Jinwoo sat in his history class, listening to his professor drone on about the Ming dynasty in ancient China. His thoughts landed on his earlier moments with Mino, precisely the moment when Mino slipped his hand around his when they were walking to lunch. He had glanced down then, but Mino seems so nonchalant, talking about what he should eat for lunch. He still remembers the feel of his hand in Mino’s; he expected it to feel weird, but it didn’t.

It looked fitting. It felt right.

The buzz of his phone jolts Jinwoo to reality.

From Song Mino MN2304, 5.04pm: Didn’t know you were so great at acting, hyung! I think Seunghoon hyung was really sold. What do you wanna eat for dinner?

Jinwoo: You weren’t too bad either. That blush at the end was convincing! I think my class is gonna drag, just buy me food for the movie ^^

-

Arriving at the school field, Jinwoo found Mino sitting on a picnic blanket, near the right side of the screen.

“I didn’t know what you liked, hyung, so I just got you some kimbap rolls, some spicy rice cakes and some oden from the cafeteria. Oh and popcorn, nachos and soda, of course!”

Jinwoo chuckles at the large, more-than-enough spread, that Mino had prepared. He sat down, expecting to dig in but immediately Mino draped his arm around Jinwoo and his face closed in on Jinwoo.

“Don’t even think of kissing me again!” Jinwoo muttered fiercely under his breath.

Instead, he felt Mino’s lips at his ear again, “Hyung, attention to your 8 o’ clock.”

Jinwoo turns around, and sure enough, he sees Ji Ah, glaring in their direction. Mino quirks his eyebrow at the look of resignation Jinwoo gave him. Getting into acting mode, Jinwoo lays his head on Mino’s shoulder and wiggles around slightly, getting comfortable. Mino stiffens slightly at Jinwoo’s sudden move, after all, Mino was always the one initiating physical contact so far. Jinwoo’s brown locks were just inches away from Mino’s nose, and he unwittingly took a sniff.

 “Did you just smell me? Do I smell bad?” Jinwoo’ worried voice shook Mino from his thoughts. He was busy trying to place how Jinwoo smelled.

“No, no you smell really, uhh, fine hyung. It’s just your shampoo is too strong!” Mino said hurriedly, a little flustered that Jinwoo caught him in his act.

“By the way, what’s the movie we’re watching?” Jinwoo asks.

“The 1993 classic, Jurassic Park!”

“Then why does the sign over there say it’s The Blair Witch Project?” Mino’s gaze follows where Jinwoo was pointing and lands on a large sign near the movie screen.

Mino yelps in surprise, and immediately search up the film club’s SNS page. Turns out Mino mixed up the screening dates, and Jurassic Park was meant to be last week. Mino panics; he was really terrified of horror movies and avoided them with his life. The last time he watched a horror flick in high school, he stayed awake for 2 nights in a row and got nightmares for a week.  

“Hyung, I’m really really can’t do horror movies, can we go?” Mino begs Jinwoo, but Jinwoo only laughs.

“No way! I love horror. We are here already, let’s just stay.” Jinwoo settles himself comfortably into the crook of Mino’s arm, smirking to himself. It was going to be fun seeing Mino squirm and scream throughout the movie. Turns out, Mino was really bad at horror movies. Barely 10 minutes into the movie and he already cowered at the smallest tension-y moments.

“Hyung I can’t do it anymore!” Before Jinwoo could respond, Mino pushed Jinwoo off his shoulder and planted his face squarely on Jinwoo’s shoulder, arms wrapping tightly around Jinwoo.

“I’m so scared, hyung.” Mino looks up at Jinwoo, half of his face hidden by Jinwoo’s jacket. “I’m just gonna watch the movie like that, ok?” Mino looks so scared that Jinwoo was tempted to say they could leave, but it was way more fun to see this vulnerable side of Mino.

“You’ll be fine, Mino-yah.” Jinwoo pats Mino on his head and bends down, smiling brightly at him.

From that moment onwards, whenever Mino felt a really scary scene was coming, he would envision Jinwoo’s bright smile, his large eyes sparkling and his dimples becoming more pronounced.

Maybe Mino could sit through this movie after all.  

-

Just when Mino was taking a sip of his cola, a loud scream came suddenly from the movie, leading Mino to jolt up suddenly. He lost hold of his cola, and Mino could only watch as the cup flew up in an arc, the lid flying off.  The cup landed, as if in slow motion, on Jinwoo. The drink spills all over the right side of Jinwoo’s jacket and soaked through to his tshirt below.

“Ahhh Mino, you’re scarier than the Blair Witch!” Jinwoo huffed in annoyance, seeing the sticky soft drink all over his shirt and even dripping on his pants.

“I’m so sorry, hyung, sorry, sorry.” Mino frantically searches for tissues and begun dabbing at wherever he could see wet patches. Jinwoo’s jacket was too soaked to even be salvageable, so Mino begins dabbing at Jinwoo’s pants.

‘Mino, I think…it’s uhh fine…I’ll do it myself.” Jinwoo clears his throat awkwardly as Mino’s movements on his pants inch closer and closer to his crotch.

“Oh oh…sorry! Sorry hyung.” Mino abruptly stops and springs away from Jinwoo, sporting a slightly reddened face. Mino focuses on digging through his bag, finding an extra tshirt he had collected from his dance club. He offers it to Jinwoo.

-

Once they were in the toilet, Jinwoo strips off his wet tshirt immediately. Mino lets out an audible gasp of surprise. He had expected Jinwoo to go into a cubicle instead.

Mino had meant it earlier when he said it didn’t take a gay guy to notice Kim Jinwoo was attractive. He had a handsome face and a soft smile that turned both guys and girls’ heads, but this, this half- Jinwoo in front of him was hot. Jinwoo was lean in all the right places, an expanse of milky white skin, a slight semblance of abs peaking through, with a light trail of hair leading down to…

“What’s the matter, we’re both guys here.” Jinwoo rolls his eyes, dumping his cola-soaked tshirt into a still Mino’s hands, and goes into the cubicle, emerging with some toilet paper. Standing in front of the sink, he began cleaning the residue cola off himself.

A mildly annoyed Jinwoo was even hotter, god help him.  

“Are you gonna just stand there or you gonna help?” Jinwoo holds out some paper to a still gaping Mino, “I can’t reach my back and I’m pretty sure there are traces of cola there, ugh.”

Mino gulps, not sure whether he should curse or thank his lucky stars at his current situation. He takes the paper and presses it against Jinwoo’s lower back, near his waist. A peal of laughter emerges from Jinwoo, “Not there, I’m ticklish!” Jinwoo gasps in between giggles. Mino took the chance to press even harder on the area, causing Jinwoo to squirm even harder.

“Stop moving so much, hyung, how am I supposed help you clean like this?” Mino said teasingly and grasps Jinwoo by his hips, in an attempt to keep Jinwoo still.

The creaking of toilet door alerts the both of them to someone entering, but before they could separate, Hanbin, a freshman in Mino’s dance crew, comes into view.

“Gross, Mino hyung! Can’t you at least do this in a cubicle?” Hanbin holds up his hands to face, shielding his eyes. “I know you just started dating, but please! This is a public area.”

Mino looks in the mirror in front of Jinwoo and realises how provocative the position they had been in, a shirtless Jinwoo bent over in laughter from the tickling and Mino tightly grasping him by the hips. They make accidental eye contact in the mirror just then and immediately sprung apart, muttering apologies to Hanbin. Face reddening, Jinwoo hurriedly slips on Mino’s tshirt.

“So I guess Hoon told you?” Mino tries to break the awkward silence that had fallen upon them.

“He texted the whole dance crew the second he knew, hyung. Congrats! Jinwoo-sshi is really good looking.”

“Why is nobody congratulating him instead! Yah, I’m good looking too, you punk!”

-

When Mino and Jinwoo emerged from the toilet, the movie was almost over. They packed their stuff up and got ready to go back to their respective dorms.

“Hyung, I’ll walk you home!” Mino links arms with Jinwoo, adding “What kind of boyfriend would I be if I didn’t walk you home?”

“Is it because you’re scared Ji Ah is still following?” Jinwoo whispers.

“Most definitely.”

“Well, good night! Sleep well, Mino-yah!” It was only a 10 minute walk to Jinwoo’s dorm, and he turns to walk up the steps to the lobby.

“Aren’t you forgetting something, hyung?”

“Huh, did I forget my shirt?” Jinwwoo turns back, confused.

“Nope, it’s this.” Mino tugs Jinwoo towards him, enveloping Jinwoo in a hug.

Mino notices that Jinwoo’s head fits perfectly in the crook of his neck, the perfect height for him to hug. Mino thinks that all of his ex-girlfriends had him bending down to hug them, but that was beside the point.

The point right now, was that Jinwoo was pressed against every inch of him.

Jinwoo’s hair tickles Mino’s nose and the scent wafts up.

Mino finally places what Jinwoo smells like; he smells like pomegranates, sharp and sweet, like the jasmine flowers, soft and calm and like sandalwood, warm and deep.

“Uhm Mino? I think you can let me go now. I think she’s probably gone?” Jinwoo pushes Mino away gently.

Mino lets go of Jinwoo, trying to remember who is the ‘she’ Jinwoo referring to.

Oh right, Ji Ah. I…forgot she was even following us.

“Oh yea, yea, just making sure, y’know. Alright, good night, hyung.” Mino walks away hurriedly, trying to make sense of what in the world just happened to him.

-

Jinwoo walks into the dorm lobby, trying to calm his pounding heart. He tries to convince himself that the suddenness of the hug startled him, but really, when did lying to oneself ever worked?

Mino had hugged him for a good 30 seconds. Jinwoo was counting. He had plenty of time to calm down, but Mino had to go and tighten his arms around Jinwoo’s waist at the 10^th second.

He swore Mino sniffed his hair again at the 15^th second mark and let out the smallest contented sigh at the 20^th.

How the hell is a hug affecting me so much?

Doing the best to ignore his still racing heart, he opens the door to his dorm.

“Hyunggg! You’re back! Wearing Mino’s shirt, huh, woah, .” Seunghoon’s voice greeted him.

“Are you high, Hoon-ah?” Jinwoo really couldn’t understand his weird roommate sometimes.

“You’re wearing his shirt! Can’t believe you guys are moving so fast.” Seunghoon wiggles his eyebrows suggestively at Jinwoo, “but then, Mino is probably too y for you to resist, huh?” A knowing smirk spreads across Seunghoon’s face.

“You and your erted thoughts!” Jinwoo glares at Hoon, finally understanding the implied meaning, “That idiot spilled soda on my shirt during the movie so he had to give me his tshirt to wear.”

“That idiot?” Seunghoon picks up Jinwoo’s slip of tongue, leading Jinwoo to hurriedly correct himself.

“He’s an idiot alright, spilling soda on me, but he’s my idiot.” Jinwoo mentally slaps himself for using such a cringey term but it works, causing Hoon to go into teasing mode again.

“I must say, I didn’t really believe you guys when you showed up with Mino at lunch.” Hoon’s voice grew serious.

“Wha-what nonsense are you saying?” Jinwoo lets out a laugh, praying he didn’t sound too nervous.

“Mino has been complaining about some girl following him around for a month, cramping his dating style and stuff, but suddenly he starts dating you? He swore he was straight before too.” Seunghoon continues.

Jinwoo concentrates on his laptop screen, not daring to look at Seunghoon.

“But, I’ve never seen that guy so shy around someone before. He’s usually all hyped up confidence and trying to act all “swag” around girls. You made the Song Mino blush, hyung!”

“Really?!” Jinwoo shot up behind his laptop. The fact that Mino had a different side to him around Jinwoo, leaves Jinwoo inexplicably happy. Wait, Mino could be acting though, putting in extra effort to keep up the façade, he thinks.

“I know you really like him too, hyung. Look at you so excited at what I said, omg! And that hug. Wow!” Seunghoon lets out a loud whoop at the end for dramatic effect.

“You saw the hug???”

“I was just pulling up the blinds, and I saw a couple hugging so tightly outside, who wouldn’t be curious. I never thought it’d be you and Mino. You guys are so cute!” Seunghoon ends off with an exaggerated squeal, leading Jinwoo to throw a pillow in his face.

That night, Jinwoo falls asleep; the last thought being his and Mino’s hug.