It wasn't like Jinki was a bad roommate, really. He always picked up after himself, and he never ever ventured near the bathroom when you were taking a shower, not to mention he tidied up the couch each day and managed to cook you breakfast, lunch, and dinner as well. All in all, he was a really nice roommate. The fact of the matter was, you didn't know anything about him other than his name and the fact that he was 22 years old and majored in broadcasting music.

    "Let's go out," you said one day over breakfast and was actually totally unprepared for the choking and coughing mess that Jinki quickly became.

    "Hey!" you exclaimed, reaching across the small table to pat him awkwardly on his back. "Are you okay?"

    Jinki didn't reply, simply took a long sip of his water and then stared at you.

    You shifted, uncomfortable under his gaze. "Yes?" you queried, wondering what it was that you said.

    "Go out?" Jinki repeated, and you choked on the rice that you were eating.

    "No!" you quickly said, a little louder than needed. "I didn't mean it that way! I mean! I meant it as friends! Friends!" Your hands waved wildly, and then Jinki laughed. Immediately, your hands stopped flailing, and you smiled as well.

    "Where do you want to go?" Jinki asked finally, and you laughed, tapping your finger on your lip as you thought. Then you slowly began to grin.

    "I have the perfect place in mind," you replied, quickly whipping out your phone and searching up that perfect deal you had seen just the other day. "Let's go to the pastry shop!"

* * *

    "Milk bubble tea, please," you ordered, sinking awkwardly into the plush booth at the edge of the shop. Jinki sat across from you and glanced at the menu for a few seconds before simply ordering water.

    "Water?" you asked, eyebrow twitching as you picked up the little menu for baked goods the shop had and wondered which tasty treats you should get.

    Jinki shrugged, and you gave up on finding anything that would be tasty but reasonable in calorie count. This was more of a guilty pleasure pastry shop than a have-a-healthy-bite one.

    "So," you said, drumming your fingers on the table as you waited for your bubble tea to come, "Jinki-ssi, I'd like it if I could know a little more about you. Of course, having a roommate isn't a onesided relationship, so let's do a trade. One question for another."

    The waiter came back at that moment with your bubble tea and Jinki's water, and there was a small pause as you both took the opportunity to sip at your drinks.

    Jinki made a small hmm-ing sound and played with the straw in his glass of water. "May I save these questions for later?" he asked, and surprised, you nodded.

    "Why don't you start then, and I'll keep count."

    You cleared your throat and nodded again before asking, "What were your previous plans this summer?"

    "I didn't really have any plans," Jinki replied, and you stared at him in disbelief. He shrugged and nodded for you to continue.

    "What were you doing at the library that day?"

    "I was actually hoping to use the internet because my router at my apartment had just died."

    "So you live by yourself then? What about your parents?"

    "My mom is dead, and my dad…I haven't seen him in a while now."

    You frowned at this revelation and sipped at your bubble tea while you tried to think of another question to break the sudden aura of awkwardness. "I'm sorry… Um, how about—"

    You quickly cut off as you heard your name called and suddenly felt the urge to bury your face into the ground. Instead, you forced a smile on your face and chirped, "Himchan-sunbae!"

    The attractive black-haired man stepped in front of you and grinned widely, repeating your name. You didn't miss the affectionate -ah attached to the end and felt your heart beat a little faster. Then you reminded yourself that you were trying to get over this man. He had already rejected your feelings once! You weren't about to allow him to get you twice!

    Jinki apparently didn't miss the affection either because he glanced, wide-eyed, between you and Himchan before standing up, clearing his throat, and introducing himself as your roommate.

    "Kim Himchan," Himchan replied, bowing in response to Jinki and grinning. "Wow. So polite! How old are you?"

    "I was born in '89," Jinki said, and Himchan's mouth widened into a large 'o'.

    "I can call you Jinki-hyung then!" Himchan exclaimed, scooting into the seat beside you. You nearly died from the mini heart attack you had right then and there.

    "Did you know this girl goes to the same college as me?" Himchan asked, laughing and slinging an overly friendly arm around your shoulder. "How do you know her, Jinki-hyung?"

    You sipped quietly at your bubble tea but didn't miss the slight annoyance on Jinki's face from being addressed so familiarly after the first meeting. "Jinki-ssi," you said, smiling in what you hoped was an encouraging manner, "it's okay to tell the story."

    "I broke her leg," Jinki mumbled, and you could swear that Himchan's smile grew wider.

    "I didn't quite catch that, sorry."

    Jinki looked like he wanted to melt into the ground, and you took pity on him.

    "Himchan-sunbae!" you said brightly, smiling. "Allow me to tell the story. When I was in the library, I was being a little clumsy and bumped into Jinki-ssi. I ended up breaking my leg." You motioned toward your left leg which was in a cast. "That's why I couldn't make it to our appointment on Saturday, sorry."

    "That's okay," Himchan replied, ruffling your hair and motioning toward your bubble tea. "Would it be okay if I had a sip?"

    "Ah," you said, tightening your grip on your bubble tea. Was he trying to make fun of you? He already knew about your feelings and had rejected them over the premise that he didn't know you well enough, but now here he was…attaching -ah to your name and asking you for a sip of your drink! It was absolutely infuriating and yet it was also making you like him more…silly girl.

    "I guess," you mumbled quietly, pushing it over toward the older boy.

    "Aha, thanks," Himchan said, grabbing onto the plastic cup and taking a long sip from the straw.

    You watched as he drank almost the entire volume of what was left in the cup before giving it back to you. He handed you back the almost empty cup, and you looked at it forlornly for a second. That was a pretty expensive cup that you had bought, and now half of it hadn't even gone into your own stomach. Still, you smiled and pushed the cup to the edge of the table in favor of mentally groaning over the loss any longer.

    Jinki raised his hand and flagged a waiter down. "I'm feeling a bit more thirsty than I was originally. Would you happen to have any more bubble tea?"

    "What flavor?" the waiter asked, and you saw Jinki's eyes flicker over to the cup you had pushed over to the corner before he replied with the exact flavor you had ordered before. A small part of your heart began to beat uncontrollably, and it spread throughout your body so that you had to look down at your hands in order to fight a blush.

    "So how are you doing?" Himchan asked, drawing patterns on the table with his finger. "I haven't seen you around university lately."

    You resisted the urge to smack your head against the table. "It's summer vacation, Himchan-sunbae," you replied, shrugging. "I don't feel like I need to go back to university for anything yet."

    "Ah, you mean you had plans for this summer?" Himchan asked, leaning back in his chair.

    "Yes," you said, gritting your teeth and scuffing the toe of your right shoe against the ground in an attempt to vent your anger without it being noticed. Instead, you felt your right foot hit something solid and quickly looked up to see Jinki grimace slightly in pain. Quickly, you tapped your foot against his in apology and smiled weakly at him over the table. Then you returned to kicking the ground angrily as Himchan began to chatter on about his summer plans, all the while referring to you affectionately. Was he doing this on purpose?

    It surprised you when you felt something warm touch the skin of your ankle, and you looked up from the hands in your lap to gaze at Jinki who had the sort of glazed look in his eyes that people get when they're simply listening to be polite and not actually listening at all.

    That's his ankle, you realized, feeling your cheeks go hot. The warm skin of his ankle pressed against yours again as he applied firm pressure. Ah, he wanted you to stop moving your foot around under the table. Oh my gosh; we're basically playing footsie! you thought and immediately returned to fiddling with your fingers, but you did shyly press back, showing that you had gotten his message.

    Immediately, Jinki's foot withdrew, and you couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed before you pasted another smile one your face as you turned back to Himchan.

    "Ah, Himchan-sunbae, I really am sorry for missing our appointment on Saturday, but that was the same day that I was in the hospital for my leg. Jinki-ssi—"

    "What's with the formalness?" Himchan queried, guffawing loudly. "If i remember correctly, you called me oppa the first time we spoke."

    Your cheeks burned. Yes, you had called him oppa, but…it was because you were confessing, and it wasn't exactly the first time you had spoken but more like the first time you had a real conversation without your mutual friends filling in most of the blank space. Unsure of how to respond, you looked down at your hands and was glad when the waiter returned with Jinki's bubble tea.

    "Ah," Jinki said, looking forlornly at the bubble tea in front of him. "I forgot that I'm not allowed to have dairy. It would be such a waste to not drink this bubble tea…"

    The words even sounded cheesy to you, and you hid a smile under your hand as you tried not to giggle.

    "Jinki-ssi," you said, stressing the -ssi. "I'd be happy to drink that for you. I can pay you back the money—"

    "No need!"

    Himchan glanced between you two, obviously confused by your awkward interactions. "Aren't you two roommates?" He raised an eyebrow and winked at you, sending a shiver up and down your spine. "Oh, I see. Is there something else—"

    "No!" both you and Jinki exclaimed at the same time, and you hurriedly took a sip of your bubble tea to control the rage that you were feeling. Really Kim Himchan was such a jerk! You just couldn't understand why he still made your heart race.

    "Why don't you call him oppa then?" Himchan asked, and he scooted in even closer to you. His left hand came to rest around your shoulders, and he leaned down to whisper something in your ear. "Oppa~, I've finally gathered up my courage…."

    You stiffened and shrugged Himchan's arm off of your shoulder. Across from you, you could see Jinki's eyes quickly flicking between the two of you, and you quickly made an excuse not to talk by drinking the rest of your bubble tea furiously.

    "Really, this girl," Himchan said, laughing and patting your shoulder. "She's so shy sometimes; it's really cute."

    You stared down at the table, cursing Himchan the arrogant jerk for making your heart beat this fast and making this atmosphere this awkward and—

    Jinki made a small exclamation of surprise and quickly stood up. "We completely forgot! Didn't you say that the meeting with the landlady was at noon today?"

    It took you a moment to comprehend, but then you were vigorously nodding,  grabbing your crutches standing up as well. "Ergh, she'll be really angry if we're late! Sorry Himchan-sunbae, we'll have to go now."

    Himchan looked surprised, but you didn't stick around to hear his words, instead grabbing Jinki's arm and hobbling awkwardly to the exit. Of course, nothing could possibly go perfectly, and Jinki ended up tripping as one of your crutches caught his foot at an awkward angle. Luckily for you, you let go of his arm at that exact second to steady yourself and your crutches. Unluckily for him, Jinki managed to crash to the ground with a small groan.

    You screwed your eyes shut, waiting for what would happen next and was not disappointed when Himchan's laughs began to reverberate around the café. Jinki was still on the ground, staring down at his hands and seemingly not in the mood to get up at all.

    "Really," you huffed, awkwardly dropping down to the ground with a thud to be on Jinki's level. "Jinki-ssi, are you okay?"

    Jinki didn't reply, but you could see his hands trembling, and HImchan was still laughing, though quieter now as if he had realized he had done something wrong.

    "Jinki-ssi," you said again, reaching out to grasp his lower arm. "Jinki-ssi, let's go. Don't…" You frowned and tugged on his arm gently. "Jinki-ssi, I'm sorry. It was my fault. My crutch got in the way. Please, let's go."

    Jinki nodded and slowly got up, but now he grabs your crutches from you and quickly slides his arm around your waist to support you. Surprise would be an understatement as you made a small choked noise in your throat before you were quickly dragged out of the pastry café.

    Once you two were a sufficient distance away from the café, he handed you back your crutches and let go of your waist.

    "What was—"

    You were cut off by his laughter. Yes, Lee Jinki was laughing and rather freely at that. His eyes crinkled, and his whole body shook.

    "You should've seen his face!" Jinki exclaimed. "He was so shocked! I don't think he'll be so carefree around you anytime soon."

    "Hey!" you snapped, smacking Jinki in the arm and causing him to stop laughing. "That's not cool! I was really worried back in the café when you fell! And why did you do that anyway?" Huffing, you quickly hopped forward with your crutches. You didn't want to be near Jinki any longer because that would mean admitting that you had actually felt safe and secure when his arm had wrapped around your waist.

    "I'm sorry!" Jinki exclaimed, running forward to catch up with you. "It's just that…you looked…"

    You stopped and swiveled around to face Jinki who was looking awkwardly at the ground now. "Yes? I looked?"

    "You looked like you needed help," Jinki muttered, looking away to the side. A light blush dusted his face.

    "Oh," you simply said and felt your heart melt into a puddle of goo. He was worried about you; he noticed that about you. He knew you? He saw through you? "Thank you, Jinki-ssi. Really, it means a lot to me…"

    "It's no problem," Jinki muttered, looking everywhere but your eyes. "And…you know, even though we haven't known each other for a long time, we will know each other by the time your leg has healed, so…you can call me…Jinki…oppa…"

    You smiled widely at his declaration and glanced shyly at the ground before replying, "I'll try, Jinki…oppa."

    His smile back was brilliant, and your heart thumped wildly inside of your chest, but this was different from when you thought about Himchan. This was…softer, nicer…

    Jinki's voice cut through your thoughts, and you smiled as you looked up at him.

    "Yes, Jinki-ss—Jinki-oppa—Jinki-ssi?"

    "Let's go home."

    Yes. Home. That sounded good to you.

    "Of course, Jinki…oppa. Let's go!"