ONE

kihyun sighed loudly, throwing his phone onto the bed as it's screen faded to black, the unknown stranger clearly not intending to send another message. pink spread across the top's of his cheeks shamelessly from the first message sent and he wished that it wasn't just hyungwon and hoseok pranking late at night again. his heart hoped but it was just a foolish thought, after all who would actually fall for someone like him anyway?

adjusting the glasses that rested dangerously on the tip of his nose,  the brunette glanced at the various photographs that were strewn across his desk's wooden surface. they had been his focus point for the last three and a half hours, trying to find any that fit in with the memo of the photography portfolio assignment due next week. but none of them fit in right, not being the needed jigsaw pieces to complete the picture. kihyun hated that he could feel that missing puzzle piece, it increased his longing. that longing only lead to more photographs and more disappointment as the piece continued to be missing.

when he started yawning and rubbing his eyes, the short male called it a night. he tucked away the few photos that had the right pieces, the rest placed in a mint-green box that sat at the corner of his desk. he'd bought the box two years back, when he first enrolled into the university. now all it held was his long collection of photos, no matter how blurry or how bad kihyun had messed up the shot, all of them were in that box. after brushing his teeth, he shuffled towards the bed and huddled under the covers. he fell asleep quickly, his mind conjuring up an impossible faces for the stranger with the sweet words.

he woke in a panic hours later, the tone his third alarm blaring by his head, signalling that kihyun had slept in by two hours. he didn't actually need to get up two hours ago though, since his vocal lessons still didn't start for another three hours even when he woke up late. he just preferred to get up so he could cook his roommates breakfast, one of them had the capability of burning water and the other rarely cooked. scrambling out of bed in his hurry, he was clumsy with his feet and the blankets tangled around his ankles sending the short male down to the floor swearing profanities.

with a few tugs, careful finger manoeuvres and serious threats to cut the blanket to shreds with scissors, his legs were free and the brunette started to get dressed since he didn't want to make his roommates wait for their breakfast any longer. fixing his grey beanie one last time, he put on his oversized black bomber jacket and head into the kitchen. he sighed thankfully when he didn't come face-to-face with flames although seeing the broad expanse of hyunwoo's back in front of the stove, knowing that minhyuk had to be wrapped in another of his backhugs since the taller male was the one who couldn't cook to save his life.

"morning guys" kihyun greeted tiredly, sitting down and thanking the fact that he was good at applying his makeup, hiding away the dark circles that showed he'd had another late night despite hyunwoo telling him to stop. "morning ki" minhyuk chirped back happily, turning around slighty and hyunwoo following to show that he was indeed behind his boyfriend's large frame. his blonde hair was still messy from sleep and mouth stretched into the brightest smile.

"and before you ask, i'm making breakfast because it clearly looked like you needed the sleep in. another late night?" minhyuk piped up and was kihyun groaned in response, his makeup skills unable to hide anything if the blonde had seen his bare face. "lost track of time, I was working on my portfolio last night" he replied and minhyuk made a noise in his throat, understanding since he was also an arts major, but rather into the paintings side than the photography side.

after breakfast, the three of them walked towards their universities main building was luckily wasn't far since their apartment complex was on the fringes of the grounds. hyunwoo had his arm slung across the top of minhyuk's shoulders, pressing the shorter into his side while kihyun trailed behind the pair. he was looking at the messages from last night again, although he shouldn't have since it was only fuelling his lonely heart's desires more. regardless, he was still going to kill hyungwon and his boyfriend if it was just those two pranking him last night. they'd done it enough times that it was a possibility.

resting on the front steps the group of three became four when the youngest, jooheon, was dropped off by his boyfriend moments later. gunhee was a trainee idol at one of the entertainment companies close by, so he could only drop his jooheon off in the mornings. he said his sleepy hellos, also sitting down and resting his head on kihyun' shoulder to wait for the last two of their group. four finally became six when hoseok walked up minutes later, piggy-backing his sleepy boyfriend who took longer to wake up then all of them combined.

"there you two are! i seriously thought you were going to skip classes again" minhyuk laughed and hoseok shook his head "nah, hyungwon's been told off for doing that too many times now". kihyun's heart continued to ache a little as he watched their group interact, adding in his opinions at times to let them know he was still paying attention partly. minhyuk had hyunwoo, hoseok had hyungwon, jooheon had gunhee but what did kihyun have? photography was the only thing he had besides friends, but that wasn't going to keep him happy when he was old and alone, probably ending up with seventy cats rather than a husband.

the first bell rung and kihyun sighed gratefully, singing was the one thing that could help soothe him right now. minhyuk waved everyone goodbye as he headed to his art class, jooheon and hyunwoo doing the same as the also headed to their own first classes. it left the brunette alone with hoseok and hyungwon, who also had vocal lessons with him.

the trio walked together slowly and the shortest of them contemplated asking them about the messages, the only thing holding him back was his heart with the stupid flimsy hope that maybe, just maybe there actually was a person interested in him. just as they reached the door, kihyun decided to ask anyway and turned towards hoseok.

"hoseok, did you and hyungwon decide to prank me last night?" he asked and watched the older boy stiffen up, red coating his cheeks and the tips of his ears. he chuckled almost nervously as he pushed open the door "what would make you say that?". kihyun was suspicious, something was off with the way he was reacting, usually he'd just laugh. instead he was blushing, playing with his fingers and refusing to make eye-contact with the younger. tugging a loose string of his shirt between his fingertips, kihyun calmly answered "i just got a message last night and i thought it might have been you and hyungwon again".

"we haven't pranked you in fore—kihyun, there's a flower on your table" hoseok started to speak, cutting off his own sentence with a little gasp as he pointed at the lone striped red-and-white flower that did indeed sit at the table where kihyun usually sat. kihyun picked up both the flower and the letter beneath it, admiring it's large curled outward petals and sweet scent. the letter thankfully wasn't in an envelope so the brunette merely unfolded it, his other hand gripping gently onto the stem of the amaryllis flower.

dear kihyun,

this flower is supposed to mean splendid beauty, but your beauty is far greater than merely splendid. no matter how many times i see you, my breath still gets caught in my throat and i have to remind myself how to breathe. if only i was as beautiful as you, maybe i would have a chance with you.

yours sincerely,
xx