Wonwoo woke up the following morning and glanced at his watch, cursing under his breath when he realized he was late for class.

When he was dressed and ready to go, his eyes fixated on Mingyu’s sleeping figure. He remembered what had happened the previous night and felt himself blush. The more he thought about it, the more he blushed, and he so he tried not to think about it.

There was sweat on Mingyu’s forehead and brow, and Wonwoo knew immediately it was because of that stupid heater that somehow couldn’t distribute the heat evenly around the room. He turned it off for Mingyu before heading to class.

As he walked to class, he wondered if Mingyu would be too cold now that the heater was off. Perhaps it would have been better if he had left the heater on. The thought troubled him for a while, and he considered whether or not he should go back and turn it on again.

He decided against it when he remembered he needed to go to class.

But Mingyu continued occupying his thoughts all throughout his class. The memory of being on Mingyu’s lap and tasting the beer on his lips made him feel soft and… ugh.

Reflecting on that experience, Wonwoo knew with so much certainty that he did not regret it at all. On the contrary, he was glad he finally made that move, finally losing himself in Mingyu. Wonwoo hoped that Mingyu had enjoyed it too. Maybe they could do it more often?

Wonwoo didn’t know what was to come of their relationship now. All he knew was this he was not going to deny his feelings anymore, and he was going to let whatever it was happen. Dating Mingyu did not seem as bad as it did a few weeks ago. Actually, it sounded like an adventure Wonwoo was more than willing to go on.

It was in the middle of Wonwoo’s second class that he received a text from Mingyu. Wonwoo jumped eagerly when he received the notification and immediately unlocked his phone to read it.

“Was I dreaming yesterday, or did you actually kiss me?”

“I did kiss you," Wonwoo replied.

“I see.”

Wonwoo wished for a more substantial response from Mingyu, and so he was disappointed with those two empty words. He wanted to respond; he was too eager to see where talking about it would take them. But he couldn’t think of anything to say and figured they should have the conversation face to face and not through text.

He was eager to have the conversation, impatient to finally have closure about his relationship with Mingyu.

-

Mingyu did not come home the time he usually came, which was maddening for Wonwoo, who was nervous about it and wished desperately to just get it over with. He had already planned how it was going to go. Mingyu would ask him to explain himself, and Wonwoo would admit that he had started to develop an attraction for Mingyu and then they’d decide to date and maybe they would kiss again. Wonwoo was looking forward to that last part the most.

It was almost 10PM when Mingyu arrived in the dorm, and Wonwoo was alarmed to see that he looked like he’d just come from a fight. He had a bruise on the side of his mouth and his lip was bleeding.

“What happened to you?” Wonwoo asked with concern as Mingyu opened the top cupboard to get out the first aid kit. Wonwoo noticed that Mingyu’s right hand knuckles were bleeding as well.

“I did something stupid,” Mingyu answered as he went to the bathroom to run his knuckles under warm water.

Wonwoo followed him inside, and saw Mingyu wince as the water washed off the blood from his knuckles.

“What did you do?” Wonwoo asked him.

“I confronted Minghao’s boyfriend,” Mingyu answered. “Didn’t end too well.”

“Why would you do that?”

“I don’t know,” Mingyu replied, “I guess I was hoping for something to come out of it? Like, maybe Minghao would see the lengths I’d go for him and feel moved or something. Like I said, I was stupid.”

Perhaps this was the first time that Wonwoo actually felt jealous of Minghao. Even after Wonwoo had kissed him, Mingyu was still thinking about that Chinese guy. Wonwoo didn’t know why he had expected that the kiss would magically make Mingyu forget about Minghao, and now that it was clear that Mingyu still wanted him, Wonwoo felt hollow and stupid for expecting something else.

“You really like that guy, don’t you?” Wonwoo asked as Mingyu wet a paper towel with disinfectant.

“I do,” Mingyu replied, before hesitantly dabbing the wounds on his knuckles. He winced in pained as he cleaned the wounds.

“Did you punch his boyfriend?” Wonwoo asked curiously as he watched Mingyu's bloodied hand.

“I wish. I punched the wall,” Mingyu replied embarassedly. “It hurt more than I thought it would.”

“Oh,” Wonwoo replied. Mingyu must really be distressed if he punched a wall because of it. Wonwoo felt discouraged all of the sudden. If Mingyu was distressed and going after Minghao, it meant he hadn’t considered the prospect of getting with Wonwoo as seriously as Wonwoo had hoped he did.

“Do you need any help?” Wonwoo asked him as Mingyu struggled to wrap the gauze around his hand. Wonwoo didn’t wait for an answer from Mingy and reached out and took Mingyu’s hand to wrap the gauze himself. And of course, the softness of Mingyu's hands didn’t escape him.

“Thank you for yesterday, by the way,” Mingyu said as Wonwoo taped the gauze. “It made me feel better, even if it wasn’t real.”

Finally, Mingyu brought up the previous night. Wonwoo opened his mouth to reply, but Mingyu cut him off before he could.

“I don’t want to hear the excuse. Don’t worry, I get it. It was another one of your mistakes, right? You were drunk, too caught up in the moment, whatever … I don’t care. I know you’re straight and I’m not going to read anything into it.”

Wonwoo was taken aback by that. Just as he was about to respond and say that it was not a mistake, Mingyu continued: “And don’t apologize about it either. I’ve been over you for a long time; it’s not like your hundredth mistake with me is making me feel bad or anything.”

Wonwoo felt shut down all of the sudden. It felt like Mingyu closed the door on this conversation before it even began, and Wonwoo was too reluctant to open it again, feeling cast off and unwelcome.

He was afraid that maybe this was Mingyu’s way of indirectly saying that he didn’t want to go wherever this was leading. Maybe Mingyu really did lose interest in him completely. Maybe this was Mingyu’s way of rejecting him…

Wonwoo did not want to push it any further, and so he didn’t say anything. Instead, he let the subject fade away into oblivion, and suddenly it was like the kiss never even happened.

Mingyu acted as if nothing had changed. He went to bed the night complaining about the heater as always, and recounted what had taken place with Minghao and how it played out. Wonwoo didn’t really process what Mingyu was saying, too lost in his own thoughts to even try.

-

The following day, Wonwoo went down to Shining Diamond Café, and found Jeonghan and Jisoo bickering as usual. Jisoo was going on about how Jeonghan had forgotten to recycle the milk carton and was causing global warming, and Jeonghan just rolled his eyes at Jisoo and told him to stop nagging in his ear. It was entertaining to watch them.

Wonwoo went up to the counter where Jeonghan was and ordered just so that Jisoo didn’t complain about him being there.

“I’m in such a bad mood,” Jeonghan told Wonwoo as Jisoo was making Wonwoo’s order. “And that doofus isn’t helping.”

“Why?” Wonwoo asked him.

“I broke up with Cheol last night,” Jeonghan revealed, “because I felt like it wasn’t really working between us.” Jeonghan then suddenly spoke louder and said: “And now, Jesus is going on about how I’m destroying the ozone layer because I forgot to recycle one container, and he’s driving me insane.”

“Don’t call me Jesus,” Jisoo scoffed.

“You’re right, I shouldn’t. There’s no comparison between you and Jesus. At least Jesus was a decent human being,” Jeonghan muttered

“I don’t want to hear your dirty mouth say His name,” Jisoo replied with a frown.

“Dirty mouth? I think that’s all a matter of perspective,” Jeonghan replied. “Personally I think a mouth that rats out another person and makes him lose his job is much, much dirtier than a mouth who gives head.”

“Oh Gosh, shut up!” Jisoo shot back with a cringe on his face.

Jeonghan smiled in triumph. “It gives me so much pleasure to make him uncomfortable,” he said to Wonwoo, who was watching the two of them with an amused look on his face.

“Your stupid coffee is ready,” Jisoo yelled out to Wonwoo, leaving it on a far-off counter so that Wonwoo had to walk to get it.

“Being rude to customers is against protocol,” Jeonghan told Jisoo, “but unlike you, I’m not going to rat you out to the boss and try to get you fired.”

Jisoo just ignored Jeonghan.

“Anyways, what’s new?” Jeonghan asked Wonwoo, who had retrieved his coffee and sat down on one of the tables.

“I kissed Mingyu,” Wonwoo revealed.

Jeonghan grinned. “And???”

“When I tried to talk to him about it after that, he closed me out. He told me he was over me, and that he knew the kiss meant nothing.”

“But it did mean something to you?”

Wonwoo nodded timidly, and Jeonghan laughed out loud.

“You two are so damn frustrating,” he said, shaking his head.

-

It had been almost three weeks since their kiss, and Mingyu seemed to have forgotten about it completely. However, Wonwoo didn’t forget it. He remembered it with vivid detail, and sometimes he would look to the place where it happened and imagine it transpiring again.

It didn’t help that Mingyu became way too comfortable around him, taking off his shirt and pants like it was the most normal thing in the world. Wonwoo tried very, very hard not to stare when that happened, but Mingyu’s toned body made it so hard.

Once, Wonwoo had woken up to find Mingyu shirtless in bed, sweating because of the heater. Wonwoo took that as an opportunity to stare for as long as he needed, and to truly wallow in the sight of Mingyu’s bare chest.

If Wonwoo was reluctant about his attraction to boys before, he was no longer reluctant anymore. Mingyu was not only hot, but he was very hot. And not only was he physically attractive, but Wonwoo also found that everything about Mingyu came together in this perfect combination. Mingyu was fun, kind, sweet and hot.

Wonwoo was hopelessly crushing on Mingyu, more and more as time went by and Wonwoo got to know him better. Mingyu was just so easy to open up to about things, that even an introvert like Wonwoo could comfortably start a conversation with him without being mentally drained.

And as Wonwoo was crushing harder and harder on his roommate/benefactor, said benefactor had declared that he was not going to date anyone for at least three months, because he didn’t want to be distracted from his studies. Any little hope that Wonwoo had of Mingyu being interested in him was thus crushed.

Whenever Wonwoo talked to Jeonghan about Mingyu, Jeonghan would come close to pulling his hair out of his head.

“Just tell him how you feel; it’s not that hard!” Jeonghan exclaimed one day as Wonwoo was going on about how much he liked Mingyu.

“That would only bring unnecessary awkwardness between us. He already declared that he didn’t want to date anyone anymore.”

Just as Jeonghan was about to open his mouth to reply, Jisoo’s angry voice startled them both: “Yoon Jeonghan!”

“What is it this time?” Jeonghan groaned.

“How many times do I have to tell you to recycle?” Jisoo’s hand reached into the trash can to reveal an empty bottle of water that Jeonghan had thrown away earlier.

“I forgot,” Jeonghan replied simply with a shrug.

“Honestly, do you care at all about the environment? Do you want to destroy our planet?”

“Okay, you need to chill a little. I just threw a ing water bottle in the trash can for crying out loud!”

“No need to curse. I was just trying to talk to you,” Jisoo replied. “You always snap so quickly.”

“I always snap quickly? You’re the one who’s accusing me of destroying the planet because I threw a water bottle in the trash!”

“Don’t put words in my mouth!”

“That’s exactly what you said though.”

“It was not!”

The two of them continued bickering loudly, and Wonwoo noticed that the customers were starting to stare, and Wonwoo could tell from the way the two were down each other’s throats that they weren’t going to stop any time soon.

“Guys!” Wonwoo yelled over them, “if you have to fight, fight in the back room!”

“No. I’m done with him,” Jisoo muttered with a low growl.

“But I’m not done with you! I’m tired of you ing around me and acting like you know more than me just because you read the stupid employee handbook. I’m tired of your global warming rants, and your tree-hugging tendencies. I’m tired of you being disrespectful to my friends. I’m just ing tired of you!”

“Stop cursing!”

“I’m tired of your ing hatred of curses. Just say ‘’ for once in your ing life!”

“Jeonghan! We have customers, stop cursing! Or I swear I’m going to tell the boss…”

“Guys!” Wonwoo interrupted them, “please take this to the back room!” He opened the door and pushed the two of them inside, and they both went in without protest, still quarreling each other like five-year-olds. Wonwoo tried to get in between them but to no avail. They were hissing at each other like two lions preparing to pounce at one another.

“You know what, just stop talking to me,” Jeonghan spat toward Jisoo. “I hate talking to homophobes anyways.”

“I am not a homophobe,” Jisoo claimed with gritted teeth. “Just because I was not comfortable with your interest in me does not make me a homophobe.”

“You tried to get me fired when I was dating a guy!”

Jisoo froze for second before replying: “It wasn’t because he was a guy, it was because your boyfriend was interrupting the cafe protocol…”

“You and your ing ‘protocol’!” Jeonghan groaned. “I hate goody-two-shoes.”

“I hate rebels,” Jisoo snapped back.

“I guess we hate each other then. Now that that’s established, get out of my ing way and let me get back to work.” Jeonghan began to walk away.

Jisoo grabbed Jeonghan’s arm before he could leave and said, “if I see one more recyclable item disposed in the trash, I swear to God I’ll…”

“What will you do, huh?” Jeonghan challenged him.

Suddenly, without any warning, Jisoo grabbed Jeonghan’s head and crashed their lips together, and it only took a second before Jeonghan kissed him back hungrily. Wonwoo froze in place and watched the scene unfold in front of him with his jaw dropped. Wonwoo knew that there had been tension between those two, but he never expected it to be that kind of tension.

“Is anyone there?” Wonwoo heard the voice of a customer standing at the register. He figured he should be the one to deal with her now that the other two were busy violating protocol.

He slipped out from the door and closed it, giving the two their privacy. And just like old times, he stood in front of the register to take the customer’s order.

A/N: it took me embarassingly long to write this chapter (15 hours?) I think I rewrote it at least five times ^^"

anyways, I’m sorry about how frustrating meanie is in this chapter lol