“HEY HEADS UP!!” A guy looks up to see a soccer ball hurling towards him at an incredible speed. 

“OH !” He dodges the ball quickly by bending backwards but falls down, because he is not flexible.

“Hey! Are you okay? You’re usually not like this.” A deer faced boy says while running towards him.

“Yeah, Sorry. I’m just out of it today.” The guy says from the ground.

“You good? Is this because of school? You haven’t found a new place to live yet, right? Are you sure you’re okay?” Luhan gives him a hand up.

The guy chuckles. “No No No Lu, I’m good, I’m fine, Really, I’m just a bit tired.”  

“I’m sorry, Minnie. I would totally help you out but my mom is coming to visit me in Korea for a while so I don’t have any extra room.” Luhan knit his brows, looking as if he’s trying to come up with a plan to fix all of this.

“You’re not like over working yourself these days, are you?” Lu asks

“Lu chill, I already found a new place to live it’s defiantly further than campus then the complex but it’s bearable and cheap. Besides it’s not like you can kick out or make your mom stay in a hotel. That would be rude and what kind of friend would I be if i did that to your mom?” 

“You sure?” Luhan says not convinced at all while picking up the soccer ball with his foot.

“Seriously Lu, You don’t need to worry. It’s ME. I can take care of myself. You know me.” Minseok says a bit annoyed as this conversation is still going and he just wants it to end. 

“Alright, Alright, I believe you.” Luhan replies giving up, throwing both his hands up in a ‘I Surrender’ motion

Minseok steals the ball from Luhan and dribbles it half way down the soccer field and Shoots! But…misses the goal by ALOT and the ball flies over the goal onto the pavement.

“Nice one.” Lu deadpans.

“I’ll go get it.” Minseok groans and runs to go pick up the ball.

The ball bounced it’s way down the pavement and bumped into someone’s foot. The person picked it up and searched for whomever had lost the ball. Said person saw a man running up the steps from the soccer field and onto the pavement, scanning the ground in search of the ball. Said person walks up to the man with soccer ball in hand. “I think this belongs to you.”

He turns around and to say ‘Thank you’ but is cut off when his eyes widen at  the person smiling ear-to-ear while handing him the ball. 

“Thank Yo-……..” 

“What? Is there something on my face?” The person chuckles while touching their face with their hands, inspecting to see if there’s some left over food or maybe a leaf on their face/head.

“Amber!” Minseok yells out.

“Xiumin!” Amber says in a cherry response. 

“How have you been? How’s school, Mr. SMU full scholarship student? Man, I was so happy for you when you got a full ride to SMU, that’s crazy.” Amber says excitingly.

“Yeah….” Minseok says 

—Flashback—

A sleep deprived Minseok is looking at a computer screen with the letters H-A-L-T-E-D written in bold, taunting him. “Halted.”

“Dear Mr. Kim Minseok,

Thank you for choosing to study Barista Studies at the Graduate School of SM University but after you have failed to maintain ALL As for your Fall 20XX semester classes and once again failed to maintain ALL As in your classes of the Spring 20XX semester and your scholarship has been halted and taken under review. We, the financial faculty of SMU, are taking your situation under review in order to decide if we should wait another semester to see if your grades go up or revoke your scholarship now. Please be patient and understanding, we are doing the best that we can. 

Sincerely,

The Head of the Financial Department of SM University” Minseok reads from the email that he recieved earlier today.

“What am I going to dooo?” He cries/whines while rubbing his hands on his face in frustration and messing up his hair in disbelief.

“What am I supposed to do???” He whines again and faceplants on the computer desk. 

“And I’m still paying off the loans for my undergraduate studies. UGH” He whines  with his face laid on the table.

“First, My roommate moves out leaving me to pay for the apartment all by myself when I was already behind and struggling to pay for my share of the rent. 

Then, I get a notice to move out all my stuff by Friday, and it’s now Thursday, because the apartment complex is a privilege to SMU scholarship students and according to the landlord I’m no longer am one.

And lastly, It’s the middle of the school year, I’m interning at a famous cafe which is great but also means NO MONEY, and I can’t possible find a place to live now that’s super cheap and close to campus and my job.

Worst.Timing.Ever.” Minseok is now dreading his existence on this world.

*Ding ding* Minseok’s phone rings for a text message. On the screen he see the contact name ‘Landlord’ displayed on it.

“Remember to move out your stuff by tomorrow afternoon. ;) “

“Ugh. No.” *Faceplants again*

—End of Flashback—

“I haven’t heard from you in a long while. How’s the barista training going? I know you always dreamed of being one since we were younger.” Amber asks

“…….”

“Xiu?”

"MINSEOK OPPA!" Amber shouts

Minseok’s eyes widen and he wakes up from his daydream. “A-Oh I’ve been good. I’ve already got my license for professional barista-ing but right now, I’m back in graduates school to further my studies.” he replies hurriedly.

“Oh I see, Really taking that extra step to become even better. That’s the Xiumin-oppa i know and love.”

“Oppa, huh? I haven’t heard you call me that in a long time. You used to go around calling me ‘Hyung’ all time in Highschool.” Xiumin says blushing while looking down and rubbing the back of his head.

“I used to call you ‘Oppa’ too before.” Amber laughs

“Rarely.”

“Well I feel like it’s appropriate to use now. You’re longer Baozi-faced anymore. No more cute ‘Hyung’, now your kind of a manly ‘Oppa’ now.”

“Kind of?” Xiumin says but obviously hiding the fact that he’s smiling too hard for his own good at the fact that amber called him Manly and Oppa in the same sentence.

“So, what brings you to this park?” He asks

“I live around here. This park is in my neighborhood and come around to everyday to doing some exercise, you know; skateboarding, basketball.” 

“Oh, I work part-time in the cafe a few blocks from here.” Xiumin points to the cafe’s general area.

“That’s weird that I’ve never seen you around until now.”

“Yeah, that is weird.”

“Well, I have to get back to my friend.” Xiumin points to his thumb to the back of him.

“Yeah, Yeah, go ahead. Your friend has probably been waiting for a long time now.”

“See you later, Amber! it was nice talking to you again!” Xiumin says as he starts walking back, backwards and waving

“Yeah see you around! We need to hang out sometime!” Amber waves back.

“W-WAIT!”

Xiumin stops abruptly. “What?” 

“I got a new number, give me your’s so I can put it in my new phone.”

“uhhhh actually, I dropped my phone in a puddle a couple of days ago so now I’m phone less but you can call my cafe during my work hours to catch me. Here give me your phone.” Amber hands her phone to Xiumin and he puts in his work phone number into a new contact. “Done. Now you can call me whenever you need me, but it has to be during my working hours.”

“Gotcha” Amber thumbs up.

“Well, I gotta go!”

“Okay, Laters!”

__________A couple days later______________

It’s 1:53am and Amber is whales “Ugh. Pain everywhereeeeeee.”  as she gets up from her bed.

Amber wanders into her kitchen to search the medicine cabinet for painkillers. “None. Ughhhh” Amber sighs

“Need to go buy some before I die.” Amber puts on a hoodie, sweats and a snapback and heads out.

Amber walks down the road to the nearest 24hr convenience store and buys some painkillers and chocolate. She spots a delivery guy getting off his scooter and returning his helmet to someone who’s probably a manager/boss, signaling the end of his shift. The delivery guy turns around and it’s.

“Xiumin.”

Amber plans on sneaking up to him and scarring him so she walks quietly behind him. But right before she scares him he makes a turn and walks into 24hr sauna.

“Why is he going into a sauna at this time?” Amber says as she stands infront of the sauna. “Maybe…. he’s meeting someone?” although she wants to go in and question Xiumin  but a wave of pain from her cramps strikes again and it convinces her to head home.

____________________________________________________________________

I'M FINALLY FREAKIN BACK AFTER A YEAR!! I feel like apologizing will do nothing as I never fix my updating methods and what not. but I"M SORRY and THANK YOU SO MUCH for my loyal subscribers and silent readers. Your comments keep me going. LOVE YOU ALL.

Now do any of you know what Xiumin is doing in the sauna late at night? Did my college horror story scare you too much? Do you guys like the Xiuber i threw in? What do you want to see later in this fic? PLEASE COMMENT BELOW! Do you want me to keep this fluffy or through some slight angst in?

P.S. I tried to make this chapter long (actaully it was supposed to be longer but then it would be TOO long) I'll update the next chapter soon because I kinda left this one hanging.