A group of boys could be found sitting together at a picnic table in the courtyard of their college campus on a Thursday, the one day of the week, not counting the weekends when some of them had part-time jobs, where their schedules lined up just enough to give them a 2 hour block of free time where they could all hang out as a group in between their morning and afternoon classes. Six of the seven boys were listening intently as the seventh boy animatedly recounted, wide gestures and all, a story about something that happened in his psychology class that morning. The others laughed in amusement at both the story and their easily excited friend, before said friend was pulled onto the lap of one of the older males, who then ruffled the blonde boy's hair before placing a kiss on the back of his head.

The group of friends consisted of Minhyuk; an overly excited ball of sunshine, sitting on the lap of Hyunwoo; a broad, awkward silent type, and a short brunette named Kihyun sitting next to them, yelling to "get a room" despite the obvious smile on his face. Across from them sat a boy named Hoseok, that everyone else knew as Wonho, a high school nickname that just stuck. He was dressed in an oversized hoodie and ripped jeans, and had his arm slung around the shoulder of Hyungwon; a tall, thinly framed boy that a lot of people on campus silently agreed should be a model. Next to them was another short male named Changkyun, who gave off an air of maturity despite being the youngest of the group. And sitting on the table was Jooheon, clad in what was easily regarded as a hip hop style, that offset the very prominent dimples in his cheeks. To anyone else, this group of boys looked like a very odd combination that probably shouldn't mesh as well as they do. However, to those within the group and those close to them, their personalities complimented each other's incredibly well and the more time you spent with them, the more you could see where each male had personality traits and quirks that they shared with the others, a result of being friends for so long.

Although they weren't wildly popular on campus, it's hard enough knowing everyone in your own age group, nevermind learning the names or faces of the entire school population, the seven of them combined knew enough people within their individual dorms and majors that there was definitely people who were curious about them. One of the most common questions amongst classmates that had seen them together was how did they all become friends in the first place, specifically how they became friends with Jooheon and Changkyun, as the between them and the two oldest wasn't exactly a small number. 

To outsiders, it seemed as though they had years of friendship built up, and if you asked the group of friends, they'd say you were right. Those that were classmates or casual friends with Hyunwoo knew he was the older brother of Kihyun and thus didn't often question how he was dating Minhyuk, seeing as the blonde was childhood best friends with Kihyun, ever since they became neighbours in 3rd grade. Hyunwoo also knew Hoseok after becoming lab partners with him for a project back in grade 10. Thanks to that project, Hoseok also met Hyungwon when Kihyun invited Hyungwon and Minhyuk over to hang out at their house the same day that Hyunwoo asked him to come over to work on the project. When their project was done, the five of them ended up ordering pizza for dinner and playing games late into the night, which lead to the start of two long years of mutual pining before Hyungwon caught the older male off guard and asked him out. Hoseok was hesitant at first because, unlike Hyunwoo and Minhyuk who knew each other since they were kids and had years of trust built up, he'd only known Hyungwon for two years and didn't want to run the risk of the younger fearing he was being taken advantage of due to the . Hyungwon being the romantic that he was, thought that was very responsible and considerate of him and suggested they wait until after he graduated high school if it made the older male more comfortable. 

Now, much like others thought, the friendship between Jooheon, Changkyun and the aforementioned five wasn't as easily connected. In Jooheon's opinion, his way of meeting Changkyun was an absolute fluke. He was in one of the practice rooms during one of his free periods in high school working on some lyrics, when his phone died. Seeing as the room was soundproof and his phone had died, he had no way of knowing what time it was and didn't know when the bell signalling the next class rang until the music teacher opened the door and told him he'd be late if he didn't get moving soon. He haphazardly grabbed his stuff and rushed into the hallway, knowing if he was late to his math class one more time he was for sure going to get a detention. He was in such a rush that he didn't notice that there was a new kid looking down at his schedule with a lost look until he practically barelled into him. He apologized profusely as Changkyun helped him pick up his stuff, saying it was no big deal. Changkyun was handing over one of the other boy's sheets when he noticed the lyrics and asked if Jooheon had wrote it. The other nodded with a proud smile on his face before his jaw dropped in awe as the other boy started flawlessly rapping the lyrics on the page. Needless to say, it was far to late for Jooheon to go to class and it turned out the shorter male had a free period now, so they went to a Starbucks for an early lunch and bounced ideas off each other until they were practically blue in the face. 

Similarly, meeting Minhyuk wouldn't have happened if the two aspiring rappers hadn't opted to eat lunch in the cafeteria one day instead of going out to eat like they usually do. They were making their way to an empty table in the back corner when Jooheon noticed the blonde was in a heated argument with a of couple stupidly buff guys. He was about to keep walking, not really thinking much of the situation, until he heard an offensive slur about the the blonde's uality fall from the mouth of one of the jocks. If you asked Jooheon, he'd tell you he's as straight as it gets and he was but if there was one thing he couldn't stand, it was close-minded s who use the word gay as an insult, and then go home and jerk it to lesbian . 

He whipped around and stepped between the two guys, "What did you say?"

"I said blondie here's a ing ***." 

Jooheon's fist clenched at his side, "Hmm, thought so. That's exactly the kind of preschool level vocabularly I'd expect from a meathead like you and these s", he said nodding in the direction of the two males standing behind him.

"You're not a man just 'cause you have muscles and douse yourself with an entire bottle of cologne every morning 'cause you think it'll get women. Grow up." Jooheon added before reaching out for Minhyuk and Changkyun to continue towards the table.

He was quickly stopped by a hand on his shoulder roughly pulling him back. He looked up to see a fist coming towards his face and just as he was ready to take the punch, nothing happened. he opened his eyes to see Hoseok with his hand wrapped tightly around the guy's wrist. Hoseok nodded brifely to his friends and then in the direction of Jooheon and Minhyuk. Hyunwoo intertwined his hand with Minhyuk's and ushered the others out the back door of the cafeteria, while Hoseok handled the situation inside. He didn't do anything more than break a couple noses, but it was enough to get him sent home early. The others all decided to skip the rest of the day as well and took off in the direction of Kihyun's house, everyone agreeing that they could do with a round of games. Jooheon and Changkyun were invited along at Minhyuk's request, thankful that he was there to help him when he was. It was upon ariving to Kihyun's house, that they also came to the realization that Changkyun, who had moved here recently yet no one besides Jooheon had met, was actually living just across the street. They all shook their heads and laughed at the uncanny coincidence.

******

An alarm sounded from Hyunwoo's phone and the casual chattering halted as the seven boys slowly rised from their seats and grabbed their things, preparing to head to their respectful classes. Hyunwoo and Hoseok gave quick kisses to their lovers and headed off in one direction as they were both business majors and thus had almost all the same classes. Kihyun went off alone in the direction of the language building because, although a music major, he was also minoring in English. Jooheon and Changkyun, both music majors as well, made their way to their production class, already in the midst of a new conversation. And the remaining two boys went in the opposite direction before parting halfway, as Hyungwon was a creative writing major and Minhyuk had no more classes for the day, but was living in one of the dorms nearby. 

Here's chapter 1! I am so sorry for how short this chapter turned out but I wanted to give a decent intro to the characters, the relationships with each other as well as how they all met. I didn't go into how they all ended up going to the same college but for convenience sake, just go under the assumption that it's the closest college to all of them and some of them didn't get their first choice ones. Also I apologize if the ending is really sudden and doesn't ease out very well but I didn't want to get into anything that would be better off talked about in the next chapter. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the first chapter! Thank you for reading!