Chapter 1: A New Roommate

It couldn’t exactly be called a glaring contest if only one of the participants was glaring while the other was cowering in fear behind his much taller other half. Yet still, Baekhyun didn’t care about that at all and kept glaring towards where his best friend, Kyungsoo was, while they were standing at the lobby area of the university dorm.

They arrived not even an hour ago yet at the Seoul University of Arts— one of the most desirable universities to go to in South Korea if one wished to make a name in the art industry. The university had various types of art classes offered, ranging from painting and sculpting to multimedia to performing arts, music and dance. Aside from all of that though, the University also offered business courses for the individuals who wanted to take art as business compared to the lot who takes art as passion.

Not even an hour has passed yet, and it wasn’t even noon yet, but Baekhyun already was ready to announce that this day was one of the worst he’d ever had and he was undoubtedly blaming Kyungsoo for it. First, he had to drag a third wheel whom Baekhyun wasn’t exactly fond of, and now this.

“Byun Baekhyun, will you please stop it already! You’re scaring my Baby Soo!” Jongin, the third wheel who came with the best friends said as he shielded his much tinier, whimpering boyfriend from Baekhyun’s glares.

“I don’t care. Even if he dies and rots right here and right now, I won’t care,” Baekhyun said, pouting while still glaring. Although by then, he was kind of just glaring at Jongin’s chest while imagining seeing thru the guy in between him and his best friend while Kyungsoo’s face was buried on his boyfriend’s back.

"Baek, I’m so sorry. I just didn’t know how to tell you,” Kyungsoo weakly said as he risked to take a peek from behind Jongin just to squeak and whimper again when he caught sight of his best friend’s deadly glare once more.

“You went on and reserved us rooms months ago and you couldn’t gather enough courage since then to tell me the truth all the days that we hang out since then? How about the times I kept going on and on about being so excited about finally fulfilling our plans?! Do you realize how much of a shock it is to find out about this just now?” Baekhyun was practically shouting, but he didn’t care. Besides, it wasn’t like there were a lot of people already. It was still a week before the classes officially start after all. There were not a lot of students like them who came too early hoping to get used to the school before classes start. They were expecting to have a lot of company about 2 or 3 days before opening, at least the person who gave them the directions from the University gate to the dorms said so. As for the few people turning their heads at the shouting Baekhyun, he didn't really care at all.

“We planned this for three ing years, Kyung. We were supposed to go to this school and room together at the dorm. We talked about this all our high school years, but then you went on and changed your mind to room with your boyfriend and you didn’t even have the decency to tell me about it? Oh, and not just that, you’ve placed me in a different room with a complete stranger without even a little warning? And now you’re expecting me to accept a simple sorry? Really, Kyung?” Baekhyun continued to rant, completely annoyed of the situation.

He couldn’t believe that his best friend just did that to him. It wasn’t actually the fact that Kyungsoo changed his mind that annoyed him the most. It was the fact that as the day drew nearer, he kept being happy and giddy about their plans, he let him continue believing that they were still intact despite the drastic change of Kyungsoo getting a boyfriend. He was so happy that his best friend didn’t change despite being in a relationship and he spent their summer being so excited, talking to Kyungsoo all about how happy he was that they could finally live together just to find out on the fated day that everything he was excited for wasn’t happening. He felt betrayed. And he actually was betrayed.

Finally taking a courageous step towards his fuming best friend, Kyungsoo stepped out from behind his boyfriend and endured Baekhyun’s glares. He walked straight towards Baekhyun although still wary of the latter attacking and strangling him because of annoyance.

“I didn’t think it thru. I’m so sorry, Baek. I really wanted to room with Jongin but I didn’t know how to tell you, I didn’t want to disappoint you and make you think that I’m choosing Jongin over our friendship because that’s really not it, Baek. I wanted to tell you all along, but whenever I think of how sad you will be and how you might come to hate me, I cower back until this day came and I lost the chance and left it to the dorm manager to tell you. Please forgive me,” Kyungsoo said, lower lip quivering as Baekhyun saw the tears threatening to flow out of his best friend’s eyes at any moment.

At that point, Baekhyun just sighed and decided to finally stop glaring. He also didn’t avoid it when Kyungsoo reached out for his hand and held it while he continued muttering apologies towards Baekhyun in a low voice. All he did was push his head back while he held his thumb and index finger to the bridge of his nose before taking a few slow deep breaths.

He really had no choice at that point anymore but to surrender.

If Byun Baekhyun had an ultimate weakness, it was Kyungsoo’s tears. He had always been weak to his best friend’s tears, and that was true even when they just first knew each other back in the day.

They first met when they were in 3rd Grade. The bigger kids kept bullying Kyungsoo because even though he was one of the smartest kids in their grade, he was so small and timid. When Baekhyun witnessed it happening once though, he didn’t hesitate to defend the boy despite being just as small as well, because after all, he was trained in Hapkido since 1st Grade and everybody in their school knew that because that same year, he had started to join competitions and won a lot of them. In fact, one of the school's biggest bullies was one of the people he defeated. Not to mention his fatal poison tongue which could make even the biggest of the bullies cry their eyes out with just a few words from him. From then on, the bullies would stay away from Kyungsoo whenever Baekhyun was around, and Baekhyun made sure to stay around the other as much as possible. They started to go to school together when they found out not long after that their houses were only a block apart from each other, they spent breaks together, they joined the same clubs and they even went home together. As a result, the unavoidable happened— they became best friends. They talked about everything and shared everything to each other. Except apparently the fact that Kyungsoo wanted to share a dorm room with his boyfriend now instead of his best friend.

“Alright. Fine,” Baekhyun said thru gritted teeth, barely breathing as he forced the words out. But Kyungsoo still heard them, making him smile a little. “I’m calming myself down. I want to strangle you so bad right now, but I’m forcing myself to calm down. Give me a few minutes.”

And the few minutes was given and spent.

Kyungsoo left him alone as he always did when Baekhyun asked for a moment to calm down. It was something they both knew Baekhyun needed to do if they didn’t want a completely pissed off Baekhyun on the loose. After all, a pissed off Baekhyun was dangerous physically, emotionally and mentally.

When Baekhyun was done though and he was ready to face his best friend again, he found him beside his taller boyfriend’s side. He didn’t want to but he couldn’t help but notice that small but certainly happy smile that he had while looking back at his boyfriend while they kept talking quietly as they waited for Baekhyun to be calm.

He sighed. He hated to admit it but never had he seen that kind of smile on his best friend’s face all the years that they’d known each other until Kim Jongin came to his life. It was obvious to everyone that he and his best friend’s boyfriend didn’t get along, but he wasn’t so cruel to keep his best friend away from the person who could make him smile like that so he decided to it up and finally just let it all go.

He sighed once more and one of the couple seem to have heard him then.

“You done, diva?” Jongin asked.

Baekhyun scowled. He would let them be, but that didn’t mean he would start liking Kim Jongin anytime soon.

Jongin got a pretty strong elbow to his ribs from his boyfriend though who looked back at Baekhyun with a slightly held back smile and a hopeful look.

“What now, Baek?” Kyungsoo asked, his eyes gleaming, making Baekhyun sigh once more.

“I’m letting this go, but you both owe me big time,” Baekhyun said, almost regretting every word as he said them, but when Kyungsoo’s face brightened up at the same time that he leaped up and down while cheering giddily, Baekhyun couldn’t help but smile.

“So,” he cleared his throat to get the attention of the couple back to him. “Who am I rooming with?”

Baekhyun was at least thankful that their rooms were going to be on the same floor— at the 8th floor of the Male Dorm building. They were not exactly neighbors though— their rooms were literally facing each other because they were placed on both ends of the corridor— but with the way things were going between Kyungsoo and Jongin, Baekhyun was actually thankful about that. It would be a nightmare if they were rooming next to each other and he starts to hear things in the night. No matter how much he loves his best friend, he still wouldn’t want to know everything.

As soon as the elevator doors opened on their floor, the first thing they did was check out Jongin and Kyungsoo’s room, simply because it was nearer where the elevator was.

They had to admit, the room was pretty impressive. It wasn’t too big, but it looked like it would be spacious enough to stuff all of the things they brought and needed and maybe even invite a few friends over when they want.

Upon entering the room, they were welcomed with a tall spacious shoe rack that had compartments from the floor to the ceiling. Literally. Whoever designed the rooms must’ve thought of how most guys love their shoes. Walking further in, the first thing that welcomed them was the kitchenette that Kyungsoo quickly checked out. The sink was wide and deep with a drying area next to it that was tilted on the perfect angle so that the water drained out straight to sink, leaving no room for water to stay at. There was space next to it was that was spacious enough to prepare for cooking comfortably at, while on the other side of the sink was the space where the double burner, rice cooker and microwave were. There were drawers and cabinets that were empty for supplies storage and utensils and then just beside the sink, there was a refrigerator that was big enough for two people to fill in. As expected, everything was connected to button switches that needed just one click to turn them on and off, and there was a small note posted beside the switch to turn everything off when leaving for the day and at night before bed or else the main breaker where everything was connected would automatically shut everything down— for safety purposes, of course. Kyungsoo seemed pretty happy with it all so far.

Not far from the kitchenette was a small round table that had four seats around it so it was pretty easy to assume that was the mini dining table. Opposite of that was a three-seater couch that had its’ back on the kitchenette while facing an average sized LCD TV that hang securely on the wall.

Walking ahead more, they found two doors perpendicular to each other.

The one door that was nearer the kitchenette was slightly smaller so it was pretty easy to figure that was the toilet and bath. They only checked it out from the outside and confirmed that there was one average sized bathtub, a shower head, a wide enough sink and mirror for two people to prepare at the same time, a cabinet for supplies and a toilet with bidet.

The other door however was what they were most excited about because that was obviously the bedroom— the place they were pretty sure they would want to spend a lot of time at for many different reasons— so they quickly approached it. It was Jongin that opened the door, and they were all satisfied. On both ends of the room were a single bed each and although they were both bare yet, it completely showed the brand new and seemingly fluffy mattresses that came with the room. On the foot of each bed were built-in dressers that, same as the shoe racks, were to the roof. Kyungsoo opened one and they saw how spacious they were inside and neatly divided for different types of clothes and other things they would want to store in it. Beside the beds too, just by the middle were two study tables, each with a lampshade, a single swivel chair and two rows of book rack.

“Not bad,” Baekhyun commented, nodding while continuously looking around while the couple started to choose which bed was whom.

Jongin quickly chose the one nearer the door and Kyungsoo didn’t argue and went to the one further in. While watching them settle and bounce happily on each of their beds though, Baekhyun couldn’t help but wonder how long— or short— would it take before they couldn’t help it anymore and stopped using different beds after all. Baekhyun knew for a fact that the two had some pretty heated up moments already (he didn’t want to know, but there was really nothing he could do but listen when Kyungsoo starts daydreaming while telling him how great of kisser Jongin was) but he also knew for a fact that they hadn’t gone anywhere pass the line. Why? Well he didn’t know because he didn’t ask, and no offense to Kyungsoo, but he really didn’t want to know.

“Hey Kyung,” Baekhyun said, taking Kyungsoo’s attention away from the luggage he’d just started to open already to quickly start fixing his things.

“Yeah?” Kyungsoo simply answered.

“You’ll still cook breakfast for me, right?” Baekhyun asked.

That was actually one of the reasons he wanted to room with Kyungsoo. Because his best friend cooks really well while he couldn’t cook to save his own life. If Kyungsoo wouldn’t feed him anymore, either him or his wallet would suffer, and whichever dies first, the other would follow.

“Of course! We still have the very same schedule anyway so just come over here about half an hour before we head to class and I’ll feed you,” Kyungsoo answered with a bright and excited smile.

“Oh, baby! I thought you’ll only feed me?” Jonging said, all pouty as he jumped onto Kyungsoo who quickly answered his question by throwing him a puzzled look.

“What? I never said that. Of course I’ll have to feed Baekkie too. He’s my best friend and I can’t let him die of hunger or waste his money on overpriced unhealthy processed food. No way. So he’s eating here whether you like it or not,” Kyungsoo said, making Baekhyun smirk victoriously while Jongin just kept pouting while throwing Baekhyun a dirty look.

Baekhyun simply repelled Jongin by ignoring him.

“Thanks, Kyung. With that, I decided I still love you although you pretty much just abandoned me,” Baekhyun said with a grin and then he turned to Jongin with a sharp look.

“Hey you, Kkamjong—” Jongin frowned even more towards him and Kyungsoo pouted while mumbling ‘Baek, don’t call him that’ but Baekhyun ignored them both. “— the friend of yours, are you sure he can be trusted?”

“Of course. He is my friend,” Jongin answered confidently.

“That’s what I’m worried about,” Baekhyun sighed.

“I heard you,” Jongin said, turning hiw frown towards Kyungsoo as if to tell on Baekhyun.

“I know. I did that on purpose,” Baekhyun smirked as he turned around, headed for the doorway where he left his luggage at earlier.

“Baek, wait for me!” Kyungsoo quickly followed when he realized that his best friend was already leaving. “I’ll help you to your room. I also want to meet your roommate so that I’ll know if he can be trusted.”

“Nah, I can manage. Besides, I know that you want to fix your things before we go for a walk around the University later, right?” Baekyun said as he waved to his best friend before shutting their front door and turning around to go to his own down room.

He heard Kyungsoo opened the door behind him so he just walked faster without turning back. Kyungsoo must’ve understood that he really would be alright by himself so he heard the door shut again after a few seconds.

He had to admit though that he felt a little nervous. But then again, who wouldn’t be? He lived and grew up at his parents’ house his whole life. Although he had quite a lot of friends, the only person he’d ever slept on the same room with— and bed, on some occasions, in a completely platonic way— was Kyungsoo. He wasn’t very sure how to feel about having to share a place with a complete stranger, but there was no way he would start complaining now. He was a grown adult. He was 18, nearly 19, and he wasn’t about to complain like a child.

He was at least comforted by that fact that the stranger was Jongin’s friend. He was only trying to annoy Jongin when he said he doubted the guy because he was Jongin’s friend, but if he had to be honest, that was the only comfort he could find in the situation he was in. But still, only just a little.

He didn’t even realize that he was already there until the door was already right in front of his face so he quickly took out his key and opened the door. When the door was opened, the first thing he did was pop his head in first and looked around. There was no one in the room, but he could tell that somebody had started living there already. The first thing he noticed was that his own dorm room was like a mirrored version of Kyungsoo and Jongin’s room. Everything was in exactly the same arrangement, except that they were on the opposite side, maybe because their rooms were on opposite ends. Then he noticed that there were plates neatly lined up on the drying panel by the sink, which meant that somebody just washed those up and was waiting for them to dry before putting them away on the cabinets above or below. When he walked further, he also noticed that there were also pots and pans that were drying at the sink. There were a couple of sets of apron and mittens on a corner that were still on their packs, but Baekhyun was impressed and slightly excited because whoever his roommate was seemed to be someone who can cook. That’s good.

On their mini living room, on the supposedly empty space at the side, were a lot of different music instruments. There was a keyboard set up by the wall with plenty of space around it so that it was easy to pull it out when needed, and then lined up beside it were an acoustic guitar, an electric guitar, a bass… and a ukulele. Seeing the last one made Baekhyun scoff because Seriously?! There was nothing bad with a ukulele, but there was just something funny with the image of a grown man playing what looks like a miniature guitar. The only thing missing was a drum set and they could set up a band in their room, but then again, the dorm management probably wouldn’t have allowed something that loud in there.

He proceeded next to the bedroom to finally see which bed he would have, and as soon as he opened the door, he knew that his would be that bed farther from the door. The one near the bedroom door was obviously already occupied not only because there was already a dark blue set of bed sheet, pillow case and duvet on the bed, but also because the walls beside it was already designed by posters of artists such as Eminem, Muse, Nirvana, The Script and X-Japan. On the desk beside that bed was a laptop, an iPhone, an iPad, an iPod, more than one pair of headsets and a few books and notebooks lying around. He also saw a bag hanging open at the swivel chair in front of the table but he wasn’t about to invade his new roommate’s privacy when they haven’t even met yet so he didn’t even dare peek inside the bag.

Just as he was standing there by the doorway, he heard the door or the toilet and bath open so he turned around by instinct and by the time he did, he and his roommate stood face to face right on the doorway of their bedroom and all Baekhyun could react with was shock.

Right at the moment they saw each other, Baekhyun’s head quickly snapped up just to see his roommate’s face because Dang! He’s tall! He’s even taller than Jongin! And he seriously looked like he was easily a head taller than Baekhyun. He looked just as shocked as Baekhyun was so the shorter didn’t have to feel embarrassed. Despite his towering height though, there was nothing on his face that was the least bit intimidating. His face was small and it looked bright and innocent as that of a child’s, with eyes so big and round while looking back at him, a tall nose and lips that stretched in a mischievous grin. What stood out the most for Baekhyun though were his ears.

‘Were ears supposed to pop out that way?’ Baekhyun thought, but shook the thought out of his head immediately, not wanting it to slip out and appear rude and thoughtless to his roommate right off their first meeting. That’s something the other had to know at least a few weeks later on his own— unless Jongin decides to ruin his life more, that is.

“Hey, sorry. Did I scare you?” The guys spoke, his voice unbelievably deep and almost completely not suited for his appearance, but again, Baekhyun just ignored his own thoughts. He really couldn't be rude, especially when he'd already decided somehow to not judge his new roommate just because he's Jongin's friend.

“Just a little. But that doesn’t matter. Looks like you’re going to be my new roommate,” Baekhyun said and showed the most sincere smile he could force out of himself at the moment and bowed a little before he offered his hand. “I’m Byun Baekhyun.”

“Park Chanyeol,” the guys answered, smiling brightly as he took the hand Baekhyun offered and shook it.

“I can see you’re all settled in. I guess I’ll try to do that now too,” Baekhyun said, walking back to where he left his things earlier, just by the kitchenette.

“Do you need help? I don’t mind helping out,” Chanyeol asked, but Baekhyun quickly shook his head.

“Nah, it’s alright. I don’t have a lot of stuff yet anyway. I only brought one luggage now. My mom sent the others over so they might not be here until two or three days more,” Baekhyun explained as he started working on his things.

“Well, alright then. Just tell me when there’s something you need help with alright?” Chanyeol said and waited for Baekhyun to nod to him before grabbing his iPhone and dropping himself on his bed. Not long after that, Baekhyun noticed that he just kept on texting while humming tunes that changed now and again.

Somehow, even though there was a stranger on the same room as he was, Baekhyun felt pretty comfortable and was hardly bothered by the other’s presence at all.

This isn't so bad, he thought.

"Jongin, why don't you stop texting for a moment and finish fixing your things first? I don't want to go out and leave the room messy when Baekhyun comes back to get us," Kyungsoo complained when he caught his boyfriend texting again, his things just as messy as it was when they started.

He'd been like that for the last ten minutes and he wasn't progressing at all in fixing his things.

"Wait, I have to answer this," Jongin answered, grinning while texting, completely excited about whoever that was or what they were talking about at the moment.

Shaking his head, Kyungsoo just turned around and continued with his things, but when Jongin's phone rang again just a few seconds after he put it down, Kyungsoo turned back to him with a serious frown. Still, that didn’t seem to catch Jongin’s attention.

"Who are you texting anyway? That's not one of your ex or party flings, is that?" Kyungsoo asked, although he didn't really mean it.

Back when they just started dating, they had a lot of problems that involved other people. Actually, all of their problems were caused by other people. And by other people, that meant Jongin’s numerous amount of exes, flings and friends. Not just one or two wanted Jongin to go back to the kind of Jongin he was before meeting and falling in love with Kyungsoo, so they did a lot of things to destroy the couple’s love. At one point, they even got very close to breaking up. When that happened, that was when Jongin finalized his decision of completely leaving his old life of partying all the time while having girls and boys on his beck and call anytime and anywhere he wanted. He had a hard time leaving the kind of life he was used to before but the feeling of almost losing Kyungsoo because of it made him see what was really important in his life.

From then on, he said goodbye to each and every single one he didn’t want in his new life anymore, told them he had a reason to leave and even begged some of them to just leave him be with his love. He also changed his number and his email, and he was just thankful that it was nearly graduation when that all happened so they left their hometown not long after. It was also a good thing that the Seoul University of Arts wasn't an easy school to enter so not everyone planning to follow Jongin there succeeded. And even if a few of them did, Jongin didn't care anymore as long as they don't bother him and Kyungsoo anymore.

When Jongin thought of all of that and how Kyungsoo couldn possibly still be suspicious of his faithfulness in him, his whole being was disrupted so the smaller surely got his taller boyfriend’s attention then.

"NO! OF COURSE NOT!" Jongin quickly answered, shouting in protest.

Shushing him, Kyungsoo winced. "Okay, I know that. I believe you. But you weren't paying any attention to me and you wouldn’t tell me who you’re talking to."

"Soo~" Jongin mumbled weakly. The last thing he wanted was to destroy or let waver Kyungsoo's trust in him again so that was a pretty sensitive topic for him. If only Kyungsoo knew.

"Who is that you keep texting anyway?" Kyungsoo asked, pointing at Jongin's cellphone and in no time, Jongin's smile came back to his face.

"It's Chanyeol!" Jongin said with a bright smile.

"Chanyeol?" Kyungsoo thought for a moment, and then he seemed to have remembered. "Oh, it's that friend of yours who you said is willing to room with Baek!"

"Yeap, that's him!" Jongin said, busily typing again.

"Well, what are you talking about? Is he here now too? Has he met Baekkie yet?" Kyungsoo asked and Jongin nodded with a stupid grin.

"Yeap! In fact, he's watching Baekhyun unpack his things right now," Jongin answered and giggled, which was quite a sight for Kyungsoo because Jongin didn’t do that a lot. He would even have to force it out of the taller sometimes, yet here he was, giggling while texting his friend and talking about Baekhyun.

Wait... A red flag suddenly signaled on Kyungsoo's mind.

"Why is he doing that? Why would he watch someone unpack their things? That's creepy," Kyungsoo said and faked a shiver which Jongin found adorable so he moved by his boyfriend's side and pinched his cheek.

"Well, you see Baby Soo, Chanyeol has been crushing on your best friend for the longest time so he's just happy that he can see him all he wants to now. They're even roommates! It won't take long before Chanyeol makes his move! I can't wait to see what happens," explained Jongin and while he giddily answered back to his friend's text, Kyungsoo just stared at him quietly while thinking about how he could destroy his boyfriend’s expectations in the most subtle way.

"Well, it would be quite a sight alright," Kyungsoo said while focusing back on folding his clothes.

"What do you mean?" Jongin asked, only half curious while also half focused on reading his friend's new message.

"Jongin, I think you and your friend misunderstood something," Kyungsoo said and when Jongin looked back at him in the middle of texting, he sighed— giving up on trying to be subtle and decided to just say it as it is— and continued, "Baekhyun is straight."

For a moment, Jongin just stared back at his boyfriend with his jaw dropped. When Kyungsoo reached in to close his boyfriend's mouth, the other just blankly asked back, "I'm sorry, WHAT?!"