A loud thud awakened Sanha from his slumber on Saturday morning. Instinctively reaching out  for his phone at the side of his bed, he inspected the time before getting up and checking what happened outside his bedroom. Minhyuk, who was still sleeping soundly, had fallen of the couch but still managed to be wrapped in the blanket and be unharmed. Sanha debated on whether he should put him back on the couch or not for a moment but decided not to in the end and just started his usual Saturday routine.

*

Ugh my head hurts. Waking up proved to be an ordeal, with a headache forming as an outcome of his little drinking stunt last night. He opened his eyes and fixed himself up from the floor with the blanket on hand. He took a few seconds before processing that he wasn’t in his bedroom; as the sight of the unfamiliar couch and set of pillows and blanket on hand was not of his possession or his style on furniture. “Where am I?” he thought out loud.

“You’re finally awake,” Minhyuk heard from a distance. His eyes followed the direction of the voice and examined the surroundings; a tall boy, maybe 6 foot,sitting on a chair near the kitchen counter and positioned across him while typing on his laptop, his head looking directly on the screen and his long black hair covering Minhyuk’s ability to see the boy’s face. The apartment was furnished with a very modern and minimalistic design and aesthetic; the walls painted with a nice light shade of grey with few pictures and objects hanged on, various lights covered with gold painted metals, a tall kitchen counter with three wooden stools.

“Want some coffee?” He asked casually, not really waiting for Minhyuk to respond as he made his way to the one of the cabinets to make the coffee. “Sure, I guess.”

After several seconds of awkward silence from the two with only the sound of the boiling water from the electric kettle and the stirring of the spoon used for the instant coffee, he hands Minhyuk, who was now shyly seated in one corner like a grade school kid on his first day on school, a cup. Minhyuk thanked him under his breath and sipped the coffee. Too sweet.

Guess that it was evident that Minhyuk found it too sweet as the tall boy laughed at his reaction. ‘Sorry. I can’t really handle strong dark coffee so I only have sweet ones,” he explained. Minhyuk only nodded. Minhyuk examined the boy who was now closer and more visible; long jet black hair that reached to his eyelids, small black eyes with straight eyebrows, soft cheeks and a cute pinkish lip that complimented the cute aura he was giving off. Wow he’s adorable.

“You feeling better now? I hope the coffee helped since that usually helps with Eunwoo’s hangovers,” the boy said. Minhyuk didn’t really process what he said and responded unconsciously.

“You’re cute,” Minhyuk said, which both surprised him and the boy.

“Uhm.. thanks. I get that a lot. Ha ha ha,” the boy responded. Minhyuk face palmed himself mentally.

“I... uh… where am I?” Minhyuk finally snapped out of his embarrassment and asked.

“In an apartment complex near Seoul University,” the boy responded and looked for Minhyuk’s reaction. After getting no response for a few seconds, he continued.

“I guess you’re that type of drinker, huh?” the boy joked. Minhyuk only smiled awkwardly.

“You probably don’t remember me. My name is Yoon Sanha. I’m friends with Eunwoo,” Sanha said to Minhyuk, hoping he’d remember but it was to no avail.

“We went on a double date yesterday with Eunwoo and Bin and you kept trying to sabotage them by shoving yourself between them. We went to watch a movie then ate after that and that’s where you just decided to drink your broken heart out after not getting Bin’s attention and losing to Eunwoo. You got drunk and I had to carry you to my place because Bin wanted to go sing with Eunwoo and didn’t really want you to be alone since you apparently do stupid things to strangers when you’re drunk,” Sanha informed Minhyuk, whom only gave an ‘oh’ as a response.

“We didn’t do anything, did we?” Minhyuk asked, looking at his body which was fully clothed. Sanha was about to respond on what happened on their little walk home but he immediately got the gist of what Minhyuk meant and blushed as he hit him lightly.

“No, we didn’t. You ert,” Sanha said as he hit Minhyuk in the shoulder. Minhyuk also blushed due to his own comment. Minhyuk sipped his coffee in an attempt to hide his embarrassment and his flushed cheeks. This is embarrassing.

*

Minhyuk didn’t really stay long at Sanha’s place after their little conversation. In fact, after creating a weird and awkward atmosphere, Minhyuk decided to leave but then his stomach started growling unexpectedly, causing him to get even more embarrassed and only making Sanha laugh and order some fast food which was delivered to them after 20 minutes. They both ate in silence, with Sanha going back to his work station on the kitchen counter and continued to typing his essays while eating some nuggets and fries and Minhyuk still on the couch. Minhyuk informed that he was leaving after quickly devouring his food and thanking him for letting him stay. Though he was thankful for the other for letting him stay the night, he wanted to get out as soon as possible as he didn’t know what other embarrassing thing his mouth might utter.

The days that came after that went smoothly; a routine of classes on the morning and afternoon followed by Eunwoo’s constant talk on how perfect Bin is at their breaks, doing extra work for the library and also doing school works after that, then walking home and trying to find some inspiration to write a song about. It felt nice but Sanha felt that something was off; he had this gut feeling that some unfortunate meeting would happen in one of the coming days ahead.

And right was he when Friday morning came. Making his way out of the bustling crowd of students in the halls and entering one of his assigned rooms for the day, Sanha fixated his things in the area he had always sat on. The room illuminated with bright lights and a large white board written with the words ‘ENGLISH 101’ was barely packed, with only a fourth of the students enrolled on the class present in the room. Sanha was fairly early for two reasons; one was because this class, in particular, has a lot of students enrolled to it and being late means not being able to get a good seat, another was because his previous class’s professor had dismissed them early.

A few minutes flew by. Sanha was already situated in his little world when a voice woke him up from his reveries. He turned to look at the door in which he saw Eunwoo smiling and waving at him. Beside him was Bin, who was also eye-smiling and waving at him, and Minhyuk, who was behind the two and looking at them with furrowed brows. Sanha waved back at them as they proceeded to approach him. I have a bad feeling about this.

Eunwoo sat in front of Sanha’s area and Bin followed suit, sitting next to him. To Sanha’s surprise, Minhyuk put his things near Sanha’s and sat next to him. Weird. I thought you’d sit next to Bin. But you can mess with them here better, I guess.

And, again, he was right. Minhyuk did some stupid things like throwing crumpled paper whenever the two talked or laughed about something. Sanha only looked at him for a second in disbelief and went on to try and focus on the discussions of the professor. If anything, Sanha was both amazed by Minhyuk’s commitment to separate the two and Eunwoo’s resilience in not minding Minhyuk’s tactics.

*

How Sanha survived not being dragged into their little scene during the whole entirety of the class, he did not know how he managed to avoid but he was thankful nonetheless. The professor had just finished presenting his topics and students have started to get their things and leave the room. Sanha did the same, as Eunwoo, Bin, and Minhyuk also followed, and left the room. As they left the room, Eunwoo held Bin’s arm before speaking to Sanha.

“We'll head first. I’ll see you tomorrow morning Sanha. See you later!” Eunwoo said and linked Bin’s arm to his as they waive and head first. Sanha did the same, not really bothering to ask where they are going since he has a pretty good guess. When both of them were out of his sight, Sanha was about to go but then Minhyuk, who was standing beside him and not speaking for the whole time, suddenly grabbed his arm.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Minhyuk asked.

“Home?” Sanha replied, looking at Minhyuk and his grabbed arm.

“You’re coming with me to spy on Bin and Eunwoo’s date,” Minhyuk said

“And why would I?” Sanha said, brows furrowed.

“Because we’re on the same boat,” Minhyuk said with full confidence. Sanha chuckled at Minhyuk’s remark for a moment. Me liking Eunwoo? Hilarious.

“Wait. Where are you going?” Minhyuk asked when Sanha started walking on the opposite direction Eunwoo and Bin went to, still chuckling.

“I’m going home,” Sanha said without looking at Minhyuk and waved his hand, signalling that his farewell. But before Sanha could even go a mile, Minhyuk grabbed his arm again and dragged him with him.

“Ok ok. Fine. I’ll come with you. Just please stop dragging me. I can walk,” Sanha spoke after failed attempts of breaking free from Minhyuk’s grasp and getting embarrassed as students passing by kept glancing over them. Minhyuk released Sanha’s arm and sheepishly smiles at him.

*

This is so stupid. Sanha and Minhyuk had been able to catch up to Eunwoo and Bin somehow as they were exiting the main campus and they followed the two into the cinema, where they are currently hiding in two chairs five rows above Eunwoo and Bin’s. The movie the two chose to watch was a sci-fi movie about an extraterrestrial thing that never peaked Sanha’s interest. This is one of the reasons why he didn’t want to go. As much as Eunwoo is perfect in all areas, Eunwoo has this weird taste in movie sometimes. It was a good thing their double date in the cinema last time was a movie picked by Bin.

Minhyuk’s original plan was to just spy on them and interrupt whenever the two would flirt with each. But that proved to be a challenge when both of them were so intrigued and focused on the movie while the effect of the movie for him and Sanha was making them feel drowsy. The movie was so mundane that he didn’t realize that he had closed his eyes and had already fallen asleep.

Minhyuk woke up abruptly from his slumber just in time of the ending of the movie and Eunwoo and Bin exiting their places. He shook Sanha awake and helped him get his things before holding his arm to try and catch up to the two quickly but also stealthily.

The dating couple went to a nearby cafe next, oblivious of Sanha and Minhyuk spying them both as they were still engrossed at the movie’s plot. The two ordered their coffees and sat down at a far end corner of the cafe as they continued their banter on the characters of the movie. Sanha ordered for the both of them as Minhyuk looked for a spot where they wouldn’t be easily located. With two cups now on hand, Sanha searched for Minhyuk who had disappeared. After a second, he spotted Minhyuk and went to him.

“Too sweet,” Minhyuk said when he took a sip of his coffee. Sanha just shrugged. It wasn’t his fault for choosing for the both of them as the other never gave his order.

The spying and eavesdropping on the two was uneventful. They just continued talking about the movie in which Minhyuk and Sanha didn’t really understand. After finally getting tired of the movie talk, the two suddenly started talking in English resulting to Minhyuk and Sanha becoming more confused as to whether they were just talking or flirting when they were laughing. Minhyuk and Sanha just sipped their coffees as they tried their best to comprehend the foreign language.

Nothing eventful ever happened after that. Eunwoo and Bin went to their separate ways after their little coffee date. After making sure that the two were off, Minhyuk and Sanha decided to call it a day and waited for the bus to arrive. Today was such a waste.

*

Sanha didn’t notice he had fallen asleep. He woke up to see that he’s still in the bus with lesser passengers now. To his side, a stiff Minhyuk was looking at him.

“What?” Sanha asked.

“Nothing,” Minhyuk said. Sanha didn’t really questioned further why the boy’s body looked so stiff and uneasy, why he kept avoiding eye contact with Sanha, and why there was a faint flush in his cheeks. Sanha didn’t really have the energy as he was still half asleep.

Ten minutes passed and the bus arrived at Sanha’s stop. Sanha slung his backpack and got up to press the button, signalling to the driver that it was his stop. He said his goodbyes to Minhyuk, who only nodded, and walked to his apartment. As soon as he got home, he changed to his pajamas and laid in bed. As time ticked by, Sanha slowly fell into slumber once more, tired of the day’s uneventful activities. But before he could drift to dreamland, a certain person’s face was stuck in his mind; how his rosy cheeks and his sheepish yet attentive gaze made him look adorable under the faint glow of moonlight and street lights.

He’s kinda cute, I guess.