Taehyun eyed his roommate across the room. Spraying cologne (shower himself with cologne actually) and hair gelled up, letting tufts of hair stuck out in different directions and making it look able – according to him. He knew where he was going, no doubt so. Wife beater and just black jeans, Mino spread his left hand towards Taehyun.

“Mind passing me the jacket?” Mino asked with an eyebrow arched so high like it was his job to do things for him. Taehyun grabbed his leather jacket near his study table – which he thought how the hell did that thing ended up at his side of the room, and tossed it towards him and left with the door unclosed.

Taehyun didn’t mind Mino as his roommate, really, but sometimes he just wanted him to get that habit off him. The first time he stepped into the dorm, Taehyun just hoped that they could get along, like how they would stay awake in the middle of the night, cramming for their test tomorrow or just maybe stay quiet together and enjoy the silence.

“So, you are my roommate?” Taehyun jerked up to the voice that invaded his privacy. Door shut behind the man and smile planted wide on his face, grinning to what he did not know. “Hi, I’m Mino by the way. Song Mino.” Cap on his head, a finger pushed the sunglass and it slipped down to the tip of his nose to see a pair of eyes looking directly at him. “Taehyun.” Simple introduction on his side with a crooked smile, Taehyun turned, back facing him.

Just maybe Taehyun could warm up to him, but not on the first day.

What Taehyun had hoped for was nothing but just a wishful thinking because Mino was not an ideal roommate or a person in general. He could even hardly see him at night and partying over some place. Just like this time, he was off to some place – which Taehyun marked this as one of his lucky day because other than that, Mino would bring along his bunch of friends over, especially that guy with deer eyes over. Oh yes he almost forgot, his name is Jinwoo.

And when he was there, he would have these eyes all over Taehyun and made him feel like he was . Mino would nudge him and be like “Dude, he is my roommate. C’mon, don’t tell me you are interested?” At this point, he thought that maybe this Jinwoo guy prefer and kissing face with people who possess the same anatomical layout from himself.

That made Taehyun stopped studying and ended up sleeping with his unfinished homework.

“ my life!” Taehyun blurted out with a bang on his desk, and he could almost swear that that could leave a mark on his laptop. His best friend, Baekhyun turned to him with a questionable look. “What is wrong with you?” Taehyun ruffled his hair in annoyance and started to punch those many keys on his keyboard. The typing sound became louder and the force he used, Baekhyun could almost feel the tension between him and his laptop.

“Hold up, what in the actual is wrong with you?”

And after cramming all his homework in just 4 minutes before their professor enter the class; Baekhyun finally digested the information on Taehyun’s side of the story.

“Well, I honestly think that Mino is a cool guy.”

Baekhyun received a slap on his arm. His best friend could not seem to see the fact that coming back to the dorm at an ungodly hour with his bunch of friends and back to drinking wasn’t much of an ok to him.

“I think you should stop bringing your friends over.” Taehyun came up to Mino one day, in their room of course. Mino stared at him with an unimpressed look. He swore that his gaze could bore his skin.

“And I think that you should loosen up and follow me to a party tonight.”

“No.”

“It’ll be fun. I promise.”

“No, I have to study.”

“Are you even serious?”

“Yes.”

“Suit yourself then.”

Mino had a hard time understanding the fact that he hated crowd. It made him sick and every single time when he was about to leave the room for the night, Mino would ask him if he wanted to tag along. It became an everyday routine and despite the same answer, Mino would never stop asking and it irked him. And what he loathed most about the last comeback of his words was “Oh, you’re an antisocial anyway.” Out of all words that could describe him, Taehyun found that pretty offensive. He is a very sociable person, thank you very much. He just, social differently.

Taehyun felt like clawing Mino’s favourite vinyl records.

Before he’s capable of doing anything that could ruin the things that was at the other side of the room, a pale guy came in to his dorm. Oh great, again Mino forgot to lock that god damn door. “Where is Mino?” That guy – the Jinwoo guy came in to his room. Taehyun shrugged and went back to his reading.

“You should know where he went.” Jinwoo took a seat on Mino’s bed.

“And why would I?” Taehyun faced him, closing his book, putting it down. “Well, you guys are roommates. That is why.”

Taehyun gave Jinwoo that I’m-Sorry-Too-Bad-I-Am-Not-That-Kind-Of-Roommate look before taking back his book. Before he could even finish reading the first line, he felt heat beside him. His bed plunged deeper and he averted his gaze to the side, Jinwoo was already on his bed, leaning against the wall, just like him. “What… are you trying to do?”

Jinwoo closed the gaps in between, hands cupping his soft chubby cheeks. Taehyun could not even utter any word. This is too close, too close. He was right, he loves . And Jinwoo’s lips landed on Taehyun’s, it stayed there and when there was no any reaction given, the older one pushed even more, tongue at the bottom lip of Taehyun’s and the younger one whimpered.

Out of all days, when Taehyun thought that Mino could stick to his usual god damn schedule, that hell of a roommate of his barged (it’s his room too though) into the room and found his best friend and his roommate each other's faces.

“What the -“ Mino covered his eyes with his left hand, on the other hand was what Taehyun thought it might be, which was exactly it was.

“I. AM. NOT. GAY.”

Taehyun pushed Jinwoo away and screamed out, clearing his throat afterwards. Jinwoo stood up and went towards Mino, a hand patted on the shoulder and left the room. Dumbfounded, Mino dropped the plastic bag containing a small cake (Taehyun was right about that). He got off from his bed and there, standing before Mino with hands at the back of his neck, eyes wandering on the floor as if the carpet was the most interesting thing and Mino broke his own reverie, looking back up at him.

“Sorry to drop it. Uhm, this is yours. Yea, this is yours. Eat it. And happy birthday.”

He was talking in fragments. That is an unusual for him. It’s weird; Taehyun could never deal with awkwardness. Mino left without saying anything after that.

Wait, how did he know that it was his birthday?

White shirt, denim jacket and black pants, perfectly groomed. His hair was back combed (he might want to add that his middle parting hair could be the biggest ever and Baekhyun called it the hair) but hey, he loved it more than anything. Spraying perfume from top to bottom, he just could not wait to go out with Baekhyun on his birthday.

“Are you done?”

Taehyun took a glimpse at the door and found Baekhyun clad in light blue long sleeves shirt, his quarter khaki pants, his favourite snapback and that non-glass spectacle which he thought was the useless object he had ever seen.

“Wow, look at you. Who is the birthday boy now?”

“This year, we are making it different. We are not going for dinner, like how we usually do every year. Since you are 21 this year, let’s go for a party. Some place I know, and I usually go.”

Taehyun stopped his track. No, not that he hated party but just that he preferred being alone, maybe with someone he loves like Baekhyun or his brother but never the crowded and loud places. Baekhyun tugged his hands on Taehyun’s arm and pulled him. “Don’t worry, it is going to be fine. I’m here.”

“Baek, I am not a social butterfly like you. I can’t.”

“Listen,” Baekhyun halted and faced him. “I am going to take care of you, ok? And it is going to be fine. You’ve never been to a college party right?”

Taehyun shuffled his feet and nodded. He never been to college parties and the last time Baekhyun dragged him was in high school and he threw up pretty badly – no alcohol to add some point and Baekhyun knew how much crowded places made him sick.

“I’ll be there for the whole time, just for you.”

The birthday boy had no say as his friend pushed him out of his shell.

The booming sound of the music and the people running towards the house filled with another throng of people he could hardly recognized, yeah he knew where they were going. Baekhyun could not contain his excitement, he grasped Taehyun’s wrist and pulled him. Noise louder than before, lights on and off, eyes hurt.

“I’ll get you a drink.”

Baekhyun went off, no longer in his sight as he vanished into the crowd. Taehyun just leaned against the wall and hands over his chest, feeling uncomfortable. No, this was not what he wanted. Sure, he hated people calling him an antisocial but hey, he was quite socialize online and probably have more than a thousand followers in Twitter but the loud music and people so close to each other that he could hardly breathe, this wasn’t exactly his kind of socializing.

Too deep in his thought, he didn’t realize someone came up to him until, “Look at what we have here?”

Taehyun snapped from his thoughts to look up and there, Mino standing in front of him with that grinning on his face.

“I heard someone don’t really go to parties like this.”

Mino leaned closer to Taehyun.

“Get the off, I’m here with Baekhyun.”

Chest almost touched.

“I know. I never knew he is able to bring you down to this place.”

Taehyun glared at him. Questions playing in his head, what exactly did Mino meant by that? And talking about Baekhyun, Taehyun could not find him. It had been more than fifteen minutes and taking drinks wouldn’t be that long. Eyes wandered, looking at everywhere except for the person before him.

“If you are searching for Baekhyun, you won’t find him. I always see his face around here. He is pretty much somewhere hiding in one of the room kissing a random guy.”

Well, that did not end well. Taehyun shoved him away and left the party. Firstly, it was not his idea, secondly, Baekhyun promised him that he would be with him at all times and lastly, you have Mino to ruin your entire life in college. He was definitely visiting the student hub to change his room first thing in the morning.

Taehyun heard his name from behind. Faintly but soon, it became clear. Those deep voices he recognized.

“Hey, Taehyunnie, wait up.” As Mino caught up with him, he rested his hand on Taehyun’s shoulder, catching his breath. “What do you want? Embarrassed me even more? You have a party to attend, Mr Social-Butterfly.” Mino stood there in silence, biting his lower lip, repressing any witty comeback that might hurt his feelings even more.

“They’ll let it pass. Let’s just go home, ok?”

Taehyun could not protest and both went back to their dorm.

“Now, I’m hurt. You didn’t eat my cake.” Mino pointed to the cake that was still on Taehyun’s desk. Plopping his limbs on the bed, Taehyun’s mind was rambling and he could just wish for it to shut up. “Taehyunnie?” Taehyun faced him, this time he sat and leaned against the wall. “Yeah?”

Mino sat beside him, legs crossed, back against the bed frame. “I’m sorry for calling you an antisocial. I didn’t mean to. Baekhyun told me about it.”

“What else did he say about me?” The blood was boiling at the name he heard. “You know, he isn’t all that bad. Baekhyun told me to go easy on you and even tips about you.” Mino held his breath for a moment, searching for assurance in Taehyun’s eyes before continuing. “And well, I ed up. I hate my ego sometimes. And… don’t hate on Baekhyun. There’s a guy named Chanyeol and he had been eyeing him since forever. I think they are just getting started.”

“Oh, wow. He didn’t even tell me that.”

Mino rested his hands on Taehyun’s. Silence filled the air and it restricted Taehyun to breath. Somehow, he felt comforted but he noticed Mino’s eyebrows met, eyes worried. “What’s bothering you?” It was Taehyun’s turn to comfort him.

“Just, I’m just in a dilemma to either kiss you or not.”

Taehyun grabbed the nape of his neck and pulled him forward. Their lips met and eyes closed. He tasted like strawberry and vodka and whatever he put in his mouth but the savory of his lips got Taehyun addicted and he did not want to let go. Mino nibbled on his lower lip, then tongue into the cavern. Lapping a bit on the younger’s tongue; he then took them whole to it. It tasted better than all the girls Mino’s kissed and Jinwoo was right, he was sweet as . Mino pulled back for a moment and took in some air.

“Okay, since when you are gay?” Mino asked Taehyun in disbelieved. “All,” Taehyun kissed him. “the,” he pecked on his lips again. “time.” Moving up, Taehyun straddled his leg around Mino’s waist and bit Mino’s left ear, slowly tongue to every inch of his skin to the jawline.

Jinwoo never knew karma was going to hit on him that night. Those night he thought it was fine to go to other’s dorm just to annoy the hell out of Mino and sometimes Taehyun, he liked it, so ing much and the fact that Mino got so worked up after seeing him kissing Taehyun, he finally got to prove the fact that his best friend was gay-ing over his roommate all these while.

But what Jinwoo found was not what he was asking for. Sure, it was not his fault that he got caught red handed but he didn’t deserve this. At least a treat for dinner would be nice or just a thank you like “Dude, I owe you and because of you, I realized that Taehyun is the love of my life,” something similar like that but never this way.

He barged into the room to see Mino and Taehyun under the sheet, body sweating, and room reeked with lust and even more . Jinwoo went out in a hurry and breathed heavily.

“SOMEONE, I NEED TO BLEACH MY EYEBALLS!”