Jongdae picked him up right on time, which was a point on his favour. Jongin had been walking nervously up and down the apartment, Minseok following him with his eyes without saying a word. At seven o’clock sharp the doorbell rang and Jongin jumped. Minseok had to push him toward the door or else Jongin would have exploded.

Jongdae stood there, looking handsome as ever with faded jeans and a blue dress shirt. Jongin smiled nervously and Jongdae beamed at him.

“Hello, Jongin,” the older boy said with a charming grin.

“Hi, hyung,” Jongin stumbled over his words. He could hear Minseok laughing at him through the door. 

Jongin noticed the camera slung over Jongdae’s shoulder and figured he had been working at his studio as usual. Jongin had met the boy one day when he had ventured into the Arts department building while looking for Minseok; they ran into each other, quite literally, and Jongdae had almost dropped his camera. If it weren’t because Jongin had fairly good reflexes, the camera would have shattered to the ground.

“I’m so sorry,” Jongin had rushed to apologize, bowing profusely. He was surprised when he heard laughter above him and looked up to see the cutest smile being directed at him.

“It’s alright,” the boy had assured him.  Somehow, Jongin had managed to keep up a conversation with Jongdae for two hours and when the older boy had asked him out on a date, Jongin couldn’t say no.

“Are you ready?” Jongdae asked. The mole near his hairline was adorable, Jongin couldn’t help but to notice.

“Yeah, let’s go,” Jongin mentally patted himself on the back; he had managed an entire sentence without stuttering.

Jongdae led them to a college café two blocks away from the dorm building, the one Jongin knew was ran by Lu Han because the Chinese male hadn’t stopped ing about locations for three months. Jongin really admired Minseok for putting up with him.

They made small talk, Jongdae asking him pointless questions and Jongin answering them with stutters and blushes. He kicked himself every time he stumbled over his words, but Jongdae seemed to find it endearing. 

Jongin had to give it to Lu Han; the café looked great. The serving counter took up the entire wall left to the door, bulletin board in the opposite wall stacked with flyers varying from ‘roommate wanted’ to ‘guinea pig for physics experiment needed; easily dizzied abstain’. The tables were wooden but the chairs were all different material and sizes, because Lu Han had gotten them all from a garage sale. It was really nice, the atmosphere was calm enough so you could finish an essay in the dead of night but still alive with conversations.

Jongdae chose a two seats table by the window; Jongin’s chair was made of wood but painted an obnoxious orange and Jongdae’s was plastic. 

“I hope you don’t mind sitting here,” Jongdae smiled sheepishly, “But I have a rule of always being near a window in case there’s an emergency.”

“No, it’s perfect!” Jongin rushed to say, “This is a very nice spot.” The smile he got was priceless.

“Hello, lovebirds,” Lu Han’s voice was suddenly behind Jongin, “What can I get you tonight?”

“Lu Han, don’t you have another waiter?” Jongdae gave a long suffering sigh. 

“Nope, I’m all yours,” Lu Han beamed, “So, Jongin, what are you having?”

Jongin thought for a second, then, “Surprise me, hyung.”

Lu Han scribbled something down on his notepad, “And you?”

“I’ll have an Americano, and you know that cake Baekhyun’s forcing you to sell? Get us two slices.”

Jongin was about to open his mouth to refuse the cake when Lu Han clamped a hand over the bottom half of his face. 

“Just so you know,” Lu Han said pleasantly, “Hurt this kid, I’ll kick your .”

Jongin blushed for nth time that night. Lu Han left with a flourish, kind smile still plastered on his face. It was unnerving.

“I didn’t know you and Lu Han were friends,” Jongin said.

Jongdae snorted, “I wouldn’t say we’re friends. His roommate is Yixing, and Yixing is Joonmyeon’s boyfriend. Joonmyeon is my roommate and he is friends with Minseok.  He drives me nuts. But, I figured you would be more comfortable somewhere friendly, so I decided to bring you to my enemy’s lair.” Jongin blushed at the attention.

“Lu Han isn’t friendly,” Jongin laughed, “He’s terrifying.” Jongdae laughed with him.

“So, what are you majoring in?” Jongdae asked. He sounded truly interested.

“I’m a dance major,” Jongin answered shyly, “Second year.”

“Really? That’s cool,” Jongdae said, “You should dance for me sometime.” He seemed to mean it.

“I’m willing to guess you’re photography major?” Jongin tried to ignore the butterflies in his stomach at the thought of dancing for Jongdae.

“It’s that obvious?” Jongdae rubbed the back of his neck, “Yeah, I’m a fourth year. I’m thinking about going to grad school, unless the application I sent to Dispatch gets in.”

“Dispatch, huh?” Jongin teased, “You like the entertainment industry?” It was Jongdae’s turn to blush.

“Yes, I’ve always wanted to work there.”

Lu Han was back, tray in hand. He placed Jongdae’s beverage in front of him, two neatly cut slices of chocolate cake in the middle of the table and handed Jongin a strawberry smoothie.

“There you go, kids,” Lu Han said, “If you want anything else, let me know.”

When he was gone, Jongdae sniffed his cup with suspicion on his eyes.

“What are you doing,” Jongin said.

“Making sure he didn’t poison this,” Jongdae said like it was the most obvious thing on the planet.

They sipped their drinks in relative silence, and the cake slices were gone in less than five minutes; they were delicious.

Once the table was cleared away, Jongdae started asking questions again. What other courses he was taking, about his family, what he did on his free time; Jongin wasn’t used to being the center of attention when he wasn’t dancing, and he found he liked it, even if it was a little nerve wracking.

“What is the saddest memory? And by saddest, I mean the most embarrassing,” Jongdae asked him.

Jongin didn’t have to think about that. “When I was eleven, my parents and my sisters failed to remember the start of the school year. I mean, one Friday we were on the pool and my neighbour’s face popped up over the fence and asked, ‘what is going on here?’ and my mom said ‘enjoying the last Friday of vacation’ and they were like ‘school started last Monday’. It was horribly amusing to hear my sisters screaming.”

“You didn’t realize school had started?” Jongdae’s giggling was adorable.

“Oh, I knew. I just didn’t care.” 

“Savage,” Jongdae grinned.

They decided to go for a walk on the park – well, Jongdae dragged him there, but whatever, Jongin wasn’t complaining. The night was pleasant, not too warm but enough so Jongin didn’t have to bury himself in five layers of clothes.

Jongin had been quite a few times there, mostly when he was still in high school. He and Sehun used to go skateboarding on the ramps, and Jongin would never forget the time he tried to impress some girls and broke his arm. 

The swing set was exactly where Jongin remembered, nestled between the old castle and the sand box he and Sehun used to push each other in. Kiddie Jongin had been familiar with eating sand. 

Jongdae sat down on the blue swing and Jongin took the red one. 

“Ok, time for in-depth questions,” Jongdae announced. Jongin kicked his feet to get his swing moving.

“What would you like to know?”

“What do you plan on doing once you finish college?”

Jongin thought about it. He didn’t really have anything in mind at the moment. “Well, I’ve been doing workshops and gotten some jobs on theatre, but I honestly don’t know what’s gonna happen.”

“What kind of jobs?”

“Sehun and I got casted for a remake of Mamma Mia on stage,” Jongin said, “Both as background dancers, but we got to meet a lot of actors.”

“That’s great,” Jongin hoped he would one day get used to Jongdae’s smile. It was beautiful, and the curve of his lips was distracting him.

“Listen, I would really like to go out with you again,” Jongdae said.

“I’d like that too,” Jongin stuttered out. 
-
“I had fun,” Jongin said truthfully. Jongdae had his hands in his pockets and was looking down. 

“Me too,” Jongin figured it was now or never. He swooped in and landed a kiss on Jongdae’s cheek. Jongdae blushed, but not as hard as Jongin.

“Bye, hyung,” Jongin was inside the apartment before the older boy could answer him. 

“You’re back,” Minseok drawled. The TV was on and blaring Running Man re-runs. “Lu Han called; he told me you guys went to his café. Did you enjoy yourself?”

Jongin nodded bashfully.

“I’m glad,” Minseok said, “Your deserve it.”