The little boy came out of the auditorium with his backpack on his shoulder and his glasses still on; he took the cell phone out of his sweatshirt pocket and found out that it was seven o'clock in the afternoon: he had been practicing for his recital for the next month since five o'clock.

He didn’t want the situation of the last concert to repeat itself; this time he had to practice properly.

He took his headphones out of his backpack and connected them to the phone to listen to music on his way to the residence. He slid his finger over his favorite albums of rap and hip hop, but before he decided on any, the cell phone vibrated in his hand and he glanced at the message that had just arrived.

“Hi :)”

A discreet smile formed on the boy's thin lips as he read what Wonho had written; he began to walk more slowly as he answered him.

"Hey"

Changkyun soon received a reply.

"How are you, little onion?"

The dark haired boy rolled his eyes at the nickname he used. Wonho seemed to be amused by the amount of clothing layers he wore and decided to use that childish nickname.

"I told you to stop calling me that"

"Okay... Changkyunnie"

It was useless. If it wasn’t the stupid onion’s nickname, it was the diminutive of his name. This past week, the two of them had been exchanging messages often; when they were on the campus, Changkyun made an effort and greeted him or have short conversations with him, all about trivial matters.

It might sound silly, but he found it very difficult to get along with a person. Changkyun found it hard to relate to people, but the elder's insistence and patience helped him to open up to him. Although sometimes Wonho took too many liberties, that didn’t displease him at all...

The pianist was about to not respond him to make it clear that he didn’t like that nickname either, but he let himself go and his fingers began to write for themselves.

"Do you want me to hit you?"

He saw that the Wonho read his message, but he didn’t respond despite continuing online. Changkyun bit his lip and stopped walking. Had he crossed the line with that text? Would Wonho be offended by it? Thousands of questions wandered in his head, but his cell vibrated and pulled him out of his thoughts.

"Such an aggressive little one… how about hanging out today?"

Hanging out? Today?

The nervousness invaded Changkyun. Suddenly he remembered that last week Wonho suggested that he could accompany them and cursed himself for accepting.

He continued his way to the exit of the faculty, thinking about what to answer. When he left the building and the cold afternoon air hit his face, he realized that if he went out with Wonho and his friends today, he should be prepared to be exposed to them.

He knew that Minhyuk and Jooheon didn’t like him, they made that pretty clear the other day.

Changkyun wanted to leave behind his insecurities and go out to have fun, he wanted it with all his might. But it wasn’t easy.

He stood at the top of the entrance stairs, staring at the screen and feeling guilty. He saw that Wonho was writing and squeezed the phone tightly, expectantly for what he was going to say.

"It’s okay if you don’t want to"

That took pressure off him; in the short time he could talk to the eldest, Changkyun realized that he was a sympathetic person. And he appreciated that enormously, since he really didn’t like that anyone forced him to do things which he didn’t feel comfortable with. However, a new message appeared on the chat.

"But... you’d make me happy if you came too"

His heart began to beat faster than usual, and he imagined Wonho's face saying those words; suddenly the idea of going out with him and his friends became much more attractive.

He thought seeing Wonho out of college might be nice... It would be kind of a change of scenery.

"Okay then"

♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

After taking a shower, Changkyun dressed in trousers and a shirt; he didn’t button up the sleeves because he liked them to cover the back of his hands.

He left the bathroom and pulled a loose red sweater from his closet, placing it over his shirt and feeling protected and comfortable. He went to his bed and put aside several of his comics and sheet music that rested on the mattress so he could sit down and comfortably tie the laces of his boots.

“Are you going out?”

His roommate's voice caught his attention and looked at him. Kihyun was leaning against the door frame; he looked tired, he had probably just arrived from the rehearsals at the theater club.

"Yeah," he said before he finished tying his shoes and standing up. He looked at the clock on his bedside table and realized that there were only ten minutes left until Wonho arrived at nine to pick him up.

“Really? Have you finally made friends in your class?”

The question was not malicious: Kihyun was really worried that the pianist still couldn’t get along with anyone his age. The only university friends Changkyun had were Hyunwoo and Kihyun himself.

Changkyun searched in his wardrobe for his denim jacket, intentionally avoiding looking at his friend in the eye: He didn’t want to tell him that he was going out with Wonho, because he knew too well how much he despised him.

“Uh… yeah.”

His hesitation didn’t go unnoticed by Kihyun. The older boy stared at him for a few seconds, but at the end he sighed and threw himself on his bed.

"I'm glad... if you come back late, please don’t make too much noise."

Then he took some script sheets from his bedside table and began to read them with concentration; the black haired boy looked at him in surprise: he was expecting some kind of interrogation from him. Changkyun nodded unconvincingly at the request of his friend and, having put on his jacket, he left the room with his cell phone in his hand.

He decided to go down to the entrance of the residence and wait there for Wonho; he was very anxious to go out with his friends... or was it because he’d spend more time with him? He wasn’t entirely sure, but the nerves made his stomach twist in a painful way.

At the door of the building, the little boy waited patiently; but when Hoseok was already five minutes late, he began to find ways to distract himself and thus kill time.

He played with the sleeves of his shirt, himself a few times until he got dizzy; even tried to walk in a straight line with eyes closed, failing in the process, of course.

As Wonho didn’t arrive, the boy made a pout and stood on tiptoe, trying to catch sight of him in the distance, but he couldn’t see anyone. Maybe because it was starting to get dark, or maybe because he wasn’t wearing his glasses.

Suddenly he felt someone tapping his shoulder and he turned around startled. Wonho was in front of him with a radiant smile.

"I didn’t want to scare you,” he said amused by his reaction.

It was obvious to Changkyun that that was precisely his intention, and a part of him inside wanted to hit him for it. However, he restrained himself and instead stood still, analyzing the boy in front of him. The rumors didn’t lie: Wonho was quite handsome, but that night the eldest was even more attractive than normal.

Perhaps it was the choker that fitted perfectly to his neck, or the ripped jeans that exposed the pale skin of his muscled legs. It may have been the beautiful smile of perfect teeth that adorned his angelic face.

He looked like a porcelain doll.

Wonho began to feel nervous because of the intense gaze of Changkyun and giggled.

“Do I have something on my face?” he asked, resting a hand on his own cheek.

As Changkyun didn’t respond, Hoseok took it as a yes and pulled his cell phone out of the back pocket of his black jeans with concern. He looked at his reflection from the screen and touched his face for a trail of food or toothpaste. Changkyun suppressed a smile at that: apparently, his appearance was very important to him.

Although Wonho had nothing that stained his perfect face, an unknown impulse took control of Changkyun's body and took a step toward him, raising a hand to his cheek.

When his fingers touched the skin of the brunette, Wonho opened his eyes wide and looked at him in surprise. The moment their gazes met, Changkyun realized what he was doing and blushed hard, quickly taking away his hand and looking down at the floor.

"I-I've already cleaned it," muttered the embarrassed boy.

"Thanks, shall we go?"

Wonho turned around and began to walk toward his car, not waiting for the younger to catch up with him. Despite his apparent calmness, his heart thudded frantically at the simple touch. He didn’t want Changkyun to see his red ears and that was why he was walking so fast.

The brunette wanted to feel the softness of the small hand against his skin again; in fact, he was craving for doing a lot of things with those innocent hands. Things that, if he said outloud, would surely scare the cute puppy away and make him lose the friendship that, little by little, was being built up between the two of them.

The pianist walked behind him with his head low, wondering what the hell had possessed him to do that stupidity. The softness of Wonho's cheek was still etched in his fingers.

And he wished silently he could caress him again.