Luhan threw himself onto Yifan’s bed without looking and immediately groaned in pain when he landed on the sleeping owner of the bed. He rose from the bed quickly, rubbing his side with a frown on his face. If only this were the first time it happened, he might have some sympathy for his friend. Luhan however had the nasty habit of throwing himself without looking all the time so Minseok was beyond being bothered when the other got hurt.

“It’s coming together, our performance. See my plan was a good one! Also Wu Yifan get up. Its Saturday and it's noon already. Why are you still in bed?” The only response Luhan got from Yifan was a halfhearted smack from a disembodied hand before it disappeared again.

“He’s not getting up. He ran a thing with the other performance majors. Very exhausting apparently. He showed up like at 4 am with sticky notes all over. I went back to sleep.” Minseok informed Luhan while he reached for his iPhone, perched on the desk a couple inches away from the bed.

“I don’t even want to know. Anyway can we talk about our group? Like these rookies have all got talent and not all of them are performance art majors. Why have they been hiding?”

“For the same reason that I never would have done this if it weren’t for Yifan whining nonstop.” Phone in hand Minseok sat up in bed and sat back against the wall.

“Alright fine. You have a point but it makes you wonder who whined and who gave in. In some cases at least. It’s quite clear that Tao whined and Sehun gave in.”

Minseok’s attention however had drifted away from his friend and was entirely focused on the messages he’d received from a certain journalist in training.

He grinned at the messages before beginning to type out a quick response. He didn’t want Jongdae to think he’d been ignoring him last night. His friend just wasn’t very good at keeping track of what time it was. This was by no means the first time Jongdae had sent messages later than was reasonable. Minseok thought it was actually quite adorable how the younger boy easily got wrapped up in things. He was so easily distracted.

“Ohhh... Minseokie is smiling. Adorably I might add. Yifan look!” Luhan’s voice snapped him out of his focus on his text messages. Before he got a chance to lock his phone, Luhan lunged for it and snatched it out of his hands. His eyes quickly taking in the messages before handing over the phone to a bleary-eyed bed-haired Yifan who promptly looked twice as awake as before.

“Wow. When did this happen? You’ve been texting him constantly given how comfortable these texts seem. Oh look another text. So should I take your silence as a no? Frowny face.” Yifan said before tossing Minseok’s phone back to him. Minseok caught it and quickly unlocked it to reply, all the while ignoring his friends.

Luhan was definitely one to talk and Yifan? Well Minseok just didn’t even want to go there.

~~

After Minseok had escaped his best friends and all the teasing that followed after they read his text messages, he was able to think about his plans for later. He was going out with Jongdae and it would be just the two of them. Every single time they’d met up since the infamous dinner, where Luhan had forced the two groups together, they’d never been alone. There was always someone else present.

The thought of being alone with Jongdae wasn’t terrifying but it sure was nerve wracking. He didn’t want to come across as too interested or too disinterested because at this point he could admit that he liked the other. Their constant texting had forged an understanding between them that Minseok only had with Yifan, Luhan, and his close family. He liked to think that they definitely had something between them and a definite future.

However the fluttering he got in his stomach when he thought about that future was god awful. Minseok didn’t do nervous but just the idea of being alone with Jongdae was enough to make him nervous. Something had to be done about that. If they really did have a future, he couldn’t always be so absolutely nervous he was one step away from shutting down.

His phone buzzed again. The sound, usually quiet and easy to miss, was loud and clear in the rather silent library. He look around himself to make sure no one had heard the buzz, grabbed the book he’d been meaning to check out, and made his way to the front counter. The text was simply a series of emoticons which he countered with a couple faces of his own.

Jongdae did this all the time. The messages were sometimes not really messages just nonsense things. Jongdae had explained that he just needed to express himself immediately and Minseok had told him he was free to express himself with him via text. He didn’t mind. The only reason Minseok didn’t mind was because he liked Jongdae said a voice in his head that sounded eerily like Luhan. Minseok tried not to think about that and simply returned to panicking about his meet up with Jongdae.

How in the world was he supposed to act normal when he couldn’t even think about the meet up without getting ridiculously nervous?

~~

“Right so I asked Yixing to ask Junmyeon why he was so annoyed and he did. Apparently Junmyeon feels upset that we only ask him for input when his money is involved. Which I guess makes sense when you think about me, I make him buy me everything but Yixing? He’s the most innocent little baby. He’s basically a unicorn. So there’s no way he asks Junmyeon for money like I do. Anyway I feel really bad about asking him to do the communications aspect of Exo with me.”

They were walking towards the bar, both having agreed it was close enough to walk and that driving tipsy was a terrible idea anyway, and Jongdae was currently explaining his current dilemma. Listening to the way the younger talked about his best friends made it rather easy to understand the situation at hand. He just had a way of explaining things, granted he also sounded like a teenage girl, but hey two out of three was a good thing usually.

“Well maybe you should make Junmyeon feel like he’s more than just your personal bank and now come to think of it, your driver too. He’s your best friend right? You should let him know that. His mood will improve immensely. Probably. I don’t know him nearly as good as you do.” Minseok sounded calm and reassuring. It made him so happy on the inside.

The moment he’d finally met up with Jongdae the feelings of nervousness had dissipated and he’d felt fine. Like he was just going out with friends and nothing was especially the matter. A beautiful thing because he couldn’t come across as weird. Jongdae wouldn’t be nearly so interested then.

“You’re so smart Minseok. See doing that would never have occurred to me. Being nice is weird you know? Oh well you wouldn’t know. You are nice. All the time too.” Kim Jongdae was fabulous at rambling. No one did it better than him and that was just another thing that Minseok found adorable about him.

“I’m not nice all the time. Just ask Luhan and Yifan, they’ll tell you. Anyway how much further till we reach the bar? You promised half priced drinks.” Minseok turned to the younger with an expectant expression and the bright smile on Jongdae’s face was answer enough.

~~

They were both a couple drinks in. Their booth littered with all empty shot glasses, a half eaten plate of nachos, and their respective sweatshirts.

“So then after making my blog I was like...this is gonna be great. I’m going to have so many followers and by the time I graduate people will know who I am. Then a week went by and I had like a couple followers but I couldn’t really count them because they were either sympathy follows or follow backs and those never count you know.” The younger of the two sipped at his beer with a slight frown on his face.

“But you’re popular otherwise the fangirls wouldn’t have left us alone so quickly. I mean you tweeted and they listened.”

“Well that’s recently Minseokie. Ever since I became mainly a gossip blogger I got a couple of actual follows plus the time around the Faceoff is always busy. People always want to know so its my prime time to deliver for the select few. This whole Exo thing has been gold for my readers.”

Minseok nodded seriously at his companion and finished his beer. Feeling slightly more courageous and wanting to help Jongdae gain more followers, he psyched himself up.

“Why don’t we take a couple selcas. What do people call it? Oh yeah fanservice. Your followers would like that right?” He carefully and subtly eyed his reflection in his empty glass before looking over at the gossip blog owner. The other was staring at him like he’d just told him the answer to life.

“You would do that for me? Ohhh Minseok!”

Suddenly Jongdae was sitting beside him and stretching his arm, phone in hand to capture both of them in the shot. He made a cute face and Minseok couldn’t help but turn in the younger’s direction as he smiled. They took a couple pictures like that before Jongdae put his arm down. Jongdae was pressed against Minseok’s side as they scrolled through the pictures and picked their favorites to tweet and post on tumblr.

To Minseok Jongdae looked perfect in every picture they took and as that thought crossed his mind he realized he wasn’t nearly drunk enough to get away with taking selcas. He called a waitress over and order another round of drinks. He was still too sober to not question his own actions.

~~

“Oh! Oh! Oh! Oppa I love you. Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! So much so much. I’m shy so please don’t laugh,

I’m being sincere so please don’t tease me. Again it’s only foolish words, oh.” Jongdae belted out the words before looking at his partner on the karaoke stage.

“It’s not the me you knew before, brand new sound. Together with this renewed me, one more round. Dance dance dance ’till we run this town. Oppa oppa, I’ll be, I’ll be down down down down.” Minseok continued where the younger had left off, not missing a beat.

The song came to an end far sooner than the two expected but when it was over the bar crowd was cheering and clapping. They staggered off the stage and made a beeline to the bar for another round. While they waited for their drinks Jongdae winked at Minseok and they both burst into loud giggles.

“Minnie, Minnie. You’re so cute! Omg. I could just squeeze your cheeks all the time. You’re too cute! Do you think I’m cute?” The younger said, once they were back at their booth, around the rim of his beer mug . Minseok blushed before nodding his head.

“You’re really cute Jongdae-ah. Can you keep a secret?” The elder whispered and the younger leant forward across the table between them before nodding seriously. “Okay, well don’t tell Minseok that I said this but he thinks that you’re really really cute and that you should be his boyfriend. You didn’t hear it from me though!”

“I promise I won’t tell Minseok. But really, he likes me? Omg this is great! I really like Minseok too. He should definitely tell me so I can tell him I like him back. Then like we can date and be cute together. It would be so cool! Omg. Thank you for telling me!”

Their conversation went on and on about Jongdae dating Minseok. When they signaled their waitress of the night over, she looked at both of them and shook her head.

“No more drinks for you two. I’ll call you a cab. Where do you two live?” She asked them with a patient look. She was definitely used to doing this for people. Minseok could tell.

“No its fine! We go to school nearby! We can just walk back. Thank you though!” Jongdae whisper yelled and Minseok nodded along with the other. It was true. They did go to school nearby.

“Oh alright. You used a card to pay for your first round. I’ll just charge the rest to it. You two have a good night.” The waitress said after checking the list she’d been keeping of their drinks.

The two boys grabbed their stuff and staggered out of the place. Thoughts focused once more on Minseok and Jongdae dating. They giggled all the way back to the dorms. Eventually they had to split up to go their separate ways but right before that they exchanged whisper yelled goodbyes.

“Minnie, I had so much fun! We have to do this again!”

“Definitely Daedae. Okay good night Daedae.”

“Good night Minnie!"

~~

The next morning Minseok was woken up by loud laughter coming from Yifan’s side of the room. His head was killing him and the slightly distorted music and the high pitched voices that came with it were not helping. He groaned and shifted in his bed, away from the sound as much as possible.

“Our diva is awake Yifan!”

What had he done last night?