Jinki was sitting on the benches in front of the Engineering building, sipping on some cold coffee. It was spring break and the whole campus was empty, save for a few who came in for extra credit work or labs. Taemin and he were waiting for their professor to arrive and had an hour to while away with absolutely no shop open in the campus so they just loitered around their building doing all kinds of lame stuff like playing football with the tiny ball they made with chocolate wrappers and daring each other to do random . Jinki had dared Taemin to send his boyfriend the silliest face he could make but it had sort of backfired because Minho had sent Taemin a dozen hearts in response to his weird selfie. And now it was Taemin's turn to take revenge and he wanted to make the best use of the opportunity so he was browsing on his phone to find the perfect dare.

After a few minutes, he locked his phone, his eyes growing mischievous as he said, "I dare you to high five the first person that walks out the door– but– when they do that, you have to hold their hand instead and say we're dating now, love you bae," and Jinki's mouth fell open because he was no way doing that. Good thing the campus was abandoned at the moment and by the time someone walked out, their playtime would be over.

The next ten minutes passed with them staring at the door and Taemin growing slowly anxious if his revenge would be successful or not. On the other hand, Jinki was smirking, glancing at his watch every now and then, growing confident that he would scathe through Taemin’s revenge successfully.

Ten more minutes passed and Jinki got up, "Okay, the professor will be here any minute–”

His words halted because it was right then that the sound of the door being pushed open broke the air and it was Taemin who was smirking now, watching Jinki's face fade, whispering, "A dare's a dare, hyung."

Jinki sighed, accepting his fate as he turned around to have a look at who it was that had walked out… and his heart almost stopped because it was Jonghyun– the guy that he had been crushing on for the past semester after having seen him around the Remote Sensing labs. They didn't know each other because Jonghyun was a freshman and in a completely different branch of Engineering. They had not even run into each other before and he wouldn’t have even known his name had he not overheard someone calling him when he was passing by those labs towards his own.

"C’mon–” Taemin pushed him ahead, "Don't prove the theory right that you are what you eat."

"What...?" Jinki asked, too confused after having been pulled from that little flustered moment he had been having.

"Chicken," Taemin snickered, "Don't be a chicken, hyung."

Jinki would have totally laughed at Taemin's joke had he not caught another glance of Jonghyun who was standing at the door, texting someone with a cute little wrinkle between his brows, his lips in a pout, his hands drowning in that oversized hoodie. He looked so extra soft, he seemed to have gained a little weight too from the slight chubbiness in his cheeks. Damn, he looked so mesmerizingly adorable.

He could feel his face grow warm in his flusteredness but he coughed softly, keeping it contained and deciding to be a good sport, because, honestly, this could be the only time he could probably approach Jonghyun. It could be embarrassing but at least Jonghyun would get to know he exists and maybe, just maybe, them knowing each other could lead to something. He just didn't wanna pass those labs and secretly glance at Jonghyun. He wanted to say hello, he wanted to hear his sweet voice say hello back, he wanted to see him smile at him... gosh, just the thought of this potential new dynamic was now pushing his feet off the ground.

Taemin sat back on the bench while Jinki just casually walked towards the door of the building. Jonghyun had pocketed his phone and was walking too. Jinki took a deep breath as the distance between them neared and right before they could take those couple of steps to pass each other, Jinki raised his hand, catching Jonghyun's attention and making him halt, "High five?"

Jonghyun blinked, a little confused but then he smiled, chuckling before he gave Jinki a gentle high five. But the moment their hands had touched, Jinki entwined their fingers, "We're dating now. Love you, bae." and he winked before he walked past him into the building, his heart hammering away the moment his cool broke, completely forgetting that he had planned to explain to Jonghyun why he had pulled what he did. When he remembered a few seconds later, he took a u-turn and rushed out of the building... but Jonghyun was gone and it was Taemin who was slowly approaching him, a smirk on his face.

"Well done, hyung."

"Yeah," Jinki sighed, a mixture of emotions running through his heart, "I'm done for quite well."

Spring break was over, a week more had passed. Jinki hadn't seen Jonghyun at all. It mostly had to do with the fact that his embarrassment didn't give him enough courage to pass by the Remote Sensing labs. He was taking the elevators from the other side of the building to approach his labs from another way to avoid facing the consequences of the bull he had pulled, but he was tempted now and then to go and explain to Jonghyun that it was a dare, but then he would give up at how awkwardly that scenario of him explaining played out in his head. If he gave it enough time, perhaps Jonghyun would forget it anyways. Jonghyun didn't know him at all, after all.

But perhaps it was written in his fate to encounter him again. He was crouched in front of the vending machine after having punched in the code for his cold coffee, waiting for it to fall. When it fell, he grabbed it and when he had risen, he found Jonghyun punching in the code for something too and Jinki would have quietly walked away, had their eyes not met.

But all he could do was stand, too smitten by Jonghyun's little smile, at how his hair had grown slightly longer and was getting into his beautiful eyes, at how he pushed those strands off his forehead with his cute slender fingers, at how his lips began to move to say, "Hey, bae."

Nothing was coherent in Jinki's mind and heart at that greeting and he didn't even realize that he hadn't replied, not until he saw Jonghyun bend and grab his drink. But he didn't even know what to reply to that. Jonghyun had just called him bae. And that had strewn a blush across his cheeks. He could feel it from how hot his face was.

When Jonghyun straightened up, he softly said, "Seeya around." before he walked away, and Jinki grew more embarrassed, his heart racing because he swore he heard Jonghyun chuckle when he had passed him by.

The next time it happened, Jinki and Taemin had been waiting for the elevator. When the doors opened, they waited for everyone to empty out. Jinki had stepped away to free their path and was watching everyone walk out, smiling and softly greeting people he knew. But his eyes struck with surprise when they landed on the last person stepping out… because it was Jonghyun– and he couldn’t even formulate a greeting because of how much Jonghyun’s sight had caught him off guard again. Their eyes met and Jonghyun smiled, greeting him instead, "Hey, bae." He said before passing by him and that little greeting pulled Taemin from his phone, making him stare at Jonghyun's back and then back to Jinki, whose face was an open book enough for Taemin to piece two and two together.

It took no more than few seconds and Taemin recognized Jonghyun as the guy Jinki had high-fived on his dare and he smirked as he got into the elevator behind Jinki, who was so damn flustered as he asked, "What?!"

"Nothing~" Taemin just hummed knowingly.

"Stop fretting,hyung," Taemin said as he watched Jinki pace around in their lab, still wearing his coat, gloves and goggles. Jinki had spilled the beans about his huge crush and everything else when supposedly it had happened again. Jinki had collided with Jonghyun after a seminar and Jonghyun had again greeted him with a "Hey, bae".

"What did he mean by that? Why did he call me...that?" Jinki murmured again, "Is he mocking me? ... this is karma. I should have never played along with you--"

"C’mon hyung," Taemin burst into laughter, "He's not mocking you."

"Then what was he doing?"

"To me, it looks like... blatant flirting."

"No way." Jinki stopped pacing and whispered.

"Dropping hints." Taemin continued, "That's what he's doing too."

Jinki blushed, "What do I do now?" he softly asked.

Taemin smiled, "Take it." He said, "The hint."

Jinki had stepped out to grab some cold coffee but he stopped short when he saw Jonghyun and a girl at the vending machine. Jonghyun let the girl go first and they were talking about some MATLAB file and suddenly the girl changed the topic, "Are you free this weekend, Jonghyun? We're going on a group date and are short of one guy."

Jonghyun smiled, "I am free but sorry, I don't wanna go. I am already dating someone."

"Oh, no problem." She responded goodnaturedly and left with her bag of chips. Jonghyun waved her goodbye and when he was turning back to the vending machine, he spotted Jinki a few steps away. Jinki blinked and un-froze, walking towards the vending machine as casually as possible, noticing how Jonghyun didn't say "Hey, bae." this time.

Jinki's heart had already fallen when he had heard Jonghyun admit seeing someone else and now this little thing– which had been just what he had expected and not what Taemin said– this little joke between them– perhaps even that was now gone.

As he glanced around the options, Jinki finally uttered something, unable to bear the silence between them, "So...so you were seeing someone," He began, "I'm so sorry for–for that thing I pulled– it must have been–”

"I'm dating you," Jonghyun softly yet quickly said and Jinki turned to him, seeing how embarrassed Jonghyun had gotten. It was so damn adorable.

"You– You took me seriously?!" Jinki asked, flabbergasted, his heart catching pace.

"Not at first," Jonghyun pulled his cap down to hide a bit of his flushed face, "But... eventually, I..." He trailed off, unable to confess the rest but that flustered silence, the little fidgety restlessness in his demeanor, gave it all away.

Jinki let those words settle in, his mind was incoherent, his heart was hammering away, he didn't know if this was real or just something he was imagining because– because– .

"You know," Jonghyun punched in the codes of what he wanted, "It's high time I got the phone number of my boyfriend."

Jinki blushed, his mind somehow fortunately functioning properly as he began to search his pockets because he was sure he had those visiting cards his professor had gotten made when they set up a shop for their project last semester. He had changed his number recently and always remembered the last three digits wrong and he didn't wanna take a risk by giving Jonghyun a wrong one. He cussed at himself and made a note to himself about memorizing his number properly as the task was taking more than a minute. He finally found it from the depths of his wallet and handed it to Jonghyun, who had been curiously watching him, holding two coffees in his hand.

"Here," Jinki handed it to him and Jonghyun handed him one cold coffee after taking Jinki's card.

He read it over once, smiling to himself, his smile a little modest as he pocketed it and bid him goodbye, "See you around then, Jinki-sshi."

And Jinki just stared at Jonghyun's flustered, leaving back and then at the cold coffee in his hand, before he smiled sheepishly to himself, feeling almost giddy at what had just happened.

The next time Jonghyun greeted him with, "Hey, bae." Jinki knew exactly what to reply with.

"Hey, love."

The prompt