’s sake!

"Not fluent? You are a foreigner?"

"Yes, I’m Chinese. I transferred this semester. People usually notice it sooner."

Well I’d have noticed if your lips weren’t so damn distracting.

The guy chuckled. Wait, did he say it out loud?  . Jongdae wouldn’t mind being swallowed into the ground right now. At least there wouldn’t be cute guys who heard him talk about their lips like some creep.

"Um… I …well… I have to go to do ..um stuff…. With people, yeah I’ll see you, bye." So much for trying to help (flirt with) strangers. Jongdae is never talking to boys again. This was far too embarrassing, even for him. He nearly started to run when the taller guy stopped him by grabbing his wrist. Jongdae thought his head might snap with the speed he turned his head. The taller guy dropped his hand (much to Jongdae’s disappointment).

"Wait! I need help. The coffee machine swallowed my money but didn’t give me my coffee. I wouldn’t bother that much but I need my change plus I really need coffee to survive Music history." Jongdae could swear the Chinese guy’s smile could cure diseases. Wait, was that a dimple he was seeing? Damn, he was totally crushing on a complete stranger there was no going back now. Ah yes he must reply. Here we go.

"Ah, so that’s why you were cuddling with the coffee machine a few moments earlier," the guy's giggle was worth all the embarrassment Jongdae went through.

"Look, follow my steps if you want your money back. Firstly bow to the machine."

"Wait, what?" the cute guy looked so confused. He should have known better before asking for help from the best prankster of the university.

"Don’t you think machines deserve respect? This thing keeps hundreds of students and lecturers awake, they help us to study and achieve our dreams and goals, to make our parents proud. See, it’s people like you, people who don’t respect this holy machine that corrupt this fountain of energy. Bow to it so you can show how you much you respect the work it does for us and the rest of the humanity." Even Jongdae was surprised how serious he sounded. Poor boy was actually nodding and looked deep in thought. Playing pranks isn’t the best way to get a date but what if it actually works. It’s better that saying stuff about a stranger’s lips out loud. Yikes.

The taller guy finally seemed to make a decision and deeply bowed to the machine. He was the cutest thing Jongdae saw.

"The next step is to pet it. It works non-stop for us, it’s the least we can do."

The guy gently patted the machine and it took all of Jongdae’s willpower to not laugh out loud right there and then. Maybe he could spare the poor guy and actually help, after all he did want to at least make up for the crappy first meeting.

"And for the final step, you have to be very careful and follow my steps diligently. First put your right leg behind," bless his naïve heart, he was so concentrated on doing everything correctly, Jongdae nearly cooed, "then bring your leg to the front and just KICK THE OUT OF THIS OLD CAN."

The taller guy stopped mid-air with his right leg near the machine when he heard Jongdae and realized that he was pranked. His face immediately turned red and he started laughing loudly. Apparently he was one of those clapping-laughing people. Jongdae was so ed. He was torn between cooing and laughing so he did both. After the other guy calmed down a bit he hid his face with his hands (which were covered with sweater paws!!!) and muttered how embarrassed he was.

"I can’t actually believe you pranked me like this! I knew something was up when you said about coffee machines having emotions but you sounded so serious I though maybe you knew more than me," he said still softly giggling.

"Well it’s your fault. Shouldn’t have trusted the university’s main prankster."

"Is this how you treat newcomers? Such a shame."

It may be Jongdae’s quite vivid imagination but it seemed like maybe the other guy was flirting with him, at least his smirk and amused eyes suggested so. Maybe it was the way he talked with everyone, who knows. He didn’t even know the name of the guy. Speaking of which…

"By the way, what is your name? I need a name when I’ll tell all my groupmates how I managed to make an adult bow to a coffee machine and pat it."

"Oh my god, I’m never living that down, am I?"

"Not on my watch." Jongdae could add another thing to the list of facts he knew about the guy- he was easy to talk to.

"It’s Yixing, Zhang Yixing. You? After embarrassing myself like this I at least need to know the name of the cute guy who did this to me." Damn that smirk was doing things to Jongdae. Oh right, he asked for his name… wait… did the guy call him cute? Is his brain playing tricks on him? Jongdae’s mind blanked for a few moments before he forced himself to speak again.

"It’s cute… the name.. no wait. I mean you are cu…ugh … Jongdae." During the 24 years of his life his brain never let him down like this. He needed to have a talk with himself later.

"Your name is Ahn Jongdae?" the guy- no Yixing was smiling amusedly. At least one of them was enjoying his embarrassment.

"What? Where did that even…ah got it. No, my name is Kim Jongdae."

"Kim Jongdae? Nice. I’ll see you around Jongdae-ah." Yixing winked at him after taking his coffee and walking belatedly to his class since they both didn’t notice the bell going off 5 minutes ago.

"Yeah see you around, I guess, yeah."

That was… something. Somehow Jongdae didn’t mind making a complete fool of himself if it meant chatting with the dimpled boy once more.