Seeing Mingyu again after Wonwoo realized that he was falling for him just made Wonwoo all the more certain that he was. Mingy had suddenly become alluring to him, and seeing him made Wonwoo feel like jelly inside.

“I have something to show you,” Mingyu said with a proud grin on his face after greeting him. Mingyu went to his desk drawer and pulled out what seemed to be a magazine. Wonwoo immediately knew that this was the magazine in which their modeling photos have been published.

Mingyu held the magazine to his stomach protectively, the grin still on his face as Wonwoo waited eagerly to see it.

“Let me see,” Wonwoo said holding out his hand.

Mingyu slowly revealed the cover to Wonwoo, and Wonwoo’s jaw dropped as he snatched it from Mingyu’s hand to look at the cover more carefully.

There, on the cover of the magazine, was a photo of both Wonwoo and Mingyu, standing back-to-back. Mingyu’s shirt was open and so his chest showed, making the image all the more appealing. Wonwoo, however, looked extremely flustered in that photo, as he was when he did the shoot. Mingyu had this grin on his face as his neck turned slightly to side-eye Wonwoo. The photo was clearly meant to depict not only the clothes, but also them as  characters: Wonwoo, the shy, insecure boy with his head hung low and his hands over his chest, and Mingyu, the tall, confident, experienced model. There was a contrast there that was ever so apparent, but it made for quite a cover-worthy photograph.

“I had never been on a cover before,” Mingyu revealed proudly. “It’s a big deal for a model to make it on a cover of a magazine. Models have been working all their lives to get a cover you know? This is amazing for us, because it means casting calls and more modeling opportunities for the both of us.”

Wonwoo looked at the image again. He still had not processed the image let alone everything that Mingyu was revealing to him. He was on the cover of a magazine; he had not prepared himself for something like that. And now Mingyu was already talking about casting calls and more modeling?

“I don’t know what to say,” Wonwoo said as he looked at the cover again.

“Do you like it?”

Wonwoo nodded. It really was an undeniably striking photo with such character embedded into it, and it made Wonwoo want to look at it for a long time. (Also, Mingyu looked hot.)

“Here, let me show you the spread,” Mingyu took the magazine from Wonwoo’s hands and flipped through the pages to the spread, which had a couple more pictures of both Wonwoo and Mingyu, and three photos of the two of them together. There was one in which both of them were shirtless, one in which Mingyu had his hand over Wonwoo’s shoulders, and another with both of them sitting side to side against a wall.

Wonwoo loved them. He loved the pictures, and he loved that most of them were with Mingyu. He loved how hot and confident Mingyu looked, and how shy but attractive he himself looked. He loved the eye make-up, the clothes, the feel of the spread, and the fact it tied him inextricably to Mingyu.

He was also happy that his involvement in the shoot helped earn Mingyu the cover of a magazine. At least, in some way, he was able to repay his debt to Mingyu.

-

Mingyu had to go to his chemistry labs to get a report done, and Wonwoo offered to go with him as he himself needed to get to the library to catch up with all of the work he missed while on the trip. And so they walked together, Wonwoo telling Mingyu about the trip.

Mingyu seemed especially interested in how Sena was doing, and Wonwoo was not sure if it was because he liked her or because he was just concerned for her. He figured it was probably a combination of both.

And of course, as was his habit, Mingyu entwined their arms as they walked.

“Oh, look!” Mingyu said, pointing to a store in the distance. Wonwoo looked and saw that their magazine was displayed.

“I want to go buy a copy for myself,” Wonwoo said, letting go of Mingyu’s arms to go buy it.

When Wonwoo got to the library and Mingyu went on his way to the labs, Wonwoo found a secluded cubicle in order to work. But he could not get any work done, for that cover of the magazine was so distracting.

He stared at the picture, love-struck and mesmerized by Mingyu, by everything that Mingyu was. He then listened to "When I Fall" as he stared at the image. Only then did it hit him just how much he desired Mingyu, how he was not satisfied going on with him like this. He felt like his newfound affection for Mingyu needed to be converted into some kind of action on his part, some kind of attempt at perhaps simply opening up the possibility of something more with Mingyu.

I want to confess, Wonwoo finally decided.

-

The opportunity to do so came that night. Mingyu had texted Wonwoo asking him not to eat because he was going to bring dinner. Mingyu then arrived quite late that night, with bags in his hand that Wonwoo immediately recognized as having the logo of the Arab restaurant they had gone to together many weeks ago.

“Guess?” Mingyu said as he handed Wonwoo the bags and took off his coat and shoes.

“That slimy leaf thing?” Wonwoo asked eagerly with raised eyebrows.

“You forgot the name already?" Mingyu scoffed. “It’s called yalange.”

Wonwoo eagerly took the boxes out of the bag and opened them to find those slimy rice-stuffed sour leaf things that he loved so much. Yalange or whatever.

They sat down on the table as Wonwoo began to eat them. Mingyu took a couple, but he stopped eating them and went to eat ramen instead. Wonwoo knew that Mingyu was not really much of a fan of those slimy leaf things.

“Why did you buy so much if you weren’t going to eat them?” Wonwoo asked as Mingyu sat down after he finished making his ramen.

“I got them for you,” Mingyu said. “As a thank you for being the reason I got a cover.”

“You’re too nice to me, you know,” Wonwoo told Mingyu before he ate another one, “you make it so hard for me to not have a crush on you.”

“So do you have a crush on me?” Mingyu asked, smiling… actually smirking, and looking to Wonwoo expectantly.

Wonwoo swallowed and looked at Mingyu in the eye. “In all seriousness,” Wonwoo replied, “I may have a teeny tiny crush on you. Sorry if it makes you uncomfortable.” There it was, the kind-of confession. Wonwoo was strangely not nervous when he said it. The words fell from his mouth with ease, and he somehow knew that it would not faze Mingyu at all.

And Mingyu did not look fazed. It looked as if he expected that Wonwoo had a crush. He still had that slight smirk on his face when he said: “actually, yeah, it kind of does make me uncomfortable.”

For a moment, Wonwoo felt extremely embarrassed.

Mingyu immediately added in lighthearted manner: “it makes me uncomfortable that it’s only a ‘teeny tiny crush.’ Come on, is that it?”

It was so much more that that, Wonwoo knew. Wonwoo was hardcore in love with him. Wonwoo coveted him, and desired so much to just be with him forever. But saying that out loud would definitely intimidate Mingyu, and so instead Wonwoo said: “okay, it’s a little more than that. I have a massive crush on you, Kim Mingyu.”

“That’s more like it,” he said with a grin. “Too bad I like girls,” Mingyu added casually as he slurped up his ramen. A casual rejection. A rejection that was not heartbreaking, for Wonwoo expected it.

“Yeah, it’s too bad,” Wonwoo replied with a shrug as before eating another piece of yalange.

It was the simplest and most casual of confessions. One that did not involve all of the anxiety and the emotions that confessions often contained. It just ambled through their conversation over dinner as if were commentary about the weather or a complaint about a professor. Neither side was really deeply moved or affected by it; it came and went as expected. Somehow, Mingyu had just known that Wonwoo had a crush on him, and Wonwoo had just known that Mingyu would not open up any possibilities for the two of them because of it.

But that did not mean that Wonwoo had not held some ounce of hope in his heart that maybe, just maybe, the confession would lead to a spark from Mingyu. Something to tell him that maybe, just maybe, there was a chance? That spark was not there though, just the warmth of the friend that Mingyu was to him. Nothing more than a friend.

It was not heartbreaking, but it extinguished completely any hope that Wonwoo had. And the emotional damage that came from it was buried in the thankfulness that Mingyu was at least a very, very, very good friend. But perhaps it would resurface to hurt him later.

A/N: did I just friendzone meanie? hmmmm maybe I did ? :P