it’s four am and sehun finds himself playing a game titled, ‘ten fun facts about my roommate’.

1. his name is do kyungsoo.
2. he’s studying mechanical engineering.
3. he likes to watch movies before going to bed.
4. he had a pet hamster called moomoo when he was seven.
5. he was convinced his hamster was claustrophobic and left the cage open one night.
6. he cried every night for a month after moomoo ran away.
7. he talks in his sleep.
8. facts four through six were discovered via fact seven.
9. he has no idea that he sleep talks.
10. he’s sleep talking at this very moment.

sehun slides his pillow out from under his head and tries to smothers himself, mustering all his willpower not to scream bloody murder. it's the third night in a row that he's been unable to sleep and he's tired of it. literally.

“oh, that tickles,” sehun hears kyungsoo murmur in his sleep, followed by the sound of rustling sheets and quiet giggles.

sighing, sehun wraps himself in his blanket as he trudges out of his dorm room and knocks on the door across the hallway. he waits a few moments before the door slowly opens and a messy head of hair emerges from the darkness.

“you look like roadkill. roommate keeping you up again?” mop hair asks.

sehun nods twice in response, too tired to open his mouth in order to speak.

mop hair yawns loudly with his eyes still closed. “you’re in luck. my roommate’s not coming home tonight, so you can crash on his bed.” he steps to the side, allowing sehun to enter.

“cheers, jongin,” sehun thanks him, giving the boy a pat on the back as he enters. “if you ever need a place to stay, i’m happy to return the favour. heads up about kyungsoo though, he’s the roommate from hell.”

sehun curses himself for ever thinking he'd hit the jackpot after meeting his new roommate. sehun had been worried that he'd be assigned someone obnoxious—or even worse—messy. his roommate was neither, a fact established within the first hour of their initial introduction. judging by the way his roommate had neatly and meticulously arranged his belongings, sehun didn’t foresee any issues on that front. he'd suffered enough after spending the summer with his cousin, junmyeon; he wouldn’t have been able to endure another episode of ‘what’s growing inside of that bowl?’ or ‘can you guess what colour the carpet is?’

house rules had been discussed right off the bat—dirty dishes must not be left in the room; the floor must be devoid of clothes and clutter; the rubbish bin exists for a reason; etc. these informal regulations subsequently evolved into an actual roommate contract. kyungsoo had printed off a copy for them each, and handed a dumbstruck sehun a pen for him to sign his name to bind their agreement.

the room had fallen to a quiet and somewhat awkward silence after that exchange, neither contributing much to what was a rather stilted conversation. later than evening, sehun had invited his roommate to join him for dinner—not that microwave mac'n'cheese really constituted much of a meal—but kyungsoo had politely declined, opting to go out instead. sehun had felt slightly rejected that he hadn't been asked to tag along, especially after he'd made an attempt to get to know the other better. perhaps, sehun mused, his roommate was just a private person and preferred keeping to himself.

a little after midnight, sehun had just crawled into bed, ready for the first night away from home, when his roommate returned. “ah, you’re back. i was a little worried when it got a bit late.”

kyungsoo had appeared shocked at sehun’s display of concern, giving him a small, fleeting smile before slipping back into the expressionless face sehun already had become accustomed to seeing in their brief acquaintance.

“did you have fun while you were out?” sehun had asked in another effort to bond with his roommate. kyungsoo nodded, but hadn’t asked sehun the same question in return, the conversation nipped before even having a chance to sprout. sehun had observed kyungsoo out of the corner of his eye, watching the boy quietly rearrange his already organised desk until drowsiness got the better of him. the last thing on sehun’s mind before he drifted off into a deep sleep was how much he’d appreciated that his roommate had been careful not to make any loud noises.

oh, the irony.

during the night, a distinct voice penetrated sehun’s ears, rudely awakening him from his peaceful slumber. at first, sehun had thought kyungsoo was on the phone with someone. turning on the lamp on his bedside table, sehun shot an angry scowl in his roommate’s direction, only to discover that kyungsoo was sound asleep. under the assumption that he’d imagined it, or that perhaps it had been just a dream, sehun brushed it off and settled down to sleep once again. however, it hadn’t taken long for sehun to hear the voice again, this time catching the culprit mid-babble—it had been none other than his snoozing roommate.

kyungsoo talked in his sleep. just fan-bloody-tastic.

sehun hadn’t known how to broach the subject, fearing he might embarrass or offend his roommate. accusations that he was lying also crossed his mind. and the longer he’d left it, the harder it was for sehun to address the issue. after two weeks had gone by, sehun felt that too much time had passed and he’d missed his opportunity. this left him with two options: either he’d have to it up or switch rooms.

it takes just over a month—and untold sleepless nights—for sehun to steel his resolve and request a form for a room transfer.

 



•••





slipping in his heavy duty noise cancelling earbuds, sehun closes his eyes. kyungsoo is sleep talking again, and judging by what he's been spouting for the past half hour, his roommate is currently dreaming he's a pirate. kyungsoo—an avid fan of hollywood blockbusters—has probably been watching one of the ‘pirates of the caribbean’ movies on his ipad again before falling sleeping. still, it’s better than that one time kyungsoo had dreamed he was a werewolf and kept howling until the break of dawn— you, ‘twilight’—and had been the worst night of sehun’s life to date. it had even trumped the incident when he went camping with junmyeon and it had rained, water leaking through their hole-riddled tent. tossing and turning, sehun can still hear kyungsoo’s deep, throaty ‘arr’s, ‘aye aye’s, and ’yo-ho-ho’s. well, there goes ten bucks down the drain, noise cancelling my back foot.

serves him right though, to be honest. he wouldn’t be suffering a perpetual state of sleep deprivation if he’d only filled out the application form that’s been sitting in his desk drawer for the past week or so. damn you, past sehun, for being super unproductive and lazy. “you’d better do it tomorrow,” present sehun warns future sehun, “or else i’m going to kick your .”

as if on cue, kyungsoo screams, his arms thrashing violently in the air. “shiver me timbers! who be thar?”

sehun reaches for the nightstand, switching on the bedside lamp. locating a small pot of vaseline resting atop the table, he hurls it at kyungsoo out of frustration. it misses by a mile, and hits the stack of textbooks on his roommate’s desk instead. his hand searches for another object to fling when kyungsoo’s voice bellows out again. “stay away from sehunnie or i’ll blow you to smithereens!”

sehunnie? kyungsoo barely addresses sehun by name, let alone one that signifies closeness and affection. but wait, more importantly, is kyungsoo having a dream about him?

“i won't let you hurt him! back off, ye scallywag!”

sehun glances over at kyungsoo, his roommate’s feet already having kicked the covers off his small frame, the sheet currently lining their carpet. groaning out loud, sehun climbs out of bed and places a hand on his roommate’s shoulder, shaking him gently to stir him awake. “kyungsoo, wake up.”

“what? what's going on?” kyungsoo’s eyes dart around the dimly lit room. he pulls out a pair of black thick rimmed glasses from under his pillow and perches the frames on the bridge of his nose. “sehun?”

sehun blinks at his roommate. kyungsoo wears glasses? how is he only just finding out about this? with the amount of information his roommate has revealed during his nighttime confession sessions, sehun’s pretty sure he could scribe kyungsoo’s entire family tree dating back twelve generations, and yet he had no idea kyungsoo had bad eyesight.

“sehun?” kyungsoo calls his name again and my god, does he look adorable in glasses.

shaking his head, sehun pushes such thoughts from his brain. “i think you were having a nightmare,” he tells kyungsoo.

kyungsoo eyes widen at the revelation. “oh, right. did i wake you?”

“nah, i was still up.” sehun doesn't know what possesses him to lie—he blames it on the glasses, it’s really throwing him for a loop. and his roommate’s sleepy expression. man, he really is freaking cute.

kyungsoo—clearly struggling to stay awake—smiles at sehun. “i don’t really remember what i was dreaming about, but thank you. and i’m sorry if i disturbed you.”

sehun stares at the features of kyungsoo’s face—his thick bushy brows, the slope of his nose, the fullness of his lips. it’s the first time sehun’s taken a good hard look at his roommate. and though at first glance, kyungsoo looks aren’t exactly striking, sehun arrives at the conclusion that kyungsoo might just be the most handsome person he’s ever met. or maybe it’s the lack of sleep impairing his judgement. whatever it is, sehun feels a warm fuzzy feeling coursing through his veins and it’s currently rendering him speechless.

“are you okay?” kyungsoo asks, sitting up on his bed, his expression a little more alert.

“i-i’m fine,” sehun reassures him, snapping back to reality. he quickly takes a few steps back toward his side of his room, fearing the other could hear the sound of his racing heart. he switches off the lamp before crawling back into bed, wrapping the blanket around his body in hopes that it will muffle the beating in his chest.

“goodnight,” kyungsoo says, his voice still thick with sleep and obvlious to sehun’s flustered state.

“goodnight, kyungsoo.”

sehun doesn't manage to sleep a wink that night and it has nothing to do with his roommate's mumbling, which resumes less than ten minutes after he lies back down onto his mattress. the image of kyungsoo's heart shaped smile and his big wide eyes behind broad framed glasses is ingrained in sehun’s brain and he can't seem to quell the flutter of his heart.

 



•••





“who's this?” kyungsoo asks, taking a hard look at the unfamiliar boy standing beside sehun. he frowns at his roommate, making no attempt to veil his displeasure at the unannounced house guest.

“i’m jongin, kim jongin. nice to meet you, sehun's roommate,” jongin introduces himself, and grabs kyungsoo’s hand, forcing a handshake on the other. “i live across the hallway.”

kyungsoo withdraws his hand, checking the time on his phone—it’s past midnight—before shooting another glare at sehun. “i didn’t know you were inviting a friend over.”

“don't mind me, sehun's roommate. i don't snore, or at least i haven’t received any complaints,” jongin continues, completely oblivious to the fact that his presence is distressing the other.

“he's staying the night?” kyungsoo clucks his tongue, eyebrows furrow even deeper, when jongin takes a seat in his chair.

“that’s kyungsoo’s desk,” sehun says and indicates his designated area with an index finger. he turns to face kyungsoo to apologise for the intrusion when his roommate curls his fingers around sehun’s wrist and pulls him to to the other side of the room.

“why does he need to stay if he lives next door?” kyungsoo whispers into sehun’s ear, his breath tickling sehun's nape.

“sorry about the inconvenience. jongin locked himself out and his roommate isn’t coming back tonight so he asked if he could crash here,” sehun explains as he tries to ignore how close kyungsoo’s face is to his own. he can feel kyungsoo’s warm breath lingering on his skin.

“you wouldn't kick a helpless guy to the kerb, would you?” jongin asks, swiveling the chair around as he glides across the room toward the two roommates. he clasps his hands together and falls to his knees in supplication. “please?”

kyungsoo sighs before finally caving in. “fine, just the one night. and please don't have late night talks, i've got to be up early in the morning.”

jongin is about to launch a full on hug attack when kyungsoo scowls at him. jongin backs away slowly and cowers behind sehun, arms wrapped around sehun’s waist. “your roommate is kinda scary,” jongin murmurs softly, quiet enough for kyungsoo not to hear.

kyungsoo observes the two through narrowed eyes. “are you two…?” he points to the two of them, moving his finger back and forth.

sehun peels himself away from jongin’s hold and pushes the other away. “no, we’re just friends! there’s nothing going on between us. tell him, jongin!” the last thing sehun wants is for his roommate to think is that he’s dating jongin. no, he wants kyungsoo to be aware that he’s single (and available).

“that’s not what you said last night, baby!” jongin puckers his lips and makes smooching sounds at sehun.

“don’t listen to him, kyungsoo! i’m not seeing anybody, honest!” sehun tries to convince his roommate, not quite sure what to make of the expression on kyungsoo’s face. he’s chewing his bottom lip like he’s trying to… bite back a smile? is he pleased to hear of sehun’s relationship status? distracted, sehun lets his guard down, leaving himself open to being tackled to the floor by jongin, who smacks wet sloppy kisses all over sehun’s face.

they wrestle and tussle on the floor until they’re out of breath, ultimately deciding to call a truce. sehun glances up at kyungsoo sitting on his bed—sehun’s head still positioned under jongin’s arm from when he grappled sehun into a headlock—and catches kyungsoo staring at him. kyungsoo quickly looks away, his gaze averted to the ceiling as he feigns nonchalance. sehun smiles to himself, the rapid beating of his heart no longer due to the scuffle with jongin, but a symptom of the blossoming feelings he has for his roommate.

taking advantage of sehun’s easy-access position and throwing the peace treaty out the window, jongin sticks his index finger into his mouth before giving sehun a wet willy. jongin cackles gleefully when sehun recoils, curling into a ball and wiping his ear with the sleeve of his shirt. after retrieving a sleeping bag from his backpack, jongin rolls sehun out of the way with his foot before unravelling his bed for the night. “that was fun but methinks it’s time get some kip. gotta get my beauty sleep.”

getting to his feet, sehun turns off the light before making his way onto his bed, being sure to ‘accidentally’ step on jongin as he climbs in. “night, guys,” he says, pretty much conking out the moment his head hits the pillow.

“oh, my god! shut the up!”

sehun jerks awake, his hand slapping the lamp on his bedside table and almost sending it flying in the process. “what the hell? what's happening?”

“your friend just threw something at me!” kyungsoo squawks, pointing an accusatory finger at the perpetrator.

“you were talking so loud!” jongin replies, showing no signs of remorse.

, this isn't good. sehun had warned jongin that kyungsoo had a tendency to talk in his sleep, but he guesses it must have slipped his friend’s mind. he’d also made it clear that kyungsoo had no idea and to keep said information to himself. “jongin, i told you not to say anything!”

“say what? you only said i couldn’t tell anyone that your roommate plays with puppets. you never said anything about him talking in his sleep!”

“puppets? talking in my sleep? i don’t understand what you’re on about,” kyungsoo says, looking at sehun for an answer.

sehun is far too sleepy to be having this conversation. it’s too late to explain everything to kyungsoo, including why he’s been keeping it from him. god, he wouldn’t even know where to begin with that. as for jongin, there will never be a good time to deal with his level of stupidity. “jesus ing christ, jongin. i said he’s a somniloquist, not a ventriloquist!”

“excuse me for not knowing fancy words! why didn’t you just say don’t mention that the dude talks in his sleep? i’m too tired for this. turn off the light and let me go back to sleep already,” jongin groans, wiggling inside of his sleeping bag.

“wait? i talk in my sleep?” kyungsoo is still staring at sehun, who at present is avoiding eye contact with him.

jongin sits up, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hands. “yes, you were talking about how you think sehun looks really good in sleeveless shirt and how much you like him!”

it’s sehun’s turn to be blindsided. “kyungsoo… likes me?”

“i said what now?” kyungsoo’s jaw is hanging open, shocked by the bomb that jongin’s just dropped.

“kyungsoo, is it true?” sehun doesn’t know if he spoke the words out loud, he can barely hear anything over the sound of the loud thumping in his chest. “do you like me?

“you guys aren’t going to let me sleep are you?”

“well, it is our room,” sehun points out, eyes still locked on kyungsoo, who’s still frozen stiff.

jongin releases a loud, dragged out huff as he s himself from the sleeping bag. “fine, i’m going to see if i can crash in the ra’s room. please wait till i leave before you jump each other. thanks.”

“i-i need to go, too,” kyungsoo announces, slipping on his shoes and zooming past jongin before he has a chance to leave. the door slams shut before sehun can process what exactly is going on, kyungsoo having fled in the blink of an eye. his departure had been so abrupt, he’d even left his glasses behind. which would account for his not realising he had put on sehun’s shoes and not his own.

“well, i guess that means i can stay now. free bed, score!” jongin shuffles back and jumps onto the now vacant mattress.

sehun doesn’t feel a of guilt for sitting on jongin as the other taps out, furiously slamming the mattress with an open palm.

 



•••





it’s been a week since jongin dropped the ‘kyungsoo talks in his sleep—sometimes about sehun’—bomb and sehun has been left wondering where his roommate has been staying all this time. he knows kyungsoo stopped by one morning in order to collect his things while sehun was out, including the glasses he’d left behind and to return sehun’s shoes, but kyungsoo had been in and out by the time sehun had finished class. sehun decides to give kyungsoo some space after the other refused to picked up any of sehun’s phone calls or reply to even one of his approximately four hundred and eight text messages. sehun expects—or rather, hopes—to find kyungsoo sitting at his desk or lying in bed whenever he returns home, but the room is always empty, just as it was when sehun left for class in the morning.

it’s lonely without the company and sehun knows the feeling of loss he’s experiencing goes beyond what he’d feel for someone who was just a roommate or platonic friend. sehun misses the way kyungsoo’s face would scrunch up whenever he’d laugh; he misses the way kyungsoo would cluck disapprovingly whenever he’d catch sehun eating instant ramen or a microwave dinner; he even misses the sound of kyungsoo sleep talking as he tries to fall asleep.

it’s another evening of sehun solo time when he hears the jangle of keys and the sound of the lock turning. “kyungsoo!” he cries out in excitement, exercising the utmost self restraint in order not to envelope his roommate in a body-crushing bear hug. “where have you been?”

“hi, sehun,” kyungsoo greets, showing zero display of the enthusiasm and joy that sehun had just exhibited.

“kyungsoo? is everything oka—”

“—i’m moving out,” kyungsoo interrupts him, delivering the blow in a lifeless, monotone voice.

sehun notices the dark circles under kyungsoo’s eyes and a wave of concern washes over him. where has his roommate been staying all this time? has he been eating properly? and then kyungsoo’s last words hit him like a ton of bricks—did he just say he was moving out? “what? why?”

“because of everything that’s happened—it’s so mortifying.” kyungsoo covers his face with his hands. “i can’t even look at you without wanting the ground to open up and swallow me whole, how am i supposed to live with you? besides, you won’t have to deal with a roommate that keeps you up all night so it’s a win-win situation.”

“but what if i want you to keep me up at night?” sehun closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose after realising the connotations behind his question. “i mean, i don’t mind that you sleep talk. i’ve gotten quite used to it, in fact. like, this past week i’ve had the worst sleep i’ve had since being here at uni. i don’t want you to switch rooms, kyungsoo.”

“then why did you request a room transfer application?” kyungsoo asks, looking into sehun’s eyes for the first time since entering their room. “i saw the form,” he reveals after sehun fails to respond, choking and spluttering notwithstanding.

“i… that… that was before!” sehun takes a deep breath before sitting down on his chair. he gestures for kyungsoo to take a seat as well. when they’re both settled, facing each other, sehun continues, “look, kyungsoo. i like living with you, even if you do talk in your sleep. i mean, there’s a reason why i never got around to actually submitting the request for a transfer. there’s really no need to be embarrassed. how about i even the playing field and tell you something personal about me? will that make you feel better?”

kyungsoo nods his head.

“okay, there was this one time when i was five, my aunt took me to the mall and somehow we got separated. only, i’d forgotten what she looked like by the time she finally managed to locate me and i started crying and screaming that she was trying to kidnap me. i have to hear this story whenever i go visit her, without fail.” sehun buries his face in his hands as he cringes at the recollection. “it’s become an inside joke among my extended family. my relatives are always sending me selfies to ‘remind’ me of what they look like so i won’t forget.”

kyungsoo laughs at the story and sehun can immediately tell that his roommate feels less uncomfortable—his posture is less rigid and his arms are no longer folded across his chest. “it kinda reminds me of how my mum never lets me live down the fact that i left the door to my hamster’s cage open and she ran away,” kyungsoo says.

“ah, moomoo.” sehun immediately regrets opening his big fat trap when he sees kyungsoo’s expression. he’s gone and put his foot in his mouth again. godammit, oh sehun!

“how do you know about moomoo?” kyungsoo asks, pushing back his chair to distance himself slightly from sehun. “oh wait, don’t say it. just don’t.”

“let’s change the subject, hmm? have you eaten yet? because i haven’t and i’m absolutely starving. we can go out for dinner and i can tell you more about myself. all the embarrassing stories i’ve not told a single soul, what do you say?”

“actual food or that microwave crap?” kyungsoo asks, his lips curving ever so slightly into a smirk. yet another image for sehun to add to his already chock full of ‘do kyungsoo’s adorable moments’ memory banks.

“see? that’s one more thing you’ve learned about me—i can’t cook.” sehun rises from his chair and slips on a jacket.

kyungsoo slides his chair backwards as sehun moves toward him. “but won’t it be weird?” kyungsoo asks the floor, avoiding eye contact with sehun.

“because you have a crush on me?”

kyungsoo squeaks at the question and they make eye contact for a fleeting moment before their heads turn to the door simultaneously. sehun is faster on his feet and pounces on kyungsoo before he can escape. sehun snakes his arms around kyungsoo’s waist, pulling him into a back hug. “it won’t be weird, kyungsoo, because i like you, too. and that’s 'something personal about me' number three.”

 



•••





it’s four am and sehun finds himself playing a game titled, ‘ten fun facts about my boyfriend’.

1. his name is do kyungsoo.
2. he’s studying mechanical engineering.
3. he’s been dating sehun for the past three months.
4. he’s not slept in his own bed for more than a month now.
5. he has a tendency to hog the blanket.
6. he’s currently sleeping soundly in sehun’s arms.
7. he still sleep talks.
8. he’s just said, “i love you, sehunnie.”
9. it’s the first time he’s confessed his feelings.
10. he has no idea that sehun is in love with him, too.

 

 

a/n: comments make me happy face.