My mouth is hanging open and I’m sure he can see all the way through to my stomach… Did he really just say that? And what the hell does it really mean? I look at him, questioning. He does not meet my eyes at all, in fact, he’s avoiding them altogether. I shake my head to make sure I’m not dreaming.

“What do you mean?” I ask, clearly curious.

“Hmm?” he finally looks up, his cheeks are heated and I can feel a smile creeping onto my face.

“With what you just said. Clearly you can make me smile like that”, I state, grinning like a fool. This is one of the happiest moments in my life.

“Forget about it”, he hides behind his hair and looks down to his lap. This guy… how can he be so cute? It causes me to have chest pains.

“What if I don’t want to forget about it?” I whisper back, barely loud enough for him to hear. His head snaps up and he looks at me. Now he’s the one who’s curious about what I just said. We’re challenging each other while doing this in a full coffee shop, but that makes it all the more exciting.

“Did I just hear that correctly?” he whispers back.

“That depends…”

“On?”

“If I heard the other thing correctly…” Our eyes are locked onto each other and there is no more escaping. It’s like the whole coffee shop has disappeared and we’re the only ones left. I can’t hear the noises or smell the coffee anymore. The only thing on my mind is Wonwoo and the way he’s looking at me. This can’t be real.

“In that case…” he starts out, but suddenly someone interrupts us. It’s that damn Minghao again. Is he following us around or something?

“Hey! What are you two doing here?” he asks while sitting down, uninvited if you ask me. We both glare at him, but I fix my expression as fast as I can. Can’t let this ruin my mood.

“We’re working on our project”, I say and he actually looks relieved. Wonwoo has gone back to looking at his hands in his lap. We’re right back where we started.

“Good! For a moment I thought you were having a date!” Minghao starts laughing and if there ever was a moment I wanted to punch someone so badly, it’s now. He’s totally ruined our date. Yes, I’m calling it that since we had a moment there. Obnoxiously, I laugh with him, trying to take the stress away. Wonwoo looks up at me, kind of hurt. And I know why. I just laughed with the possibility of us ever dating, that’s never a good thing to do when you’re actually on a date.

“Excuse me, I have class”, Wonwoo starts packing up his things again and stands up. He doesn’t bow towards us, since he’s the older one. “I’ll see you later.” I don’t know who he’s actually talking to. Me or Minghao? Because he has a lot of classes with Minghao… and we only have one. Or does he want to see me tonight? My head is hurting.

“Well, that was kind of curt, no?” Minghao starts whining. Whenever he begins, there is no end. Seokmin joins us in the end. He’s another one living in my dorms. He’s pretty chill and I’ve heard him sing in the shower. The dude could’ve been an idol for sure, with his looks and skills… Too bad he chose university over that. Apparently his parents made him chose this so he didn’t do anything with his talents. “Talent doesn’t earn you money these days. Not enough…” he said one night. I kind of feel bad for him because his family isn’t wealthy and he actually needs to go study to make it better for them. I also feel a big amount of respect.

“Was that Wonwoo who I just saw running off?” Seokmin starts the conversation while ordering a Chai Latte.

“Yeah, he and Mingyu are in a group project together. They were having a meeting…” Minghao says while sipping from his coffee to go he got before interrupting.

“I heard this rumour about Wonwoo…” Seokmin says in a hushed tone as if Wonwoo could actually hear us. The guy ran out of here at the speed of lightning. He’s long gone by now.

“What is it?” I’m kind of intrigued by it while leaning in.

“I heard he likes boys… He used to be a cast out at his high school because he liked a boy once… Not that it bothers me, but he’s been introverted ever since…” Seokmin says with a sad expression. It’s not easy being gay in Korea. People look at you differently because it’s