The following morning was as peaceful as ever. That was for any other person than Jeonghan. He woke up with a banging headache and stinging eyes thanks to the sun in his face. He had tried to ignore it by covering his head under a pillow, but it was to no avail. 

Jeonghan lied like that for a while until he heard voices. Ignoring the fact that the walls weren’t soundproof, he heard a familiar voice and an unfamiliar one. He heard Seungcheol speak to someone, but he couldn’t hear exactly what or who he was talking to.

As curiosity sparked in him, Jeonghan got up from the bed and walked out of his room. Before that though, he fixed his blond locks quickly to look presentable. The voices became more clear as he walked down the hallway and into the kitchen and was pleased to see Seungcheol’s face meet his immediately. 

“Hey, Jeonghan. Good morning.” Seungcheol said, flashing him a smile and placing his glass of orange juice down. “Want some toast?”

“Good morning.” Ignoring the other occupant in the room, Jeonghan went to a vacant chair by the kitchen island and sat down, throwing a bright smile at Seungcheol. “Yes please.”

Seungcheol turned around and placed some toast in the toaster, giving Jeonghan a chance to check out the other guy in the room. He hadn’t even realized he was sitting next to the stranger. Red hair, dark eyes and flawless skin. Jeonghan must’ve been blessed to have such good looking roommates.

Before being caught staring for too long, Jeonghan smiled and introduced himself. “Hi, I’m Jeonghan. Just moved here.”

“Hey. Jihoon.” The guy with red hair said, seemingly tired as he took a very dark cup of coffee up to his mouth. Jeonghan recalled that name in his mind and furrowed his brows. Wasn’t Jeonghan supposed to meet this Jihoon guy the night before? Jeonghan felt kind of bad to have forgotten about that, but he was so caught up in talking with Seungcheol. He had to be a good roommate and catch up.

“It’s nice to meet you, Jihoon.” Jeonghan said, holding a hand out to shake. Jihoon shook his hand without hesitation.

“Nice to meet you too. Sorry I couldn’t meet you yesterday, an emergency occurred at work yesterday.” Jihoon explained. Jeonghan had to remember that Jihoon was a therapist and had to deal with people in sensitive situations. He probably couldn’t talk about it too much, so Jeonghan had to respect that.

“Jisoo’s still asleep, but he’ll be up at any minute. How was your first night here?” Seungcheol asked as he turned around, waiting for the toast to finish. 

“It was good! Slept like a rock.” Jeonghan smiled, lying through his teeth as his headache was still very much there.

“That’s great to hear.” Jeonghan would pay for Seungcheol to smile at him forever. He really had to change his creepy ways. “You’ll adjust pretty quickly. We’ll make sure to make this feel like home for you.”

As much as Jeonghan was warmed by the words Seungcheol said, he felt even more warmed by the smile he was given. God, he was a lovestruck fool.

“Good morning, everyone.” Suddenly, a sleepy voice game in. It was a soft, unfamiliar one. Jeonghan, who had been staring at Seungcheol when it happened, noticed how the older guy’s face lit up. Jeonghan turned around and saw the person whom had spoken up. It could be no one else but Jisoo. Jisoo, with auburn hair and a charming smile, rubbed sleep away from his cat-like eyes. He looked adorable. Jeonghan felt an aggressive spirit in him wanting to squish Jisoo’s cheeks. It was so hard to restrain himself.

“How are you all doing this morning?” Jisoo asked as he walked over to the fridge, but stopped in his steps as he passed by Jeonghan. He turned and stared at the blonde haired boy in what appeared to be shock.

“You’re our new roomie, aren’t you!?” Jisoo exclaimed and smiles widely. “Jeonghan, right?”

“Uh-... Yeah…” Jeonghan nodded in slight shock over Jisoo’s sudden words. He didn’t have time to say much more after that, as Jisoo continued.

“Ah! It’s so great to meet you! I’m Jisoo!” Jisoo took Jeonghan’s hands clasped within his own and Jeonghan was quickly overwhelmed by the softness. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t properly introduce myself yesterday. I was so busy with work that I-”

“It’s fine! Jisoo, it’s okay.” Jeonghan had to pull his hands away because he felt himself starting to sweat and all the attention from Jisoo was really getting to him. He forced a smile on his face. “Thank you. It’s nice to meet you too.”

Jisoo, who didn’t seem hurt at all to be cut off, smiled wider. He mentioned something about hoping to be good friends with Jeonghan and then resumed to walking over to the fridge. Jeonghan followed Jisoo with his gaze and soon noticed how Seungcheol was staring. At first he thought the oldest was staring at him out of interest or something. But Jeonghan was a person with poor judgement and couldn’t tell there was vacancy in Seungcheol’s eyes.

“I need to get to work. See you guys later, okay.” Seungcheol said, getting out of his stare and up from his seat. Jeonghan, who was too busy feeling his cheeks heat up from Seungcheol’s rather intense look, just nodded and mumbled ‘havaniceday’. 

“I need to get going soon too. My client wants to discuss napkin colors again.” Jisoo said, closing the fridge after getting a small bottle of juice out. He followed Seungcheol while taking a sip from the juice. “Cheol, we could go together.”

“Sounds good. See you two later.” Seungcheol said, throwing a smile back at Jihoon and Jeonghan before taking his shoes on and grabbing a coat.

“See you later.” Jihoon said, taking a final sip from his coffee before getting up to get more. Jeonghan swore he could see death in his eyes. Soon enough Jisoo and Seungcheol were out of the house and there was silence. Jeonghan spent an extreme amount of time planning how to silently slide back into his room while Jihoon was getting more coffee. Although in the midst of the plotting, Jihoon decided to speak up.

“It’s no use having a crush on Seungcheol.” he said coldly before taking a sip of his black coffee. 

“Wait- How do you know?” Jeonghan felt slightly offended. He hadn’t been in the apartment for 24 hours and yet he was exposed.

“I’m a therapist, I know how to read people.” Jihoon casually walked back to his stool by the kitchen island and Jeonghan stared in shock.

“Why can’t I have a crush on him? Is it illegal?” The blonde crossed his arms and rose a brow.

“You just moved in so you wouldn’t know, but Seungcheol is head over heels for Jisoo.” Jeonghan didn’t want to let the words get to him, but he did. And he felt his heart shatter.

“Unless if you plan to make Seungcheol notice you instead, you probably shouldn’t get involved.” Jihoon said, muttering before he took another sip of his coffee. “It’s a messy situation.”

Jeonghan stared at Jihoon with a frown. “You have a crush on Jisoo too.”

The younger of the two nearly spat out his coffee. “Excuse me?”

“You have a crush on Jisoo. I can tell.” Jeonghan inched closer, squinting his eyes. Let’s not forget to include the -eating grin he had on his face. “That’s why you looked like you drank sour milk when Jisoo decided to leave with Seungcheol.”

“Tell anyone and you’re dead.” For being a therapist, Jihoon sure didn’t carry a therapeutic way of speaking. Jeonghan couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Alright. I won’t get involved.” Obviously, that was what he would say. Yoon Jeonghan didn’t get involved in complicated situations. Simplicity was his key word. Seungcheol was probably not even worth it. Why should he change everything he stood by just for one guy he hadn’t even known for 24 hours anyway? It was definitely a wise decision not to go that length just for one night. 

But why did something feel wrong?

“You gave up easily.” Jihoon rose a brow. Jeonghan just shrugged and got off his stool to get the forgotten toast. Jihoon followed him with his eyes and obviously had more questions, but decided not to ask. Instead, he raised his cup of coffee up to his lips and took a sip.

Spending most hours of his work shift on trying to preoccupy his mind on other things than his roommates, Jeonghan kept finding himself going back to thinking about everything that happened earlier in the morning. Why was he like this? Usually things wouldn’t bother him this much. His coworkers had noticed this too and asked to make sure whether or not Jeonghan was okay. Every time, Jeonghan would just say he slept bad. 

“Please enjoy your meal.” Jeonghan said, casting a gentle smile at the couple he was serving before walking towards the backroom to resume to his prison of bad thoughts. The perks of working at a five star high profile restaurant was that there wouldn’t be many customers unless if it was during night or special occasions such as Valentines or New Year. And with that being said, Jeonghan could spend a lot of time talking with coworkers. But today that was different, as said coworkers kept asking him about what was on his mind.

Jeonghan sighed as he entered the backroom, walking straight to the mirror to fix his black uniform. He didn’t know why, but he was sweating. It was rather cold in the restaurant and Jeonghan didn’t want to consider nervousness being an explanation to it. He sighed again, thinking back at Seungcheol. It was obvious that Jeonghan shouldn’t intervene. It was enough that both Jihoon and Seungcheol seemed to have unrequited crushes on Jisoo, Jeonghan really shouldn’t try to divert Seungcheol’s attention from his crush… Or should he? After all, that would make the situation simpler. Jihoon could get closer to Jisoo without Seungcheol’s ing and Jeonghan could get in the oldest’s pants. It was a win/win situation. 

“Hey, Jeonghan.” Jeonghan turned away from the mirror to see his coworker, Soonyoung, walk up to him with a hand in his pocket. He was grinning widely, immediately notifying Jeonghan that he came up with something. “Since you seem pretty out of it today, I thought we could go to a club tonight. Get your mind off things. What’cha say?”

Somehow, Soonyoung was a mindreader. He always knew what was on Jeonghan’s mind. He could read the older man like an open book. It had always been like that, ever since Soonyoung started the job at the restaurant. He knew everything about Jeonghan within an hour and it really frightened Jeonghan. That was until Soonyoung convinced the older man to befriend him. Soonyoung was probably the closest friend Jeonghan had, despite being coworkers. 

“Alright. Sound good.” Jeonghan smiled, feeling the need to spoil himself. Distracting himself by not being in the apartment would probably help him out too. Soonyoung was a genius.

“Great, my shift ends in a couple of hours. Text you later.” Soonyoung, still grinning, waved his farewell to Jeonghan before walking out to serve customers. Jeonghan nodded and watched him leave, deciding on wasting some time in the backroom before going back to the front again.

As soon as their shifts had ended, Jeonghan suggested they’d go to the club immediately. Soonyoung had to object as it was only 6pm and they both smelled like expensive salmon. So Jeonghan agreed to be wasting his time on Soonyoung’s couch while the latter was changing shirts and bathing himself in cologne. He kept one eye on his phone and the other up on Soonyoung’s half body as the younger boy kept asking what shirt he should wear. Why did the shirt matter so much? Why couldn’t he change pants instead?

“The red one looked better.” Jeonghan mumbled as he swiped right-left-left-right on his Tinder. Soonyoung pouted, saying something about how the blue one made his blond hair look nicer. Nonetheless, he changed shirt again and ran a hand through his bleached hair before turning to Jeonghan. Finally they could leave, Jeonghan thought as he shoved his phone in his pocket and got up from the couch. 

“You sure you don’t want to change? My blue shirt would fit you…” Soonyoung said suggestively, making Jeonghan snicker. In all honestly, Jeonghan thought he looked nice in his green flannel shirt and washed out jeans. Plus, he’d rather be dead in a ditch than wear Soonyoung’s clothes as if they had that type of relationship. 

The two didn’t waste any more time going to the nearest club. 3 hours had passed and Jeonghan really needed a shot. Once they arrived, that’s exactly what he got. As Jeonghan kept downing drinks by the bar, Soonyoung eventually found a dance partner to ‘shake it loose’ with. Jeonghan was fine sitting alone, wasting his money on numerous beverages while looking around the dark room illuminated by blue and purple. He decided to check his phone when taking a break from drinking. 

“Being on Tinder while being in a place like this is kind of sad… Don’t you think?” Jeonghan looked up from his phone to the unfamiliar voice. A rather attractive looking stranger leaned against the bar table and grinned at him. At least he seemed attractive. Jeonghan’s judgement was poor due to the lightning and his drunken state so honestly anything could pass as attractive to him by this point. 

“I think it’s more sad that no one has decided to sweep me off of my feet yet.” Jeonghan said, placing his phone on the table. By this point he didn’t care, he wanted this stranger to occupy him for the night.

“I think I could do that.” The stranger’s smile stayed. Jeonghan returned the smile. The two continued with their flirting until the stranger offered to get out. Jeonghan agreed, quickly notifying the long forgotten Soonyoung he’d leave. Soonyoung didn’t seem to mind though, as he was used to this by now. So the two left and Jeonghan felt the warmth of the stranger’s hands when they were on his waist. The stranger kept whispering naughty things into Jeonghan’s ear and the drunken boy just couldn’t wait to be in the warmth of a bed by that point.

“So, my place of yours?” Jeonghn froze. No, not home. He really didn’t want to face Seungcheol or the others and neither did he want to come home to an apartment he just moved into with a stranger. 

“Yours.” Jeonghan gently moved his hand up the stranger’s neck. Even with the dim streetlights, he couldn’t see the man of the night’s face. It was slightly unfortunate, but Jeonghan hadn’t found the time to care.

“Mine it is then.” It went quickly after that. Jeonghan found himself shoved against a wall in an unknown apartment hallway while the stranger fumbled with his apartment keys. In between kisses and panting ‘you’re so hot’, Jeonghan was finally in the apartment and soon found his way to the bed. His vision was too dim after that, he trusted his drunk self would fully take over.

This was a routine for Jeonghan. Not only when he was out to drink, but even when he got bored and was looking through his contacts he’d find someone to spend the night with. It might be a hazardous routine of his, some even called him ugly names for it. But it didn’t bother Jeonghan. He saw his night stands as a form of comfort and that was really all he needed. Couldn’t Jeonghan just get a boyfriend, like any other person would? He asked himself that question a lot. Due to Jeonghan’s poor priorities, he would rather sleep around than get into a relationship. And it was easier that way. He never understood the big deal with relationships and thought it was easier to move from person to person without further complications. So he’d wake up in a stranger’s bed, go home, hurry to work, end up with another stranger and repeat. Routine was routine.

And it was probably better to keep it that way. If Seungcheol wanted a relationship that Jeonghan couldn’t give him, it was better not to get involved. 

Jeonghan groaned softly as he lied on the stranger’s bed, turning his head to see the eating grin of the stranger. He questioned his partner for the night by rising his brow,

“You’re good. Doing this a lot?” Jeonghan didn’t bother to answer. He just smiled, his blond hair getting in his eyes.

“What’s your name, pretty boy?” he could smell his own breath and God how he reeked of alcohol. 

“Junhui. I seemed to have forgotten to ask about yours too…” Junhui said, moving a hand to fix Jeonghan’s hair.

“Jeonghan.” He felt his cheeks heat up by the touch, despite every place that exact hand roamed just minutes ago.

“Well, Jeonghan. Ready for round two?” It didn’t take a seconds hesitation for Jeonghan to agree. But unbeknownst to him, his jeans pocket lit up thanks to his phone receiving multiple notifications from Seungcheol.

Should I change the rating on this fic? 

Haha this is the first time I'm writing something remotely close to so the ending part was really cringey for me. I am so sorry.

I also just want to mention that there's no problem with sleeping around. In my personal opinion, you do what you want with your life. I'm sorry about the mention of shaming. 

Also I love Junhan so I had to do this.