“Holy…,” Donghae winced, covering his ears and wincing.

Kyuhyun smirked, eyes travelling over to the current screeching of a karaoke singer. “Don’t you like it?” he asked, bobbing his head to the off-key singing.

“Be quiet,” he muttered, frowning at Kyuhyun. “Whose smart idea was it to give the regular students a microphone and amp?”

“Student Government,” the latter answered, seeing that Dongwoon boy sitting at the DJ table with Sungmin. Kyuhyun looked away, nothing bothering to eye them if Ryeowook wasn’t around. Neither of them was worth looking at, what with one being the Stupid Bunny and the other weirdly all-over the awkward boy, Mir.

Donghae nodded in forced understanding. “Hey why are we still here? We’re both done eating. Can’t we just go…away from here or something?”

“Where do you want to go?” Kyuhyun questioned. “There’s nothing else to do except maybe eat some more.”

Meanwhile, the boy singing belted a long, crackly note, looking as if he were in pain doing it. Maybe he was. Kyuhyun flinched at the noise, starting to find the whole ordeal far less amusing. A large part of him was itching to just take that microphone away and take over for the horrible singer.

“I don’t know~! Just away from here,” Donghae whined, standing up and pulling his jacket on.

Kyuhyun followed suit, zipping his coat up and heading towards the door. Before either of them could grab the handle though, it opened. He skidded to a halt right before colliding with the smaller boy. “Hey,” Kyuhyun said, side stepping the wide-eyed Ryeowook.

“Oh, Kyuhyun!” he stated, surprise littering his tone. “Are you enjoying…,” Ryeowook cut himself off after another squeaky note filled the room, “…never mind.” There was another person standing slightly behind the slender boy – most likely another StudGov member.

“Yeah,” he replied. Without warning, the back of Kyuhyun’s hand brushed across the other boy’s frigid and flushed cheek. “Where’s your scarf?”

Ryeowook blinked, feeling his neck. “I forgot it…,” he mumbled.

Reaching into his front coat pocket, Kyuhyun pulled out a dark red scarf, carelessly tossing it around the smaller boy’s neck. “Remember it next time.” Then he was walking past, shoulders straight and calm.

Donghae caught up to his friend, grinning like a fool as he pressed a gloved hand down on Kyuhyun’s shoulder. “So…what was that about?” he leaned over, looking far too triumphant.

“He’s my roommate,” the dark haired boy answered, cursing himself for doing that in front of his friend. When he saw Ryeowook it was just…like the world faded away, if that made sense.

After finally getting those stupid words out, Kyuhyun felt like a weight had been lifted. He had mulled over confronting Ryeowook since he punched Eunhyuk for taking Zhoumi. That whole event threw everything he thought straight out the window. If something as real as him and Zhoumi ended up being fake, how could Kyuhyun be sure what he thought of Ryeowook wasn’t the complete opposite?

For instance, he had convinced himself long ago that Ryeowook was a useless little boy. Yet somehow, that useless little boy ended up taking on the stress of the StudGov president. Could Kyuhyun have been wrong? Or rather, had he just forgotten people are capable of growing and changing? Seeing Zhoumi leave him…well, that was enough to know there was certainly a possibility of someone like Ryeowook changing.

“You sure he’s not more than a roommate?” Donghae nudged his friend, “I know that if I was rooming with Kibum—”

“—you’re not rooming with your boyfriend?” Kyuhyun cut in, stifling a smirk, “are you sure that’s a good idea? I mean, I’ve seen Kibum, he’s pretty cute.”

Donghae rolled his eyes, “Stop joking around. There was nothing I could do. He’s a year younger than us so there was no way for me to room with him.”

“What are you talking about?” he raised his eyebrows, “Second and third years are dorm together.”

“…what?”

“Yeah,” Kyuhyun nodded.

A horrified expression overtook Donghae’s face and then he was muttering something about talking to the dorm advisor and switching rooms. Kyuhyun watched him scamper off, wondering how someone could be so…funny.

Now that he was alone, there really was nothing to do – not even someone to talk to. Kyuhyun settled for taking a walk around the campus after deciding it wasn’t too cold that day. There was absolutely no way he was going back to Karaoke and there was even less of a chance of him going back to the dorm building to study.

Just as he started towards the park, someone caught his shoulder. Kyuhyun stuttered to a halt, tilting his head back. “…What do you want?”

Sungmin’s hand slipped from the glaring boy’s shoulder as he said, “I want to talk.”

***

Mir exhaled deeply, smiling. His skin was flushed and glowing, loose t-shirt fluttering around his collar. The prop microphone in his hand was moistened with sweat but so was the rest of him. It felt good to release some of that tension.

Peering outside, Mir saw the sky was gloomy gray as usual but even that couldn’t kill his mood. There were many good things about the next few days and he was in dire need of some stress-free fun.

He sat down on a chair, picking up the water bottle beside it. Although Taemin made his heart flutter and the world brighten, all of those emotions were combated with uneasy jealousy and insecurity. Yes, it was nice to know the pretty boy cared enough to feel those things, but the relentless arguments and tears were overshadowing the happy times. Mir didn’t know much about relationships or romance – barely friendship – though he could rightfully deduce there was something wrong about his current affair with Taemin.

Why were they having so much trouble communicating? And why did all of their fights end in Mir chasing after him? Was that how it worked?

He slumped back against the chair, covering his eyes with the back of one hand. There had to be a way to kill Taemin’s insecurities. Now Mir just had to figure out what that way was.

“What are you doing here?” His eyes opened and he scrambled to his feet. When he whipped around to the open doorway, Dongwoon was leaning against the frame, smiling curiously. He was holding a cardboard box in both arms.

“N-Nothing,” Mir managed, quickly reaching up to remove his cap.

Dongwoon grinned, entering the room and setting the box down. “If you like singing why didn’t you do Karaoke?”

“I like rapping…not singing,” he mumbled, flushing. Since when did he get so bad at keeping his secret? Ryeowook had already caught him and now Dongwoon had too.

“You could’ve rapped up there,” the taller boy persisted, sitting down on an empty chair across from Mir’s. “But I didn’t think you would like music.”

Mir sank into his own seat, already giving up on hiding anything from Dongwoon. Apparently it was impossible to keep anything from him. He had a knack for catching Mir for some reason. “I think it’s fun…relaxing,” he smiled a bit, “but it’s a secret…so could you not talk about?”

“Oh? I have one of your secrets?” Dongwoon’s eyes sparkled teasingly as he leaned forward, elbows on knees. “Well I guess it’s fair now.”

“W-Why?” Mir stuttered, backing away from the handsome boy.

“Come here,” the other boy waved his hand, indicating for Mir to lean forward as well. He hesitated but then found his body obliging as it often did those days. Dongwoon touched one side of Mir’s face, saying, “You’re the first person I’ve ever kissed…our little secret, okay?”

“W-What? No way!” Mir couldn’t control his own voice and quickly covered his mouth. It was impossible, right? Someone like Dongwoon…surely it was a joke. Yes, the guy was probably teasing him again.

All doubts flew out of mind though when Mir saw the tinge of pink color the normally composed boy’s cheeks. “It’s embarrassing,” he muttered, “so don’t go spreading it or anything.”

“I won’t,” he assured, unable to help the grin making its way onto his face.

Dongwoon glared but the corner of his mouth was twitching up. “Oh shut up,” he rolled his eyes, “but how am I?”

Mir blinked, confused by the question. Once it dawned on him, a small laugh burst from his lips. He stifled it quickly and said with a shaky voice, “Y-You’re good…I promise.”

“Yeah, I figured,” he sighed, smirking a second later, “Otherwise you wouldn’t keep letting me kiss you, huh?”

“D-Don’t talk about that,” Mir stated, coloring. “Taemin really doesn’t like it…” And then another thought occurred to him. His head shot up and he looked at Dongwoon with hopeful eyes. “Actually, do you want a boyfriend?”

The one in question cocked an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

“I mean…,” Mir paused, trying to sound less desperate, “do you want someone to date…? Y-You’re already in your last year of high school…wouldn’t it be fun to date someone at least once?”

“I suppose so…,” Dongwoon said carefully, “…did you have someone in mind?” The light in his eyes was intensifying as he gazed back at the anxious boy. But all of that glowing abruptly halted when Mir started naming off different people he thought would be good for Dongwoon. “…Oh,” the tall boy muttered, “I get it.”

Mir smiled with relief. “I can set it up for you. Y’know for the dance on Valentine’s Day,” he explained.

“Yeah, that’s fine,” Dongwoon forced a smile and stood up, grabbing the box again. “We can talk about it back at the dorms then.” He didn’t wait for a reply though. It didn’t matter to him. Why didn’t Mir get it? You couldn’t just push two people together, especially when one of them already had a person in mind.