Soonyoung can only think of his bed on the five block walk back to his house. The streets are empty and quiet, and extremely dark once he steps off the main road. His family lives in a quiet little neighborhood close to their shop, nice homes, but nothing too extravagant. Nobody is really awake, and only a couple of porch lights illuminate his way down the sidewalk. He notices, however, after turning the corner of his street, his porch light is on, and someone is sitting on the steps.

He picks up the pace just a bit, hoping to get a glimpse of this person before he comes face to face with them. Which, he does, thankfully, but he’s immediately upset. Yet another obstacle keeping him from tucking himself in his sheets.

He speed walks up the small path to his porch steps, where his friend sits, knees to his chest. His thin, wire framed glasses are sitting at the tip of his nose as he reads over them, completely enthralled by the tablet resting against his knees.

“Ah, Wonwoo…” Soonyoung is only slightly out of breath, and he reminds himself to look into working out again. The dark haired boy lookes up from his tablet, tapping the screen before ripping out his earbuds. “What are you doing here?” He clicks his tablet shut and stands up. He’s a tall man, but now he’s towering over Soonyoung, being two steps up from him.

“Mingyu has some girl over again.” Soonyoung nods knowingly. It’s become a normal thing at this point in the year: Wonwoo’s roommate was well known to bring girls over, leaving only a yellow hair tie on the doorknob signaling for Wonwoo to find somewhere else for the night. At first, this drove Wonwoo crazy, but by the middle of first semester, he had had enough of listening to his roommate getting his wet all night, sometimes well into the morning. So, he decided to be a better roommate and just leave him be; it just normally means he ends up at Soonyoung’s.

“You could have just come inside. How long have you been out here?” Soonyoung checks his phone, showing that it was nearing eleven o’clock.

“I don’t know, an hour? Maybe and hour and a half…” he shoves his tablet into the backpack at his feet, zipping it shut before throwing it over his shoulder. “I didn’t want to wake anyone up.” Soonyoung shrugged.

“You know they wouldn’t be mad.” They’ve been best friends since they were 12 years old, and after nearly ten years, Wonwoo has basically become family. Soonyoung’s parents treat him as their own son. While they wouldn’t have been thrilled about being woken up, they would have forgotten how mad they were when they would have opened the door to a lonely, abandoned Wonwoo. Sometimes, Soonyoung thinks they love him more than their own, actual son.

Wonwoo doesn’t have to bother asking if he could stay or not; Soonyoung  just unlocks the front door and lets them both inside the dark, quiet house. They know the routine by now: no talking and no loud noises until they’re safely in Soonyoung’s room. His sister and father sleep like the dead; his mother, however, is easily stirred and once she’s awake, it’s impossible for her to get back to sleep. This means she bothers the both of them until she feels tired again, and Soonyoung really doesn’t have the time for that tonight.

Once they make it silently up the stairs, they slip into Soonyoung’s room. His room isn’t too small; it’s large enough to fit a full sized bed, a dresser, and a desk, but it doesn’t leave him room for anything else. Floor space is minimal, but to Soonyoung, he’d rather have more bed space than floor space anyway. A few posters line the walls, a few of his favorite dancers and musicians, but he has figurines and plenty of books and notebooks scattered across all the surfaces available. Clothes have started to overflow his basket in the corner, bringing the mess out into the center of the floor. It’s mostly unkempt; his bed isn’t made, his other school work is scattered across the desk where his computer monitor sits, but the school work is covered in empty water bottles and snack wrappers.

“Jesus, Soonyoung, when’s the last time you cleaned?” Soonyoung scowles at his friend, who shoves a pile of half-folded clothes to the end of the bed before throwing himself onto it.

“I’ve been busy okay? It’s almost finals.” He only has two more weeks before he’s free for a couple of months. At least, free to be at work all the time.

“Only slightly a valid excuse, but I’ll take it.” Wonwoo lays down on the unmade bed, kicking the pile of clothes completely off the edge. Soonyoung rolls his eyes before digging through his dressers for a pair of sweatpants. “Anyway, what did you do today? Anything interesting happen after I saw you this morning?”

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