Wonwoo could not sleep that night for many, many different reasons. The first was that the sleeping bag was extremely uncomfortable. The second was that it was located right beside the heater; it was way too hot, and he was sweating too much for him to be able sleep. The third was that Jeonghan snored. The fourth was that Wonwoo accidentally shifted in the sleeping bag, his hand came in contact with the heater, which caused quite a burn on the side of his hand. The fifth (and probably most rousing) reason was that Wonwoo was thinking about Mingyu.

He knew that Mingyu witnessed Jeonghan’s drunken and excessive skinship, skinship of which Wonwoo was perhaps too receptive. `that unsettled Wonwoo so much.

Why did I let it get too far with Jeonghan? Wonwoo asked himself as he ran his burned hand under colder water.

It was just that Wonwoo knew that Mingyu was interested in him, and so it must have been such a blow for him to see it. Also, Mingyu probably thought that Wonwoo was such a liar: after insisting he wasn’t into boys, he got to witness Jeonghan kiss him. And all this after Mingyu was kind enough to let Jeonghan crash and even offer his bed for him.

It was just so unnerving for Wonwoo to think about how Mingyu was feeling, and every time he thought about it, he felt compelled to go find Mingyu and explain everything and apologize to him. For all the times he wished time machines existed the past few days, he never wanted to go back in time as badly as he did now.

-

After a sleepless night in which Wonwoo tried to get some work for class done (which was hard because the burn on his hand), Wonwoo had to wake Jeonghan up in the morning so that he did not miss class.

Wonwoo needed to leave a little later for class himself, and so he locked up and went down to the first floor where Mingyu said he would be spending the night.

When he knocked on the door, a cute-looking foreign boy wearing a snapback opened.

“Is Mingyu here?” Wonwoo asked.

“Sleeping,” the boy replied.

“Can you give him this?” Wonwoo handed him the key.

“Okay,” the boy said, taking the key, “thank you.” With that, Wonwoo turned around to avoid the awkwardness that would have inevitably followed. Wonwoo did not do so well with strangers.

-

The next time Wonwoo saw Mingyu was after his class. Mingyu was sitting at the desk studying when Wonwoo entered, planning to set the record straight once and for all.

“Hey,” Wonwoo greeted Mingyu as he entered.

“Hey,” Mingyu replied with an awkward smile.

“I have something to say,” Wonwoo said. “About last night…”

“You don’t have to explain,” Mingyu said. “And don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone if that’s what you want.”

“No, no… you don’t understand. Jeonghan and I are not...” Wonwoo hesitated to find the words. “There’s nothing going on between us. He was just drunk last night.”

Mingyu narrowed his eyes for a moment. He didn’t seem convinced, but he just said “okay” and smiled.

“You don’t believe me?” Wonwoo asked, slightly triggered by Mingyu’s half-hearted response.

Mingyu just laughed: “why does it matter to you so much what I believe? So what if I don't believe you?”

Why did it matter so much to Wonwoo? Wonwoo couldn’t quite tell why he wanted Mingyu to know the truth so badly. Maybe because it would make him a liar in Mingyu’s eyes, lying about his preferences and rejecting Mingyu’s advances on the basis of that lie. But it wasn’t a lie. Wonwoo really, really wanted Mingyu to be aware of that.

Before Wonwoo could reply to Mingyu’s question, Mingyu noticed the burn on his hand.

“Oh, you touched the heater?” Mingyu asked as he glanced at Wonwoo’s hands with a concerned look on his face.

“Uh, yeah, I did. Accidentally,” Wonwoo answered.

Mingyu reached out to take Wonwoo’s hand and inspected the burn.

Wonwoo could not help but notice something about Mingyu's touches: his hands were remarkably soft. You would not expect that from a guy as tall and as buff as Mingyu.

“Sorry about that, but it doesn’t look too serious,” Mingyu said as he looked at it, “I have some ointment from the last time I burnt my own hand. I’ll get it for you.” Mingyu let go of Wonwoo’s hand and went up to his cupboards until he found the medicine and handed it to Wonwoo. “Apply twice a day,” he instructed.

Wonwoo was still thinking about the feeling of Mingyu’s hand. How was it possible that they were that soft? He found himself looking at Mingyu’s hands to see if they looked as smooth as they felt; they looked pretty normal though.

“Do you… have a hand ?” Mingyu asked him, raising an eyebrow, and Wonwoo quickly denied.

“No, no! I was just… your hands are soft, so I was curious,” Wonwoo explained, but realized that did not sound any less weird than the hand accusation.

Mingyu narrowed his eyes at Wonwoo and said: “I take it that there’s no undertone to that compliment.”

“What? Of course not!” Wonwoo said, feeling flustered. Why did Mingyu always have to twist things like that?

“Don’t worry, I got it. I won’t ever take anything you ever say to me as flirting ever again,” Mingyu reassured him, “but boy do you make it so hard sometimes.”

“Sorry,” Wonwoo replied, feeling ashamed.

“Thank you for the compliment though!” Mingyu said. “And you’re not weird for thinking it, I’ve been told my hands were smooth before, but in different situations.” Mingyu smirked a little bit, and Wonwoo tried his hardest not to appear flustered by what he was saying. Mingyu was so, so shameless…

“Anyways,” Mingyu said, “I’m going to go find free wifi now. I’ve got to do some research. Later.”

With that, Mingyu left.

Wonwoo was glad Mingyu left, because Wonwoo could not shake off the conversation he just had with Mingyu. Mingyu’s soft hands and undertones. Mingyu had set Wonwoo on a course of thought that the older could not depart from.

Mingyu’s smooth hands…

“Oh God,” Wonwoo groaned under his bed as such thoughts consumed him. Everytime he tried to scold himself for what he was beginning to imagine, the images became a lot more vivid.

The images eventually became so vivid, Wonwoo resorted to opening his laptop, connecting to Shining Diamond Café’s wifi (He still knew the password: “pasword321”), all in order to watch the visual renditions of his thoughts.

-

He felt defeated as he sat on the bathroom tiles, his laptop set over the toilet seat. The video had just ended, and he could now only hear his loud breathing and the rampage of his thoughts.

What the , Wonwoo. What the actual ?

He got up from the floor and washed the hand which was now wet with his own fluids.

He didn’t know what was going on with him. He tried to justify it by implicating his status a young man whose hormones were acting up; it was normal, right? It was no big deal. Didn’t mean anything. No homo, as they say. Lots of hormones, but no homo.

After a quick shower and a change of clothes, he finally had the chance to apply the medicine that Mingyu gave him. He applied it gently, trying (but failing) not to think about Mingyu’s smooth hands applying it for him instead.

A/N: okay I finally managed to write a chapter. I’m going to be more consistent with update once I jump over this hurdle, I promise...

and as you can see i'm the type that tries very hard to avoid using ual lingo so im sorry if i confused you guys with my ambiguous language haha

Anyways, I hope you all had the merriest of Christmases :)