[CONTENTID1]Life goes on[/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2]Jihoon roused from sleep as he felt soft caress of light on his face. Opening his eyes, he saw the light from the window and a figure beside him. He blinked few times while the memory of last night came to him and then closed his eyes tight. Jihoon stopped himself from sighing, didn’t want the guy beside him woke up. Just then he realized he was embraced to sleep. Jihoon opened his eyes and peered at the bigger guy. He was relieved that the guy was still sleeping. Slowly but surely, he removed the hand around his waist and tried to slip away from the hug. Jihoon bit his lips so hard when the pain came rushing throughout his whole body. The damned pain was his back and sore hole. It was his first time anyway, but somehow he’s doing fine when he didn’t make any noise no matter how painful it was for him.

Jihoon managed to slip out the bed and stood shakily bare-. He turned to glance at the guy and good for his luck, the guy was still sleeping. He didn’t feel the need to stay or see each other awake; it was a one nightstand anyway. Not that he was innocent, he had his past and he exactly will do the same thing as usually he did. Left before his partner of the night woke up. Just this time, he had to take a little bit more time than usual because of the soreness.

He should thank his lucky star that the guy didn’t wake up while he was struggling to put on his pants. Jihoon cursed few times because of the pain, he felt his arse ripped apart. He was aware of the dripping remnant of their passionate night from his sore hole but he didn’t have time to clean it. Thus, his mission to flee had been success. The other guy was left sleeping obliviously.

Jihoon arrived at his dorm an hour later. When he looked at his phone, he just realized he missed his morning class and his friends were searching for him. Jihoon decided to just skip the day as he felt impossible to go while limping like this. He shot a text saying he’s having hangover and lazy to go any classes before discarding all his clothes for a shower. His friends were teasing him back over the text knowing Jihoon got lucky and Eun was being interrogating about the girl of the night. Jihoon ignored it as he didn’t really want to share his escapade and yet correcting them about the gender. Putting the dirty cloth in the washing machine, Jihoon stepped to the bathroom . He went passed the large mirror in front of the faucet and noticed the marks all over his body. He groaned when he noticed the big marks on his neck and shoulder.

“Ugh, how to cover this one?” Jihoon inspected the one on his neck. He groaned to the nuisance he had to face, but somehow he didn’t really mad because he really liked the night. He gulped as he remembered their . Jihoon groaned when he felt him twitching in need. “Shower!” Jihoon shouted to himself and tried to take off his mind from the dirty image. He decided to cave in his dorm without any disturbance.

Back in the motel, Seungcheol woke up after half an hour Jihoon left. He was feeling around the other side of the bed. He opened his eyes when he felt coldness. Seungcheol blinked. Was it a dream?

Seungcheol sat up and realized he was and sticky. “It’s not a dream…” He looked around the room. He got up from the bed, looking at the scattered clothes on the floor. Only his remained. He slowly picked it up as he exhaled.

“I thought there could be something. He left… just like that.” Seungcheol sighed as he sat back on the bed after gathering his cloth. Suddenly he felt so lethargic. He won’t deny it, he’s very disappointed that J decided to leave without a trace. Perhaps, he actually fell for that guy after the best night he ever had. Seungcheol didn’t know his exact feeling but it would be hard to forget and move on, he knew it. Because J was too mesmerizing, and the night was… wonderful.

“ one nightstand…” Seungcheol groaned as he rubbed his face regretfully.

“Two weeks into the new semester, all of you already looked like dead.” A man got into the lecture hall. The students sat up as they groaned collectively at the man’s tease.

“Too many works, moreover from you, ssaem.” The man laughed at a protest from one of his rowdy students.

“Oh, Soonyoung ssi, I know you love my class.” The man teased back and Soonyoung huffed. His gang – Jihoon, Eun, Jun, Joshua and Kate giggled at him. Soonyoung pouted when his boyfriend Wonwoo dare to laugh as well. “Anyway, you guys are going to get a new course mate. He’s an exchange student from Thailand, he’s doing short semester here. I hope you all can guide him around. No worries, his Hangul is damn good.” The man said giggling as he beckoned someone at the door. A guy walked in and the eyes were all on him.

The guy gave a wai (palms pressing together gesture) before bowing, remembering the different culture. “Annyeonghaseyeo, choneun Hyumin imnida. Bagapsubnida. You can call me Mint, it’s my name in Thai.” The guy said. Like the lecturer said, the guy’s Hangul was good.

“Okay, you guys can ask him more later on, we’re going to start our class. Go sit anywhere you want, Hyumin ssi.” The newcomer nodded and walked. He chose the seat next to Joshua and Kate as it’s the closest available seat. “Now, let’s get on the slide. We’re continuing from last week, the second design methodology.” The man said and looked at the new student. “Joshua ssi, share the slide with your new friend.”

“Okay sir.” Joshua turned to the guy beside him. “Hey, I’m Joshua.”

“You can call me Mint.” Joshua nodded and they shared the copy of the slide. The class continued rather smoothly with the lecturer engaged much with his students; it was more like a sharing information session rather than lectures which made this lecturer loved by his students despite he loves to give them small work to do every end of class.

“So, you’re Hyumin.” Soonyoung turned back to Hyumin who sat behind him when the class ended. Hyumin nodded. “I’m Soonyoung, Joshua’s friend. Well, actually this is the gang.” Soonyoung gestured to the two guys who sat beside him and the other two people behind Hyumin. “Wonwoo, Jihoon. Kate, Joshua. Then, Jun and Eun behind you. Got another one girl in the gang but she’s in Civil department. Jun’s girlfriend, that’s how she’s in the gang. We’re cool, she’s a lovely one too.” Soonyoung babbled through that his boyfriend, Wonwoo had to pat his back stopping the guy. Hyumin just smiled.

“Sounds cool. You guys are friend since school?”

“Me and Jihoon are childhood friends. Wonwoo comes around during middle school, and then met Eun in high school. Jun, Kate and Joshua are friends from high school, and then we just clicked during first year sitting together. The gang just grew up and Jia is the recent addition since she started going out with Jun.” Soonyoung grinned. “We don’t mind to add new people.”

“You’re doing TMI, Soonyoung.” A voice from the behind, apparently Jia came in.

“Woah, hi there Jia.”

“Yeap, hi back to you Josh.” Jia sat down beside Jun and pecked the boyfriend’s cheek. Eun just shook her head. “Oh, you have class with them.” Jia talked to Hyumin. Hyumin nodded to her.

“You know him, babe?” Jun asked. Jia nodded.

“He took Hangul class like me, we have met earlier.” The gang chorused an O. Jia is Chinese just like Jun but unlike Jun who moved to Korea entirely with his parents since high school, Jia came to study here when she’s offered an abroad scholarship programme so she’s still studying Hangul. Jia was one of the geniuses in her league. “So you majored in Computer?” Jia asked the new guy.

“Yes, I’m taking Computer Engineering in my college, Chulalongkorn Univesity.” Hyumin answered.

“Wait, why you’re here, Jia?” Jihoon asked.

Jia gave a ‘duh’ look. “I share a course with you guys remember?”

“Damn, we have Mrs. Bang class today?” Soonyoung asked this time. Jia nodded. “, anyone, I need to copy.”

“Sorry, can’t help. She’s here.” Eun said pointing to the front. Soonyoung cursed as he heard the said lecturer’s voice already. He knew he will be roasted once the lady asked to submit her work. The gang laughed silently while Hyumin was amused to see them. Somehow he felt comfortable around them and they also seemed didn’t mind to take him in as the new addition. Hyumin was happy that he got friends.

“Boss, Team B requested assistance for SKBD112. The user is encountering an error.” The man behind the corner desk looked up to the guy who talked earlier. The island of seven working desks was filled up with monitors, CPUs and laptops. The seats also filled and the worker on that seat was working their mind away typing and clicking something.

“Why they need assistance?” The man asked.

“It was similar case like SKBD104. They need advice to solve the error.” The guy answered back, still not looking over the man who he called boss. It wasn’t a surprise anyway, they’re used to it as it’s the work demanded them as such. Working in IT field surely tough moreover you’re on back-end side.

“Is it too much on your plate now, Jeonghan? I’m still fixing the code from earlier. I hope you can take that one.” The boss asked to another guy.

“I could take it on if it’s just advice or guide. Do they take call, Mingyu?” Jeonghan asked Mingyu who was the one talked to the boss earlier. Mingyu gave slight nod before answering yes.

“I would tell them to get in touch with you.”

“Cool.”

“Hope you will make it in time for 0907 fix.” The boss called up to Jeonghan.

“Don’t worry, Seungcheol. I got that.” Jeonghan grinned and managed to wink at the boss as he went back to work. Seungcheol just rolled his eyes. He and Jeonghan had been close since they started to work in this company about the same time. Working alongside, they managed to build such good friendship. Seungcheol was very glad that Jeonghan stayed with him when he was suddenly assigned to be the team leader for this small team consist of seven people including him that each of them had been working for the company averagely more than two years. Seungcheol and Jeonghan was the most senior among the team.

The company they worked for was an IT-based company where they provided service of application development and maintenance to their client. Thus, their core department was separated to few big functional groups and each group was separated to few teams. Seungcheol’s team was the newest one they created – where they’re responsible to take over the fast-demanding case and provide support to the other team – which their head of department gathered the best of the best individual from each team to make up the new team over two months ago. Seungcheol became the team leader basically because of his performance and experience within the company. And Jeonghan is his right hand in all cost.

The tapping on the keyboard filled the small office of the team. Calls were coming in between and there’s talking heard here and there. The team never had a free time whenever it’s on working hours. It was tiring but each of them knew they’re essential to the company as for now and no one was really complaining as they got a great pay for it.

Seungcheol made a short trip to the toilet, looking at his phone while going. He exhaled as he saw few chats on his kakaotalk that he ignored. Mostly it’s from people who he had nightstand with. There was few of it that he kept in touch as they became acquaintance, but some of them were annoying. Seungcheol even more annoyed when all of them weren’t the one he craved for.

The smol cutie he hooked up last two nights, the certain guy still lingered in him and he was achingly longing for that guy. He was upset that he was left alone on the morning he woke up but he couldn’t complaint as it’s the usual thing for one nightstand. Just he didn’t expect he… started to long for the guy. Despite his messy thoughts, he was still professional about his work – the one attribute of himself that he was always proud of. Remembered he had many things to do, Seungcheol made the toilet break quick and made his way back to his office pushing the thought of the guy way back far behind his mind.

“Boss.” Seungcheol was called after his short trip to the toilet.

“Yes, Chan?” Seungcheol turned to the youngest of the team.

“There’s a call from Mr. Kim from Group Dev Team C.” Chan answered. He sat next to Seungcheol’s place and usually be the one who took the phone when Seungcheol was not around. “The extension number is there. In case you need.”

“Thanks Chan.” Seungcheol patted his back and sat down. He made the call. Jeonghan looked at Chan. Chan shrugged, knowing the guy ask wordlessly of why Mr. Kim called their boss. The short looks dismissed as they’re back focusing on their own work. The day had been the usual all over the week with works and calls.

“Sorry, single-. We’re going for a date.” Soonyoung said chuckling as he dragged Wonwoo with him as the group walked out from their last class. Eun scoffed while the rest just shook their head.

“Don’t forget our study group tomorrow, stupid. For the test next week.” Eun hollered to the couple.

“Arasseo. You also don’t party too wild.” Soonyoung hollered back, waving his hand to them. Eun turned t