The walk to the ice cream parlor was a whole ten minutes of awkward silence. Yongguk looked like he was trying really hard to come up with something to say, and since I didn't have any ideas either, I patiently waited until he found something to talk about. 

It wasn't until we were entering the shop that Yongguk was smiling at me. 

“You have to try the cheesecake swirl,” he exclaimed eagerly. In his excitement, he grabbed my hand to tug me over to the crowded line of people waiting for their turn. He didn't seem to notice his hand gripping onto mine, but I on the other hand took great notice to it and was a blushing mess as I let myself be dragged to wait in line. My mind was all over the place wondering if he even knew the effect such a simple gesture was having on me, but then I saw the ice-cream and I completely forgot that we were still holding hands. 

“Whoa, that’s huge!” I said, watching the person behind the counter ram four scoops of ice ream into a gigantic waffle cone. I was pretty sure I was salivating at that point. 

Yongguk chuckled from beside me, nodding in a agreement. “They make the best ice cream around here, I’m surprised you haven't been here before.”

It was then that he seemed to notice our hands interlocked and he abruptly pulled away. He let out a nervous laugh, reaching up to rub the back of his neck as he averted his eyes. I didn't say anything about it in fear of possibly embarrassing myself so I settled for keeping my eyes locked on the people in front of me. 

The line slowly shuffled forward and after a few minutes, we made our way to the front. 

Like I’ve said before, I have a slight problem when confronting new people, so when the man behind the counter asked what I wanted, I was a stuttering mess. 

I could tell the man was getting impatient, but that only made me more nervous. Just as I was about to scurry out of line to avoid the embarrassment, I heard Yongguk speak up from beside me. 

“We’ll get two of the cheesecake swirls,” he said. 

“What kind of cone?” the man asked. 

Yongguk turned to me, giving me an encouraging smile as he waited for an answer. 

I was still reeling from the situation, but I managed to point shyly to the waffle cones. 

Yongguk’s smile widen at me before he turned back to the man. As I waited awkwardly besides him, I noticed the way some of the girls in the shop were quite openly gushing at Yongguk. I frowned, getting more grumpy as they continued to point and giggle amongst themselves as they all eyeballed Yongguk. Couldn’t they see that he was here with someone? Granted we weren't together, but still, didn't they have any consideration for my poor heart?

A laugh pulled me out of my thoughts. “Why are you pouting like that?” 

“H-Huh? I wasn't pouting,” I said, my eyebrows scrunching together as I glanced up at him, seeing that he’d already gotten the cones, one pushed towards me.

Yongguk just chuckled in response as I took the cone. I was distracted by how delicious it looked up close, but I felt Yongguk nudging me from behind to get out of the crowd and onto the streets. 

“How about we find a place to sit in the park?” He offered, indicating the park that was right across the street. 

There was a fountain in the middle of the square and Yongguk got excited when he saw that their weren't people around it. 

“Come on, let’s go sit over there,” he said, leading the way to the small fountain. He didn't hesitate to plop down, but I took a second to carefully inspect the area to make sure there wasn't anything that would get on my clothes. 

I heard Yongguk laugh, but when I looked over at him, he pretended to be innocently eating his ice cream. 

I took a seat, careful not to get too close to him because that might be too risky. I took a bite into my ice-cream and was surprised by the taste. 

“It actually tastes like cheesecake!” I gasped, amazed that such a flavor of ice cream could exist. “This is officially my new favorite thing. I’m going to get all the diabetes with how much I plan to go there from now on,” I said, excited over this newfound treasure, earning a laugh from Yongguk. 

Just then, a bee went buzzing near me and I leaned off to the side so it didn't get in my way. But then it flew over to Yongguk. 

Although I never would’ve pegged him for the kind of guy to be afraid of bees, he was in fact very scared. 

His eyes were wide as watched the bee fly closer towards his face. When it got too close for him to handle, he made a sound of terror as he did crazy dodging and ducking movements to avoid the bee’s wrath. The bee wasn't intimidated, however, and only flew closer, resulting in a sharp turn from Yongguk as he tried to get away, before letting out a yelp as he went crashing backwards into the fountain, his ice cream plopping onto the ground just before he fell in. 

I jumped off my seat to stare wide eyed at him sitting in the fountain under the spray of the water, and I really wanted to help him get out, but I was laughing too much. 

I tried hiding it behind my hands, but Yongguk was clearly aware that his little dip in the water was highly entertaining to me, and didn't seem to be taking it well as he just stayed put in the water, just letting himself get sprayed by the sprinklers. 

After my laughter had subsided to giggles, Yongguk peeked up at me, an embarrassed look on his face as he began shifting to get up. But his shoe slipped on the coins that were at the bottom and he went splashing back in. 

I was laughing once again, but this time, I really did decide to help. I ran over to a trash can to drop the half eaten cone in. I came back and swung a foot over the edge of the fountain, followed by the other. Then I was wadding over to him. I was getting awfully soaked by the little sprinklers shooting out of the fountain, but I didn't notice it since I was trying to keep my laughing to a minimum as I made my way to him. 

He noticed me coming in and stared at me like he didn't expect me to follow him in. But then, when I got close enough, I ducked down, stretching a hand out. 

“You're like the little mermaid when she first got legs,” I laughed, watching him shake his head before smiling.

“Expect I think she was more graceful about it than I was. And I’m not sure how I’d look with red hair,” he grinned, pulling at his wet hair that was sticking to his forehead. “I might not get any handsome land fella that’ll want me.”

I laughed. “Don’t worry, I’ll be your prince Eric.” 

Yongguk lifted an eyebrow, although the smile was getting wider. He took my hand, and I helped haul him up. I laughed at the spray of water that hit my, and Yongguk did, too, before pulling me towards the edge. 

He climbed out first and then he helped me, both of us soaking to the bone. 

“Sorry about this whole thing, we even lost our ice cream,” Yongguk said, sheepishly reaching to tug awkwardly at his hair. He looked a bit embarrassed, but if anything, I found it as the perfect ice breaker between us. 

“It’s nothing. Everyone has their clumsy moments," I said, pulling at my clothes that were sticking uncomfortably to my skin that we were out of the fountain. 

Yongguk chuckled, reaching out to help me get the hair out of my eyes. 

“Well, we can’t really do much now,” he said, pointing to our wet clothes. “Should we head back to my place now for that study session?” 

“Sure,” I said, causing him to smile wider. 

“Maybe when we’re done with work, we order a pizza from that place where you work.”

“No, anything, but that,” I said, scrunching up my nose at the thought of all the crazy things Himchan might come up with. “My brother might just show up at your door himself with the delivery and refuse to leave. So unless you want an annoying old man pestering you, you should probably consider Chinese takeout, instead.”

Yongguk’s laugh echoed down the street as we started walking back to his apartment, and I was feeling pretty satisfied with how today turned out. Who knew Yongguk could be so easy to talk to? Maybe there was a chance for me after all. 

………………………

(at the end of the semester)

“I’m going to fail,” I groaned into my hands, hitting my head against the table miserably. 

“Hey, with me as your tutor you’re definitely going to ace this final,” Yongguk said from behind me, chuckling as he pulled me away from the coffee table and closer to him where he was braced up against the couch. Both of us were sprawled out on the floor in front of the coffee table with books scattered around and littered everywhere on the floor. 

“Yeah right,” I mumbled grumpily, ignoring the way Yongguk was nuzzling my neck with his arms snaking around me waist.

I was spending the night at his apartment, hoping to get some last minute studying in, but he hadn't been very helpful with the way he kept distracting me.

“What do you mean? We did plenty of studying today,” Yongguk mumbled into my neck, leaving little kisses as he moved from the base of my neck to my ear where he gave a little nibble to the lobe.

“Yeah but it’s not enough,” I said, squirming away from the ticklish feeling. “If I fail this, I’m going to have to retake this class and there’s no room for that in my schedule next year which means I’ll end up being behind and won’t graduate on time.” I groaned again, burying my head in my hands. 

Yongguk ceased his little kisses to pull my hands down, but I was sulking and refused to move. Yongguk laughed, giving up to run his hands, instead, up and down my legs that were crisscrossed between his which were stretched out, disappearing under the coffee table. 

“You worry too much, Jae. You’re going to do fine. You’ve been working hard all week. You need to relax. If you stress too much, you’re going to end up forgetting everything during the test.”

I pouted from behind my hands, hating that he was making sense. But still, I still felt like I wasn’t studying enough. I sighed, dropping my hands and rested my head back against his chest. 

“Just a few more practice problems,” I declared, making up my mind that just a few more would ease my nerves. Yongguk sighed from behind me. 

“Alright, but don’t end up spending another two hours on it, or I might just drag you to bed,” he threatened lightly, nipping at my ear teasingly to get his point across. I swatted him away, but nodded nonetheless. 

I scooted forward to the table again out of Yongguk’s arms and grabbed the calculator, ready to get to work again. I heard Yongguk getting up and a quick glance over my shoulder showed that he’d moved himself to lie down on the couch. 

“You can just head to bed, you know. I’ll come when I’m done,” I said, turning back to the textbook.

Yongguk snorted a laugh. “Uh huh. Sure you will.”

I rolled my eyes, crumpling up a paper filled with math scribbles and turned around to throw it at him. He peeked an eye open when it hit him, and I stuck my tongue out before going back to my work. 

“How is it that even when you’re grumpy you manage to look so cute?” he mused, stretching at hand to land in my hair and ruffle it up. I wiggled out of his reach. 

“How is it that someone as good looking as you can still manage to be so annoying?” I lamely threw back, causing him to laugh. 

“All I heard was the part where you said I’m good looking,” he laughed, and I crumpled another piece of scrap paper to throw it blindly over my shoulder, hoping it hit him in the face. 

From the way he was laughing, though, I guess I’d missed.

After that, it quieted down and I finally got to concentrate. And as I worked through the textbooks pages, I realized Yongguk was right. I had finished the problems without much of a struggle, which renewed my confidence that I might actually do well tomorrow. 

With an excited smile, I started closing up the books to head to bed. But when I turned around to tell Yongguk I was ready, I noticed him fast asleep, one hand hanging off the side of the couch, the other one lost somewhere between him and the couch. His mouth was open, allowing a little flow of drool to run it’s way down this side of his face. 

The sight made me laugh quietly, wondering how I’d ever though this big dope was too intimidating to talk to. 

I waddled on my knees over to the side of the couch, using a finger to gently push back his mouth closed. I made a face at the drool and tugged my sleeve to use it to wipe the wet line away. 

“Guk,” I called softly. “Come on, let’s go to bed.”

I watched as he stirred for a second before falling back asleep. 

“Gukkk,” I whined, poking him in the side. He stirred again, this time rolling over so that his back was to me, probably a silent protest for me to leave him alone. I sighed, knowing there was no way he was going to make it to bed. 

I pushed myself up and made my way into his bedroom. I hauled off the blanket from his bed and dragged it behind me as I went back into the living where I padded over to switch the lights, leaving his small apartment in darkness. The walk back to the couch was a little difficult as I kept bumping into things without seeing them, but I eventually made it. I tossed the blanket over him then crawled over Yongguk and nestled myself into the crook of the couch and him. It might not have been the idea place to fall asleep before a major exam, but this way was more comfortable anyways. I smiled at the way Yongguk’s arms wrapped around me under the blanket and I snuggled in deeper. Yup this was definitely better.