Loud music never really had been his thing (he was more of a classical, opera-loving-guy), the blaring beats all blending into one as they thumped throughout the walls of, the guy that had invited him to his party and whose name he couldn’t remember, but then they were not really friends. The only reason for him being present at such an event the tall and bronzed male that stood beside him or Choi Minho as he was better known, the Athletic wonder boy and second from the top heart-throb of their college. Minho was his best friend, had been since childhood, and therefore he was pretty well known around campus, but not for the same reasons as Minho. No, when people heard the name Lee Jinki they thought of the fumbling, awkward, rosy cheeked guy that tripped over thin air, made the lamest most stupid jokes that only people who cared enough to amuse him laughed at and still managed to rank number two in all of his classes.

“Man, people are going wild,” Minho says from beside him, wiping at the damp patch forming on his brow from the body heat. He idly rubs his long fingers against the side of his chilled beer bottle, his eyes mapping out across the dance floor, that was really just Donghae’s living room without all the ‘living room’ stuff filling it, before turning to throw a sideways glance at his smaller best friend.

“Yeah…” The older male trails off as he watches the people grinding together on the makeshift dance floor almost obscenely. Boy’s with their flashy clothes, all designer labels and shining jewellery and girls with clothes showing off their curves, make-up painted on with an artist’s precision, lips dripping with gloss and eyes rimmed with smokiness, fine wrists, long fingers and ears littered with twinkling jewels.

Jinki didn’t really fit in with that image.

Taking a tentative sip from his beer bottle, he nods in the direction of the dance floor, “You know, you can go and… like have fun. Don’t feel obliged to stand here and share my loser status.”

Minho frowns before giving a gentle shove to Jinki’s shoulder with his own shoulder, a smile creeping onto his lips.
“Don’t be stupid. You’re my best friend, I’m not gonna leave you and besides I am having fun.”

Jinki laughs because really Minho is sweet and he appreciates his attentiveness but the taller boy was always a terrible liar.

“Minho, you’re so far away from having fun right now,” he chuckles slightly before carrying on. “You haven’t taken your eyes off that dance floor since you decided to come and stand here with me. Please just put us both out of our misery and go and…” he pauses for a moment his hands waving around as if helping in articulating his next words, “and join that disgusting sea of sweaty bodies in their debauchery.”

Minho stares at him blankly for a minute before shrugging and patting him on the back. “Okay Hyung, okay.” He says as he downs the rest of his beer bottle, which was pretty much empty anyway and walks with a long-stride grace that Jinki has always envied and disappears in-between the thrashing bodies leaving Jinki at the bar with his empty beer bottle and a bored expression.

He’s momentarily distracted by a tall and scarily slim boy with enough feminine features that Jinki almost mistakes him for a girl, the young pretty boy swaying his thin hips in ways that a boy that looks that young should not be capable of and despite Jinki not wanting to look he can’t seem to tear his eyes away. The hazel brown of his orbs glued to the roll of the slim long-legged stranger as he does some impressive swirl thing that makes Jinki have another chug of his beer before his eyes are drawn to the boy’s pretty face, all plush red lips, hard jaw, soft face and large innocent doe eyes that stare right into his own with a confidence that says ‘caught you’ and Jinki feels the heat rush to his face as he looks away guilty, but not quick enough to miss the knowing smirk on the boy’s plump lips.

He finishes his beer off with rushed sips, deciding that he needed some fresh air he pulls away from the home bar and makes his way to the large doors that lead out into the backyard not before smiling awkwardly at the pretty boy when a bony wrists lifts to the air and sends him a flirtatious wave just to embarrass him a little bit more.

He’s relived as soon as the fresh air hits his face. It’s slightly warm, the middle of summer keeping the humid heat that hung in the atmosphere from the day. Jinki didn’t mind it though, in fact he liked summer, and sure it was annoying when he couldn’t sleep because the heat clung to his clothes and bed sheets when he was trying to stay in one comfortable position but the beautiful sunshine that shone throughout the whole day and just made everything seem that little bit more cheery made up for the bad night’s sleep.

Well sort of.

Lost in his thoughts he wasn’t really paying attention to where he was going and that scenario always ends the same, and he expected the feeling of his face meeting the cool grass of the lawn but he hadn’t expected the strong hand that was currently grabbing onto his arm, tight enough to bruise, and the annoyed “Dude, look where you’re going…” before his but hit the hard concrete of what he guesses must be the steps outside the back doors.

Yeah, that was different.

“You drunk or something? Jeez.”

He looks up and feels the blood rush from his face before filling his cheeks back up in seconds, because right in front of him, well beside him, sat Kim Jonghyun. The Kim Jonghyun that broke practically every girl’s (and some boy’s) hearts with his devastatingly, heart racing, incoherency inducing good looks and toned body. Jinki was pretty sure his heart had leapt into his mouth.

And suddenly he realised why his bicep hurt so damn much. The boy was strong.

Rubbing his arm with a frown he stumbles with his words, “S-sorry, I… I didn’t see you…” he says rather pathetically and he kind of wishes that he had of smashed his face into the green grass, it would have probably been less painful.
“Obviously…” Jonghyun says with an unimpressed roll of his eyes and Jinki feels like an idiot, just sitting there with one hand rubbing his sore arm and widened eyes. Jonghyun looks him up and down once before sighing and Jinki notices how pretty the other boy’s eyes are when they soften, the harshness melting away and in its wake leaving a gentle smooth chocolate brown that makes his heart thump in his chest.

“Did I hurt you?” Jonghyun asks his voice just as smooth as the brown of his eyes and Jinki thinks he may melt into the ground, the tinge of concern in the other’s voice making him want to squeal like an obsessive fangirl.

“N-no…” he shakes his head so much he makes himself feel a little dizzy and Jonghyun shoots him a look that clearly states that he doesn’t believe him for one second. Sighing Jinki looks up sheepishly, a soft pink spreading across the tops of his cheeks, “well maybe a little…” he trails off embarrassed and uncomfortable.

“I’m sorry then, I was just trying to, you know, help…” and Jinki feels shock at the sight of the pink that tints Jonghyun’s cheeks, because like seriously, he was blushing, the last thing that Jinki expected Kim Jonghyun to be doing… well apart from talking to him.

“It’s f-fine. Really, no worries.” Jinki’s says smiling widely at the other hands waving wildly in the air only to fall to his side when he gets no response from the other boy. He shifts uncomfortably when Jonghyun just stares at him, gaze intense almost as if the other has gone into some sort of trance and he grabs at his face self-conscious of any mark or something that could be laughable.

“J-Jonghyun?” He says panicking as the addressed boy focuses and stares him down. He probably thought he was weird, having only just met him and he was calling out his name like they were life-long buddies already.

“You know my name?” He voices as thick but finely shaped eyebrows furrow in confusion and Jinki thinks, what the hell, he’s made a big enough fool of himself for the night so why not keep it going.

“Well... err, everybody knows your name.” He responds his eyes unmoving as he stares at Jonghyun with a fake confidence that he’s pretty sure is fooling no one and Jonghyun breaks out into a cheeky grin that has his legs going wobbly and he thanks the Heavens that he is sitting down. “I guess you’re right.” Jonghyun says with a cocky smirk and a flick of his brown dirty-blonde hair that has Jinki’s stomach doing its own acrobatics show.

“But I know your name too.” Jonghyun announces with a mischievous glint in his eyes and Jinki is ashamed that he’s so excited. He doesn’t answer just waits for Jonghyun to carry on and after a few seconds the other boy’s silky voice fills the slowly cooling air of the night. “Lee Jinki.”

He thinks it’s sadly pathetic how the sound of his name falling from those full lips has him rolling around in bliss, in his head of course, he wasn’t that weird.

“Don’t wear it out…” he says rather stupidly and Jonghyun just stares at him blankly, “You know… the saying that’s my name don’t wear it out…?” he tries to explain, tries to make the situation a little less lame than it really was but then Jonghyun’s bursting into loud and hearty laughter as he clutches his stomach and it’s Jinki’s turn to stare blankly, eye twitching periodically at every bout of laughter that comes from Jonghyun’s mouth before he too is laughing.

They laugh until their not sure why their laughing anymore, until it hurts so much that Jinki’s bent over hand on Jonghyun’s arm for support and their laughter bubbles into giggles and then panting as they gasp for air.

“.” Jonghyun starts clutching his chest as he throws his head back to stare at the twinkling night sky, “I haven’t laughed like that in so long…” he admits whilst Jinki wipes at his eyes, Jonghyun’s attention being drawn from the night sky onto his shaking form, reaching out without thinking he runs his fingers along Jinki’s heated cheek where his tear drops due to laughter stick to his soft skin. Jinki’s breath catches in his throat at the feel of Jonghyun’s fingertips against his flushed skin and his eyelashes flutter, fanning out against the very top of his cheeks in such a pretty way that Jonghyun can’t take his eyes off the other boy's face. He’s sure he’s never seen anything as beautiful then, and in that moment he realises that he must have had his idea of beauty completely off, all the girls that told him that they loved him, their eyes caked in heavy make-up and lips that formed pouts with lip gloss thick and thin hands that ran down his muscles. In that moment all of that seemed pointless meaningless, and when Jonghyun really thought about it, it had been. It had never meant anything, because all those girls only wanted him for what he could give them, the status, the envy of other girls that wished they were them and he wasn’t arrogant but he knew that people wanted him, what it meant to be associated with him, he was cynical and distrusting. Not arrogant.

It was strange because looking at Jinki now; he was prettier than any girl that Jonghyun had felt, kissed or had under his fingertips. It seemed unreal, impossible but the clumsy boy before him was purer and had a gentle prettiness that made him far more breathtaking than those girls. His plump lips, that had a natural pink tint not needing the enhancement of make-up to make them kissable, his soft almond shaped eyes of delicate brown that hit something in Jonghyun’s chest, the round cheeks that blossomed with an embarrassed red, God he was beautiful.

And Jonghyun wasn’t even drunk.

To be honest Jonghyun had always noticed the other around. He spotted him in the Library once and had found a tucked away place to feign interest in a Musical History book when he had really spent a whole fifteen minutes watching the other silently study, the way his chubby but small fingers brushed across the crisp pages of his book, his eyes shining in intrigue when he found something interesting, the pearly white teeth that bit down into the plush surface of his lips bringing a rush of blood up and colouring the lip caught between his teeth as he struggled with something that confused him, the smile that washed over his features lighting up his whole face as he overcame his confusion, his glasses slipping down only for small hands to push them back up again, the annoyance of stray pieces of his honey brown shoulder length hair that fell out of place only to be tucked behind small ears, said small ears twitching slightly at the brush of what looked like soft stands tickling them, the chewing of the pen he held plump lips closing over the lid as he furrowed his brows in concentration, his hand moving quickly to scribbled down his extensive notes. It was the best lunch period he had ever had and he hadn’t even eaten.

Yeah so maybe he had done a little more than just notice the other boy around.

Blushing at his thoughts he quickly pulled his hand away from the other boy’s cheek, laughing awkwardly as he rubbed the back of his hair, musing the otherwise perfectly placed stands.

“So… why are you out here?” He questions after a few minutes pass, both of them trying to calm their nerves.

Jinki looks up and shrugs gently playing with the grass beneath his feet, “parties aren’t really my thing.” He confesses with a smile that gets hidden by his hair falling into his face. “What about you?” He asks looking up from the grass to settle on Jonghyun’s face.

“What about me?” The other says whilst running his hands over his tight jeans.

“Why are you out here?” Jinki pushes, a smile playing on the corners of his lip.

“Parties aren’t really my thing either…” He says with a hint of amusement in his tone, a hand coming up to swipe at the overgrowing bangs that consistently fall into his eyes.

“Like I believe that.” Jinki voices with a chuckle.

“What do you mean?” Jonghyun wonders aloud as he leans back on his muscled arms, spreading his legs further apart unaware of Jinki’s gaze on him at the change of position.

“W-well you know, your Kim Jonghyun… people are always saying about how you never stop partying… and stuff…” Jinki doesn’t elaborate, not feeling brave enough to add the part about the whole ‘sleeping around and being a wild playboy.’ He wasn’t sure the other would appreciate that.

Jonghyun lifts his head and settles his gaze on Jinki’s face, eyes boring into the other boy’s as he says, “don’t believe everything you hear, Jinki.” Jinki nods for the hell of it and Jonghyun smiles lazily. “People talk a lot of .” Leaning further back he sighs “and they think they know me, but they don’t. Not really.”

Jinki listens intently his eyes never leaving Jonghyun’s well built form as he takes in the other’s words and he feels a sense of pride, or maybe achievement because this feels like Jonghyun is opening up to him, is confiding in him and that was a marvellous feeling.

“I guess that’s probably true… what with your status and everything…?” Jinki says uncertainty seeping into his tone, “I mean, people are fickle sometimes.” That catches Jonghyun’s attention and he turns to look at the other boy with interested eyes.

“And you’re not?” He says with a teasing smirk causing Jinki to blush and look away before answering, his eyes soft when they land on his face.

“W-well, I like to think that I am not–”

“Do you think everyone wants me for the popularity, huh Jinki?” He knows it’s cruel but he can’t help but to tease the other just a little bit more, not when those gorgeous round cheeks fill so beautifully with a shock of red that gives away the other boy’s embarrassment.

“N-no. I am mean. I don’t know. It’s not really any of my business I guess.” Jinki splutters nervously, his chubby hands wringing together on top of his quivering legs. The supple flesh of his thighs covered with tight black denim and Jonghyun stares for a little longer than he should, imagining his hands on those inviting curves instead before realising that Jinki may not just be shivering from embarrassment but because of the chill that was biting into the night air, the temperature having dropped a little in the time they had been sitting out there.

“Is that so… but I’d like to hear what number two in all his classes thinks.”

“I– does it really matter what I think?” Jinki states with a gentle chuckle that holds some bitterness beneath it. “I mean what I think has no relevance. My views aren’t important right?” Jonghyun finds himself breathless when Jinki lifts his head to look at him, eyes glazed over with dampness and shining brighter in the light of the moon, but a dazzlingly bright smile stretching his lips.

“I’m just me.”

“Exactly.” Jonghyun says quietly but loud enough for the other boy to hear.

“W-what?” The other boy questions with confusion swimming in the endless honey glazed brown of his almond eyes.
“Nothing,” He brushes it off, his self-assured grin back on his face by the time he’s looking at the other again. “What do you say to ditching this place?” He voices suddenly, so suddenly that he even surprises himself and the look that washes over Jinki’s soft features tells him that the other boy is as equally as shocked.

“What do you mean?” He questions, tucking a stray piece of hair behind his ear nervously and Jonghyun feels an itch in his fingers from the urge to reach out and do the same, the temptation to find out how those long strands would feel under, around, in-between his fingers overpowering and the thought that he could possibly be losing it crosses his mind.

“You know like leave here.” He elaborates with a mischievous glint in his alluring orbs and equally as mischievous grin on his plush mouth. He sees how the other plays with the thought in his head before he looks at Jonghyun with a shy smile, “Okay.” He says with a nod, pink still tinting his cheeks.

“Uh-Oh, guard dog…”

Jinki stares at the other boy bewildered, not understanding what the other meant, the word ‘huh?’ queuing behind his lips before Jonghyun’s nodding in the direction behind them and Jinki looks out of sheer curiosity only to smile when he sees the tall and tanned figure of Minho approaching the large glass doors of the yard.

He waves slightly, watching as the younger boy opens the doors with a frown on his face. A frown that stays in place as he eventually stands in front of them, Jinki instantly getting up to stand next to him.

“I’ve been looking for you.” Minho says with a gentle smile that he only reserved for the shorter male. “I got a little worried.” A chuckle escaping his full mouth as he rubs the patch of hair at the back of his nape, eyes shifting to Jonghyun’s figure still on the step.

“Jonghyun-shii,” he voices with a nod in order to acknowledge the other’s presence, Jinki not seeing the glare in his eyes.

“Minho. Jinki and I were just thinking about heading off. You wouldn’t have the time would you?” The older boy says with a confident smile that always worked on all the girls, but Minho wasn’t a girl and right now the older boy wasn’t exactly on his good side.

“It’s almost twelve.” He announces a stiff tone to his voice and Jinki frowns suddenly becoming aware of the rising tension that filled the air.

“Uh… yeah. Are you leaving now Minho?” He wonders, a hand resting on the younger boy’s tense bicep, the look that flashes across Jonghyun’s eyes going unnoticed by Jinki, but not Minho as he turns his gaze to focus solely on Jinki’s expectant face.

“I was actually just gonna give a lift home to Kibum and wondered if you wanted me to drop you off too.” Minho explains a gentle smile on his face.

“Uh,” Jinki throws a look to Jonghyun’s direction the other glaring at Minho’s tall figure before noticing Jinki’s stare and straightening up. “I should probably get going.” He says finally, a bite to his lips finalising his sentence.

“Sure, I’ll wait by the front door okay?” Minho throws another stern look at the older boy still sitting down on the step but this time he looks a little dejected and Minho feels bad for revelling in that.

Jinki nods and thanks the younger boy as Minho pats his back affectionately, the hand sliding down the plains of his back and Jonghyun feels so jealous it’s ridiculous.

When Minho’s figure exits through the back doors and they can no longer spot him in the crowd that still move enthusiastically to the music inside, there’s a sense of relief on both sides but for completely different reasons.

“I guess I’ll see you at College then?” Jinki says apprehensively, not knowing if he will regain his stranger-status to Jonghyun once in the broad daylight of the College days.

“If you can find me…” The other boy says with a deep chuckle that makes Jinki’s stomach rumble and flutter.

“I’ll keep my eyes open then.” He jokes with a chuckle of his own, his a lot lighter against the air than Jonghyun’s.

“See you around then.” He says wistfully, not really wanting to leave and he feels his heart thump inside his chest when Jonghyun starts to get up and walks closer towards him and then there face to face and Jinki feels lightheaded with the proximity.

“Yeah, see you around Jinki.” There’s a look in the other’s eyes that Jinki can’t decipher, can’t interpret and he feels stuck to the spot not wanting to leave and possibly throw away a chance. He’s not even sure what that means, what chance that could be but he can feel it. Something in the other boy’s pools of chocolate brown orbs that makes his heart jump a little and his nerve ends tingle with excitement but then his phone buzzes and he laments at the moment being severed. The glow that floated between them being burnt out.

“I should go… Minho’s waiting…” He doesn’t get the time to turn around because before he can even take a breath Jonghyun’s pulling him away from the back doors and up against the brick wall, full lips meeting his in a forceful joining and his limbs freeze and his heart hammers deep inside his chest.

He lets Jonghyun kiss him for a few seconds before realising that he wasn’t responding and the other starts to pull away causing a surge of panic to spear his chest and he doesn’t even think as he grabs onto Jonghyun’s shirt keeping him in place as he brushes their lips together again. He feels Jonghyun’s heart beating beneath his fingertips his fist in the other boy’s shirt and Jonghyun moves his arms, one wrapping around his slim waist as the other slides up into his hair, the short boy’s long fingers running through the silken strands with gentle motions.

“You better come and find me.” Jonghyun says, pulling away to stare into Jinki’s eyes, keeping his hand on Jinki’s body, the fingers in his hair twirling the long stands of honey brown around slim fingers.

Jinki blushes brightly his gaze dropping slightly as a smile blossoms across his whole face, things were moving pretty fast, perhaps a little too fast but they were young and Jinki wasn’t going to pass up a chance like this. Not when he had spent so many years of his life fading into the background and hiding behind Minho’s flaring shadow. Was it so bad to want something that everyone else seemed to be able to claim so easily? People fell in love (and out of it) all the time, everyday, and he wanted to take a chance for once in his life, act a little reckless, and he was going to enjoy it.

“Sure.” He says with a non-committed shrug, laughing as Jonghyun pulls him into his chest a pout on his lips that they both kiss away, with eager lips and exploring hands and that time he ignores the buzz of his phone in his pocket.

Maybe Jinki didn’t mind parties all that much.