Wonwoo sat at the bar with a can of beer in his hands. He was tired of this end-of-midterm party. The only reason he went in the first place was so that he could perhaps spot a gay community; so far he found no one. It was frustrating.

A lot of girls had gone up to him to flirt and asked him to dance. He refused them all. He was just not in the mood to pretend to be interested in them. He only recently finished his last exam, and he was still tired from staying up to study the night before. But he couldn’t leave. He took it upon himself to take care of Sena that night. She needed to be taken care of.

Sena was drunk, and too daring for her own good. She danced with everyone, and did not reject any guy who asked to dance with her. Sometimes the guys would go too far, and Sena was too drunk to really stop them. That would be when Wonwoo would interfere and stop them.

“Sena, stop drinking,” Wonwoo ordered, taking the glass from her hand when the bartender had given her another one.

“I should stop dancing with other guys,” she managed to say despite her intoxication, “they’re taking advantage, right?”

“Yeah, they are,” Wonwoo said, “want me to take you home?” He prayed she would say yes. If she stayed, he would have to stay with her because no one else would take care of her.

“Wonwoo,” she said, “you dance with me. You’re the only one I trust here.”

“Why didn’t Seokmin come?” Wonwoo muttered. It was usually Seokmin that got Sena through parties most of the time. He always came with her, controlled her drinking and danced with her.

“He said he wanted to catch up with Jin or something,” Sena responded with a shrug.

“I don’t feel like dancing,” Wonwoo told her, “let’s just go home.”

“Is it because you’re gay that you don’t want to dance with me?” she asked a little too loudly.

“Shh, idiot,” Wonwoo looked around to see if anyone heard, “don’t say it out loud.”

“Oopsies,” she covered . “It’s okay, no one heard.”

“You’re drunk. Let me take you home,” Wonwoo kept insisting.

Sena looked around one last time, but then spotted someone in the distance, “there’s a cute guy coming our way,” she whispered to Wonwoo, “he’s probably coming to ask me to dance!”

That was the hundredth cute guy that had been coming to ask Sena to dance. Wonwoo rolled his eyes and hoped this guy was at least decent enough for Wonwoo not to have to interfere.

When the cute guy came closer, Wonwoo’s eyes widened to when he saw that this cute guy was actually Mingyu.

Mingyu went straight to Wonwoo, walking directly past an expectant Sena.

“Hey, you’re Jin’s friend right?” Mingyu asked Wonwoo.

“Yeah, that’s me,” Wonwoo managed despite how flustered he was that Mingyu was talking to him.

Sena pouted, sad that Mingyu was not there for her, “I’m going to dance,” Sena announced, and left the two of them.

“Do you know if Jin is here?” Mingyu asked curiously.

Wonwoo huffed. Of course Mingyu was only talking to him to get to Jin. Wonwoo didn’t understand why he even considered that he was there for him. “No, Jin isn’t here,” Wonwoo answered. “She hates going to parties.”

“I probably should have known,” Mingyu said, sitting down at the bar beside Wonwoo.

Wonwoo felt his heart beat fast Mingyu’s shoulders were bumped into his as he adjusted onto the stool. Mingyu took out his phone and began texting someone.

“Do you want a drink?” Wonwoo managed to ask.

Mingyu shook his head, “no, I’m good. Thanks.”

“Do you like Jin?” Wonwoo inquired, curious himself.

“Yeah,” Mingyu said straightforwardly.

Wonwoo sighed internally. He had always known that Mingyu was straight; there had never been any gay vibes coming from him at all. There was no hope for him. Wonwoo accepted it and took a sip from his beer.

“Do you think she’ll say yes if I ask her out?” Mingyu asked, turning to Wonwoo.

Wonwoo shrugged, “I’m not really in the position to answer that.”

Mingyu nodded, “I just texted her. She seems uncomfortable with my flirting. I don’t know what to do.” Mingyu rubbed his head. He looked kind of stressed out about it.

Wow, he really likes her, Wonwoo thought. Her decided to give Mingyu some advice. He didn’t know what Jin would do, but he felt the need to help him: “just some advice: tell her straight out that you like her. I know she’s not sure about whether or not you do.”

Mingyu nodded and went back to his phone, probably typing out the confession.

Wonwoo wondered how Jin would feel about it. He knew that Jin hated saying no to people, but he also knew that Jin had feelings for Seokmin. Mingyu seemed really sincere about her though, and Wonwoo found it hard to imagine that Jin would reject him. Maybe she would reject him out of duty for Wonwoo because she knew Wonwoo liked him. But Wonwoo had encouraged her...

Wonwoo had encouraged her to accept Mingyu, and he really meant it, to some extent. Wonwoo was used to the people he liked not being gay and asking other people out. And he would much rather it be Jin and not some random girl.

The thought of Mingyu and Jin together was weird, mostly because Mingyu already occupied another role in Wonwoo’s imaginations. It was so weird imagining the guy Wonwoo had thought about in that particular way as Jin’s lover. Wonwoo shuddered as he recalled his imaginations.

Wonwoo didn’t know how he would feel if they were together. Would he be jealous? Would he resent Jin? Would he move on? Would he still have creepy fantasies about Mingyu? Wonwoo really did not know. It would have to happen for him to have any idea.

Wonwoo heard Sena slur something, and he looked to see what was happening. He had almost forgotten that he had to supervise her, too distracted with Mingyu sitting right beside him.

Great. It was another guy taking advantage of her drunkenness and touching her wrongly.

“Excuse me,” Wonwoo said to Mingyu, getting off the stool to interfere yet again.

Wonwoo grabbed Sena’s arm and told the guy to beat it.

He dragged Sena back to the table. She protested, saying she’s not that drunk and that she wanted to stay at the party.

“Sena, I’m taking you home,” Wonwoo insisted. He was tired, and he could tell that there were guys looking at Sena avariciously, just waiting for an opportunity to take advantage of her.

“None of this would happen if you would just dance with me,” Sena told Wonwoo with a pout. “Please don’t make us leave. This party is so fun!” She giggled drunkenly, and Wonwoo rolled his eyes.

He would have agreed, if it had not been for Mingyu watching them. Wonwoo did not want to dance with someone if Mingyu saw it. He didn’t really know why he had that kind of conviction in the first place; it’s not like it reduced any chance he had with Mingyu in the first place. It just felt so necessarily wrong and uncomfortable.

“At least let me have more to drink,” Sena requested.

“No, Sena.”

Sena scowled at Wonwoo and then went to the bar beside Mingyu herself. She grabbed a random glass that was on the table and started to gulp it down. Wonwoo quickly took it from her hand, feeling embarrassed that Mingyu was watching all of this. Why did Sena have to embarrass him in front of Mingyu of all people?

Sena began to sway at this point, close to passing out.

“Excuse me,” Wonwoo told Mingyu, putting Sena’s arm around his shoulder to help her stand up straight, “I’m taking her home.”

“I’ll help," Mingyu offered, "I want an excuse to get out of this party anyways.” He took Sena’s other hand and put it around his shoulder, helping Wonwoo carry her out of the building.

Wonwoo wanted to just die. The first major interaction between him and Mingyu involved taking a drunk and embarrassing Sena home.

When they were out in the streets and walking back towards the residence halls, Mingyu looked at Sena and asked Wonwoo what her name was.

“We call her Sena. She’s Jin’s best friend.”

“Yeah I see her around Jin a lot,” Mingyu said. “She’s very different from Jin.”

Wonwoo nodded.

“How long have you known them? Jin and Sena?”

“Ever since the beginning of the semester. Jin is majoring in theology with me, and so she’s in most of my classes.”

“Theology? That’s really interesting.”

“What about you?” Wonwoo wondered, “What are you majoring in?”

“I’m not nearly as interesting as you or Jin,” Mingyu laughed, “I’m majoring in petroleum engineering.”

“Oh.”

“I know what you’re thinking: how boring, right?”

“No,” Wonwoo said, “I’m actually thinking: ‘how smart.’ Plus, at least you’re secure for a job after graduation. Meanwhile, I’ll only just know more about the grand illusion that is religion.”

Wonwoo wished he had not said it. It just slipped out of his mouth, and he realized how much of an elitist he sounded. He didn’t know if Mingyu was religious, and the last thing Wonwoo wanted to do was offend him.

Mingyu did not look offended. Actually, he laughed: “Why would you study it if you think it’s a grand illusion?”

Wonwoo was stumped with the question. Why he was studying it? To prove it wrong. Why did he want to prove it wrong? Because it was one of the main reasons for his own uality becoming so taboo…

Mingyu got a text just then. This saved him from having to answer the question.

“It’s Jin,” Mingyu revealed to Wonwoo. He texted Jin back with the one arm that was not helping Sena up.

“What does she want?” Wonwoo asked; he was curious to know as well.

“She wants to meet me,” Mingyu looked to Wonwoo for permission to go.

“Go ahead,” Wonwoo told Mingyu, “I can carry Sena home myself.”

“I’m sorry,” Mingyu apologized and let Sena go. Wonwoo picked Sena up from the ground and bowed to Mingyu to let him off. Mingyu also bowed and ran off in the direction of the residence halls.

Wonwoo sighed as he watched Mingyu run off. He managed to embarrass himself in front of the guy that he liked in their very first real interaction. He revealed himself to be Sena’s babysitter (who did not do his job very well), and an anti-religious bigot. Great.

A/N: I actually had planned to put this chapter after the next, but it fit better here, so here ya go.

So there will be some chapters focused on Wonwoo and not Jin from now on. I need to get the meanie ball rolling soon after all! :)