Thud. Thud. Thud.

Damn. It.

Five minutes. Five entire minutes are spent attacking the vending machine that stole the last of his coins. Jihoon huffs exasperatedly, softly banging his head against the glass and miserably eyeing the bag of doritos just out of his reach.

He had been running late this morning, due to his severe need to complete his Harry Potter marathon all in one day (mostly due to Woojin, his roommate, and his unfortunate knack for persuading - which was, in actuality, more so threatening to spoil than it was actually making a good compelling argument) resulting in an empty lunch bag and hunger pains that were about to rip his stomach apart.

'Just one more' he told Woojin at about 11 in the evening, and then later decided (with the help of his roommate chanting 'fi-nish it! fi-nish it!' up against his ear) that there was no point in leaving the last movie for the next night and finished up part two of deathly hallows at almost four in the morning, leaving him with a crummy three hours of sleep, on a Monday of all days. Not the best way to start off his freshman year in university.

So here he is, in all of his puffy faced, wild-haired glory, yelling at a vending machine at the end of the (thankfully) vacant hallway.

"Listen here you stupid machine," he spits out wearily, index finger jabbing angrily at the bag of chips, "Those were the last of my coins and I haven't eaten a single thing today and I'm pretty sure my stomach is gonna eat me alive at any time now. So either you cooperate with me or I will run and grab a pipe to shatter you with. Just give me my damn. doritos."

Jihoon shakes the machine as vigorously as he can for someone who's running on little-to-no sleep, but the chips won't budge. He gives the machine one last kick before he steps away and throws his head back with a heavy sigh. There's still an hour and a half left until he could go home, and he shortly debates skipping class in order to satisfy his hunger, but then realizes it's probably a pretty bad idea to already fuel his laziness on the first day and dejectedly decides against it.

 

After a dreadful hour of Calculus and lack of a best friend (Jinyoung had skipped the first day of university, probably having been up all night skyping with Daehwi - his boyfriend who's still in America), it's finally the end of his first day back and Jihoon is practically running out of the school, thoughts focused solely on falling onto his bed immediately upon getting home and just dying for the rest of the night.

He waits at the bus stop impatiently among the crowd of students, constantly shifting his weight between both legs and fiddling with the straps of his backpack. His heart leaps when he sees the bus around the corner and moves to find his bus card and then realizes his wallet is not in his pocket, which means neither is his card. Jihoon searches frantically through his pockets and bag, hoping to find any possible leftover change but there's not a coin in sight. 

Just his luck.

He sighs heavily and zones out at the sky, dreading the thought of having to walk all the way home until he's being pushed by the impatient crowd of students wanting to get on the bus. He stops in front of the bus driver who's waiting for him to pay but all he can do is stare awkwardly. The next thing he knows, there's a voice near his right ear that's saying "for the both of us" and he scans his card twice, softly pushing Jihoon further into the bus towards the back.

Grabbing onto the pole for support, Jihoon stares back at the raven-haired boy who paid for his bus fare. He can’t get a clear look at the boy at first glance, but then he notices the earring on his right ear and he could recognize that purple star stud anywhere, considering he’d make a run for it every time anyone wearing anything even remotely similar to it was in his presence.

“Long time no see, hey?”

Jihoon wants to throw up. Out of all people to run into on a ty day like this, it had to be his ex.

Before Samuel can get another word in, Jihoon hops off of the bus from the back door as fast as he can. He feels a slight tinge of regret as he watches the bus roll away without him, realizing that his impulsive decision leaves him with no other option but to walk the rest of the way home.

Just think of it as some well needed exercise.

Anything was better than having to be face to face with Samuel again.

 

 

---

 

 

The door to the apartment bursts open and a worn-out Jihoon falls to the ground immediately upon arrival. Woojin jumps in surprise, pan of fried rice in hand but thankfully still in the pan and off of the floor.

"Dude, why do you look like you've just run to hell and back?"

Jihoon had met Woojin a year back, through Daehwi when he first moved to their high school a few months into their senior year, and they hit it off immediately. That wasn’t to say that they got along all the time, in fact, they were at each other’s throats most of the time, despite matching surprisingly well. They had the same lame humor and were both fluent in sarcasm.

Woojin had auditioned for the school’s dance crew as soon as he transferred. Jihoon was usually the competitive type, so when he learned that his new friend was going to try out for the team he didn’t know what to expect, but he didn’t expect that. Woojin was amazing to say the least, effortlessly switching between genres and commanding attention. Jihoon wondered bitterly how one could be so good at everything, and when he saw him flash his snaggletooth, he knew instantly that Woojin would soon become everyone’s favorite.

He wasn’t far from the truth - Woojin quickly became the talk of the school. Everyone was curious about the cute new guy who was an amazing dancer. But that was his title. He was supposed to be the cute dancer that everyone loved. Jihoon didn’t like to be upfrontly arrogant, but he definitely enjoyed when people praised him. So it was evident that he was less than amused when people started to admire Woojin over him. What made it even more irritating was that it wasn't even undeserving, he really was captivating, much to Jihoon’s detest to admitting defeat (and having to say nice things about Woojin, that rarely ever happens). 

He thinks it's still a mystery how they managed to stay friends (read: frenemies) through Jihoon’s ridiculous jealousy and Woojin’s constant know-it-all teasing. Woojin is a lot of things, a lot of annoying things Jihoon notes, but if there’s one good thing about him that he can admit to, is that he is one of the most loyal and supportive people he’s ever known. At the end of the day, after his severe need to insult Jihoon at least twenty times a day, he's undeniably one of the best friends a person could ever have.

JIhoon would never tell that to Woojin’s face though, that’s too much guard to let down and too big of an opportunity to get laughed at for being soft, and Jihoon doesn’t do soft.

Regardless of all of the pink he wears and the stuffed animals he hugs at night.

 

Jihoon rolls onto his back and kicks the door closed, still heaving from the wild walk home, which consisted of him accidentally knocking over an apple stand and being attacked by apples from behind by the woman who worked the stand, and then later running into a lady walking her dog who accidentally lett go of the leash, resulting in a lengthy and vigorous run for his life. He didn’t think Mondays could get any worse, but he’s proven wrong every single time.

“I had to… walk... home... today.” He wheezes out from his spot on the hardwood floor, belatedly lamenting the fact that they didn’t switch to carpet. He blames himself for placing aesthetic above comfort on his interior design hierarchy.

“Have you finally put your couch potato ways behind you?” Woojin snickers from the kitchen in his stupid apron and Jihoon wishes his fried rice would catch on fire and engulf his face.

Jihoon sighs and thinks back to that afternoon, and then remembers the last time he saw Samuel. The last time he even talked to him was when they broke up. It was two weeks before Christmas break, and if exams weren’t already stressful enough, that idiot just had to make it worse. Hardly focused on him? It was exam week, hell even Daehwi would ignore Jinyoung if he was under as much stress as he was, and that’s saying a lot. It took practically everything in him to work hard enough to make it into his university, he wasn’t going to throw his dreams away for a boy who never made him feel reassured. Leaving him was the best decision he had made for his future.

A pillow falls onto his face and takes him out of his angry flashbacks. He lets out a disgruntled sigh but makes no move to get up.

“Jihoon, will you get off of the floor and tell me what happened already?”

The said boy manages to muster up enough strength to pull himself back up onto his feet and into the kitchen, where Woojin is setting up the table for his meal for one. Jihoon doesn’t ask before grabbing a spoon and digging into the rice, much to Woojin’s dismay. Woojin whacks his hand away when he moves to spoon more.

“So, what caused you, a literal physical activity-anti, to walk home from school?” Jihoon sends a petulant glance across the table. Sure, he spent most of his days lazing around in bed, but he wasn’t that bad.

Ever since Jihoon stopped dancing, Woojin always finds a way to attack him on his lack of physical activity. But he couldn’t be a dancer forever, he had to decide between his hobby and doing well in school eventually, and school just happened to be the better choice for his future (and for his parents). He admittedly isn’t as amazing as Woojin is at balancing fun and work, after all, university is a pain in the .

“I bumped into my ex today..” Woojin looks up at him considerately. Jihoon never spoke much about Samuel to him, discussing anything that personal and serious isn’t exactly their thing, but he was there when he came to their group in tears about their break up, so Woojin knew as much as not to be insensitive when it came to this.

“Oh, what happened?”

“Um, he paid for my bus fare and I sort of ran off of the bus to avoid him, and I didn’t bring my wallet to school so I couldn’t get on another bus..”

Woojin is interrupted midway through chewing by laughter, until he starts to choke on his food and Jihoon doesn’t really feel like helping him. “How did you forget your wallet? Oh God, you’re stupid.”

Jihoon smacks the younger in the head with the first thing his hand reaches out for, which ends up being a tissue box.

“Ow!”

“You deserved it. Who’s fault is it that I got three hours of sleep and couldn’t function properly this morning?”

Woojin shrugs, a taunting smirk on his face, and Jihoon wonders how he managed put up with living with him for the past few months. 

“Hey it was your decision to stay up with me, you could have gone to sleep.”

“I hate you with every fiber of my being, you know that?” Woojin smiles triumphantly at the riled up Jihoon as he stuffs another spoonful of rice into his mouth.

“It’s what I live for.”

“Can you not live at all?”

 

---

 

 

It’s only half way through the week and Jihoon wonders who he has to pay (with his minimun wage salary) to be given time travelling powers. Needless to say, it’s been a pretty terrible week for him, having started it off with a poor sleeping schedule and a run in with someone he’d rather never see again.

He’s been jumpy all week, even going so far as to cover up with a hat and mask every time he goes to class. It’s a little ridiculous, he can admit to that, to have to go around like this is your own neighbourhood. Samuel's reappearance dragged things back out into the open that Jihoon only wishes could continue to stay in the dark. He isn't ready to face any of it.

“You din't have to wear the hat and mask today, you know. It makes you look sketchy.” Woojin calls out from his room as he buttons up his shirt. He insisted on them going out for coffee today and Jihoon wants to bail but he also can’t seem to ignore the white chocolate mocha frappuccino calling his name.

Jihoon rolls his eyes as he walks into his own room but tosses the mask back onto his bed, slipping on a black sweatshirt and tousling his hair a few times, deciding he looked decent enough. He walks back out into the living room where Woojin is checking his hair one too many times in the mirror. “Why are you so dressed up? This isn’t a date you don’t need to impress me.”

Woojin looks back at him over his shoulder with an annoyed glare, “I have an interview today, don’t flatter yourself.”

Oh right, Jihoon thinks. Woojin currently works at the university’s bookstore as a cashier, but he figures it isn’t enough to help pay the rent and tuition at the same time so he’s been looking for a better job. Jihoon's parents had helped him with the cost of the apartment when they first moved in, and he has had his job at the stationary store a block away from their apartment since high school since his aunt owns it and was willing to give him a job when he wanted to save up to continue paying for the rent on his own. It’s not much, but it’s something.

 

The two head out and Woojin drives them to the nearest Starbucks, spending the entire ride forcing Jihoon to ask him mock interview questions and yelling at him when he doesn’t take it seriously.

“So, Mr. Park, at what age did you realize that no one would ever marry you?”

Woojin pulls over shortly after and tells Jihoon to get out. They waste five minutes of Woojin trying to push Jihoon out the door and the older yelling “HELP THIS MAN IS TRYING TO KIDNAP ME!” out the window. Woojin has to assure the confused woman looking at them from the sidewalk that he isn’t a kidnapper and eventually gives up stranding Jihoon on the street in favor of not going to jail.

“I can’t ing believe you.” Woojin hisses at the laughing Jihoon who's clutching his stomach, gripping tightly onto the steering wheel and glancing worriedly at the woman in the rearview mirror, who thankfully seems to be uninterested in the mess that happened before her.

The two head for the door of the small Starbucks and Jihoon thinks that the day isn’t going so bad since at the very least he's getting his coffee fix, that is until they bump into an all too familiar face.

“Oh, hey Jihoon.” Samuel smiles at him and Jihoon’s face falls.

“Um, hi.”

“How’s it going? You kind of took off the last time we saw each other.” Samuel tries but Jihoon really isn’t in the mood for small talk with his ex-boyfriend. Or any kind of talk with him, really.

“Yeah, sorry. I remembered that I forgot something in my locker and ran back to get it.” He lies as he clenches his jaw, struggling to stop his eyes from rolling.

“Who’s this?”

Samuel gestures to a confused Woojin, whose presence Jihoon forgets about until he mentions him. The two weren’t acquainted since Samuel attended a different high school. Jihoon doesn’t answer for a while, glare still concentrated on the boy in front of him. Woojin nudges him to bring him out of his trance and Jihoon in a breath, grabbing Woojin’s arm and pulling him closer.

“This is Woojin, my boyfriend.”

What.

“Oh, I didn’t know you were dating.”

“Neither did I..” Jihoon elbows Woojin’s side to shut him up. Samuel extends a hand to which Woojin ignores, too occupied with glaring at the brunette clinging to his arm. The taller retreats his arm awkwardly and rubs the back of his neck. “Um, so how long has it been?”

Jihoon tears his eyes away from Woojin (who is currently still burning holes into him with his eyes) and looks back at Samuel with the fakest smile he can muster, “Oh just a few months, we got together in the summer.”

Samuel nods slowly, lips pursed into a thin line, “I see. Well, I was actually hoping I’d run into you. My friend Daniel is throwing a party on friday and told me to invite people, so you should come! And bring your,” Samuel gestures to Woojin with his hand, “boyfriend.”

“Um, we’ll think about it! Well, we uh, don’t wanna take up any more of your time, so see you around!” Jihoon rushes and drags Woojin along into the café, breathing in relief when Samuel is finally out of his sight.

“So, would you mind explaining to me why I’ve suddenly become your boyfriend?” Woojin turns around to face him when they find their place in line, crossing his arms as he lifts a questioning eyebrow.

“I’m sorry, okay! I panicked!”

“You could have said ‘friend’ or ‘roommate’, or even ‘enemy’ for that matter. Boyfriend??” Jihoon grabs his arm and leans in to shush him.

“Look, I didn’t mean to get you involved, I just couldn’t think properly, okay?”

Woojin sighs, “Fine, but for making look like a stupid gaping fish, you’re paying for my coffee.”

“Hey! It was a one time thing! It’s not like it’ll happen again.” Jihoon continues to tug on the younger’s arm but Woojin releases himself from his grasp and turns away.

“I’m gonna go find a table. My usual vanilla iced coffee, thanks.” Woojin disappears into the other side of the store, leaving behind a sulky Jihoon.

After (unfortunately) paying for both of their orders, Jihoon finds Woojin at a high table and shoves his iced coffee into his hands.

“Thanks for denting my wallet.”

“Thanks for making me your fake boyfriend.”

Jihoon sips his frappuccino angrily. Woojin had to play along for a mere two minutes and he didn’t even have to talk, he doesn’t understand why the younger is so grumpy about it. “I’m not even that bad! And you didn’t even have to do anything so why are you complaining?”

“What happens if it’s not a one time thing?”

“It won’t happen again, I promise. We barely go around together I doubt we’d bump into him again.”

“Alright..” Woojin dismisses reluctantly. He takes another sip of his coffee before pulling out a folder and handing it to Jihoon, “Now help me prepare for this interview, and for real this time.”

 

 

---

 

Friday couldn’t have come soon enough and Jihoon is racing out of his psychology class and to the library’s Starbucks for a well deserved (at least he thinks so) frappe. Woojin ends at the same time on Fridays, so they meet at the library when they finish. Woojin walks up to the older, who is happily grabbing his usual order from the counter.

“Someday I’m gonna make you a coffee budget because I swear, your obsession is going to be your downfall.” He looks at the venti cup Jihoon is holding and shakes his head.

Jihoon scrunches his nose - the way he always does whenever he’s annoyed - and pushes past Woojin, leading them out of the library. “I don’t need your judgement.”

They make their way across campus, complete with their usual arguments, this time over which sauce was better on pizza.

“You can never go wrong with original! What’s a pizza without tomato sauce?”

“I’m just saying it gets a little tiring. True intellectuals eat their pizza with barbecue sauce!”

“Okay but you’re the furthest thing from an intellectual so how is that supposed to be true?” Jihoon extends his foot in front of Woojin out of anger and the latter almost trips but, curse his reflexes, catches himself in time. The younger retaliates by slinging an arm over Jihoon and proceeding to put him into a headlock.

“Park Woojin, I swear to God if you make me drop my drink I will literally set fire to everything you love!” They continue to claw at each other, oblivious to the stares they were receiving from the passing students. Jihoon finally breaks out of Woojin’s chokehold and moves to grab of a fist of his hair. The fighting doesn’t stop until they bump into someone. The two look up, disheveled hair and all, and find a confused Samuel in front of them. Again.

“Oh, hey.” Jihoon lets go of Woojin’s hair and greets him, smoothing down his shirt with his free hand, his other still tightly grasping onto his drink.

Samuel looks the two over, “You two good?”

“Huh? Oh yeah, we do this all the time it isn’t serious.” Jihoon lets out an awkward laugh and reaches out a hand to fix the strands of hair falling onto Woojin’s eyes. Woojin scoffs lightly at the sudden change in his actions and the fact that he’s scarily good at it. He lets his hand fall onto Woojin’s arm after, softly gripping at his elbow.

“So are you coming to the party tonight?” Jihoon completely forgets about the invite, unsure of whether or not he should take him up on the offer, because that means having to drag Woojin there and pretending to be dating him in front of people he might know.

“Uh, we haven’t gotten to talk about that yet, actually. Are we?” Jihoon questions his fake boyfriend (emphasis on fake), sliding his hand down his arm and intertwining their fingers together.

Woojin’s eyes dart back and forth from Jihoon’s eyes to their hands, trying really hard not to be convinced by the older’s pleading eyes. “Uh, W-we’re not sure, we were actually planning to have a movie marathon tonight so-”

“Oh come on, it’ll be fun! Come for a bit.”

“Maybe if we feel like it we’ll stop by for a bit.” Jihoon finishes, desperately hoping for the conversation to be over. And if things couldn’t get any worse, a familiar voice sings out from behind Samuel.

“Hi friends~ Your favorite person is back!” Daehwi comes skipping towards them with a smile. As he gets closer his eyes narrow at the two across Samuel, and Jihoon follows his gaze down to his and Woojin’s hands, still interlocked. “Uh, what’s going on here-”

He releases his hand from Woojin’s now tight hold and makes a desperate attempt to communicate with Daehwi through his eyes. Daehwi finally seems to notice Samuel’s presence and Jihoon sees the light bulb go on in his head.

“Oh, hi Samuel.” Samuel waves back at the blonde.

“Well I should get going, but I hope you two can drop by later, see you guys.” Samuel jogs across the street, yelling out after a friend he finds walking nearby.

“So,” Daehwi turns back to the two, “are we still on for movie night? Or are you two going on a date?”

Woojin brings a hand to his forehead, groaning. Daehwi continues, ignoring the glares from both of them, “You know, I always knew there was some unresolved tension between you two. I just didn’t think you’d realize it all in the two weeks I was gone. To think I was planning a huge elaborate plan to get you two together but you guys did it on your own!”

“Shut up, Daehwi! It's fake, okay? And excuse me? Unresolved tension? I think you’re mistaking that for obvious hatred.” Jihoon looks Woojin over and scowls.

“The more you hate the more you love!” Daehwi sings as he bounds away from them, probably to find Jinyoung.

Woojin turns to him with a sour expression, and then musters up the most annoying high-pitched voice and face he can make, “It’s only a one time thing! I promise!”

“How was I supposed to know he was gonna be on campus?!” Jihoon argues.

“You didn’t think there was a possibility he attended the same school?”

“I‘m pretty sure he doesn’t actually go here, trust me. I doubt he even cared much to apply for university.” The older tries to reason. “He’s probably only on campus visiting friends before that party tonight.”

“You know, if this continues you’re eventually going to have to put more on the table.” Woojin states matter-of-factly.

Having to do favors for Woojin doesn’t entail anything positive in Jihoon’s mind, he can already imagine the monstrous amount of housework he’d pile on him. Not that he doesn’t appreciate Woojin’s neat freak ways, he thinks that it’s convenient for him to not have a bunch of chores to do on the weekend. But considering his recent nagging for him to clean up after himself, he figures his prediction is not far off. “We’ll discuss this later.”

Jihoon looks back at Woojin once more, and noticing the devious glint in his eyes, immediately takes off for the parking lot. He did not enjoy the thought of his six-dollar frappe ending up on the ground.

 

 

---

 

 

“It’s my turn to pick!” Daehwi squeals excitedly and grabs the controller, scrolling through the options on netflix.

Jihoon is less than delighted; Daehwi’s pick always meant a horror movie, it gives him an excuse to cuddle up with Jinyoung (as if he didn’t already do that without one). Jinyoung didn’t mind, he enjoys anything as long as he’s with Daehwi, and Woojin is hardly scared of anything. Except for bugs. Why a small fly is scarier to Woojin than jump scares is beyond him. But Jihoon, on the other hand, despises anything to do with horror. The last time they watched a scary movie, he ended up sleep deprived for a week, and Woojin finding amusement in popping out in front of him every time he turned a corner didn’t make it any easier. It did, however, result in a few bruises that Woojin is still angry at him for. He’s never apologized for it, and he doesn’t think he should.

Jinyoung exits the bathroom and plops down next to Daehwi on the other couch, and Jihoon can already tell what’s about to happen. “Does this friendship mean nothing to you, Jihoon?”

He rolls his eyes at the dramatic tone. Jihoon hadn’t filled him in on his second run in with Samuel nor his impulsive decision to make Woojin his fake boyfriend a few days ago. But in his defense, he didn’t think he had to fake it anymore, until today that is. “Jinyoung, quit the guilt trip. It’s not real, okay! We’re not dating!”

“Could have fooled me.” Jinyoung huffs angrily and falls back into the couch beside Daehwi, taking out his phone and mumbling something about deleting his contact info as if Jihoon didn’t already know that Jinyoung had his number memorized. Jihoon decides to leave his best friend pouting for a while, in return for ditching him on their first day of class. Jinyoung had all but laughed in his face when Jihoon told him that he entered the wrong classroom and blamed him for not being there to help his directionally challenged friend. He also made a mental note to look for a better group of friends, preferably ones that didn’t find amusement in his misfortunes.

After they settle on a movie, Woojin comes into the living room with a bowl of popcorn and a blanket for Jihoon to hide behind. The two roommates are sprawled out on the larger couch, while Daehwi and Jinyoung occupy the smaller one.

 

Halfway through the movie and after about ten different jump scares, Jihoon finds himself way closer to Woojin than he remembers being. Woojin doesn’t seem to notice, gaze fixed intently on the screen. JIhoon couldn’t care less for the story, he doesn’t look at the screen half of the time but the sounds alone are enough to have him screaming. He looks over at Daehwi, whose arms are wrapped tightly around Jinyoung, head rested on his shoulder.

How nice, he thinks, he has someone to cuddle with and I have a robot for a fake boyfriend.

Just as he turns back, he forgets his blanket isn’t covering his eyes and the scary girl decides at that exact moment to pop up on screen. Jihoon lets out a shrill and buries his head in Woojin’s lap, pride be damned.

He hears Daehwi’s obnoxious laugh from the other side of the room and curses himself in his head. This was definitely the wrong move.

“Are you going to get out of my lap or are you waiting for me to shove you off? Because in about 3 seconds I’m gonna do exactly that.” Jihoon recoils from the scare, springing back up and scooting back to his side of the couch. He grabs back the blanket pulls it entirely over his head in embarrassment.

After another hour of Jihoon hidden underneath the blanket playing games on his phone to distract himself from the sounds emitting from the television, the movie is finally over and he can finally pull the blanket off of him for oxygen.

“You’re no fun,” Woojin teases as soon as he emerges from the heat underneath the blanket, hair sticking out on every side. “You missed the best part.”

“I really don’t care.” He returns, squinting to adjust to the brightness when Daehwi goes to turn the lights on.

“Hey, we were thinking of stopping by Daniel’s party for a bit, since we don’t really want to spend on take-out today.” Jinyoung says, notably back on speaking terms with Jihoon again. “You wanna come with?”

That party is the last place Jihoon wants to be today, but considering their empty fridge and the fact that he used up most of his weekly budget on coffee, going there for the food doesn’t sound like the worst idea. It’s better than trying to fill up on gummy worms and jelly sticks.

“You do know we have to pretend we’re dating if we go, right?” Woojin is looking at him like he’s grown another head when he agrees to go with them.

“We don’t have any food, would you rather starve to death tonight? I mean if you do then be my guest.” That earns him a glare, but Woojin begrudgingly concedes when the hunger pains start to kick in.

Jihoon calls shotgun on their way down to the parking lot and Woojin has to remind him that he’d be dumb to think that either Daehwi or Jinyoung would want to sit in the front seat as opposed to beside each other in the back. That earns him a shove into the wall of the elevator where the buttons, of course, happen to be. His shoulder hits 3 extra floors and the group lets out a collective groan.

Once they finally hit the main floor, they make it a race on the way to the car. Jihoon almost shoves Woojin into a tree and Woojin trips Jihoon onto the street as a car approaches them.

“Do you know that I constantly worry that one day, I’m gonna have to answer a call and find out that one of you has accidentally killed the other?” Jinyoung stresses after picking Jihoon up off of the ground a step before Woojin and out of the car’s way.

They reach the car and Jihoon is pushing Jinyoung into the backseat and trying to get in with them. Jinyoung only pushes his leg out and tells him to sit in the front seat, since he did call shotgun.

“But he tried to kill me!”

“Just go! It’s weird if we’re all in the back seat this isn’t a damn taxi.”

“Hell if i care that he’s lonely in the front! He. tried. to. kill. me.”

After a few more rounds of Jihoon trying to force himself into the backseat, Jinyoung manages to push him far enough to close the door on him and lock it. Jihoon grumbles and pulls on the door of the passenger seat roughly, slamming it closed when he’s seated.

“I didn’t try to kill you, okay. And I already said I’m sorry.”

“No you didn’t!”

“Oh, well did that one not count?”

“You’re insufferable.”

 

 

Daniel’s flat is about a twenty minute drive from their place, and five minutes into the ride Daehwi is already growing sick of the bickering in the front seats.

“Will you two shut up and do something more productive like make a plan or something?”

Jihoon looks back at him confused, “A plan?”

“Yeah. Earlier, after I bumped into you guys on campus, I overheard one of Samuel’s friends talking and they said that he’s trying to win you back. And it doesn’t seem like the fact that Woojin is your boyfriend is gonna be enough to stop him.”

Jihoon throws his head back onto the headrest with a long, drawn out sigh. Not once this week was he able to catch a break, and things only seem to be getting worse. Why did he have to show up? It was easy to avoid him for the last nine months, and now all of the sudden he’s everywhere that he goes. “How could he even think I would?”

“After dumping you for not having time for him he thinks that you're schedule would be any better now that you're in university?” Jinyoung scoffs.

JIhoon bites his lip, “What should we do?”

“Seems like you might have to keep this fake relationship thing going on for a little longer if you wanna get him off your back.” Jinyoung concludes, much to the fake couple’s dismay.

“it’s not forever though,” Daehwi adds, “I was told he’s only taking a few classes here for the semester before transferring. he’ll be out of your hair by the end of December but until then, you’ll probably be seeing a lot of him.”

“It’s just a one time thing!” Woojin says in a mocking tone and if it weren’t for him driving Jihoon would have punched him in the neck already.

“I have a proposition for you then.” Jihoon turns to Woojin as they stop at a red light. Woojin looks at him curiously. “You pretend to be my boyfriend for the semester and I will do your laundry for the entire duration of it.”

That gets Woojin’s interest. “How about you do my laundry for the semester and do the bathroom cleaning every week.”

“Every week?!” Woojin nods. “Make it every two weeks.”

The driver sits on the thought for a while, and finally complies, “Fine, you have yourself a deal.”

Daehwi snorts, “Glad to know you two know how to converse calmly and not just throw punches every other word.”

They spend the rest of the ride sorting out a backstory in case anyone were to ask. Jihoon was part of the school’s dance crew and when Woojin auditioned, he disliked him at first for stealing his spotlight - that part was so far truthful. After spending time together practicing for competitions they developed feelings and in the summer, Woojin finally asked him out.

“What? Why was I the one who asked you out?”

“Because I don’t pine!”

Woojin scoffs, “And you think I do? That’s hilarious.”

“No one cares about who asked out who or who liked who first just pick a story and go with it!” Jinyoung lets out exasperatedly, quietly thanking God when he sees that they’ve finally reached Daniel’s place.

“Don’t forget the story.” Jihoon murmurs as they head towards the loud music.

“How could I? It’s so ridiculous it actually pains me.”

The older rolls his eyes. “Let go of your pride for one night, will you?”

The door is already unlocked when they reach it and they walk into the packed house, rowdy and reeking of alcohol. Not exactly Jihoon’s scene, but he knows there has to be pizza somewhere. And the faster they find it, the faster they can leave and maybe avoid seeing Samuel.

“Oh hey, Woojin!” Daniel stops in front of the group and fist bumps Woojin. “I didn’t know you were coming! Hey guys, I’m Daniel! Food and drinks are in the kitchen to the left, enjoy the party!”

Daniel pats Woojin on the shoulder and heads out into the backyard where Jihoon could see a ping pong table set up.

“You didn’t tell me you knew him!” Jihoon smacks Woojin in the shoulder.

“You didn’t ask!”

“How do you even know someone like Daniel?” Jinyoung questions as they make their way through the crowd and into the kitchen.

“He’s part of a dance crew at my studio, I met him a few months ago. We’re not that close but he’s super nice to everyone.”

Jihoon spots a pizza box and immediately runs to it. He doesn’t even care that it’s cold, he just wants to eat, maybe sneak out a few pieces of chicken, and leave.

The four sit at the empty kitchen table, feeling a little out of place in between the drinking games and the classic spin the bottle game going on in the living room. A few people come up to say hi to Daehwi (he knows a lot of people) and one of them offers the group some cake, though they politely deny it. After a few more conversations they finish eating and Jihoon is eager to get out of the place, until he spots Samuel and a friend walking into the kitchen.

“You made it!” Samuel smiles and strides over to their table, the black haired guy following behind him. “Oh, Seongwoo this is Jihoon and his friends. This is Seongwoo!”

Seongwoo gives them a warm smile, and his eyes linger on Woojin for longer. “Oh hey, you’re from Daniel’s dance studio, aren’t you?”

Woojin waves back and Jihoon wonders why Woojin suddenly knows more people than he does.

“You know Jihoon’s boyfriend?”

Seongwoo looks surprised, “Oh, you two are dating? Cute. I just know him from Daniel’s studio when I come to pick him up but we’re not close.”

Three seconds tick by where the air is filled with an awkward silence before Seongwoo claps his hands together and breaks it, “So, are you guys up for a round of beer pong out back?”

“Oh actually, we were just leaving..” Jihoon starts, not wanting to sound so killjoy but he would really rather be anywhere else right now.

“Aw, stay for a little longer! You can even just watch a game if you don’t feel like drinking.”

After a long round of persuading, Samuel and Seongwoo manage to push them out into the backyard to join in on the so-called fun. The group surrounding the table start to chant Daniel’s name, pushing out a smiling Daniel to one end of the table. Across from him, Jihoon recognizes to be Jaehwan, a third year music major who did a lot of performances on the street and in malls. Seongwoo cheers for Daniel a little more enthusiastically than the rest from beside Jihoon.

“So, I’m guessing he’s your boyfriend?”

Seongwoo looks back at him in amusement, “Is it that obvious?”

Jihoon shrugs, “More so of an educated guess. How long have you two been together?”

“For about 2 years now. We met in the most embarrassing way. Him being the clumsy loser he is, slipped on ice on the sidewalk and knocked me over, spilling his coffee onto me.” Seongwoo laughs as he recalls the moment, and Jihoon can literally see the sparkle in his eyes, “He stammered out a million apologies but I just told him to cover me as I made my way to my locker to grab my extra pair of sweats. So we walked across campus with his back practically up against me and we looked like complete idiots. But I guess it kind of suits us.”

Jihoon chuckles. He’s only ever had one relationship, and that turned out awry. He sits long on the idea of actually being in love, and being happy. And then he wonders if he’d ever be deserving of it.

Seongwoo’s voice breaks him out of his thoughts, “How about you?”

“Huh?” Seongwoo jerks his chin forward, gesturing to the boy beside him.

“Your boyfriend. How did you two get together?”

Oh.

“Oh. We met during senior year when he transferred to my high school.” Jihoon begins, pulling Woojin closer to him in case he forgets the story. Woojin doesn’t seem to have been paying attention but he quickly puts on a smile when he’s brought into the listening circle.

“He auditioned for the dance crew I was in and was eventually made head choreographer. I didn’t like him at first because I felt like he was stealing my spotlight, he became the talk of the school the very next day.” Jihoon chuckles awkwardly, hoping to not come off as overly arrogant and greedy. He also takes note of how Samuel moves closer to listen in to the conversation. “But after we spent hours together practicing for competitions, something just clicked? Neither of us said anything for a while, even though we could tell that something changed between us. And after graduation, we decided to become roommates and Woojin asked me out.”

“You even live together?” Jihoon can hear the discomfort in Samuel’s voice.

“Wow, how’s that like?” Seongwoo adds.

“Um, it has it’s pros and cons.” Jihoon turns to Woojin, slowly becoming exhausted from all of the lying he’s doing. “What do you think?”

Woojin clearly isn’t ready for the question, mouth closing and opening a few times before he can actually get any words out. “Uhh, y-yeah! For instance,” He pauses shortly, “he never gives me a chance to miss him. Although it’s not too bad getting to see him every day.”

Jihoon nods with a smile, thankful that Seongwoo seems to be buying it. Daniel comes up to the group at a great time and Jihoon uses this as a chance to thank him for having them but they have to be getting home now.

“Yeah, no worries! Drive safe!” Daniel smiles and puts an arm around Seongwoo, both of them wave goodbye at the group. Jihoon says a quick goodbye to Samuel and they finally head out.

Jihoon lets out a long exhale as soon as he gets into the car. If he hadn't a clue how tiring this double life thing could actually be, well he certainly knows know.

“I’d say that was pretty good start to the act, a little stiff, but good enough to be believable.” Jinyoung reassures the two, who both seem to look like they’ve just completed a marathon.

“Okay I know you two don’t do a lot of physical activity but that was literally just talking, why are you out of breath?”

“Shut up Daehwi,” Jihoon huffs, “you don’t know how tiring this sort of thing is until you’ve lived it.”

“You know why you guys are having a hard time?” Jinyoung pitches in, “I don’t think you really even know much about each other. I mean you live with each other but do you even know any of the little things?”

Daehwi nods in agreement, “Yeah like, Jihoon, what’s Woojin’s favorite color?”

“Um, blue?” He takes a guess, realizing he doesn’t actually know.

“Actually I’m more of a grey-scale person.”

“See? And Woojin, what is Jihoon allergic to?”

“Common sense?” Jihoon elicits what’s probably already Woojin’s tenth ‘ow’ of the night. He does see Jinyoung and Daehwi’s point, though. They were roommates without actually knowing much about each other. Sure, Jihoon knows that Woojin is an amazing dancer and a huge neat freak, but they were never that into discussing their interests and dislikes. If they were questioned any longer at the party, he knows they would have been in trouble.

 

So come Saturday night, the two roommates are seated on the living room couch to learn more about each other, for the sake of playing their roles well, of course.

They manage to get the basics down, like favorite colors, foods, seasons, and at one point Woojin asks what Jihoon’s name is. ‘You stress me out’ is his only reply.

Jihoon discusses his shrimp allergy and how once he ended up passed out on the bathroom floor because he ate too much that night.

“So this was when you first found out you were allergic?”

“No I already knew about it, but that didn’t stop me from eating it.”

Woojin tilts his head, “I can’t decide if you’re hardcore or just ridiculously stupid for that.”

Jihoon merely shrugs, “Sometimes my food cravings reach my brain before the logic does. But at least I’m still here, right?”

“Mm, that’s unfortunate.” Jihoon bites the inside of his cheek to quell the sarcastic response itching to burst out. Jinyoung told him to cut down on the punching, and so far it’s been difficult to hold back.

“Shut up.” He sneers, “Do you not have any allergies?”

“Nope. My little sister has a lot though. I was super upset growing up about not being able to have a puppy because she was allergic.”

This is news to Jihoon, “You have a sister?”

“Yeah,” Woojin grins promptly, “Yerim. She’s eight and she’s my favorite person in the entire world.”

Jihoon props his elbow up on the back of the couch so he can rest his chin in his hand, intrigued at how soft Woojin becomes immediately upon the mention of his sister. He doesn’t miss how his eyes light up at the topic. “So I’m guessing you don’t hold her puppy allergy against her?”

Woojin laughs, it’s a nice sound Jihoon thinks. “I couldn’t even if I tried. She’s such an angel, I’d do anything for her.”

He continues to watch as the younger tells stories about Yerim. It’s a different side to him that he’s never seen before, unguarded and lively. Then he thinks the warm feeling is a little too much for him to handle and reminds himself of the many times Woojin has made his life difficult. Sure, he’s clearly a different person when it comes to his sister, but he’s also Jihoon’s enemy ninety-percent of the time. He doesn't let himself forget that. 

They move on to talk about how Jihoon and Jinyoung first met. He tells him it was in the third grade when Jinyoung moved into the house a few houses down from his. Him and his mother came over with a homemade apple pie to say hello, and their parents quickly became friends. Jinyoung would come over for playdates and they got along fairly well. He also tells him about the one halloween where he stole all of Jinyoung’s skittles and replaced them with twizzlers which he knew he hated, and that’s why Jinyoung sometimes refers to him as Skittles.

Sometimes the conversation goes too smoothly and Jihoon has to throw in an insult or hope for Woojin to say something mean to balance it out.

“So,” Woojin starts, ”is it time to talk about kinks?”

Not even the four pillows and two books Jihoon flings his way are enough to stop him from laughing.

“Whoa, what’s the big deal!” Woojin manages to choke out between laughter, “Okay on the count of three let’s both say one of ours and then we’ll move on immediately.”

Jihoon narrows his eyes at the younger, but curiosity wins him over yet again and he agrees.

“Okay,

1,

2,

3!”

“Hair-tugging,” Jihoon says alone, biting down hard on his bottom lip when he realizes he’s been tricked. He picks up a pillow from off of the floor and proceeds to beat Woojin with it. Embarrassment kicks in shortly after and Jihoon falls back onto his side of the couch and covers his face with the pillow.

“You know i never really took you for a masochist, guess you really do learn a few things about someone when you live with them.”

“Die.”

 

---

 

 

A week rolls by rather quickly, Jihoon thinks it’s because they’ve done a good job at avoiding Samuel. Thanks to some snooping done by Daehwi, Jihoon knows pretty much when Samuel should be on campus, where his class is and therefore, is able to work out a series of underground shortcuts to decrease his chances of running into him. Fridays however, doesn’t make it easy to hide, since Woojin drives them home and they have to make their way to the parking lot above ground.

Sure enough, they run into Samuel on the way there. They’re already holding hands, trying to look as natural as possible. Jihoon, as usual, has his Starbucks cup in his right hand.

“Jihoon, can I talk to you for a bit? If you don’t mind.”

Said boy exchanges a glance with Woojin, “We actually have somewhere we need to be-”

“It won’t take long, I promise.”

Woojin pulls Jihoon behind him and steps in front, “Actually-”

“Woojin!” A voice calls out from behind. They turn to see Daniel jogging up to him with a smile on his face (did he ever not?) and his left hand up in the air waving at him. “Do you have a minute? It’s about an upcoming competition and we were thinking of asking you to step in for someone.”

“Oh great, you two can discuss that and I’ll borrow Jihoon for a second!” Before he can say anything, Jihoon is pulled away from Woojin and further into the empty field.

“What is it, Samuel?” Jihoon crosses his arms and taps his foot, his tone makes it clear that he doesn’t want to talk.

“I know you might still hate me, but I’ve just.. really been wanting to tell you how sorry I am.”

Jihoon can’t even stop the blatantly repulsed grimace his face morphs into. He lets out a bitter laugh, “Don’t you think it’s too late for that?”

“I just.. miss you.” Samuel tries, a pleading look in his eyes. But Jihoon is long past falling for that, scorning the fact that at one point he actually did.

“That’s not gonna work on me anymore, Samuel. I moved on long time ago. I thought it was already obvious that you did too.”

A hand is placed on the small of his back and Jihoon turns to see Woojin looking down at him, and for once, he’s grateful for his existence.

“Let’s go.” Woojin leads Jihoon away with his arm around his waist, casting a surly glance at Samuel (that Jihoon misses) before turning away.

Jihoon knows that Woojin notices the dejected mood when they enter the car but he doesn’t bring it up (thankfully). He drops Jihoon off at Jinyoung’s place before he leaves to get ready for work. He figures his friends would be a good distraction for the night.

Daehwi unsurprisingly greets him at the door, and behind him he can see Jinyoung taking up the entire couch. “Oh skittles, you’re here!”

Jihoon forces a small smile and makes himself comfortable on the recliner next to his best friend. “What, you’re not gonna throw back a ‘hey twizzlers’ at me? Don’t leave me hanging Park Jihoon.”

The brunette says nothing and only stares wordlessly at the television.

“Okay, what’s wrong?” Jinyoung grabs the remote and turns off the screen, forcing Jihoon to focus his attention on the two people in front of him.

“I bumped into Samuel again today.” He mutters, “He tried to apologize. He said he misses me.”

Jinyoung shakes his head, “You didn’t fall for it, right?”

“Of course not!” Jihoon defends. It may have been obvious that he liked him a lot way back when, but things are different now. All he wants to do now is show Samuel that he’s moved on and that he’s happier without him, that he wasn’t enough to break him.

Daehwi claps his hands together, “Well if you don’t want to talk about it, we don’t have to. Who’s up for some card games? I’m bored!”

The three spend the rest of their night playing cards and lazing around. Daehwi tells them stories from his trip back home to America and particularly enjoys when Jinyoung flares up at the mention of his childhood friend, Anthony, and how they reconnected. “Yeah, well,” Jinyoung tilts his chin up and crosses his arms, “is Anthony’s face 16 centimeters long? Exactly.”

 

 

“So, how’s your boyfriend been treating you?” Daehwi inquires, sounding too natural that it almost goes over Jihoon’s head.

“Okay for the last time, you little brat, Woojin isn’t my real boyfriend! I would never actually date him!” The brunette retorts. He doesn’t understand why the two insist on acting like they are a real couple. In fact, him and Woojin were probably the furthest thing from a believable one, he’s just lucky that Samuel wasn’t at their high school to witness how their relationship actually works.

“I don’t know - love-hate relationships are very popular lately. It wouldn’t surprise me if you two managed to catch feelings after all this.”

“What?” Jihoon sputters, looking gravely incredulous and clearly not expecting the sudden accusation of his feelings. Not that he had any - and definitely not for Woojin. “How can it be a love-hate relationship when all there is is hate?”

“I told you, the more you hate the more you love!” Daehwi sings in a high-pitched voice.

Jihoon can only scoff, “That’s ridiculous. The more I hate the more I hate!”

“And what exactly do you hate about him?”

“Do you have 3 hours to spare? Because that’s how long it will take me to list everything.”

“Knock yourself out.” Daehwi offers, amused.

“Well, first of all, he’s such a jerk! He clearly enjoys riling me up, he finds literally every chance he can to pick fights with me and insult me in any way possible. One time he told me to shut up and I literally only breathed!”

“Oh yeah I hate when you do that.” Jinyoung says in mock repulsion, to which Jihoon deadpans.

“And, he actually thinks he’s funny, but his jokes are so lame! He’s worse than Jinyoung.”

“Hey! I’m hilarious.” Daehwi pats the offended Jinyoung to calm him down.

Jinyoung gets up from the couch, still pouting, and heads for the kitchen, “I’m going to take my hilarious self to the kitchen to make your ungrateful some food.”

Daehwi snickers after he leaves the room, then turns back to Jihoon, “Also I don’t think that one’s good enough to hate him for.”

“Okay, well,” Jihoon pauses to think, then snaps his fingers when another point comes to him, “He’s a neat freak!”

“And?”

“It’s so stressful! He’s nags me so much, he’s worse than my mother. One time he got mad at me because there was a sock on my floor. Like, it isn’t even his room, why is he complaining?” Jihoon ignores the obvious way Daehwi tries to stifle a laugh. “And he’s an advocate of pineapple on pizza i just can’t be friends with him.”

Daehwi nods with feigned thoughtfulness, hands clasped and propping up his chin.

“And you know what the worst thing about him is?”

“Enlighten me.”

“His sleeping habits are terrible.”

Daehwi quirks a brow, “And you know that how?”

“I can hear him snoring from my room! If I want any chance of sleeping well at night I have to make sure I fall asleep before him.” Jihoon grounds his teeth with calculated distaste. “One time I had to wake him up and he was sleeping with a pillow squished between his thighs!”

“I didn’t know there was a correct way to use a pillow?”

“Pillows are for your head! If he wants to hug something he should be hugging a stuffed animal.”

"Are you sure you're not just jealous that the pillow isn't you?"

Jihoon fakes a gag, "You're absurd. Jinyoung, can we leave this kid out on the street? I don't want him anymore."

"He's not trash, Jihoon!"  Jinyoung yells from the kitchen, and Jihoon mutters a 'that's hard to believe' under his breath.

Watching the older work so hard to prove his point is starting to get a little painful for Daehwi. He purses his lips together, “You know what I think? For someone who hates Woojin, you sure do make it a habit to only talk about Woojin.”

Jihoon puts a hand against his heart, as if his words offended him physically. “He gets on my nerves, okay! It’s like he makes it his mission to find out every single one of my pet peeves and tactlessly use them against me!”

“This is why it’s not that hard to believe that you’re probably going to catch feelings for him, maybe you probably already have.”

The brunette frowns, “And why is that?”

“Do you hear yourself?” Daehwi asks dryly, “You’re complaining about the fact that he sleeps with a pillow between his thighs.”

“And that makes it believable that I like him?” His eyes widen disbelievingly before continuing, “Back in junior year you kept talking about Seonho’s shampoo scent and how you loved lemons. And now you constantly tell me about how you love Jinyoung’s strawberry scent and how it makes you want to hug him forever. Does that imply that you liked Seonho?”

“Okay, that was different!” Daehwi interjects, “I like Jinyoung’s scent because it’s sweet and every time I smell strawberries I’m reminded of him. I only talked about Seonho’s shampoo because I wanted it for myself.”

“Yeah and so by that logic, I complain about Woojin’s pillow hugging because it bothers me that he isn’t using his pillow correctly, not because I want him to suffocate me with his thighs!”

“So help me God, why do I always walk into these kind of conversations?” Jinyoung sighs heavily from behind the two as he enters the living room and Jihoon feels a hotness rise from his neck to his ears.

Embarrassing himself is clearly the recurring theme of his life today. He decides its probably best to refrain from ever talking about Woojin with those two. 

 

 

---

 

Mornings were never Jihoon’s thing, so when he’s woken up by the shrill of his alarm, notably different today, he brings a pillow to his face to muffle his scream.

About three times out of the week, Woojin would change his alarm to something extremely annoying. Two out of three times it was usually a personally recorded message yelling at him to get up followed by about a dozen insults. Today, Woojin’s voice rings out from his phone loud and clear, “PARK JIHOON! GET YOUR LAZY OUT OF BED AND MAKE YOURSELF PRESENTABLE! THIS IS WHY YOU HAVE A FAKE BOYFRIEND AND NOT A REAL ONE.”

He decides then and there that Woojin is dead to him. He also makes a mental note to stop being lazy and finally change his password.

He sits up groggily, grabbing his phone and squinting to adjust his vision. Why Woojin set his alarm to ten in the morning on a Saturday he also would like to find out, glaring when Woojin leans himself against the frame of his door, gaze laced with murderous intent.

“What the hell, Woojin. Why did you wake me up so early? You know I don’t wake up until 1 at the earliest on a Saturday.” His tone is as icy as his glare, dripping with spite.

It takes him a while, but when he notices, he can’t stop thinking about it. Jihoon gives him a once over - Woojin in round specs complete with the white button up shirt that Jihoon had already deemed dangerous isn't what he expects to see and Jihoon immediately decides that he hates it. Not because he looks bad, but because he looks exactly like his definition of boyfriend and this isn’t what he wants to be thinking about this early on a Saturday morning, or at all for that matter.

He tries his best to avert his gaze to anywhere but the boy in front of him.

“Did you forget you have a doctor’s appointment today?”

Oh.

Oh.

“!” Jihoon fumbles out of his bed, limbs getting tangled in his blanket and almost causing him to fall off.

He hears Woojin scoff, throwing back as he walks away, “You wouldn’t be able to live without me, would you?”

“Shut up, nerd.” He spits out in a pathetic attempt to hide his extremely tiny, basically non-existent (definitely non-existent) attraction for him in those glasses.

 

After managing to (kind of) put himself together, Woojin drives them to his doctor’s office. Jihoon spends the entire ride trying to distract himself from Woojin in specs and driving after he catches himself staring more than once. This is Woojin, he reminds himself - the same Woojin that he hates. So what’s so different about him today? He could barely even think without his thoughts wanting to drift to him in that darned outfit.

When they finally reach the doctor’s office, relief washes over him. He nods dismissively at Woojin giving him a pick up time, slamming the door and escaping his vicinity as fast as he can.

I hate him. I hate him. I hate him.

 

After his check up, Jihoon spends the rest of his waiting time playing house with the little girl in the waiting room. It gets him thinking about how nice it would be to have a younger sibling. Being an only child did get lonely, and he’s thankful that Jinyoung’s family moved onto his street when they did, because he doesn’t think he would have ever made friends if it wasn’t for him.

The buzz from his phone signal’s Woojin’s arrival and Jihoon says goodbye to the girl before leaving. The thought of getting back into that car is already torturous to him as he walks with heavy steps towards the bane of his existence.

Woojin tells him that they need to stop by the supermarket since they’re low on food. The two have never gone grocery shopping together before; it was usually either Woojin who went himself or Jihoon on his way back from work. Jihoon thinks this might be a little too domestic for them.

“Let me push the cart!” Jihoon pipes up as they walk into the market.

“You’re such a kid.” The older wastes no time hesitating and rams the end of the cart into Woojin’s back, before making a beeline for the snack section. “What the hell?!”

They walk down the aisles as Jihoon eagerly pulls things off the shelves, half of the things not even on their list. Woojin moves to take most of them out and place them back one by one as they continue down the aisle.

“Hey!” Jihoon exclaims and grabs the box of cookies out of Woojin’s hands. “Who said you could stop me from getting the snacks that I want?”

“Well, considering I’m paying for the groceries today because your aunt barely gave you shifts this week,” he bites out as he takes back the box and places it back on the shelf, “I get to decide whatever’s necessary in this cart.”

“Your existence is unnecessary.” The older retorts, scrunching his nose in annoyance and swiftly dodging the hand that extends out to hit him.

After they gather all of the things on their list, they stop to eat some free samples. A woman by the registers stands behind a small table, placing out pieces of chicken in small cupcake liners. They each grab one and Woojin feeds his to Jihoon, much to his surprise. The younger opens his mouth in expectation but Jihoon snorts as he shoves the piece of chicken in his hands into his own mouth. Woojin frowns and grabs another one, walking away angrily as Jihoon makes enthusiastic small talk with the lady.

“Is that your boyfriend?” She gestures to the boy behind him, currently scanning the list and re-checking the items in the cart.

“Yeah,” Jihoon answers absent-mindedly. It doesn’t register for a while but when it does, he can’t help but notice how natural the answer rolls off his tongue. But they weren’t even supposed to be acting right now, they didn’t need to. The brunette can’t stop his ears from turning red, rubbing the bottom of his right ear when it starts to get uncomfortably hot.

Woojin steps closer to him and places a hand on his back, a gesture that Jihoon also notices has become more frequent for him to do and it kind of drives him crazy. He shivers when Woojin's lips get a little too close to his ears, he doesn't even say anything exceptional, it's the proximity that makes him freeze. “Let’s go, we’ve got everything.”

 

 

---

 

 

On particular days, Jihoon feels like . He can’t pinpoint exactly why, but today is one of those days. And Woojin notices right away when Jihoon rejects his offer to continue their drama marathon. The brunette mopes around in his bed for hours, splayed haphazardly across his white bed sheets.

“What’s up with you?” Woojin questions, entering the older’s room without permission and jumping up to seat himself on the edge of his bed. Jihoon is sat up against his headboard - looking a little bit like a bad ghost cosplay - hidden underneath his blanket. Woojin pulls off the sheet and is greeted with a messy-haired Jihoon, who, at second glance, seems to have been crying.

“Whoa, hey, why are you crying?” The younger doesn’t even try to hide the obvious concern in his voice.

Jihoon doesn’t know how to answer him, because he’s not even sure himself. Sometimes he doesn’t have an answer to that question; sometimes, for no particular reason, he just feels sad. It just happens to be one of his off days where he wallows in self-loathing and over-thinking his problems to the point of tears. He woke up feeling inexplicably ty today, that much was obvious to Woojin when he had all but a single cookie to eat that day.

He settles for an ‘I don’t know’ and moves to grab the blanket to cover himself again but Woojin crawls closer and sits on the blanket to prevent him from doing so. Woojin watches how the older scrunches his nose once, twice, three times.

“Jihoon, I can tell when you’re lying. You scrunch your nose three too many times. When you do it once it’s cute but when you do it three times it means something is wrong.” Said boy is taken aback and looks up at Woojin, who’s looking at him curiously, almost as if he’s studying him. Before he can ask him what he’s doing the younger speaks up again, “Is it about Samuel..?”

Jihoon wants to say no, because he knows that he doesn’t have feelings for the boy anymore and admitting that his tears were partly because of him doesn’t sound too much like someone who’s moved on. But it isn’t fully because of Samuel, it’s his self esteem deciding to question itself again and everything that’s ever hurt it starts to overtake his mind.

“Not exactly but.. I guess he’s part of it.” Jihoon mumbles, his voice still shaky.

Woojin doesn’t know what to do for a while, he spends some time searching the younger’s eyes. “Do you wanna talk about it?” He asks tentatively, trying not to sound pushy but inviting enough that Jihoon might actually feel comfortable enough to share it with him if he decides to do so.

The older just stares at his fidgety hands for a long while, contemplating whether or not he finally wanted to talk about what really happened.

“I.. haven’t told you guys the entire story behind my breakup with Samuel..” Jihoon admits hesitantly, still staring at his fingers.

Woojin doesn’t speak, instead he waits for Jihoon to continue when he feels he’s ready.

The brunette takes a deep breath before speaking again, “A week before winter finals, Samuel started to complain about me not having enough time for him, but I really wanted to do well on my exams for my university application so I didn’t let it bother me too much. I thought that after exams we’d be okay again but-” The lump in his throat grows bigger, until he finally swallows it down and tells Woojin the truth, “I found out he cheated on me..”

Woojin is silent for a while and Jihoon doesn’t realize just how mad he is until he looks up and sees him practically seething with anger. It’s a little scary, even.

“Okay I know that sounds bad but please don’t do anything stupid-”

Jihoon rises from his spot when Woojin is all clenched fists and angry but no plan in mind, he grabs onto his arm and attempts to calm him down.

“Woojin, it was a long time ago, I’m fine now. I promise.”

Woojin runs a hand through his hair, “Then why were you crying?”

The older looks down again, “I- it just happens a lot, okay? I get these moments where I think about how useless I am and then I wonder if I’d ever be worth anyone’s time and people don’t expect me to be really insecure but I am, I can’t help it. Am I not.. good enough?”

“Jihoon!” The younger raises his voice unintentionally, softening when he sees the other wince. “You’re not going to let someone who treated you that way make you doubt yourself, okay? You are literally everything amazing in the world, I really don’t know why you don’t see that..”

Woojin continues on his motivational rant but Jihoon is long out of it, stuck on those last few words and repeating them in his head over and over again.

You are literally everything amazing in the world.

Did he mean that? Were those words actually coming out of Woojin’s mouth? Jihoon can’t even think properly anymore, the overthinking starts to exhaust him and he just wants to go to sleep. Woojin can tell he’s not listening anymore - a little thankful for it because he sort of got carried away. He sighs and puts a hand on the older's knee.

“Why don’t you just go to sleep, okay?” Jihoon nods numbly and slides down into his bed, pulling the covers over him. Woojin pats him comfortingly before getting up to shut the lights off and closing the door.

 

 

---

 

 

Their act continues as usual for the next week, holding hands as they make their way to the parking lot after classes. Sometimes they don’t actually cross paths with Samuel, but they still figure it’s better to be safe, and it also gives them the opportunity to get used to it. Jihoon says he learns from his psychology class that it’s the process of desensitization.

At the end of another week, the two are walking together hand-in-hand, discussing the events of the recent episode they watched from their latest drama marathon. They had completed the first two parts of the Reply series, and are now almost at the end of Reply 1988. It comes as a shock to them that they manage to form a similar opinion for once, both preferring the dynamic that Deok Sun had with Junghwan.

“Friends! Wait up!” A voice shouts out from behind them and then turn to see Daehwi running up to them.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“I just wanted to let you know that I just overheard a conversation Samuel was having with his friend-”

“You overheard or you were eavesdropping?”

“Not important!” The shorter shoots back, “Anyways, the guy was talking about how he knew you both from high school and that you two hated each other and basically he told him he was suspecting that you two are faking it because, let’s be honest, you two never really do much except hold hands and it’s starting to get a little sketchy how tense you look whenever you do skinship. I just thought you two should know in case he confronts you about it, to give you some time to step your game up or something.” Daehwi finishes, now out of breath.

"This is all your fault!”

Woojin’s jaw drops in disbelief, “My fault? You’re the one who tenses up whenever I touch you! No wonder people are suspicious!”

“Well I wouldn’t be so tense if you would just do your job properly!”

“Uh guys,” Daehwi interjects, “He’s coming this way.”

Jihoon grabs Woojin’s arm in a panic, “He’s coming, do something!”

Woojin stammers, “I- like what?!”

“I don’t know! Hug me or something! Or kiss the top of my head or-”

The rest of his sentence is cut off once he feels Woojin’s lips on his, the youngers arms wrapped tightly around his waist and pulling him in. Jihoon grasps onto Woojin’s collar and shuts his eyes instinctively. His lips are soft and warm and not what he expects. He starts to feel dizzy and when they slowly pull apart - all he can hear is his heartbeat through his ears, hammering loudly against his chest and he suddenly can’t breathe.

They stay like that for a few seconds, Woojin’s forehead pressed against his, both breathing heavily. An awkward cough to their right springs them apart, “Um..”

Jihoon still can’t manage to form words. He ends up looking rather stupid, spinning around in circles looking at the sky and clearing his throat, unable to look at the boy who was just holding him seconds ago.

“Where is he?” Woojin asks faintly. Jihoon chooses to interpret the tremble in his voice as a figment of his imagination.

“He turned around when he saw that you two were uh, having your moment.” Daehwi presses his lips together and rocks back and forth on his heels as silence falls over the group again. “You know, you should probably warn a guy before you decide to start making out or something. Do you know how awkward it was for me to just stand there while you two were caught up in your act??”

“I- We weren’t making out!” Woojin protests, face flushing red.

“Riiight, well, I need to get going but have fun on the way home!” Daehwi snickers and shuffles away before either of them can hit him.

 

Jihoon continues to avoid Woojin whenever they’re at home. At first, he thought the annoying fluttery feeling inside his stomach whenever he looked at or even thought about Woojin would go away eventually, like a fleeting rain. But after days of sweaty palms and his deafening heartbeat he decides it’s all too much and it’s time to go to Jinyoung to figure out what’s wrong with him.

So that’s why he finds himself at Jinyoung’s door, an expression on his face that’s equal parts confused and afraid. Even though Jihoon isn’t entirely sure himself, Jinyoung knows exactly why he’s there. After Jihoon came to him and Daehwi to tell him about what really happened with Samuel and how Woojin reacted to it, he knew then that Jihoon was close to having an epiphany. 

They sit in silence for a while, as Jinyoung watches Jihoon try to come up with the right words and enough courage to actually let them leave his mouth.

“Is it,” Jihoon starts slowly, “too late to move in with you and your family?”

Okay, not what he was expecting.

Jinyoung raises an eyebrow, “Is this about the kiss-”

Jihoon shoots him a death glare the second he mentions the incident.

“Jihoon, I get that you’re trying to avoid-” the look Jihoon is casting his way is enough for him to understand it isn’t a good time to use his name yet, “-you know who, but this is ridiculous.”

“But it’s so suffocating!” The brunette wails, and Jinyoung finally sees how much of a mess he actually is. “What’s wrong with me? Am I going crazy?”

Jinyoung rolls his eyes at his best friend, he’s never seen the art of denial so perfected. It’s both agonizing and entertaining to watch him try to repeat his stance ad nauseam, especially when he doesn't even look like he's convincing himself anymore. “I never thought you guys could be worse than the movies but this mutual pining you two have going on is getting a little tiring to watch.”

“I don’t pine!” Jihoon reiterates, though the flush of his cheeks indicate otherwise, “And how could it ever be mutual? He hates me.”

“Are you kidding me?” Jinyoung sighs exasperatedly, “He clearly adores you.”

“That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard, Jinyoung.”

“Maybe I overestimated you’re ability to catch onto things.” Jihoon frowns. If there was anything to catch onto, he definitely would have by now. But Woojin makes it clear every day that Jihoon is the bane of his existence.

“I’m telling you, he makes it loud and clear that my existence exhausts him.”

Jinyoung leans forward in his seat, elbows propped up on his knees and chin resting on his clasped hands. “If there’s one thing I’ve taken from observing people over the years, it’s that no matter how much you two fight, Woojin won’t hesitate for a second when it comes to protecting you.”

The brunette bites his lip, he doesn’t want to be persuaded by Jinyoung, especially when the points he’s making could easily be interpreted as Woojin’s personality in general. “Yeah but he does that for all of his friends, that’s just the kind of person he is.”

“Do you remember the time when Hyunmin injured himself like a month before your dance competition?” Jihoon recalls the knee injury Hyunmin had gotten back in senior year, it prevented him from joining them for Nationals.

“Woojin had him sit out the rest of the year. But what happened when you injured your hand? You were worried he was going to pull you out too because the dance had a floor section that could make it worse. And what did he do instead? He altered the entire choreo for you because he knew how much you wanted to go to that competition.”

Jihoon remembers it clearly, he had been so devastated when his hand got hurt, and after seeing what happened with Hyunmin, Jihoon was sure he was going to be pull out of the dance. But the next practice, Woojin came in and told everyone he was going to make some changes to the choreography and on the spot, altered it so that it wouldn’t inconvenience Jihoon and he wouldn’t have to sit out on his last performance as a dancer. It had even won them second place.

The brunette continues to stay quiet, only because he really doesn’t know what to say anymore. For once, he had nothing to fire back at Jinyoung.

“And what about how he goes out of his way to drive you places, even when he has other things to do? He could force you to take the bus if he wanted, but does he?” No.

“-and how about how he works so diligently to help you out with this whole fake relationship thing even though he doesn’t actually have to?” Well-

“-and honestly just the way he looks at you! I swear you must be blind if you don’t see the literal hearts in his eyes whenever he looks at you.” Jinyoung finishes arduously, watching the gears turning in Jihoon’s head. “Just two weeks ago you were sitting in that exact spot listing all of the things you hated about him, but how do you feel about him right now?”

He remembers all of the times Woojin had cared for him, even most recently when he was in a slump.

You are literally everything amazing in the world.

Woojin showed him that he cared every day, through the little things, or even the things that Jihoon had never given much thought before. Whenever he could, he pulled the question marks out of his spine and used them strangle the life out of his insecurities. He knows exactly what Jihoon wants to ask him, no words needed, and Jihoon usually doesn’t like to bring his problems upon people. But Woojin notices the days he’s suffocating in melancholy descending like rain, and he’s there to hold an umbrella for him. Woojin is the stronghold that refuses to let the demons of his inner thoughts breach. And he never pushes, as if saying 'I don't mean to intrude, but I'm asking if you'll let me'. 

Jihoon thinks about the way he feels around Woojin. He woke up the butterflies that Jihoon never thought would fly again. But this time they don't flutter in his stomach, they soar in his throat and steal the air from his lungs, weaken his knees and burn in his cheeks. And then he thinks this is exactly like Woojin to make him feel like this, blissful suffering. 

“Oh my god..” Jihoon breathes, his head is spinning and he can’t focus his vision, “I think I’m in love with him.”

Jinyoung breaks out into a grin, “There it is.”

Jihoon runs a hand through his hair, “I guess you’re right.”

“Feels good for you to admit it for once.”

“Don’t get too used to it.” Jihoon advises with mock seriousness.

“Wasn’t planning on it.”

Jihoon finally smiles, and then pretends to wipe a fake tear away, “What would I do without you, twizzlers?”

Jinyoung places a hand on his own, closing his eyes and returning an equally dramatic, “You’d be nothing without me, skittles.”

 

 

Later that night, Jihoon sits on his bed - wrapped in his blanket burrito style - watching the eighteenth episode of Reply 1988 without Woojin because he’s still at work and Jihoon is a little too impatient and needs to distract himself in the meantime.

He’s near the end and on edge as he watches Junghwan’s confession, wondering if all of the effort he put into hoping his ship would happen is finally going to be worth it. He squeals into his pillow as the words ‘I really like you’ comes out of Junghwan’s mouth. Jihoon thinks he can finally sleep well at night knowing one half of his ship finally confessed, that is until Junghwan decides to play it off as a joke.

“What the hell?!” The brunette groans into his pillow, his happiness unfortunately short-lived. “They baited me so hard!”

He’s so angry that he doesn’t even realize Woojin grinning at him from the door of his bedroom. “How’s it going?”

Jihoon hides his embarrassed blush by pulling on the strings of his hoodie until the sweater is covering most of his face, but Woojin can still see the obvious pout. The younger steps into the bedroom and plops onto the bed beside Jihoon, who scoots over to make room for him.

“You watched without me?”

“You took an extra shift,” he responds in defence, “Did you really think I’d choose you over my curiosity?”

Woojin rolls his eyes and shifts closer, grabbing his laptop and replaying the entire episode. “You’re gonna have to rewatch it all with me again, then.”

 

Jihoon is acutely aware of Woojin’s presence beside him for the thirty minutes of the episode that he manages to pay attention to. And if he thinks it can’t get any worse than this, Woojin shifts onto his side, laying his head on Jihoon’s shoulder and wrapping an arm around his waist. Jihoon almost stops breathing. He doesn’t even react to the confession scene that had gotten a rise out of him earlier because he can’t think with Woojin this close to him and oh God, can he hear his heartbeat?

The episode doesn’t finish soon enough and when it does, rather than Woojin getting up and releasing Jihoon from his hold, he just continues to hug him tighter, closing his eyes and letting silence fall over them.

Jihoon has to hold his breath in thirty second intervals in a desperate attempt to slower his heart rate. He lies there, throat full of box springs, until he feels the silence is too heavy for his fingertips to hold onto any longer and drops it like a baggage full of his anxiety.

“Woojin.. what are we?”

“Hm?” Woojin’s eyes flutter open and Jihoon is taken by how soft his eyelashes look against his sparkling eyes. “What do you mean?’

“What.. are we?” He repeats dumbly, unable to form any other incoherent sentence for fear of messing up.

“Roommates?”

“No, I mean-”

“Um, archenemies?”

“No, Woojin I’m-”

“Oh!” He sits up and turns to face him, “fake boyfriends!”

“Dammit Woojin I’m trying to tell you that I might be in love with you but you’re making this really difficult!” Jihoon bursts out, eyes shut tightly and fists clenched like he’s already preparing for rejection. But when he opens his eyes, he sees Woojin’s amused smirk. He lets his shoulders fall and buries his face into his hands, muffling his voice, “You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”

“I just wanted to hear you say it. I already knew, of course, who wouldn’t fall for me?”

Jihoon snaps his head back up and grimaces, though still lightheaded. Woojin has that effect on him, making him feel all floaty inside like he’s a helium balloon ready to burst, “Ew. I want to take it back, can I take it back?”

“Do you want to? I’ll let you.” His gaze is playful, a smile still playing on his face. Jihoon can tell he’s serious though, he’d really let him take it back if he regretted it. He can’t tear his eyes away, and watches as Woojin’s eyes grow fonder as they continue to look at each other. Jihoon gets flustered and covers his face with the sleeves of his oversized sweater, “Don’t look at me like that!”

“Like what?”

Jihoon bites his lip, “Like I might have reason to be hopeful..”

If Woojin’s eyes could get any softer, they do immediately with his words. His smile never leaves his face, and he grabs Jihoon’s hands and holds them between his own.

“Mm, so what would you like me to do?” Jihoon is lost for words again, this side of Woojin is stressing him out. He doesn’t even notice where his eyes are focused, “You know, with the way you're glancing down at my lips I’d almost think you want me to kiss you.”

Jihoon’s breath hitches in his throat, swallowing nervously but the words spill out before he can even grasp what he's saying, “And I thought you were smart enough to take a hint without having to ask.”

Woojin smiles and then his lips are finally on Jihoon’s, hand under his chin tilting his head up. The first peck is like a brief flash of lightning, he feels the shock all the way to his fingertips. The younger pulls away, though not by much because his breath is ghosting over Jihoon’s lips, and Jihoon can taste the tension. They stay like that for a few seconds, though it feels like an eternity for Jihoon. He goes into a slight panic with his eyes still shut, scared that if he’ll open them, Woojin will disappear into his dream.

But he doesn’t.

Woojin moves closer again, until there’s no distance left between them and their lips collide, bringing Jihoon further into the heart of the storm. The younger lifts a hand to Jihoon’s face to cup his cheek and Jihoon’s hands weave their way into Woojin’s black locks, tugging a little too hard that it elicits a soft, low growl from the younger. Woojin puts both hands on either side of Jihoon and leans further into the kiss, lightly pushing him until his back hits the headboard. They kiss until they need to break for air - not that Jihoon ever actually had any around Woojin even when they weren’t kissing - and Woojin keeps their foreheads pressed together.

Jihoon is quite obviously flushed from head to toe by now - his lips now red and puffy - and to Woojin he looks quite wrecked already, a smirk now tugging at his own lips.

Jihoon notices the smug look on the younger’s face and rolls his eyes, letting out a breathy, “I hate you.”

Woojin’s smirk breaks out into a full grin, and he pulls away a bit to cradle Jihoon’s face in his hands. Jihoon had always been told that his own eyes were sparkly, but Woojin’s, his were an entire galaxy. And Jihoon is caught among his stars. But galaxies are so free, yet all Jihoon can think of beyond that infinity is still him.

And somehow Woojin still sparkles light despite being breathed into Jihoon’s darkness, at this point he doesn’t know if he could ever look away. Those constellations continue to gaze fondly into the black of his night, and Woojin pecks his lips once more, “Yeah, well, I love you.”

 

 

---

 

 

“Honestly, we should have gotten paid for all of the work we did to push these two together.” Daehwi comments at the sight in front of him. The four friends are seated at a round table - Jinyoung is cooking the meat that Woojin is treating them out for. Jihoon and Woojin sit across from the two, and Daehwi watches on with a grimace as Woojin puckers his lips for Jihoon who is brushing the hair out of his eyes. Jihoon’s face flushes red and he retracts his hand immediately.

‘Aw, you still blush because of me, that’s cute.”

Jihoon scrunches his nose and glares at his boyfriend (read: actual boyfriend), “What are you talking about? I hate your face.”

Woojin snorts, “Then why do you kiss it so often?”

Daehwi chokes on his water and Jinyoung has to pat his back soothingly. “You guys are disgusting,” Jinyoung adds, “I don’t think I thought this through when I forced you to finally make a move. I should at least get a ‘thank you’ if I have to put up with all of this.”

Jihoon judges that Daehwi and Jinyoung shouldn’t be allowed to take credit for their relationship when there is only one person to thank for this whole ordeal. Jihoon looks to Woojin for confirmation and the younger gives him an agreeing nod.

Daehwi scoffs with his arms crossed and (thankfully?) breathing, nose sticking up and ready to fight whoever Jihoon names, “And who is that?”

 

“Harry Potter, of course.” 

 

 

 

 

 

 

~

 

 

A/N: 

I AM SO SORRY FOR THIS. im usually a drabble writer so this fic was a mission and a half for me, but 2park deserves it. thank you to my mutuals/followers on twitter for motivating me as i wrote this fic (follow me ;) @winkscham) i really hope i didn't disappoint you with this??? 

anyways if you pushed through that whole mess then thank you!! and i'd love to hear any comments/feedback you have ily all and your words keep me going ♡