==1==

 

Mingyu woke up with a jolt and realized he had slept through both his alarms. More precisely, he had been properly alarmed by each one but dropped back into bed anyway. Now he was paying the price for messing up his sleep schedule - again. Binging all seasons had felt worth it last night, though.

 

He stumbled out of his apartment bed-headed, in sweatpants and a washed-out, sleeveless hoodie. Technically, he was also unshaven but you wouldn’t have known without a magnifying glass. Past-gyu had chosen the early poetry class on purpose – fully anticipating Current-gyu to live the life of a structured and mature adult.

 

Current-gyu hated Past-gyu’s optimistic blindness. He must have expected himself to turn into a radically different person through the magic of willpower – as if he had never met himself before.

 

Miraculously, he made it to the huge office-tower-like building in time for his course. His stomach growled just as he half-jogged by the adjacent bakery. A quick detour was in order.

 

With a cinnamon roll stuffed into his sleeveless hoodie’s front pocket, Mingyu rushed into his final destination’s lobby.

 

The elevator was straight ahead, a dozen of his long-legged steps away. A short boy – or man? – was leaning on the cabin’s back wall.

 

Mingyu sped up, half-waving.

 

The elevator doors began to close with a threatening, metallic rustle. The small man noticed him, glanced at the panel of buttons by his side, looked back up at Mingyu… and didn’t move.

 

No. Surely not. Any second the small man would reach out and-

 

Finally, the stranger made a move toward the panel, but didn’t reach for any buttons. Their eyes met again.

 

Mingyu was exactly one step away when the doors slammed shut, as they accelerated on the last inch, purely to spite anyone outside the cabin.

 

In the last blink of an eye Mingyu saw the stranger’s face twist into a twinkly-eyed smirk.

 

That. Little. .

 

The stairs spiraled up around the elevator shaft. Mingyu didn’t even slow down. He used his speed to push himself off the closed doors and threw his all into the ascent. As he took three stairs as once, each hopping step made him dizzy with angry exertion.

 

He won.

 

Mingyu arrived on the first level before the elevator did and hammered the button.

 

The traveling room halted with a deeply satisfying *ding* and the doors slid open to reveal a surprised little .

 

Breath fast and heavy, Mingyu took a huge step forward. The elevator’s floor was carpeted, braking his step’s energy while his upper body still moved with the full force of indignation.

 

The small man moved back in time, slamming himself into the back wall, as Mingyu crashed into the cabin.

 

Face contorted into a grim snarl, Mingyu caught himself by slamming one fist and forearm into the wall right next to the other man, trapping the passenger in a corner. For a split-second, their faces nearly met. Mingyu’s face from above, the stranger’s from below.

 

Frozen in his position, Mingyu listened to the doors shutting themselves behind him while he forced himself to breathe deep and slow – his huffs loud in the stunned silence.

 

Saccharin odor – a mix of cinnamon and sugar emanating from his hoodie – filled the air between them as the positively tiny man looked up.

 

He was terrified. Truly, seriously afraid for his life. He broke eye contact, blushing heavily.

 

Maybe Mingyu looked like those feelings of horror were justified. The much taller – and much buffer – man was still angry but a good 90% of him was dumbstruck by the cuteness before him, wanted only to pet the stranger on the head and perhaps feed him half his pastry.

 

Then the stranger looked up once more. His eyes narrowed and there was a spark of defiance to it. This tiny man looked fully willing to fight. A puppy cornered by a hungry wolf, remembering it had teeth, too.

 

It was heart-string-tearingly adorable to behold. And tense. Boy howdy, was there a lot of tension in that little cabin. Must have been all the adrenaline finally reaching his brain.

 

Now, those 90% of Mingyu wanted to teach the short guy a lesson in obedience by turning him around, slamming him into the wall, whispering “let me show you how I deal with little es”, reaching around to grab the stranger’s belt buckle and… refusing to finish the train of thought.

 

Mingyu leaned back, pressed the button for the floor he needed and turned to the opposite wall where the mirror was. Sort of fixing his hair but mostly failing, he tried to ignore the crushing awkwardness of his life’s worst elevator ride.

 

A dull *ding* made him look over to the panel, but it wasn’t his stop. He stood exactly in the middle of the cabin. Little was going to have to squeeze around him to get out.

 

It was a dumb, petty move but Mingyu made himself broad – just a relaxed stretching – and tensed up in case the other guy got any bright ideas like slamming his little--shoulder into him walking past. His lanky body could take up a lot of space if he wanted.

 

Mingyu almost chuckled as the apparently still terrified guy tried to leave without touching him, rubbing along the mirror as if gravity was suddenly going that way. Little – as was his name now – clearly tried to walk away at a regular, composed pace but couldn’t hide how quickly he wanted to escape.

 

It was Mingyu’s turn to smirk.

 

[Mingyu in a sleeveless hoodie. Make it happen Pledis!]

 

==2==

 

Fine, so maybe he could have put off watching the OVAs for the weekend or at least stretched them out over multiple evenings. There really had been no reason to let it get way past midnight again. But Mingyu didn’t even like the show that much and was afraid he’d lose interest and never watch those extra episodes if he didn’t do it right away. Which was, by all means, an even dumber reason.

 

Still his hair smooth, Mingyu speed walked into the course building’s street. He wore yesterday’s sweatpants again, because Past-gyu had dropped into bed before putting out new clothes and Current-gyu had woken up late already.

 

He also wore a trashy tank top, but made up for it by putting a nice button shirt on, too, even if the thing had obviously never seen a hot iron.

 

Having skipped breakfast again, he grabbed some from the bakery – a chocolaty thing with coffee beans worked in. He had no idea what it was called but he could use both chocolate and coffee in his state.

 

A yawn tearing his face apart, Mingyu entered the lobby to see the elevator open. Little was inside.

 

“Hey!” Mingyu yelled and started jogging. Surely, surely today…

 

The doors began to close with deceptive slowness. Little spotted the big man running at him and his twinkly eyes dashed madly back and forth between the panel and the approaching hungry wolf in human giant form.

 

No movement.

 

Mingyu’s palms slapped the door just as it clanked shut. He threw himself to the side and raced up the stairs so fast he nearly out at the top.

 

With too much adrenaline and too little air, he pressed the button hard enough to hurt himself.

 

The *ding* was barely audible past the blood rushing through his ears.

 

Little stood in the same corner as yesterday, looking down and clutching a folder. He was so cute, it felt unfair. But as Mingyu entered the space, there was no glance, no acknowledging nod and certainly no word of apology so Mingyu elected to stay mad.

 

He pressed his floor’s button and the door closed.

 

The awkwardness was sufficiently heavy to make the cables snap and let them both drop into the earth’s core, but even so it wasn’t enough – there needed to be punishment.

 

Mingyu stepped to the backwall and stood in the same corner as little . He leaned onto the wall himself, arms spread casually. Now little was – although not physically touched – squeezed in to the point of being smothered.

 

Sniffing noises? No, more of a snuffle. Was little crying?

 

Mingyu looked to the side and down, but apparently the small man was merely taking deep breaths as quietly as he could.

 

With the excitement falling away, Mingyu could notice the air filling with the odor of chocolate and coffee – and his Axe, which he may have slightly overused today. Plus, probably a fair bit of his perspiration.

 

Naturally, they stopped for little ’s floor first again.

 

Little shuffled on the spot as the doors opened and tried to say something with a monotonous and composed tone but his voice cracked and his “Excu-“ ended in a choked squeal.

 

He pushed past the immovable rock Mingyu had turned into and dashed out the elevator with no attempt to look anything but like a fleeing puppy with its tail between its short legs.

 

Mingyu drove on up to his one-and-a-half hours of poetry. It was a great class today, so much so, he totally forgot to be mad. Afterward he even stuck around to debate the – slightly annoyed – teacher for five minutes while everybody was already clearing the room.

 

At least, being the last to leave would mean the elevator was free. Usually he took the stairs on the way down, considering his body had properly woken up at that point.

 

His ride was still at the top of the building when he called it down, so he stepped away from the doors to look out the window. Good weather today.

 

He turned around at the *ding* and… Little was in the elevator. The cute but clearly evil man saw who was about to join the ride down and smacked a spot on the panel.

 

The doors began to close right away.

 

Unbelievable. Little was really doing it. Actually, consciously, sincerely pressing the close-door button on Mingyu.

 

But the enemy had underestimated how long his legs were.

 

Mingyu rushed to the elevator and dove into the slit, his arms chafing on the metal edges. The doors stopped with a metallic yelp and reopened.

 

Stumbling into the cabin, Mingyu cornered little with both hands on the back wall. Getting another close-up impression of the illegally cute man gave him a hot flash of mental images. He saw himself pressing his whole body into the smaller guy, sliding one hand into little ’s pants, growling “You almost missed this ride,” leaning down with his lips brushing against… a refusal of finish the train of thought again.

 

Little met his eyes, looking up almost ninety degrees, and swallowed so hard it looked painful. Then he glanced to the side.

 

Mingyu noticed the guitar with them in the cabin. He looked back at the smaller man and noticed there were music sheets sticking out of the tightly held folder.

 

As their eyes met, Mingyu saw the defiance once more. This short guy wasn’t going down without a fight.

 

Leaning back, Mingyu tried to still look threatening while giving little some space. He didn’t actually want to get into a close quarter altercation – he had only brought his fists to a musical instrument fight.

 

On the other hand…

 

It was going to be by far the most petty thing he had ever done but when the *ding* told them they had reached the entrance floor, Mingyu slapped the folder out of little ’s hands.

 

A paper storm flooded the ground. Dozens – perhaps hundreds – of sheets filled with notation sailed into a chaotic pile on the carpet.

 

Mingyu hadn’t expected all sheets to be loose, but he had done the deed and there was no going back. Little didn’t move a muscle.

 

The doors slid open.

 

Mingyu said “Get wrecked!” and dabbed to both sides before turning away. He fled the scene at a casual pace.

 

==3==

 

He had definitely gone too far. Mingyu had instantly regretted his… well, what undeniably amounted to bullying. He could have instead, let’s say, communicated like a self-respecting adult. Or literally anything other than punching someone’s property out of their hands.

 

He felt bad. Or rather, he had felt bad, because he didn’t see little again all week and the incident slipped to the back of his mind.

 

Something else that faded over the course of the weekend was Mingyu’s resolve to get his sleep schedule under control and so Current-gyu became Past-gyu and the new - but not improved – Current-gyu hated his old self’s guts for not going to bed before the sky was brightening again.

 

Had he worn the exact same clothes last Monday? Probably. At least he had washed them.

 

Having eaten breakfast at home for once, Mingyu dragged himself into his course building’s lobby.

 

The elevator was all his. He stepped inside, pressed the button and turned to the mirror to see if his hair needed a helping hand.

 

From the corner of his eyes he saw someone run into the lobby as if they were late and desperate to get to where they needed to be.

 

And yes of course that someone was little , the now familiar guitar hanging off his shoulder. Because after all those poetry classes, Mingyu had summoned a little bit of poetic justice into his life.

 

Except…

 

Mingyu stepped into the laser barrier and leaned against the door’s edge. He gestured into the cabin with his long arms in an artificial, mocking welcome gesture.

 

Clearly little did not feel too good about joining the ride. He slowed his jog to a crawl and glanced at the stairs. But he entered anyway, pressing his button on his way to the back wall where he stayed still.

 

When the doors closed, he seemed to have a change of heart and tried to shuffle past Mingyu, as if afraid the tall bully wouldn’t let him leave at his stop.

 

As the elevator jerked into motion, Mingyu figured he should say… something. He wasn’t going to apologize, probably. But just saying hello couldn’t hurt.

 

Little spoke first, his voice monotonous and rough but timidly quiet. “I… I dunno which…” He gestured at the panel. “I didn’t know which button keeps the doors open. I mean, is that symbol two open doors closing or…like, arrows pointing away from each other or… and, like, I only saw one of them and…”

 

Mingyu noticed it, too. The button at the edge of the panel showed what could have been arrows or doors. And he had no idea if they were opening or closing. The corresponding one was right next to the first but of different make. The symbol made no sense either without the matching one.

 

In little ’s situation, he would have struggled just the same.

 

“Oh,” Mingyu said. “And you pressed the wrong one when… last time.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“But… you could have held the door.”

 

“I know. I panicked.”

 

“But… you smiled the first time.”

 

“I mean… It was kinda funny? From, like, a cosmic perspective?”

 

They reached a halting point with a *ding* and the relieve was palpable in little ’s posture as the doors gave way.

 

Mingyu wanted to call after the small man. “Wait, litt… uh, you.”

 

“Jihoon,” said little – now finally identified – and stopped in the door, holding it open by leaning into it.

 

“Yeah, Jihoon…” Mingyu said. “I’m Mingyu and… I’m sorry I scattered your notes. I thought there would only be a few loose sheets in your… Anyway, I’m sorry. Can I buy you a bite at the bakery afterward? Early lunch or late breakfast?”

 

“Um… sure, thanks. I’ll probably be five to ten minutes late. I always stick around after class to ask questions.”

 

“No problem. I’ll wait.”

 

“At the bakery?”

 

“Sure, I’ll be there.”

 

Jihoon gave him a full once-over. “You better be.” He stepped away and the doors started closing right away. “I don’t chase basic bois, even the ones who smell nice.”

 

“Uh… yeah… till later, Jihoon.”

 

Jihoon waved back without looking. “Later, boi.”

 

The doors shut and Mingyu almost wished he hadn’t let them. That little . He got his old train of thought back on track and spent all class finishing it. No elevator ride in the world lasted long enough for all the things he wanted to do.

 

 

THE END

 

 

***

 

Wow, a Jigyu story. Who knew I had it in me?

 

Does this even count as enemies to friends? I’d have written them all the way to lovers but there’s only so much mileage you can get out of an elevator. The setting I mean. You can get as much mileage out of the actual thing as your electricity bill will let you.

 

Please validate me with feedback etc :p