written while listening to 무궁화 and shalom on repeat because i’m just a little bit odd.

Jinwoo likes to think of himself as a decent looking, approachable guy. He’s told more often than not that he has one of those smiles that just stuns you with its brilliance. His personality and attitude make it easy for him to get along with most of the people he comes into contact with. And he has a decent track record when it comes to balancing his social and academic life, leaving zero room for nicknames like “flake” or “shut in.” However, he can’t exclaim the same success when it comes to relationships. Sure he’s had his share of flings and are-we-or-are-we-not boyfriends. But here he is, in the beginning of his junior year of university, with no serious relationships to boast.

It’s not all that important, he reasons. Not everyone meets their soulmate in college. And not everyone spends every waking moment of university life with a significant other on their arm. But it’s just a little deterring when he’s become the last of his closest friends to be left in the single’s club. But it doesn’t matter. He’s totally not affected.

And he totally didn’t let himself be convinced into downloading a hook-up app with the intentions of finding someone.

Totally not.

one

It’s the halfway mark of Jinwoo’s hour long break before his next class when he decides that he’s completely and irrevocably bored. He’s sprawled across the grass, backpack providing support beneath his head, on the mall in front of the main library with the great intention of enjoying the rare day of minute humidity that usually plagues the beginning of the fall semester. Great intentions really. But after half an hour of staring at the unhurried movement of the clouds across the sky, it’s not surprising that his body would want to be a little more preoccupied.

With this, he whips his phone out of the confines of his pocket in search of an app to soak up the remainder of his time. He’s just about to submit to starting a new match of Words with Friends when his thumb nearly swipes across the symbol of a red flame in the very depths of his five screens of applications. Tinder. He hasn’t used this app other than creating his account at the beginning of the semester (and matching a few people who he’d found more or less uninteresting in the end) and decides that there’s no harm in rediscovering the app before class. If he hated it, he could always forget about it for another month and a half.

There are some very attractive guys on campus, Jinwoo notes, and his brows raise in interest on more than several occasions between swiping left and right through the profiles. (He accidentally swipes up on one occasion and he hopes that the person never gets the chance to view his profile throughout their entire Tinder career.) The instant matches that sometimes come through make him grin, but he decides that he can make an effort to chat with them later in the day. He hadn’t been particularly eager to communicate with any of his matches anyway.

One profile, however, really takes the cake with him. This guy, S Mino, has a very attractive face. His masculinity is easily defined in his facial structure and shots of him and friends in muscle T’s at the gym. His bio is blank, though, and it makes Jinwoo’s thumb hesitate before finally swiping right on the profile.

He secretly hopes for an instant match that doesn’t come, but it’s not like he’s disappointed or anything. Totally not.

two

It only take a few days and a square “What the hell,” on Jinwoo’s side before he’s approaching the meeting spot of his first Tinder date.

Seunghoon, in person, is a lot taller than what his profile pictures cause you to imagine (he is sitting in three of four of them), which may or may not dent Jinwoo’s pride just the tiniest bit. The culinary arts major attends a specialized college near his, and he wonders if he’s really a year below him each time he takes a moment to really gauge his height. He has a cute face, though, and Jinwoo finds that it’s easy enough to forget the height difference in exchange for appreciating his smile.

He’s funny, Jinwoo gives him a point for this. He has a unique skill for turning horrible jokes and puns into queues for Jinwoo’s unabashed laughter (another point). He’s undeniably considerate. Understanding of Jinwoo’s rowdy friends being the cause of his phone’s ringer erupting every ten minutes into their date before he finally decides to shut the entire device down. He, not without argument from Jinwoo’s side, pays for the entirety of their simple meal of burgers and fries with an air of untrying charm and confidence. And he even has a bashful side that Jinwoo can’t help but to tease with his habit of innocent flirting and his own reserve of corny pick-up lines.

Basically, Seunghoon is absolute boyfriend material. Except that he has this habit of slipping his dog into just about every conversation topic that comes up. It’s cute at first. Jinwoo loves animals and has two cats of his own back home with his parents. But after several mentions of “Haute this,” and “Haute that,” Jinwoo finds his grin becoming more and more forced each time the name is brought up.

For a first Tinder date, it wasn’t half bad.

Seunghoon’s sweet, but there seems to be an unspoken understanding between them that they haven’t been completely enamored by each other. It’s fine. And it brings Jinwoo to the point where he doesn’t feel like complete scum for returning to the dating app later that day.

He begins a new round of swiping just to pass the time before he needs to begin his assignments when he comes across a familiar name and picture. Prominent brows, charming smile, and biceps that make you want to hold on to them forever. Jinwoo swipes right without another thought, but rethinks his decision since he no longer has the option to flick through the other photos belonging to the profile.

Later on he’ll think about the change of display pictures, but no mutual match notification.

three

Jinhwan is a cute junior from the animal sciences major at his university. He’s also a good amount shorter than him and it completely fuels his (what he may or may not admit to being a minute) masculinity complex.

Jinwoo’s hair is a fresh shade of hot pink now, and Jinhwan makes it a priority to gush about it when they finally meet in person (not that he hasn’t already done so through their Tinder messages; Jinwoo tries to at least keep his pictures decently recent). They’re comfortable enough with each other despite meeting for the first time today, that neither of them feel themselves falling into a single awkward pause or moment. There’s even some subtle flirting coming from both sides, but they’re hardly met with anything other than amused chuckles.

After an hour or two in each other’s company, however, they both seem to realize that their relationship could never push past the status of friends. As much as Jinwoo can see himself stealing kisses from the shorter male between classes, he doesn’t necessarily feel that spark that he would usually feel with serious crushes. Jinhwan feels more or less the same.

They spend the nearing end of the evening judging and comparing each other’s tastes for Tinder matches (not unlike close friends) and Jinwoo’s pleasantly surprised with just how easy it is to be with Jinhwan this way. Their tastes are even more or less similar which has the two falling into fits of playful banter and bets over who could get a message from a potential match first. Taller males (though that’s not hard to find considering Jinhwan’s height especially) with the occasional exception of a really cute face, a charming smile, a sturdy build, and eye-catching bios are just some of the qualities that they agree on being essential to finding a great match.

They even find themselves sharing messages in order to show each other of some of the more uninteresting and more comical Tinder members that they’ve had the opportunity to meet. In the more ancient section of Jinhwan’s messages, Jinwoo notices a familiar face. But he doesn’t say anything about it.

When Jinwoo finally returns to his dorm later that day, he continues his journey through Tinder profiles and messages for only a short while so that he can set aside enough time to work on his assignments for the next few days. To his minute chagrin, today there isn’t much to look at on the app, only enough cute faces to allow a few swipes before he’s ready to call it a quits.

(After an hour Jinwoo returns to the app in what he determines is a ‘much deserved break.’ He vows not to spend too much time swiping, and he doesn’t.)

(This is mainly because he’s spent a significant amount of time back on S Mino’s constantly reappearing profile.)

(He doesn’t mind.)

four

It’s nearly three weeks after Jinhwan that Jinwoo finds himself on yet another Tinder date. He’s become a bit more guarded when it comes to meeting strangers off of the app (mainly due to the amount of one night stand requests he’s been getting; he’s not really that type of person), so he subjects this new candidate to a two-week test. It’s nothing much, really. He just wants to make sure that this person isn’t a dud like a great number of his other matches and can actually hold a conversation for longer periods of time than two days. This person passes, thankfully. And on the 16^th day of talking, the two decide to finally meet after Jinwoo’s literature exam is over and done with.

Seungyoon is terribly handsome, and it makes Jinwoo a little nervous when he spots the taller male from across the small café they’ve decided to hook up at. (It’s the handsome ones that you have to keep a closer eye on.) His hair is a windswept charcoal that covers just above his single lidded eyes. And his hands, his fingers, have an odd beauty to them that Jinwoo knows he wouldn’t mind caressing the length of his jaw. He doesn’t have a . (He’s lying.)

Unlike his other dates, Seungyoon is an A-plus sweet talker. This results in nearly half of their date with Jinwoo’s cheeks covered in a dusty rose blush from a good mix of both enchantment and embarrassment. A good part of which comes from Jinwoo’s inability to keep his own thoughts and mouth under control when he inadvertently asks if he can hold the other male’s hand, entranced by the shape of his fingers and curious in regards to the feel of his calloused fingertips from years of playing guitar. Seungyoon lets him, but not without a fair amount of teasing which only adds another layer of a flush to Jinwoo’s cheeks.

Seungyoon is nice, Jinwoo declares (in his head this time). The music theory major is easy to talk to, and fills Jinwoo with a great sense of approval with the unwavering attention he receives throughout the evening. He offers to play one of his self-composed songs for the “pink haired angel” and Jinwoo offers to convince (read: blackmail) one of his friends to bake one of his signature apple pies for them to share.

The date ends with lips pressed gingerly against his forehead and a disarming smile pointed in his direction. He could definitely see another date occurring in the future. Or it could just be the dizziness he feels from the unexpected skinship. It doesn’t really matter.

It’s the first time after a date that Jinwoo’s felt even remotely guilty for having the urge to stream through Tinder after falling into his bed for the night. With a bitten lip, he allows himself to like three profiles before he retires his phone until the morning. His finger slips, however, after the third and he allows a soft tsk to escape him before he’s really looking at the profile he’s stumbled upon. Mino has a snapback on this time, and his smile is radiant beneath the multicolored sunglasses he’s sporting in his picture. With a mumbled “match me you idiot,” Jinwoo lets himself swipe right before turning to set his phone down on his bed. He feels guilty again when his mind drifts back to Seungyoon, and with a displeased groan he allows his lids to fold over in an attempt to sleep.

But then Jinwoo remembers that Seungyoon is allergic to cats.

Terrible.

one

A ding distracts Jinwoo from the essay he currently has in progress on his laptop (if you count one and a half pages of the mandatory ten to be in progress) and he easily slides to the other end of the room to snatch the device off of his nightstand. You have a new match the new notification reads, and Jinwoo hums in acknowledgment as he occupies the edge of his bed to check. He nearly drops his phone when the other person’s picture appears on his screen and a small fit of coughing ensues when his saliva falls down the wrong pipe in his surprise.

It takes all of five seconds after discovering the new match that Jinwoo receives a new message in app. It takes another five minutes before he’s able to right himself enough to reply. And it takes another two days for him to suggest a meeting between the two. He’s answered with an agreement, thankfully, and his friends spend the rest of the week wondering what mystical happening has caused their friend to hold the same toothy grin on his face whenever they see him.

He really can’t explain why this particular match had affected him so much, but it’s not important.

two

Mino is every bit as perfect as his pictures had led him to believe, and Jinwoo can’t help but to swoon from the few meters of distance he has before reaching him. (He unintentionally continues his swooning until finally reaching his date but, thankfully, the other doesn’t notice.)

It’s a little awkward at first, their date. Mino (or Minho as he so patiently explains) isn’t much of a conversationalist, though he doesn’t fail to provide great company either way. Most of the hesitation, Jinwoo admits, comes from his own reservations about his date, though. How he’s noticed over several profile picture changes and a complete bio re-haul from the time of his first right swipe to now. His mind drifts back to this fact in the lulls of their conversation until he’s settled on thinking to himself a simple ‘What took so long.’ He doesn’t mean to say this out loud. But Minho chuckles after hearing this and the look of absolute confusion that crosses over Jinwoo’s face is apparently both adorable and comical with the way Minho ends up cooing at the junior between fading chuckles. He hardly uses Tinder, he explains. Only fixing up his profile when he’s determined to really try using the app, only to forget about it in the throes of exams and assignments and papers. He’s never even seen the other’s profile until that day that they had matched, and it was an instant decision on his part to swipe right at the sight of the now blond male’s smile. (He says this with a hint of red on the apples of his cheeks that Jinwoo finds absolutely endearing.)

“I was pleasantly surprised to see the match notification right after swiping,” Minho follows with a nervous pat to his cheek, “and I just had to talk to you.” Jinwoo flushes at this, but pretends that it’s not his own face that he feels warming a good five degrees hotter.

three

Minho likes cats. Minho likes kids (perfect since Jinwoo’s an education major himself). Minho likes to spend his time at food stalls over restaurants. And Minho likes Jinwoo, or so Jinwoo’s quick to imagine, and he’s pretty sure that his heart is about to burst in premature satisfaction. Over the course of splitting three and a half entrees to quell their raging hunger, Jinwoo has learned quite a number of things about his date. And Minho has learned, and thankfully hasn’t been put off by, Jinwoo’s fascination for his hands. (Jinwoo ends up holding them for a lot longer than was planned, but neither of them seem to notice.) Minho seems to have his own fascination when it comes to the indents in Jinwoo’s cheeks when he smiles, so the latter simply lets him prod his finger in the depths of his cheeks whenever he so feels like it. It’s honestly so perfect in Jinwoo’s eyes that he doesn’t want their date to end.

Minho catches onto this and offers to Jinwoo back to his residence after making one last stop to purchase ice cream. Jinwoo accepts. And the two find themselves walking far out of the way of the university to find the perfect cone. It’s hardly perfect, though. Jinwoo constantly finds himself smearing the treat on his nose and chin when his date makes him laugh just as he’s about to eat. Minho doesn’t fare much better when a tipsy woman bumps into him from behind, lodging his ice cream straight onto the ground (not without a handful of it smothering his fingers in the process). Jinwoo laughs at this and the angry red flush that begins to work along the flesh of Minho’s cheeks. And, before he realizes what he’s doing, the junior leans in to press a comforting peck onto those flushed cheeks.

He doesn’t regret it.