Chanyeol hands Jongin a bottle of water and a towel to wipe his sweat off. He watches as the other takes a small sip of water as he scans the room. The people in it aren’t unfamiliar at all save for a few like Boa and Kyungsoo. Jongin wonders where Kyungsoo has been for the past few weeks and has his answer served to him when Kyungsoo talks about how he had to drop Linguistics. 

“I’d never drop Linguistics,” Jongin says with short gasps punctuating each word.

“You’re too busy trying not to drop in exhaustion, that’s why.” Baekhyun snorts, laughing boisterously even when Jongin shoots him a glare that could kill. In fact, he laughs even harder than before. 

“I’d like to see you try dancing that hard every single day and not get tired.” Jongin scrunches his face up to tease Baekhyun, inviting him to a challenge he would never accept.

“Dance? With Sehun? If I get to dance with him, ballet and hip hop isn’t the only type of dance we’re doing.” Baekhyun tilts a corner of his lips up, a suggestive look gleaming in his eyes. When Sehun’s eyes meet his as he drinks water, Baekhyun winks. Sehun chokes.

“S-Sorry?” Sehun wipes the spilled water on his chin with the back of his hand. He tries to blink his shock away but when Baekhyun wiggles his eyebrows playfully, Sehun blenches yet again. “I—I, uh…”

“Stop it, Baek,” Jongin smacks Baekhyun’s shoulder.

Baekhyun really has to stop. Jongin knows what it’s like to be ignored by friends because he’s mistakenly hit on them. He doesn’t want Sehun to feel uncomfortable nor does he want Baekhyun to lose a friend because of a joke he thought was harmless. Plus, Jongin really does not like the fact that Baekhyun’s being so flirty and actually affecting Sehun enough for the latter to choke on water.

Sehun ducks his gaze down to his food, coughing violently as he spews specks of chewed food onto the table. Without asking, Sehun snatches Jongin’s bottle of water at the side before downing almost half of its content. He lets out a ragged breath after calming down. He meets Jongin’s quizzical eyes with a startled gasp, forgetting the fact that he’s not alone.

“Was it that girl again?” Jongin puts up a pretense of being amused by the situation, lips pulled taut into a teasing smile.

In truth, he’s not. He’s slightly annoyed by the fact that the new girl who just transferred in at the start of the term continuously shot her shots brazenly without taking no for an answer. Jongin wants to go up to her and tell her to back off so badly, but that would seem too suspicious. 

“She winked at me.” Sehun caps the bottle before placing it back to where it originally was. 

“You should give her an answer, you know?” Jongin shrugs, coming up with a horrible idea that would not only hurt him but crush him into pieces. “Maybe go out with her and see how it goes.”

Sehun snorts, snickering at the absolute nonsense Jongin’s spouting. “Quit it. She’s not my type.”

“Oh, really?” Jongin smiles wider than he should. “What is then?”

“Well…” Sehun takes the pause as a moment of thought. He considers his words and picks them out carefully. “Kind, understanding, accepting, soft hair.”

“Soft hair?” Jongin bursts out into a small fit of laughter. “That’s the only physical trait you want in someone?” 

“I like soft hair,” Sehun mumbles sheepishly, tone quieted as low as it can go without being totally inaudible. 

“Any more?” 

Sehun hums to fill up the pensive silence, staring right at Jongin. He squints, putting on an expression that suggests he’s thinking even harder to come up with an answer. Eventually, Sehun shrugs and shakes his head no. Jongin pouts, disappointed that Sehun’s type ends there. It’s pretty vague which translates to easy to get. 

“There’s one more thing,” Sehun speaks. Jongin perks up. “Pretty lips.”

“Whatever you say, Blue Balls.” Baekhyun sticks his tongue out childishly, ticking Jongin off even more than he already is. He reaches out to grab Baekhyun into a headlock but the other has already memorised his moves enough to run away before that happens. 

Sehun watches from the side, now relieved that Baekhyun’s attention has been ripped away from him. He shoots Jongin a smile full of gratitude when the other looks his way for a few seconds. Coincidentally, he looks over at Chanyeol. He blinks from the surprise, finding it odd how the taller one is practically scanning him inside-out like he’s done a grave mistake. His smile fades away, very slowly, and Chanyeol turns away. 

“That’s enough, Hyun, or I’ll tell your boyfriend.” Jongdae slaps Baekhyun’s forehead right as he runs past to get away from Jongin. 

“My boyfriend is whipped for me.” Again, Baekhyun sticks his tongue out as a response. This time, though, he does settle down as he returns to his previous spot next to Chanyeol. 

“You got a boyfriend?” Johnny asks.

“Yeah!” Baekhyun preens. 

“It’s my best friend,” Jongin drawls. 

“What?” Johnny’s voice raises an octave higher, like he couldn’t believe Baekhyun and Jongin’s relationship link runs deeper than it seems. 

“Yeah!” Baekhyun repeats himself. 

“That aside, how long are you going to practice?” Boa’s question rings melodiously at the side, catching everyone’s attention almost right away. 

If you’re not attracted by her, then you would most probably like her either way. There’s no other way around it. She’s kind enough for people to regard her with utmost positivity, she’s gorgeous enough for people to treat her right, and she’s confident enough for people to respect her the way she respects herself. That’s the kind of person Boa is. The kind of friends Sehun has.

“The whole night. You’re not invited,” Sehun cuts in, smirking down at Boa who shadows a punch to him to ask him to shut up. 

“Sehunnie, if you tease me too much I’ll tell Minseok.” Boa points a finger at him, wagging it around to tell him to leave her alone. He raises a brow at that, daringly, and scoffs. “Fine, I’ll tell Junmyeon.”

“Junmyeon is always ready to annihilate me given the chance.” Sehun rolls his eyes. “Even if you tell him I’m behaving well, he’ll probably trample me with his fashionable Spring boots.” 

“That’s true,” Boa giggles, “and I’m ready to abuse that advantage.” 

“Wait, sorry, Minseok?” Jongdae interrupts the conversation between Sehun and Boa. “The senior?”

“Yeah, why?” Sehun turns his focus to Jongdae, his steps instinctively making its way towards the latter. He stands next to Jongin, propping most of his weight on his right leg. “You seem a little… flustered.”

“It’s nothing. He’s just, uh… really nice.”

Jongdae’s cheek flushes a faint shade of red. If it wasn’t for the well-lit dance studio and the fact that Jongdae’s coincidentally standing under one of the spotlights, Jongin would have missed it. Jongdae earns a few raises of the eyebrows from his best friends along with Boa herself.

“Oh, I see what it is!” Boa squeals. “Hey, buddy, Minseok likes you too.”

“What?” Jongdae’s eyes widen almost too comically. 

“What?” Sehun questions with a pair of eyes glazed empty to indicate to Boa that if she’s joking, it’s not funny. 

“Yeah! He talked to me about it.” She grins. “Said there was this guy in his department who was cute and smiled like a cat. Then he mentioned your name.” 

Jongdae blows a breath out. “That’s a lot to take in, but thank you.” 

“That’s great, Dae!” Chanyeol cheers. 

“Shut up,” Jongdae snaps, hardening his eyes when Chanyeol grins down at him.

Chanyeol raises both his hands in the air, surrendering himself to whatever Jongdae’s accusing him of now. He puts on a guilty expression, eyebrows raised to the ceiling as he takes a small step back. Jongdae has a peculiar behaviour towards dating people, and both Baekhyun and Chanyeol are familiar enough with this to stop when they have to. Jongin, however, still has a long way to go before he can finally understand all of Jongdae’s perks. 

“If you like each other, what’s wrong with getting together?” Jongin ignores the violent gestures Baekhyun’s waving around behind Jongdae’s back to tell him to stop, thinking it’s just the normal playful behaviour from him. He does pause when Chanyeol grimaces for what’s about to come. 

“Why don’t you get back to dancing, Jongin?” Jongdae smiles, though it doesn’t reach his eyes like it usually would. Jongin senses the irritation in the way Jongdae speaks to him but he can’t even ask Jongdae about it with the number of people present in the room.

Jongin figures it’s the same reason why Jongdae’s not speaking his mind too. Too many people, too many eyes, too many ears. It’ll be troublesome if anyone witnesses the negative side one can show. Jongdae quite possibly would have scowled at Jongin if he could. And Jongin quite possibly would have persistently press Jongdae for information till he bursts if he could. 

Right now, though, Jongin’s forced to go back to practising. And if his moves are a little shaky or distracted, Sehun—or anyone else for that matter—is nice enough not to say anything. 

          Jongin almost drops his phone when his friends smack him in the back a little too hard as a farewell. He loses the game he’s playing, the wistful mocking tune ringing from his phone indicating he’s failed ticks him off a little more than it should. He glares hard at the ground, lips jutting out to form a pout as he tries his best to ignore his friend’s voices fading away. 

There’s no Sehun accompanying him home today. Only Jongin and his lonesome self. Sehun had to go back home to get more clothes and Jongin, though almost too reluctantly, agreed that Sehun’s been stealing too many clothes of his. He’s running out of them the longer Sehun stays over. His selfish side wants Sehun to stay for as long as he wants, give him all the clothes he has, but Jongin thinks that’s not the right move to make in this game he’s playing by himself. 

In this one-sided game, Jongin has to calculate his moves. It might be sudoku, fitting everything where it should, but it might as well be chess. The thing is, Jongin doesn’t know who are the pawns while who are the King and Queen. Which side is he on? Black or white? 

Jongin stares ahead at the road, squinting from the shine of bright headlights. He sighs when the lights turn in the corner, swerving. It’s too lonely for him, too quiet. The next bus is going to arrive in another ten minutes, and Jongin doesn’t know what to do to kill time. He doesn’t feel like playing another round of games. 

He kicks a pebble lying near his feet, watches the way it skids across the stranded road. It’s quite late, and Jongin’s possibly waiting for the last bus. He thinks it’s a possibility because he doesn’t know the actual time. It might be the second last bus or the third last, he’s not sure. He resorts to sighing, throwing his head back to stare up at the sky. 

“Daydreaming?” 

Jongin’s head turns to the one who spoke, a frown naturally making its way upon his expression. It’s a confused frown, not one of anger, but the stranger lifts his hands up in a surrendering posture. He smiles then. Jongin has to admit he’s slightly charmed by the handsome grin the stranger’s giving him. 

“Just thinking,” Jongin smiles a lipped smile back. 

“Oh, that’s dangerous.” Mister Stranger chuckles. “Is it serious?” 

“I don’t know anymore.” Jongin shrugs. “I can’t tell.” 

“And why’s that?” Mr. Stranger raises his brows, blinking once as he approaches Jongin. “Even I know it’s serious. Once you have to question whether it matters to you, it usually means it does.” 

“What a smart head you got on your shoulders.” Jongin scoffs, though playfully rather than mockingly. “Are you from around here?”

“Third year in Law.” Mister Stranger tilts his head a few degrees back, a fading glint of interest barely twinkling in his eyes. “And you?”

“First year in Linguistics.” Jongin tries not to stare at Mister Stranger when he invites himself to sit next to Jongin on the bench. “I guess I’m just… still adjusting to University life.”

“No, buddy. What you’re adjusting to is simply life.” Mister Stranger laughs when Jongin gives him a look. “Yes, I’m a little bit of a philosopher—if you will.” 

“I already have a friend who takes psycholog