“Oh my god, I am so sorry! Are you okay? It’s my fault! Let me help you!” The cute junior frantically apologised and helped Taekwoon up before he could even respond. “I am Lee Hongbin, nice to meet you? I can treat you to coffee for knocking you down and-”

Taekwoon’s mind began to block whatever sound that was coming from the shorter male, he was already flustered enough for bumping into another person and it did not help that the person was babbling non-stop. He could only take so much of social interactions in a day (courtesy of Hakyeon for always using up most of his social mana) and so he managed a dry “It’s fine” before picking up the things he dropped from the other male’s hands and leaving the junior standing there awkwardly.

“Hyung~ Hyung~” Hongbin whined, pouting cutely in front of his cousin, Lee Jaehwan.

“What? Weren’t you on a mission just now?” The older male continued his sketch without looking at the younger.

“It didn’t work! He wasn’t charmed at all! In fact, he didn’t even look at my face!” Hongbin cried in exasperation. Jaehwan placed down his pencil, raising his eyebrows to gesture the younger to continue. Hongbin began explaining how he intentionally bumped into Taekwoon and what he did and said, all the while complaining about the lack of response from the senior. “And so, I did what you suggested but he didn’t even bother about me!”

“Pfffft hahahahahaha, I was just suggesting, I didn’t expect you to really do it!” Jaehwan burst out laughing, holding his stomach due to the pain he began to feel. The other male frowned before unleashing a string of curses that did not match his appearance. “Have you tried asking Wonshik? He is pretty close to that other senior who is always around your love interest~”

“Aish, why didn’t you tell me sooner? I am going to ask him now. How can you do this to me!” Hongbin pouted in anger. “If Taekwoon-sunbae starts to hate me, it will be all your fault!” The male stuck out his tongue and ran away to find his friend.

“Well, this is why I am not telling you that I actually have Taekwoon-hyung’s number already.” Jaehwan said softly after Hongbin left, a smirk graced his features while he continued his sketch.

♢♢♢

“No,” a firm and deep voice resonated through the room.

“But Wonshik~ Please? I will help you clean up and do the housework for a month!” Hongbin pleaded.

Gritting his teeth, the older considered his options. “and 1 month worth of drinks, whenever I want.”

“Deal.”

This eventually led to a seriously stalkerish Hongbin who followed Taekwoon everywhere. Through the help of Wonshik (he found out Taekwoon’s timetable from Hakyeon), Hongbin had been following his crush in almost every free period he had that coincided with Taekwoon’s. If the senior was in the library, studying, Hongbin would be sitting at two tables away, directly opposite of the male. If Taekwoon was taking an afternoon nap at the tree near a quiet park in their university, Hongbin would be armed with his DSLR, taking pictures from a distance. Perhaps the best and worst part of whatever the younger had done was that he could stalk the older without him knowing. Yes, two weeks and more, the younger was still able to stalk him without the senior realising. Eventually, he fell into a withering mode on his third week of stalking. Usually, if he even spare a glance at someone, the person would acknowledge him or blush. In Taekwoon’s case, there was nothing. On the day when he was finally courageous enough to walk up to Taekwoon, a tanned male came out of nowhere, pulling an unwilling Taekwoon into a hug. Hongbin froze on the spot before he quickly recovered and pretended that he was going to take a seat behind them. For a fifteen minutes, Hongbin watched as Hakyeon poked Taekwoon’s cheeks, clung to his sides and whatnot. The affectionate behaviour made Hongbin glare with jealousy. He was literally shooting daggers at Hakyeon’s head. He was taken off guard when the shorter male turned back in his direction, met his gaze and flashed a bright smile. Stiffly, Hongbin returned the gesture with a smile. The next two days saw the repeat of Hakyeon being clingy towards Taekwoon and he began to wonder if they were a couple. He was determined to find out and switched to sit in front of them on the third day. Unfortunately, the third day was worse when a rather tall boyish male came over and sat with the two seniors. His crush even gave the newcomer a small smile and ruffled his hair.

Hongbin sweared that shooting straight up from his seat in the library at that moment was purely an accident. An accident. Unintentional.

As a result of his accident and the effect of it, he missed the looks on the faces and giggles of Sanghyuk and Hakyeon. And of course, Taekwoon was as dumb as a rock, confused as to what was so funny about a person shooting up from his seat in the library.

Another week soon passed with no progress or whatsoever, or so Hongbin thought. On the day of his basketball match with another university, apart from his massive fanclub, the sight of the pale and tall senior caught his eye immediately. He allowed his eyes to follow the movements of the older, watching as Sanghyuk half-dragged and half-carried a grumpy Taekwoon to the benches. Hongbin most definitely scored more points than he ever did at his best that day and he was fairly certain the expression on the older’s face was one of awe. The next time he saw Taekwoon was when Wonshik decided to drop by for a casual game. This time, Hakyeon was with Taekwoon and as usual Taekwoon looked unwilling to be there and there was a slight pout of his face. Hongbin failed to realise how much he was staring and how he longed to pinch those chubby cheeks until Wonshik waved a hand in front of him. It was definitely just the hot weather that led to the redness on his face.

Another month of stalking passed by quickly (A/N: seriously, stalking a person for 2 months -_-) and there was hardly any progress on Hongbin’s side. His courage seem to fade away with every moment when he saw the older and yet his love only grew deeper. Tired, he shut off his brain and allowed his legs to carry him wherever they wanted. When he heard a soft melody coming out from one of the rooms, he realised that he was at the same place he first saw Taekwoon. Hiding behind the door to shield himself from sight, the cute junior watched as beautiful music continued to play and the blissful look on Taekwoon’s face that captivated him as usual. He closed his eyes to enjoy the wonderful song and was greatly startled when a voice called out. He was about to turn over to respond when the other person shoved him promptly into the room and onto the floor.

“Taekwoonie~ Take care of him! He seems to like your song a lot!” Hakyeon beamed and sent a wink in Hongbin’s direction. At that moment, Hongbin questioned how much the shorter senior know about his feelings.

“I… erm… I,” Hongbin awkwardly started, standing up to brush off the imaginary dirt on his pants while attempting to steel his nerves.

“Hi,” Taekwoon replied while maintaining a blank face.

oh my god, his voice is beautiful. What do I do?

“Hi… your song was nice…”

A faint hue appeared on the older’s face and he mumbled a soft “Thanks” before turning away. Either Hongbin was too dumb at that moment or too brave, he had no idea what possessed him to walk towards Taekwoon and brought his hands to cup the latter's face. All he recalled was a confused Taekwoon before his lips pressed onto the older’s soft ones. He did, however, managed to choke out “I like you” before being pushed away lightly. An extremely flustered Taekwoon fled the scene right away. Weak, Hongbin allowed his body to lean against the piano while he sat on the floor. His brain finally managed to function and he became completely aware of what he did.

I kissed him. I KISSED HIM. OH MY GOD.

With his soul pretty much gone, he spent another hour considering his options before having enough sense to text Jaehwan and Wonshik. The first thing Jaehwan did when he saw the younger was to engulf him in a bear hug and express how proud he was. The younger merely whined in distress and went into a full panic mode in front of his friends. “What in the world was I thinking? He's definitely never talking to me again! He will hate me!”

Jaehwan merely laughed at the younger’s declaration, “You never actually had a proper conversation with him in the first place.” Hongbin glared at his friend before sobbing and whining like a child. Eventually, Wonshik convinced him to speak to Taekwoon once more the next day.

-On Taekwoon’s side-

Hakyeon smiled at the older woman as he took off his shoes. She had a worried expression on her face and directed Hakyeon towards a room. Once he pushed open the door, he knew it was going to be a long night.

Hiding under his thick blanket and curled up into a ball was Taekwoon, next to him was Sanghyuk who looked like he was just marvelling at the cocoon. Sighing to himself, Hakyeon made his way towards the ball of cotton before forcefully pulling it away. Both him and Sanghyuk grinned at the sight. Flushed cheeks and ears red to their tips, it had been hours since he returned but obviously Taekwoon had still not recovered. The shy male tried to protest by pulling the blanket back to himself, only for Sanghyuk to steal it and throw it somewhere else.

“How long do you intend to hide, Taekwoonie?”

“As long as I can…”

“He’s still gonna be there in school tomorrow and the day after, hyung.”

Taekwoon let out a pitiful whimper, followed by a look akin to a kicked puppy. While Hakyeon would have been very pleased if this was their usual situation, he hardened his heart and pointed at the male.

“You will it out and go to school. I assume he will explain his actions to you so you just listen to it and go with the flow,” Hakyeon sternly said. “No buts. Now get a hold of yourself!”

“Says the one who is still stuttering when he talks to the deep-voiced guy, let's see, Wonshik is his name, isn't it?” Sanghyuk teased before a pillow landed squarely on his face and he snickered in delight as his watch both his hyungs’ faces reddened.

The following day, despite efforts to be strong, Taekwoon avoided all the places that he had seen the younger at before. Unfortunately for him, with a living GPS like Hakyeon, a good pal to Hongbin like Wonshik and a highly skilled stalker like Hongbin, he was cornered at the end of his last class. He considered fleeing the scene but he was pretty much trapped when the younger dragged him to a secluded corner. Taking a deep breath, he willed himself to remain calm only to be shocked by Hongbin kneeling in front of him, begging for forgiveness. Taekwoon did the first thing a person under immense stress would do. He fainted right in front of Hongbin.

The first thing that Taekwoon saw when his eyes wearily opened was the sleeping face of Hongbin right next to his own. The junior laid his head on his arms and fell asleep after taking care of Taekwoon.  Feeling self-conscious, Taekwoon sat up slowly to not wake the younger and attempted to escape wherever he was at the moment. Life, however, loves making him miserable in his opinion, for as he removed his weight from the bed, Hongbin woke up instantly and grabbed his wrist to prevent him from leaving.

“I am sorry for kissing you. Okay, maybe I wasn’t because I like you a lot. Like I really do like you a lot, sunbae. When you play the piano, I could not tear my eyes away from you. I like it when you bite your lips as you study in the library or when you curl into a ball while sleeping under the tree or-”

“Let go,” Taekwoon’s voice came out firm and strong but Hongbin shook his head. “Let go and I will hear you out.” Slowly, Hongbin removed his grip and Taekwoon sat down facing the former.  “When did you start liking me?”

“3 months ago…” “Why is it that you know I study in the library or sleep under the tree?” “I might have… well… stalked you for 2 months?” Hongbin replied sheepishly and before he knew, Taekwoon stood up with every intention of running.

“Wait, I am not a weird guy! Okay, maybe I am… I wanted to see you more but it sounds stupid but… usually people notice me when I am in front of them… I didn’t really wanted to stalk you, I wanted you to notice my presence…”

“Well… you could… have said something…”

“I tried to but I just wasn’t brave enough…” Hongbin replied weakly, staring at his knees. He waited for a response and when he did not receive one, he slowly raised his head. He did not expect Taekwoon to be hugging his own knees, looking adorable with flushed cheeks. The older was extremely confused about the situation as well as embarrassed and thus sat in the particular position. Stealthily, Hongbin shifted in front of Taekwoon, prying the older’s hands away from his face.

“Will you go out with me? I mean, urm, to get to know each other and stuff. I won’t do anything weird from now onwards that will make you uncomfortable. I swear!”

Taekwoon gave a small nod and Hongbin beamed at him.

Three months later~

Sanghyuk once again dragged Taekwoon to Hongbin’s basketball match. It was not that Taekwoon was being an awful boyfriend to not come to the court but rather he dislike the screeching voices of Hongbin’s fanclub. If there was anything other than learning more about Hongbin and becoming closer, it was that Hongbin’s fanclub can be very annoying. They were supportive of the couple but he just hated being in the centre of attention which was what Hongbin always experienced. It was also painful for him to be told by random people in his school that he was as cute as a kitten contrary to the image he initially gave off. Thankfully, the number of people telling him that had reduced ever since his jealous boyfriend kissed him passionately at the university square and declared that only he himself could call his boyfriend a kitten. While he was completely flustered by the action, Taekwoon secretly enjoyed his boyfriend’s possessiveness. The whistle blew and the match began, but not before Hongbin sent a quick wink in his direction, leaving Taekwoon red as he recalled what the younger had said in the morning.

If I score more than 50 points today, you have to kiss me 5 times per day for a month~