Students from a different country were fun.

Of course Junhui knew that he was the right person to talk, having arrived in Korea from China for his studies as well and having struggled a lot with Korea and its culture and language, but that was exactly why he thought that students from different countries were fun.

After the end of the last semester, a Chinese exchange student who had become very dear to Junhui had left the apartment, leaving it only to him, a sophomore, and Jeonghan, a junior. They had room for up to two more students and to Junhui’s absolute delight (as well as the exchange students' coordinator’s delight) both of those opportunities would be used that year: one by a junior exchange student from America and the other by a freshman from China who, as far as they knew, planned to spend his entire university time in Korea.

And like that, Jeonghan and Junhui found themselves at Incheon airport on the last Monday of the semester break. Junhui had gotten the chance to message the new Chinese kid with the name Minghao via WeChat and Jeonghan had reached out to the other student called Jisoo via Facebook.

Currently, Junhui and Jeonghan were waiting at the gate where international flights from America arrived. Jisoo’s plane had landed nearly half an hour earlier and through Facebook Messenger updates, they knew that the other boy had finally arrived at the baggage claim.

“They’ll be here soon! Jun, they’ll finally be here soon!” Jeonghan squealed, his phone still ready in his hand in case further messages came in, but by that point, it was unlikely.

“I hope his suitcases come out quickly!” Junhui replied and held his best friend’s hand while they both watched the sliding glass doors in anticipation. When they opened for the first time, both young adults got on their tip toes to peek over the families waiting up front, but it was only some middle-aged man. Next were two businesswomen who also weren’t of interest for the two college students. Then there was a family. Another family. A couple. An elderly lady who was immediately welcomed by her family.

Three more businessmen followed before Junhui spotted a kind of familiar black mop and he got on his tiptoes once again. “Jeonghan, Jeonghan! I think that’s him!”

“Yes! That’s him!” Jeonghan called out a moment later and they both started to wave excitedly.

Jisoo’s eyes landed on them shortly afterwards and Junhui couldn’t tell whether he was amused or about to step back into the baggage claim area to try and get back to America while he halted in his tracks for a brief moment. Either way, he walked over to them just a bit later.

Junhui finally let go of Jeonghan’s hand as they also approached the other student just to eventually come to a stand in a slightly awkward round, neither of them really knowing how to greet the other.

“Hi, I’m Jeonghan,” the oldest one among them eventually started, sporting a bright grin. “It’s great to see you in person now!”

“I’m Junhui,” the Chinese student added, flashing the newcomer an equally sparkling smile.

“I’m Jisoo. Thank you for picking me up here.”

Jeonghan laughed at that. “You’re welcome! We couldn’t have let you wander this strange town all on your own, could we?”

“We’ll have to wait for a bit, though,” Junhui informed him, but Jisoo simply nodded.

“I know, Jeonghan already told me,” he replied, prompting bright grins from the other two boys.

“Wonderful! Let’s go to the other gate?” Junhui asked excitedly, making Jeonghan laugh.

“There’s still fifteen minutes left until his plane is even supposed to land! And remember how long it took you until you could show your passport?”

“Yes, but not everyone is as unlucky as I was. Jisoo here wasn’t as unlucky!” Junhui defended himself immediately. “Plus, we need to get there first and by the time we’re there, Minghao is probably already getting off the plane.”

Jeonghan shook his head lightly, but his smile revealed that Junhui had already won anyway.

While they walked to the other arrivals’ section, they made small talk with Jisoo, getting to know him better. By the time they got to the right section to pick Minghao up, they had already settled to first go to the apartment and then go out for lunch before they’d explore the city and probably also stop by a café and later go out for dinner, leaving the cooking to the next day. The second that Jisoo mentioned that he really liked to sing and that his friends also told him that he was good at it—adding also that singing was actually his major in university, just like Jeonghan’s—Junhui was out of the conversation, though he continued to listen happily. He also checked his phone periodically, squealing when he found out that Minghao was waiting in line to show his passport and his visa. Jeonghan and Jisoo talked about their favorite singers and bands and music styles and which kinds of songs suited them the best and Junhui piped in every so often, annoying Jeonghan by poking his arm if the two junior students didn’t let him speak right when he wanted to.

When Minghao texted him twenty minutes later that it would still take a while until he’d get to the front, Junhui got his coffee order and he suggested towards the other two who were with him to go to the Starbucks that was located at the terminal. Jisoo and Jeonghan seemed equally happy about this turn of event, making Junhui laugh. With his best friend, he wasn’t surprised that the idea of coffee brought an immediate smile to his face, but knowing that Minghao and Jisoo also seemed to get easily excited over coffee told him that this could only be a great match! Then again, they all were university  students, so of course they loved coffee. Junhui only knew a handful of people who were in university and didn’t like coffee and he had to admit that he absolutely respected those people for making it through the day without caffeine!

A few minutes later and equipped with four cups of hot coffee—Jeonghan got the role to carry two of them because Junhui claimed that he himself obviously had to keep on checking his phone—they went back to the pick-up area. “Guys, smile,” Junhui called out and raised his phone, smiling brightly into the front camera for the first two pictures before he started to make silly faces.

“Good idea!” Jeonghan complimented him when he let the phone sink again and looked over his shoulder while Junhui picked the second picture he had taken and sent it to Minghao, followed by ‘Find us ;P’ in Chinese.

‘Doesn’t look like it’s gonna be hard,’ came the answer back just seconds later, making Junhui laugh as he updated the other two on the small texts.

They had to wait almost twenty minutes longer until Jeonghan squealed all of a sudden. Junhui got on his tiptoes and indeed found first blond hair and then also the rest of the boy he had been texting with. Unable to see much from his current position, he quickly went over to the baggage claim exit, followed closely by Jeonghan and Jisoo.

“Minghao~!”

“This is not how ‘find us’ works!” he got the immediate response in Mandarin, making Junhui laugh. They all came to a stand in a new small circle where Minghao bowed lightly. “Hello, my name is Xu Minghao,” he introduced himself in cute sounding Korean.

“Welcome to Korea~ I’m Wen Junhui.”

“Yoon Jeonghan, nice to meet you!”

“I’m Hong Jisoo, an exchange student from America.”

“Did you have any problems getting here?” Jeonghan asked curiously, but Minghao shook his head.

“No, everything went fine.”

“Great! Then are you two ready to get going?” he looked at Jisoo and Minghao excitedly. The other two nodded, Jisoo with more enthusiasm than Minghao, so Junhui helped Minghao catch up on their plan briefly. Once all four of them were on the same page and there was no protest regarding the plan, they slowly left the airport. Minghao got his by then rather lukewarm instead of hot coffee from Jeonghan as they walked to the subway station included in the airport.

On the way to the apartment, they decided that Minghao would be rooming with Junhui while Jisoo would be rooming with Jeonghan and Junhui wasn’t sure when he had last heard something that surprised him as little as this. Somehow, he had already assumed that he’d be rooming with Minghao from the moment that he knew one of their foreign students was Chinese. But hearing that they would indeed do it like this nevertheless made him smile brightly.

They arrived at the apartment without complications and Jeonghan and Junhui immediately separated to show their new roommates their respective rooms first.

Junhui happily led the way into his room first and motioned towards the bunk bed. Of course he could have picked twin beds when he had moved in, but the idea of being able to pick a bunk bed had been too tempting and a childhood dream come true. “This one is for you~” he explained happily in Korean, motioning towards the lower bed.

Minghao looked at the two-story-bed curiously for a moment. “So you’re the top?” he summarized and Jun bit his lip.

“You could say it like that,” he replied with a smirk after a second or two. When Minghao looked at him in confusion, Junhui grinned, quickly making up his mind that it would be a lot more fun to keep that game going for the time being.

“Anyway, in the closet, you can take the left side,” he continued and went over to the wardrobe, showing what he meant. “The left desk is also free for you to take, but usually Jeonghan and I do our homework and study in the kitchen or in the living room, so I don’t even know why I have a desk here.” He shrugged lightly at Minghao who continued to nod everything off.

“Are you two ready to go?” Jeonghan asked, suddenly appearing in the door frame. “Jisoo is starving, so I figured we could leave the unpacking for later,” he added when it was clear that neither Junhui nor Minghao had expected to leave again so quickly.

“Okay,” the Chinese newcomer was the first to reply.

“You know my answer when it’s about food,” Junhui also jumped on the bandwagon and went over to Jeonghan, casually slinging his arm around his best friend’s shoulders. He glanced over his shoulder to make sure that Minghao was indeed following them.

Soon enough, Junhui had to let go again so they could all put on their shoes and thick winter coats before they left the apartment.

They spent the entire day outside, showing off Seoul and eating lots of delicious food. It quickly became obvious that Jisoo was a lot better at speaking and understanding Korean than Minghao was, though Minghao turned out to be more adapted to the culture starting with something as simple as bowing towards those who were older than him.

The four of them only settled back into the apartment that evening. All of them were tired, especially Jisoo who decided to skip unpacking and instead got ready for bed, the long flight, nervousness, jet lag, and an entire day spent exploring Seoul taking their toll on the American student.

Minghao on the other hand still got to work with unpacking, so Junhui and Jeonghan sat down on the lower one of the bunk beds to keep Minghao company and entertain him.

“Seems like you two got the entire room figured out already,” Jeonghan observed when Minghao moved from the wardrobe to the left desk and Junhui shrugged casually.

“We’re actually clear on everything important.”

“Like..?” Jeonghan asked slowly, sudden mistrust audible in his voice.

“Like me being the top,” Junhui replied nonchalantly.

“What?” Jeonghan gasped, attracting Minghao’s attention again while Junhui flashed his best friend an innocent expression.

“We were talking about these bunk beds, of course, what were you thinking about?”

“Wen Junhui, neither of us was thinking about bunk beds here,” Jeonghan exclaimed and threw up his arms in exasperation, promptly hitting one of his hands on the bed above them, evoking a quiet whine from him.

“What’s going on?” Minghao asked, his voice sounding careful and hesitant, almost making Junhui pity him for not understanding—but only almost.

“You should explain this,” Jeonghan immediately took the chance presented to him.

“Why me?” Junhui protested.

“Because you can tell him what it means in Chinese and I can’t. I don’t know if he’ll understand if I explain it in Korean.”

“You do realize the mistake in your reasoning, though, don’t you? I can literally tell him anything.”

Jeonghan stared at him for a few seconds as if he really only noticed that then before letting out another huff. “Okay. So… Minghao, you know when you get intimate with someone..?”

“Sorry?”

“When you… well, basically when you have ,” Jeonghan blurted out, but Minghao still looked at him in that cute, innocent manner that showed that he didn’t know what was going on: the way he tilted his head and looked at Jeonghan with big, doe-like eyes. “I need a dictionary.” Junhui automatically handed his phone over to his best friend who quickly unlocked the device and entered the dictionary app that the phone’s owner had installed back when he had arrived in Korea. “When you… qīnrè..? Is that how you say it?”

“Yes, that’s how you say it,” Junhui confirmed and watched Minghao’s posture change.

“Qīnrè?” he echoed in disbelief and Junhui nodded.

“When you say ‘this person is a top’, it means that they’re the dominant one when they get intimate with someone,” he explained in Mandarin all the way, only using Korean for the example he gave, and watched Minghao get more and more embarrassed.

“And you couldn’t have said that earlier?” he asked back in Mandarin and turned away, busying himself with pushing his notebook into a different corner of the desk.

“I’m sorry… I mean, you weren’t wrong,” Junhui tried to ease the mood, but he only got a soft groan in response.

“And I’m sharing a room with you…”

Junhui pouted at that, realizing that this didn’t go as planned. “Well, if it helps, I also made a lot of embarrassing mistakes at first, especially language-wise. The Korean pronunciation was and sometimes still is very difficult for me, so I also messed up a lot of words.”

“Minghao, if Junhui here gets too much for you, I’m sure Jisoo will be fine switching rooms with you,” Jeonghan interrupted the Mandarin conversation, guessing the mood correctly.

Minghao nodded after a few seconds, though Junhui figured that a mix of actually understanding the words and understanding the tone was the reason why Minghao had grasped the sentence’s meaning.

“And hey, you two are in differnet years and don’t have the same major, so you won’t see each other a lot in university, I guess.”

Junhui nodded with a small huff. Though they all belonged to the performing arts faculty, his major was acting while Minghao’s was performance studies and Jeonghan and Jisoo had put their focus on singing. That meant that he himself usually only saw his best friend when they had an off hour at the same time to eat lunch or study together. The thought that Jisoo and Jeonghan would probably have the same schedule made him a bit envious, but sadly there was nothing he could do about that.

“I promise I’ll be better,” he vowed towards Minghao who merely gave a vague nod of acknowledgement in response while he turned back to his suitcase to continue unpacking.

 

During the next couple of days, the awkward atmosphere slowly faded. They continued to explore Seoul together and Jeonghan and Junhui showed the other two the university. Since Jisoo and Minghao already had their schedules, Jeonghan and Junhui showed them their classrooms, though Jeonghan also mentioned that Jisoo shouldn’t worry too much since their schedules were nearly identical.

Slowly, something like a routine began to develop. Because neither Minghao nor Jisoo were used to eating Korean food, at least not every day, they made sure to also make Chinese dishes occasionally and even got recipes from Jisoo’s mother to recreate bits and pieces of the American cuisine. Except from Junhui whose cooking was quite okay, none of them was particularly good at cooking, but they decided that it was tolerable enough anyway.

It also turned out that while Minghao didn’t know some vocabulary sections at all, he was very familiar with other topics, so Junhui figured that Minghao had either taken Korean classes back in China or that he had indulged in a lot of self-studying during the past year or longer.

And in what seemed to have been the blink of an eye, the break was over and classes started.

During lunch break, their group always grew beyond the four of them: it soon turned out that throughout this semester just like the past one, two of Jeonghan’s friends would be able to join them frequently, and once a week, one of Junhui’s friends called Wonwoo could join them. His boyfriend Mingyu, who had just started his first semester of studying acting as well, was able to sit with them more often, much to Junhui’s and Jeonghan’s delight. Junhui used those noisier times to watch Jisoo and Minghao. Jisoo quickly seemed to be able to engage with anyone while Minghao seemed to be a quieter type of person. Junhui would have claimed that the language barrier was the main reason for this if Minghao didn’t turn out to be just as reserved and calm at their apartment, making the older student believe that maybe this was simply the other’s personality.

 

By lunch time on the first day of university, Junhui spotted posters advertising the dance club that one of his friends from performance studies, Soonyoung, led. The dance club wasn’t restricted to their university, but Soonyoung had nevertheless gotten permission to advertise the club, claiming that it would be good for people who were new to Seoul to learn more about the city and to bring them together with others and not only university students.

And so, when Junhui went to dance practice on Tuesday, he wasn’t surprised to not only find the usual team there but also a handful of others. Since Soonyoung seemed to be busy talking to some of the newbies, Junhui made his way over to a kind of lost seeming figure.

“Hey there, kiddo.”

“I’m not a kid,” the other replied automatically while still turning towards Junhui.

“I know, Chan, but you’re still the youngest one on the team, so you kind of are a kid.”

“I’m only three years younger than you!” Chan protested right away, but Junhui merely shrugged. Chan was one of the guys who had been on the team the longest and he and Soonyoung seemed to be almost as close as brothers. Though Chan was still in high school, it was easy to tell how talented he was at dancing and whenever someone mentioned his future, he claimed that he wanted to go for performance studies as well so that he could become a professional dancer later. If his parents had allowed him to do it, Junhui knew that the younger boy would have long since auditioned to become a K-Pop star, but maybe his dreams of becoming a dancer could still work out.

“How was school today?” Junhui changed the topic as he sat down next to Chan who groaned.

“We got a few new teachers and especially our English teacher seems to be super strict! Today, our gym teacher announced the schedule he plans to do with us and can you believe that he does absolutely nothing of interest? It’s just stuff like badminton. Who wants to play badminton!” Chan started and Junhui laughed softly, leaning back as he listened to the younger’s rant about his first two days of school.

After some minutes, Soonyoung’s loud clapping brought him back to the reality of their practice room and he looked up to find the room well filled. His experience from the last two semester starts told Junhui that many of those people would drop out eventually, but some would stay and become a part of their team.

Soonyoung some music and they began stretching to his guidance. Junhui took the time to inspect the newcomers, finding a mix of boys and girls who were there to check out their practice. And then in the last row…

“Junhui, you too are allowed to turn,” Soonyoung suddenly called him out, making said boy realize that he had been staring at the foreign exchange student whose head whipped up upon hearing that name. Their eyes met and Junhui could tell that Minghao was just as surprised to find him there as he was to find Minghao there.

With a delay, Junhui also turned around to stretch his other leg.

As soon as their stretching ended, Chan moved closer to him. “What was that about?” he whispered.

“That’s Minghao,” Junhui revealed, watching as Chan’s eyes widened.

“Minghao? The Minghao just moved in with you and Jeonghan?”

Junhui nodded, keeping his eyes fixed on Soonyoung who clapped his hands to get their attention in order to start the choreography.

Two hours later, Soonyoung seemed to be the only one who still had any energy left, while especially those who had just joined the team all appeared to be dead tired.

Chan and Junhui made their way over to Soonyoung who was chatting (animatedly in Soonyoung’s case, exhaustedly in the other boy’s case) with one of the new kids. The boy turned out to be one of the freshmen from performance studies, though he mentioned that despite having taken dance classes for a long time already, this class had been quite tiring, making Soonyoung laugh.

“Don’t worry, not all of them will be this demanding!” he tried to calm the freshman down, but the boy didn’t look convinced.

“Hey,” a soft voice made Junhui to his left and right into Minghao’s eyes. He didn’t seem to be quite as exhausted as most of the others, but he had probably used the past minute or two to catch his breath.

“Hey,” Junhui replied with a small smile.

“Hey?” Soonyoung echoed and looked back and forth between them.

“Guys, this is Minghao. Minghao, these are two of my closest friends, Soonyoung and Chan.” He gestured to each student respectively, smiling when instant recognition appeared on Soonyoung’s face.

“Minghao? That is so cool! Welcome to the team~” Soonyoung immediately greeted him cheerfully and with a bright smile.

“It’s nice to meet you, Minghao,” Chan greeted him as well.

 

Minghao and two others indeed ended up staying in their dance group and Junhui was certain that the dancing was one of the reasons why he quickly got closer to Minghao during the next few weeks. They practiced the moves together at university occasionally and always went to the training together and left together. Minghao also soon got comfortable with Chan and Soonyoung, making Junhui really happy. Jisoo on the other hand got to know more of Jeonghan’s friends from the singing side, also seemingly getting along with them very well.

 

“I’m giving up,” Minghao groaned, crossed his arms over his textbook lying on their dining table, and rested his head on top of his arms.

“We have to keep a better eye on the vocabulary you’re learning,” Junhui observed, not remembering that Minghao would have learned that expression from their small group.

“Then I’ll say it in Mandarin,” Minghao replied, his voice muffled from his position.

“What do you have to study right now?” Junhui changed the topic, leaning over the table to sneak a peek at the book, but all of it was covered by the younger student.

Minghao sat up slowly, staring at the textbook with a truly miserable expression in his eyes. “Muscles. What am I, a doctor? Why do I have to learn all of this? And then even in Korean!” he complained in their mother tongue.

“Well, you are in Korea, after all.”

“You’re not helping.”

Junhui turned his attention to the textbook as well and saw the leg muscles all listed on that page. There was a picture showing the location of each muscle while the text passages next to the picture explained their functions. “Well, if it’s body stuff, I can easily help you learn it all,” he said after a few seconds and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, laughing when he got another groan in response.

“I’ll just go back to China…”

“I took that class during freshman year as well,” Junhui added in a more serious tone. “If you like, I can give you my notes. There are still a lot of translations among them, so maybe that’ll help you?”

Minghao thought about that offer for a while, or maybe he also had to mentally translate parts of what Junhui had said, then he nodded. “Yes, I think that would be good.”

“I’ll be right back then~” Junhui got up and went to the room he shared with Minghao. It took him a bit until he found his notes for the anatomy class he had had to take, then he left the room with the binder that held all of his notes from that class (and a few other classes, but he was too lazy to take the anatomy section out). Equipped with the folder, he returned to the kitchen and put it down next to Minghao’s textbook, opened his notes, and skipped to the anatomy section. “There you go, let me know if you need help with anything else.”

Minghao glanced at the notes and then nodded. “Thank you,” he replied and briefly looked up with a small smile that Junhui immediately returned, then the slightly older student grabbed the casting script for that semester’s play. He planned to audition for one of the lead characters, but he still needed some more information for the background.

“I’ll go bother Jeonghan-hyung now,” he announced as he left the room again.

He found the other two boys in the living room, bent over a phone that had a video playing. Curious, Junhui quietly approached them from behind and looked over their shoulders, frowning when he realized that they were just watching a K-Pop music video. “Yah! Minghao and I are studying diligently, what are you doing here?” he complained, grinning when the other two jumped.

“We’re also studying!” Jeonghan quickly defended himself, but Junhui could tell by the sheepish expression on his best friend’s face that this was a blatant lie.

“As if.” He walked around the sofa to one of the armchairs where he flopped down facing Jeonghan and Jisoo. “So, Jeonghannie-hyung~” he started in his sweetest voice.

“What do you want?”

“Since you went to school here in Korea all your life already…”

“Yes?” the older one asked carefully.

“Why don’t you give me a quick historical overview about the Joseon dynasty?” Junhui requested cheerfully.

“You have a phone, Junhui, you can just look up the information you need there.”

“Yes, or I could ask my wonderful and very Korean roommate about what he remembers,” he argued, grinning when he could immediately see dismay pass over Jeonghan’s face—history had not been his favorite subject back in school. “Come on, hyung, hearing a personalized version of history with funny annotations will certainly be easier to remember than reading random stuff that might not even relate to what I need to know~”

Jeonghan sighed but then locked his phone and leaned back on the sofa. “Why do you need to know this anyway?”

“Because our semester play takes place in 15^th century Korea, so I thought it might be helpful if I knew a bit more about that time if I want to audition for one of the lead roles which, by the way, I do plan to do.”

“And you think my selective memory will be the best way to find out more about 15^th century Korea?”

“Yup,” Junhui agreed and pulled his legs up to sit more comfortably. His smile deepened when Jeonghan sighed in resignation and then told him what he remembered. At some point, Jisoo excused himself to join Minghao in the kitchen in order to complete his homework as well while Jeonghan and Junhui stayed in the living room for a history crash course.

 

One week later, Junhui went to the audition for their play. He had still needed to do more extensive research after Jeonghan’s crash course about the Joseon dynasty. Of course he knew that he wouldn’t have to have a profound knowledge about that time, but he thought that if he were to try out for a prince during that dynasty, he had to know at least a little about who was important, what kind of customs were normal, and what had generally been going on within Korea and with Korea’s neighbors.

“Junhui-hyung,” a familiar voice called out, but the Chinese student still jumped and nearly let his script fall. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” the same voice apologized right away, but Junhui still needed a moment longer to re-collect himself and make sure that he indeed had a good grip on the papers in his hand before he turned around.

“Hey Mingyu,” he greeted the other boy who was a bit taller than him.

“Hi,” Mingyu replied with a sheepish smile, then he pointed at the script that Junhui was holding. “What role are you trying out for?”

“The second-born prince.”

“The second-born prince? But you’re only a second year, aren’t you? Don’t the upper years usually get the lead roles?” Mingyu asked with wide eyes, but Junhui shrugged.

“I like to shoot for the stars,” he said, using an idiom he had picked up from his drama teacher recently. “Plus, I’m handsome enough, don’t you think?” he asked, throwing his imaginary long hair over his shoulder, nearly knocking over a floor lamp that was standing behind him. He quickly grabbed the long metal rod, holding it tightly until the lamp was steady again before he turned back to Mingyu who had started laughing.

“And I thought I was the clumsy one!”

“Just you wait, your time will come.” Junhui glared at the other for a moment with hurt pride, then he nodded towards the script. “What role are you trying out for?”

“Just one of the villagers, actually. There’s a street vendor that I wanted to go for.”

“The fruit one?”

“Yup.”

“You know the fate of fruit sellers, don’t you?”

Mingyu shrugged in response. “At least I can blame it on someone else if the fruit pyramids collapse.”

“Touché,” Junhui agreed with a grin. “Do you think the director will mind if I add a bit of glitter to the prince? He does seem a bit exotic to me, after all.”

Mingyu laughed again at that. “I think the director indeed might be against that.”

“Seems like I’ll have some convincing to do then.”

“Hey guys, villagers casting begins now!” someone called out from the direction of the stage and Mingyu’s nervousness immediately seemed to spring to a peak 100%.

“That’s you, go on,” Junhui encouraged him and squeezed the younger student’s shoulder.

“But what if one of the higher semesters also tries out for this role? What if they don’t take me? I don’t want to get a mere backstage role! But maybe one of the completely silent roles will be better?”

Junhui firmly shook his head to interrupt the other’s worries. “No, you’ll do great out there, I’m certain about that!” he replied and gently pushed Mingyu towards the stage. “Fighting!”

“You too, hyung!”

“Don’t you dare and not come back!” Junhui protested immediately, wanting to have Mingyu by his side for emotional support, but the freshman didn’t respond. With a pout, Junhui turned back to the passage of the script that he already knew by heart, but he was still too nervous to not go over the same section again.

Sadly, it seemed like those who had already completed their audition were not allowed to go backstage again and instead, Junhui listened as the first people were told to simply sit in the audience with the jury. No pressure at all for the upcoming candidates!

Junhui watched as the number of people around him decreased with every new role that was called up front and in the end, there were only him and about ten others, mostly seniors, left with three roles still waiting to be casted: the first-born prince, his to-be wife, and the second-born prince that Junhui was waiting for.

And then it was time for the candidates for the younger prince to go on stage. Since he was the youngest one of the candidates, Junhui had to go first. He clearly remembered the way the spotlight felt, remembered how much his hands had been shaking, remembered seeing the jury—three seniors and their two drama teachers—sitting in the audience field, all of them equipped with a small light that shone perfectly onto their clipboards where they were taking notes, remembered seeing some of the other students sitting on the red auditorium seats. And then somehow he was off stage and sitting next to Mingyu who had called him over, but he had absolutely no idea whether he had performed well or really badly. He remembered having stuttered, having nearly gotten a full blackout, but then he had continued, yet he couldn’t even say at which passage he had made his mistake or how he had managed to re-collect himself or what gestures he had made.

He watched the remaining candidates with a sinking heart. Except from one of the guys who experienced a full blackout right after the first line, all of them did a lot better than Junhui figured he had done. Then again, how could they not have performed better with all the extra knowledge they had?

“Do we have any surprise candidates?” their male teacher called out eventually when all roles had been casted, and when nothing happened for a couple seconds, he nodded to himself. “Great, then the casting is over. Results will be out by tomorrow morning, please look forward to it!”

“Good job, everyone,” one of the seniors from the jury added and everyone else immediately repeated those words, clapping for each other.

“Come on, let’s go home, hyung,” Mingyu said and nudged Junhui who sat right at the aisle.

“I don’t want to move,” Junhui argued and let himself sink further into the seat.

“Why not?”

“If I don’t move, then reality can’t catch up with me.”

“Oh come on, you did great! At least you didn’t stumble and nearly fall on stage like I did. Let’s go!” Mingyu tried to cheer him up, then he stood up and simply pulled on Junhui’s arm until the older student gave in and rose to his feet as well. They went to the backstage area to get their bags and jackets and once he was prepared to leave, Junhui took his phone out of the pocket of his jacket and quickly unlocked it. Jeonghan had asked how the casting was going nearly half an hour earlier, but Junhui ignored it for the sake of answering him in person later. Instead, he went to the WeChat app where he had also gotten a new message, this one from Minghao and only dating back ten minutes.

Hey, Jeonghan-gē and I are going grocery shopping, is there anything you want? he asked in Mandarin and Junhui smiled, seizing the opportunity the other had given him.

I want you, he texted back right away, his mood immediately lifting at his comeback. Turning serious again, he pondered on what he could really ask for that the other two could get from the grocery store.

Why did I even ask… I’ll never make that mistake again… came the answer back faster than Junhui had expected, making him smile.

And still you were waiting for me to respond, he sent back with a heart-eyed emoji, finishing his message by requesting snacks, telling Minghao that Jeonghan would know what to get.

“Are you texting with a special someone?” Mingyu suddenly asked, making Junhui glance up quickly in surprise, then he locked his phone and put it back into his pocket.

“No, why?”

“Because you had that smile on your lips that very much says that you were texting with a special someone. The kind of smile that the others tease me about when I text Wonwoo-hyung.”

Junhui blushed when he heard those words and turned to the front again. “Nope, I wasn’t texting with a special someone,” he denied again, though maybe it was a lie. Minghao was indeed especially cute, after all!

 

The next day, Mingyu and Wonwoo were waiting near the front door of their university when Junhui arrived with Minghao. Jeonghan and Jisoo didn’t have classes until later, a privilege that Junhui was very envious about.

“Hyung!” Mingyu called out just as Junhui laid his eyes on the other two, and a moment later, Mingyu skipped over to them and grabbed Junhui’s wrist, pulling him forward. “Come on, come on, we have to find out the results of the casting!”

Junhui groaned, having hoped to somehow be able to ignore that list for the remainder of the day. What use was there in taking a closer look at the list if he probably hadn’t been chosen for his desired role anyway? The re-casting for the remaining roles would be held the day afterwards, so he still had enough time to check out the results some other time. Or so he had thought…

“Mingyu, can’t I look at them later? Or, like, not at all?”

“No, we have to check them out now. Come on, I even waited a full ten minutes for you to arrive!” Mingyu pulled him further relentlessly and Junhui could feel his unwillingness rise with each step he took. He glanced over his shoulder where Minghao and Wonwoo were trailing after them, the latter flashing him an apologetic smile combined with a shrug.

“I’ve had to deal with him since the end of the casting yesterday,” Wonwoo reasoned and Junhui realized that he probably wasn’t as sorry as the Chinese student had thought at first.

“Where is the list again? It’s right in front of the auditorium, isn’t it?” Mingyu asked and Junhui let out a soft sigh, finally making sure to catch up with the younger boy and walk next to him.

“Yes, it is,” he confirmed.

The walk felt longer than normal and Junhui was certain that everyone was looking into their direction—if they did, it wouldn’t surprise him with how Mingyu was gushing about finding out how they had done during the casting.

When they neared the auditorium, Junhui could immediately spot two small crowds that had formed on either side of the doors to the audience room, making him gulp and wish that Mingyu would slow down a bit. He honestly wasn’t ready to see the results already! Why hadn’t he stayed in bed longer again? Ah right, Minghao had told him that since their classes started at the same time, they might as well leave at the same time, and he couldn’t risk Minghao running late, after all…

It took them a bit until they finally managed to get to the front of the small crowd and actually see the paper that announced the results. Since the roles were listed in the same order in which they had been casted the day before, Junhui immediately looked at the bottom of the page—and felt his heart skip a beat. He blinked once. Twice.

“Hyung, we both got in!” Mingyu suddenly exclaimed and hugged him just as the realization sank in that that was indeed his name next to the second-born prince.

“Oh my god,” Junhui whispered and then suddenly squealed, hugging his friend tightly. “Oh my god, I made it! We both made it!” he added when he remembered that Mingyu had said ‘we’, and his joy immediately doubled at the thought that both of them had gotten their dream roles. Free laughter bubbled out of him and he couldn’t contain his happiness, squeezing Mingyu even tighter, feeling the older’s embrace also tighten until he couldn’t breathe anymore and had to let go, still laughing. “We did it. Mingyu, we did it!”

“I have to tell Wonwoo!” Mingyu announced and a heartbeat later, Junhui found himself getting dragged away from the crowd and back to Wonwoo and Minghao. As soon as he was let go and Mingyu hugged his boyfriend, Junhui simply went over to Minghao to hug him tightly as well.

“I did it! We both did! We got accepted!” he rambled on, not caring about whether Minghao understood him or not, not caring about the laughter that spilled past his lips once again. He did care about Minghao hugging him back, though, and he felt like he was floating with how happy he was.

“I have to tell Jeonghan!” he exclaimed suddenly and leaned back, but before he could text his best friend, Wonwoo offered a hug that Junhui gladly accepted, hugging his close friend back. Afterwards, he wrapped one arm around Minghao’s shoulders, quickly texting Jeonghan with his free hand that he and Mingyu had gotten the roles they had auditioned for while they slowly walked to their first classes.

 

Starting the following week, they had drama practice every day after classes. Not everyone always had to be there, though it was suggested that everyone should attend anyway to help with props when they didn’t have to act, but since Junhui was one of the main characters, he had to be there every day plus Saturdays for extra practice: having merely ten weeks to organize a full play meant that every bit of free time had to be used for it. The time that Junhui didn’t spend practicing for the play, at dance practice, or in class, he spent at home either doing homework, sleeping, eating, or annoying his three roommates and flirting with Minghao (which technically also counted for ‘annoying his three roommates’). At some point, Minghao told him to stop because he was certain that Junhui flirted that way with everyone, but when Junhui told him that this wasn’t the case and that he usually saved his flirting for the younger boy, he took the wind out of Minghao’s sails.

The weekend after their first week of drama practice, it was Mingyu’s 20^th birthday. There were plans for a big party including Mingyu’s high school friends and some freshmen from the performance faculty. Jeonghan and Junhui were also both invited and Mingyu had told them that Jisoo and Minghao were also welcome. To Junhui’s absolute delight, both Jisoo and Minghao agreed to tag along and aside from them, Wonwoo would of course also be at the party.

Mingyu had decided to celebrate at his parents’ home in Anyang since it was only a twenty-minute-drive from their university (twice that long when taking the bus) and to Junhui’s surprise, Mingyu’s parents were fine with that even though it was clear that there’d be alcohol involved. The young adults would nevertheless have the house to themselves until the next morning because Mingyu’s parents had booked a hotel room and his younger sister had left for a sleepover.

Junhui and Jeonghan had only been at Mingyu’s place once before, so they relied on Naver Maps and the description Mingyu had sent them to find the correct house, though it turned out to be much easier than the two friends had dared to hope: they just had to look for the party.

Music was already playing just loud enough that they could hear it through the front door when Junhui rang the doorbell, and there were some balloons that had been tied to the fence and some trees. It didn’t take long for the door to be pulled open by a very enthusiastic Mingyu who beamed at them as soon as he laid eyes on them. “Come in, come in!”

“Happy birthday,” Junhui called out while Jeonghan laughed at their greeting and handed over the puppy-formed chocolate they had gotten for Mingyu and that they knew would probably never be eaten because it would be labeled ‘too adorable to destroy’.

Mingyu accepted the present and inspected it while the other four entered, then he excitedly hugged Jeonghan who stood closest to him. “This is so cute! Thank you, guys!”

“You’re welcome,” Jeonghan replied and Mingyu nodded down the hallway.

“You can go and join the others, I’ll just bring this cutie to my room first, okay?” He didn’t even wait for a response as he walked past them and dashed up the stairs.

The four guests walked to the living room where the ones who had arrived before them had already gotten comfortable on chairs, armchairs, and the sofa that had all been pushed into one corner of the room, leaving the main part free as a dance floor. The sliding doors to the backyard were open, allowing fresh spring air to come in, still making the air a bit chilly, but Junhui knew that by the end of the night, they’d all be grateful for the open doors.

To Junhui’s surprise, he, Jeonghan, Jisoo, and Minghao were not the first people to arrive: aside from Wonwoo, some others whom Junhui didn’t know had already arrived. He bowed lightly towards the other guests who immediately returned the gesture. Only knowing Wonwoo, all four newcomers found themselves getting comfortable on the floor due to the lack of other spare seats near their common friend.

It took another while until the party really got started. Mingyu had gotten a lot of alcohol for the party and Junhui even found a brand he hadn’t tried before. Whenever he and Jeonghan got something to drink, they also let Jisoo and Minghao try whatever they wanted to since neither of them wanted to drink much.

It didn’t take long until the music was turned up loud and all four boys found themselves on the dance floor. While they were moving to the beat, Junhui’s eyes went to Minghao over and over again. Not only was Minghao a good dancer who looked extremely good in a plain, black, kind of loose-fitting T-shirt and black skinny jeans, but he was also a super adorable and, in the beginning, slightly awkward dancer who obviously hadn’t gone to a lot of parties, if any at all, back in China. Junhui found it incredibly cute to watch Minghao copy him and Jeonghan until he too probably figured out that ‘club dancing’ was far easier than actual dancing. The longer the night lasted, the closer did Jun find himself to Jeonghan and Minghao. Not only was the dance floor getting more and more crowded, naturally also pushing him closer to his friends, but his drunk mind liked skinship even more than his sober mind did.

With each drink he either got himself or from Jeonghan, his mind seemed to become both more hazy and more aware. As long as Jeonghan, Jisoo, and Minghao were right with him, everyone else didn’t matter so much. He recognized quite a few people from university and talked to them, Wonwoo and Mingyu showed up somewhere nearby every so often, chatting them up occasionally as well.

But the most important part was Minghao. Minghao was there, Minghao looked good, Minghao could do incredibly good body rolls that left Junhui wondering if he could just pull the boy closer and closer, feel their bodies move together, move along to the rhythm… But before he could do anything, he was always pulled out of his thoughts.

The clock read 2:29AM by the time that the four of them found themselves in the kitchen, all of them needing a break from dancing. Junhui kind of wanted to go outside, but the people smoking there stopped him from doing so—smoking was probably THE MOST disgusting thing that had ever been invented! That was at least his apparently rather unpopular opinion. They all had gotten a glass of water, but Junhui was already on his second refill, cherishing the sweet coolness.

“I can’t believe they still haven’t played ABBA’s Dancing Queen for Mingyu! I took the time to wish for it and now they won’t even play it!” Jeonghan complained, making Junhui laugh.

“Mingyu will hate you when they do play it.”

“That’s worth it!” They both knew how much Mingyu despised ABBA, so Junhui and Jeonghan naturally loved to make jokes about it and play or sing ABBA at any given chance.  “Anyway, I gotta use the bathroom, anyone coming with me?” Jeonghan asked and stood up.

Junhui was quick to follow his example and lock his arm with his best friend’s. When the other two shook their heads in response, Jeonghan took the lead on their way to the bathroom. They had to wait a bit until the room was free, then they simply went into it together. After having gotten ready together countless times and having used the bathroom together at parties probably just as often, their inhibition threshold had become very low.

They hadn’t gotten too far on their way back to the kitchen yet when Junhui heard an all too familiar tone from an unfamiliar voice. “Hey y~!” A bulky, young man whom Junhui thought he’d already seen around university stepped into their way, his eyes on Jeonghan who brushed his hair out of his face with his free hand and shot the other an irritated look.

“What?”

“Come with me.” The other student reached a hand out for Jeonghan who took a step back in return.

“I don’t want to.”

“We could have a lot of fun tonight.”

“Thanks, I’m fine spending tonight with my friends.”

“But they can’t give you what I can.” The bulky student took a step closer to Jeonghan and Junhui saw panic flash over his best friend’s features as he took another step back. Just one small step more and they’d stand with their backs against the wall.

“I’m fine, I don’t want it anyway.”

“Oh, I’m pretty sure you do.” The guy reached out for Jeonghan again and Junhui stepped closer to his best friend who spun around and a moment later, their lips met and somehow, Jeonghan’s hand was in Junhui’s hair. Junhui immediately played along and kissed Jeonghan back, wrapped his arms around him and pulled him closer. After their third party, they had talked about this exact kind of situation and had come to the conclusion, that kissing was fine for them if a creep just wouldn’t stop pestering them—just like in that situation.

The other guy mumbled something incomprehensible and Junhui opened his eyes a little to see him turn away. He closed his eyes again and waited for a few more seconds before he broke the kiss, glancing into the direction where the other guy’s broad shoulders just disappeared into the living room.

A sigh that Junhui rather saw than heard and another tightened hug brought his attention back to Jeonghan. “You’re the bestest of best friends, Junhui!” the slightly older student declared.

“I know.”

“No need to get cocky, mister.”

Junhui laughed and dropped his arms. “You really need a boyfriend, Yoon Jeonghan! Or do you enjoy kissing me too much?”

Jeonghan sent him a playful glare. “I do need a boyfriend. Do you think Jisoo would agree?”

“Are you just listing the people now who are closest to you aside from me?”

Another friendly glare followed before Jeonghan turned back towards the kitchen, frowning suddenly. “I could bet that we were sitting near the door…”

“What’s wrong?” Junhui asked and also inspected the room closer, but then his mind caught up with what Jeonghan was referring to a second before the other said it out loud.

“We should be able to see Jisoo and Minghao. Unless they moved…”

Junhui also frowned for a moment, but then he shrugged. “They probably got thirsty,” he reasoned and grabbed Jeonghan’s hand, pulling him towards the kitchen.

Once inside that room, Junhui was troubled to find that there was no trace of Jisoo or Minghao, and his displeasure turned into worry when he also couldn’t find them in the hallway or on his way to the living room. The living room itself was very dark, so Jeonghan and Junhui split ways, agreeing to meet by the door to the garden.

The crowd that had collected on the makeshift dance floor gave Junhui a slight headache and he suddenly felt like there were too many people around. How was he supposed to find their two friends in this mass? He stayed near the wall as he rounded the living room, trying to spot that familiar, slightly messy mop of blond head or Jisoo’s much neater hair somewhere. Yet, what felt like an eternity later, he arrived at the sliding doors without success. Where were Jisoo and Minghao? Where had they gone? Had Junhui and Jeonghan taken too long in the bathroom and the other two had wandered off on their own? Why weren’t they in one of the other rooms then? Why had they left to begin with? Were they on the dance floor and Junhui just hadn’t noticed them?

He glanced over the crowd again, but all he could see were masses of people and Jeonghan approaching him with a troubled expression: no Jisoo, no Minghao. Junhui retrieved his phone from the back pocket of his pants, but even when he checked his message apps just to be sure, he hadn’t received any new texts from the two missing students. When he looked up, Jeonghan also checked his phone and suddenly came to a stand, frowning at the screen before he began to type. Junhui pushed his way through to his best friend and waited impatiently until Jeonghan finally looked up. “Jisoo texted me. He said that Minghao wasn’t feeling too well and that they decided to take a taxi back to the apartment,” he explained while leaning close enough to nearly yell the words into Junhui’s ear in order to make himself understood.

“But he seemed to be perfectly fine earlier…” Junhui tried to recall any signs of Minghao feeling unwell, but even after a few seconds, he couldn’t come up with anything.

“Maybe the party just wasn’t his thing? Don’t forget that you also didn’t like going to parties at first.”

The Chinese student nodded, remembering that this kind of environment had been kind of stressful to him in the beginning because it had made conversing so much more difficult for him. “But why didn’t they tell us?”

Jeonghan shrugged and looked back at his phone where Junhui saw that another message from Jisoo had come in. Shortly after, Jeonghan turned the phone around for Junhui to read that Jisoo claimed he and Minghao were fine and that the other two should keep on enjoying the night. When he looked up again, he couldn’t keep the worry off his face. What if something happened to the other two? What if they couldn’t deal with something on their way back? And most importantly: why hadn’t they told them about their departure?

The song changed and Jeonghan perked up. “Come on, let’s make the best out of tonight anyway! We go out way too little!” He grabbed Junhui’s hand and pulled him back to the dance floor without allowing any protest.

 

Junhui woke up the next day to a bright room, though not as bright as it could have been: the sun had already risen far enough to not shine directly into the room anymore. His head was throbbing lightly, though he wasn’t sure whether to blame the brightness, dehydration, alcohol from the night before, or a combination of all three.

He slowly sat up and rubbed over his eyes, then he stared at the wall in front of him blankly, wishing his bladder would share his opinion on ‘not getting up just yet.’ A couple of seconds passed during which he had to convince himself that he really should get up, then he slowly crawled to the edge of the bed and climbed down the stairs. In the bed below his, Jeonghan was still sleeping peacefully, a comforter partly wrapped around him and partly hanging over the edge. Junhui quietly moved closer and put the light blanket back into place so that it was covering Jeonghan better, then he turned towards the door. Spotting his phone, he remembered that it had died the night before, so he plugged it into the charger and yawned as he left his room. When the two of them had returned that morning, they had found the other room occupied by Jisoo and Minghao, the latter of the two also having taken his pillow and his blanket to that room, so Jeonghan had simply taken over Minghao’s bed in return. Being sober enough to think about this, Junhui felt his throat tighten and stomach twist once again and he felt like Jisoo’s message about Minghao simply not feeling well that past night had been a blatant lie. To him, it seemed a lot more like Minghao or Jisoo had suddenly become super upset with him or Jeonghan. So there was just one question remaining: Why?

He continued to think about that question, but it was only when he nearly grabbed Jeonghan’s toothbrush instead of his own (why had he put both of them into his cup?) that a thought crossed his mind: When that creep had pestered Jeonghan, the kitchen had been in perfect view which, in return, meant that they must have been in perfect view from the kitchen. Which also meant that there was a very high chance that Jisoo and Minghao had seen Junhui and Jeonghan kiss. And taking into account how annoyed Minghao had been with his flirting until he had found out that Junhui didn’t just constantly flirt with anyone… 

The sophomore student stared at his reflection in the mirror above the sink, met by his own shocked expression as the realization dawned upon him what exactly had probably gone wrong the night before.

He continued to think about this situation while he finished getting ready, but the longer he busied himself with that, the more plausible did this thought seem.

Junhui eventually left the bathroom and followed his intuition towards the kitchen where he indeed found Jisoo and Minghao bent over notes for university, Jisoo scribbling something down while Minghao was intensely staring down his book. If gazes could indeed burn things, the book would have long since crumbled to ashes.

Minghao was also the first to glance at him and he promptly got up, pushing the chair back with a loud noise that made Junhui jump a little and Jisoo raise his gaze.

“Minghao, wait. I think we have to talk.”

“There’s nothing I want to discuss with you,” Minghao hissed in Mandarin and gathered his books while Junhui took a step further into the room.

“Maybe you don’t want to discuss this with me, but I think it’s necessary that I explain myself,” Junhui disagreed in Korean.

“I too am very curious about your explanation,” Jisoo remarked, bitterness dripping from his voice. Junhui glanced at the other, a bit surprised about the tone from the usually gentle American exchange student.

“So at least hear me out first, okay, Minghao?” Junhui tried again and raised his hands lightly in defense when Minghao shot him another death glare. “If you don’t like what I will tell you, you’re free to leave, of course.” He was tempted to add ‘It’s not what it seems’, but he had a feeling that Minghao would kill him if he said those words out loud.

“Minghao,” Jisoo said softly and the younger Chinese student glanced over at him, then he slowly sat down again, mistrust still very visible on his face and tension palpable in the air.

Junhui sighed softly, feeling the first tug of hunger in his stomach, but he knew he’d have to have this conversation first before he could think about breakfast—or lunch, probably, depending on what time it was. Since Jisoo and Minghao sat facing each other, Junhui pulled the chair that had been standing next to Minghao’s to the head of the table and sat down, wondering how exactly he should start until Jisoo took that decision from him.

“So, since we don’t seem to be clear about this, would you mind telling us again about your relationship to Jeonghan?” The icy tone was back to his voice and Junhui felt a shiver run through his body at the knowledge that it was directed towards him and probably also well-deserved.

“He’s my best friend.”

“It didn’t quite look that way last night.”

Junhui looked down at the table surface when his assumption about the reason for Minghao’s and Jisoo’s sudden disappearance during the party was confirmed. “I know. That’s why I said that I have some explaining to do.” He looked up again, first at Jisoo who responded to his gaze with mistrust, then at Minghao who didn’t bother to disguise his anger. “Jeonghan is my best friend, that’s why I didn’t resist when he kissed me last night. You see, because of his looks, Jeonghan has always had a problem with people making advances on him. Last night wasn’t an exception. There was this guy who came up to us—or rather: Jeonghan—and he kept on insisting for Jeonghan to go with him for a ‘fun night’ and when talking didn’t seem to help, Jeonghan kissed me. We talked about this during my first semester here in Korea and agreed that we were both fine with playing pretend in order to get out of situations like the one last night.”

“Play what?” Minghao interrupted him, his voice filled with a bit less anger than before.

“Play pretend that Jeonghan and I are a couple. We just fake it until the person who annoys us like the guy last night leaves. We’re not really a couple, he’s just my best friend,” Junhui explained with easier vocabulary and watched as Minghao’s anger slowly faded into confusion.

“But why would you do that?” Jisoo argued and Junhui looked back at him. “I mean, there are so many other ways to convince someone that Jeonghan doesn’t want to go with them.”

A sad smile appeared on Junhui’s lips. “Because some people don’t take ‘no’ for an answer. The kiss, though, has always worked so far.”

“How often is ‘always’?”

“Last night was the third time.”

Jisoo nodded slowly, though he still didn’t seem to be satisfied with the answer he had gotten.

“But… You don’t just kiss your best friend. No.” Minghao shook his head, still looking irritated and upset, but when Junhui looked at him again, the younger student had his eyes diverted towards his books on the table.

“Maybe, but like I said: not everyone takes ‘no’ as an answer, especially not with someone as feminine-looking as Jeonghan-hyung. Also, neither of us is in a relationship and we’ve both had our first kisses with someone else who, at that point, mattered to us, so why not? And since both of us are okay with it…” He shrugged his shoulders, not knowing what else he could add to explain himself.

“So you won’t do it when you… love someone and… date them?” Minghao asked and Junhui had a feeling that ‘date them’ was the expression he had wanted to use right away but had then used a filler to have time to remember the correct word.

“Of course I wouldn’t, just how lowly do you think of me?”

“It’s just…” Minghao started in Korean but then hesitated for a moment before he gave up and raised his gaze to meet Junhui’s again, continuing in Mandarin, “since you’re flirting with supposedly only me despite all your pick-up lines sounding very fluent and then out of nowhere I see you kissing the guy who you claim is only your best friend…”

Junhui leaned back in frustration, biting back the first harsh thought that came to his mind. No, he wouldn’t risk a too big fight with the other student! “Minghao, would you please stop turning over each and every single word I say?”

“Then how about you start matching your words with your actions?”

Junhui’s eyes narrowed at Minghao’s hostile tone. Despite his former certainty that he wouldn’t snap at Minghao, the remaining alcohol in his blood, hunger, and tiredness got the better of him. “Okay, you know what? Whatever. If you don’t want to believe me, that’s your problem.” He stood up and pushed the chair back with enough force that it nearly fell, then he swiftly turned to the door and left the kitchen.

Back in his bedroom, he realized that he had made a potential mistaken: he should have totally gotten some coffee while he had been in the kitchen. With a sigh of frustration, Junhui ignored his tiredness and went over to his desk. How could there be so much stuff on his desk if he never used it? He pushed the papers together, glaring at two sheets that had the audacity to fall down, but he decided to just leave them there while he got his homework from his bag. Junhui opened his drama history book to start working on the exercise there, but the two papers seemed like a white blotch in his vision, annoying him so much that he ended up picking them up just a few seconds later.

He returned his focus to his drama history book and started to read the text. Damn it, he was hungry. He really should have gotten himself breakfast and coffee while he had been in the kitchen! But there was no way that he’d go back now. What was he even reading?

Junhui went back to the top of the page to re-read the paragraph, only realizing this time that it was about Greek theater. Great, like he didn’t already know a lot about that! What he did not know, though, was how he should continue with Minghao. They were sharing a room, so how could they be fighting? They really had to make up again! But he definitely wouldn’t make the first move, this time it was Minghao’s turn to approach him!

Arrgh! He really had to read this text!

In the bed next to him, Jeonghan stirred lightly and then rolled around. Junhui glanced over at the slightly older student, but just found him checking his phone, so he went back to his homework. “Morning.”

“Morning,” Jeonghan mumbled, his voice still laced with sleep. “Jun?”

“M-hm?”

“What are you doing here?”

Junhui looked back at his best friend in irritation and annoyance that his best friend wouldn’t even let him do his homework in peace. “Except from the fact that this is actually my room, so I’m allowed to be here, last night may have brought up a teeeeeny tiny disagreement with Jisoo and Minghao.”

“What?” Junhui turned around and was ready to answer, but Jeonghan beat him to it while he sat up, “Anyway, that’s not even what I meant. Junhui, it’s 11:30. Drama practice started half an hour ago.”

“What? !” He jumped off the chair, hitting his leg on the desk, but he couldn’t have cared less in that moment. He hurried to his wardrobe and pulled out the pair of jeans that lay on top, paying no mind to Jeonghan who left the room. He hastily grabbed his wallet and keys, fumbling longer than usually to get them into his pockets while he left his room and slipped on his shoes. He was about to leave when he was stopped once more.

“Junhui, one second.” The Chinese boy turned around to find a hand with two cereal bars and a banana held out for him. “There, I can’t let you leave without breakfast.”

“Thanks.” Junhui flashed a brief smile at his best friend as he took the snacks from Jeonghan before he left their apartment.

 

When Junhui returned to the apartment that night, he was dragging his feet. He was tired, demotivated, especially after having received a lecture from his drama teach about how he couldn’t come too late to practice when he played one of the lead characters and that he better start taking his responsibilities seriously, wished he could have listened to music on the way home (if only he hadn’t left his charging phone in his room that morning!) he still had to do his homework, and he was dreading facing Minghao. Was he still upset with him about the night before? Had Jeonghan talked to him and Jisoo, maybe explaining everything better?

Arriving in front of the apartment door, he stared at the white, wooden object. Was it very unlikely for the door to suddenly come off its hinges and fall, killing him in the process? He frowned at the door. No, he didn’t want to die. But he did kind of want to un-exist himself until everything had gotten sorted out and he could just go to sleep peacefully.

Letting out a heavy breath, Junhui pushed past his unwillingness, finally retrieved the keys from the front pocket of his pants and opened the door. “I’m back,” he called out and kicked his shoes off his feet while simultaneously closing the door. The smell of food welcomed him, an onion-chili spiciness and something with meat, that was all he could point out for sure. His stomach instantly grumbled at the thought of food after a long day with nothing to eat but the snacks that Jeonghan had handed him that morning.

“Welcome back,” Jeonghan replied immediately and it sounded like he pushed a chair back. A bit later, he came through the kitchen door just as Junhui arrived at the door to his and Minghao’s room. “How was practice?”

“Fine. The director was pretty pissed at me, though. Thanks for sending me off this morning.” Junhui shrugged his shoulders. He didn’t have the energy to complain about the practice and the lecture just then, maybe he’d do that later.

“I can imagine. We started to eat not too long ago because we didn’t know when you’d come home, so hurry, then you can still eat with us, okay?” Junhui flashed his best friend a miserable look, trying to convey that ‘with us’ was one of the things he absolutely dreaded in that moment, but either Jeonghan didn’t understand it or he simply ignored it as he turned around and went back into the kitchen. “Hurry~”

Junhui slumped his shoulders in defeat and went into his room to change into sweatpants first. On the way back out of his room, he unplugged his phone from the charger and turned the device on while he walked into the kitchen, then he slipped the phone into the pocket of his pants for the time being.

In the kitchen, he sat down on the free chair next to Jeonghan. A small smile tugged on his lips when he found a portion of Ma Po Tofu in one bowl and rice in a smaller bowl in front of him. Maybe this one wasn’t his favorite Chinese dish, but it was nevertheless a piece of his home country and in that moment, that fact alone was worth a lot.

While they had dinner, it was mainly Jisoo and Jeonghan talking, but whenever Junhui looked up from his food, it was obvious that whatever had happened that day, the mood was a lot better than it had been that morning.

After dinner, Junhui excused himself back into his room to try working on his homework a bit more before he’d go to sleep.

He hadn’t gotten far yet when a soft knock startled him and he looked up from his textbook, simultaneously turning around with his spinning chair. To his surprise, not Jeonghan but Minghao stood in the doorway.

“Hey, I… I figured we have to talk again. About last night. About this morning,” Minghao explained in Mandarin while keeping his eyes to the floor, shifting his weight to one foot.

Junhui leaned back in his chair. On the one hand, he didn’t exactly feel like having a serious talk, but on the other hand, he wanted to get this out of the way. “Go ahead.”

Minghao fully entered the room and closed the door behind himself, but he didn’t move any further into the room, keeping his eyes diverted to the ground. “I apologize for how I treated you this morning. Jeonghan talked a bit more to us about everything. He told us a lot about the times when you hadn’t been there, how people would always single him out, how a ‘no’ however fierce hadn’t always been taken as a ‘no’. And he told us about how much it means to him that you agreed to this… unconventional way of solving the problem and how much the situation improved. So… I still don’t like it, but I understand now why you did it.”

Junhui nodded lightly and sat a bit straighter. “Thank you. If it helps: I have a feeling that we won’t do that many more times. If we do it again at all, that is…”

“No?” Minghao asked and finally looked up in surprise.

“Nope~ I did tell you that you’re the only one whom I constantly flirt with, it would be unfair if I kept the flirting to you but the kissing to my best friend, wouldn’t it?” Junhui winked at Minghao whose cheeks immediately turned red.

He made that annoyed sigh combined with shaking his head that was so typically Minghao and that made Junhui laugh a bit and lean back. “As much as I enjoy your company now that we’ve settled this, I’m afraid I do have to return to my homework so that I can spend tomorrow annoying Jeonghan.”

Minghao nodded and flashed Junhui a small smile, then he left the room without fully closing the door. Junhui smiled to himself and turned back to his homework that suddenly seemed less difficult to concentrate on.

 

They ended up going to bed late that night because once Junhui had finished, they played a boardgame and that one ended up lasting well into the night.

The light in Junhui and Minghao’s room hadn’t been turned off for long yet by the time that Minghao spoke up. “Junhui-gē?“

“Yes?” Junhui answered in Mandarin.

“I know this is an awkward question, but… you know… Umm… Did you, well, feel anything when you kissed Jeonghan?”

Junhui had to bite his lip to prevent himself from laughing at that question. He to his side so he faced the room and pulled his blanket into place. “Minghao, Jeonghan is my best friend. I will admit that he’s a good kisser, but that’s it. I’ve never felt anything special when kissing him.”

“Okay, that’s good then…”

“This kiss seems to interest you a lot. It almost sounds like you would like me to kiss you, too~”

“In your dreams, Wen Junhui,” Minghao scoffed and moved in his bed, making Junhui chuckle.

“Alright, I’ll see you in my dreams then,” he purred and turned to lie on his back, smiling to himself as he wondered about what it would feel like to kiss Minghao for the umpteenth time. Did the boy have experience? Was he a good kisser? Was he shy there as well or more on the confident side..?

 

If someone were to ask him how to define ‘stress’ during the following two months, Junhui would answer with ‘my life’. And ‘relaxation’? That would definitely be ‘flirting with and teasing Minghao and listening to Jeonghan gush over Jisoo’s voice and his looks.' And his gentle nature. And his styling. And his manners… and basically all of Jisoo. When on earth had that even started? Junhui couldn’t have pin-pointed it, but he knew that it had been after Mingyu's birthday party; Jeonghan wouldn’t have kissed him if he had already had a crush on Jisoo during the party.

Playing one of the lead characters, Junhui began to wonder why he still paid rent to Jeonghan when he more or less lived in the auditorium and the rooms around it. He had no idea how he still managed to have nearly perfect attendance for Soonyoung’s dance classes, neither did he recall when his friends started to take turns waiting for him in front of their practice room with a cup of coffee that always had a cute cheer-up post-it note attached to it, all of those finding a new home on the desk in his bedroom.

Jeonghan and Soonyoung sat down together and organized a party for mid-June with their usual round of friends plus Jisoo and Minghao. Junhui only really knew that they didn’t have anything fancy planned for the combined birthday party of Soonyoung and himself, Junhui.

What frustrated him, though, was that somehow things didn’t progress with Minghao. Cute, wonderful, talented, y, but either dumb or stubborn Minghao. Could Junhui possibly flirt any more obvious? Because that Minghao was interested in him was clear by then, the question was only: Why was nothing happening? Was he reading all the signs wrong?

“Alright, let’s call it a day. You all did well!” Junhui couldn’t hide the grin that appeared on his lips at that announcement from their director and he clapped along with everyone else, calling out to the others that they had done a good job.

As fast as he could, he disappeared into the backstage area where Mingyu was already waiting for him, both of their bags in his hands. “Ready?”

“Ready!” Junhui agreed enthusiastically and took his own bag, slinging it over his shoulder. It was June 15^th, namely Soonyoung’s birthday and the day on which they would celebrate their birthdays with their friends. The party’s start had been announced for 8PM and Junhui was delighted when he checked his phone and realized that he and Mingyu would be almost on time: they had 17 minutes to get there, though it would take them a little over twenty minutes, depending on how soon they’d catch a bus.

“What do you think they prepared?” Mingyu asked with a side-glance towards Junhui who shrugged in response.

“Good food, good music, probably quite a bit of alcohol…”

Mingyu laughed at that. “So you also have no idea.”

“Precisely.”

“No creeps invited?”

Junhui rolled his eyes. During one of their breaks during rehearsals, he had told Mingyu about the ‘creep’-incident and Minghao’s reaction to it and ever since, Mingyu periodically asked him for updates with Minghao. Another reason why it got frustrating that nothing happened! “Not yet. Maybe I should hire someone, though?”

They kept on chatting all the way to the apartment where Junhui lived and the boy was surprised to find the noise level still very low when he unlocked the front door.

It didn’t take long for their small round to be complete (Junhui was ecstatic to find out that not only Chan and Wonwoo had also been called to join them, but Seungkwan and Hansol—a close friend of Jeonghan's as well as a future member of the singing faculty and Chan's best friend respectively—were also part of the party) and the buffet was declared open. Jeonghan, Jisoo, and Wonwoo had prepared a series of Korean dishes and Minghao had contributed Chinese snacks. The highlight, though, were the cake and the cupcakes that Jeonghan had clearly ordered (Junhui loved his best friend, but he kind of dared to doubt that the sweets were self-made. If Mingyu had been involved, there would have been a chance, but not really like this, especially not with how pretty they were) and that were perfectly fluffy and had so much frosting and whipped cream on them that Junhui couldn’t eat more than one piece each for the time being.

When they were all done eating, they put the empty dishes into the kitchen and, since Mingyu insisted on it, also cleaned them briefly, then they went back into the living room equipped with the alcohol Jeonghan and Soonyoung had bought as well as some juice, coke, and glasses. They got comfortable in a small circle and Junhui and Soonyoung poured drinks for everyone.

“Let’s play a game of Never Have I Ever to get started!” Seungkwan cheered as soon as he received his glass.

“But we always play Never Have I Ever,” Chan complained.

Seungkwan, though, didn’t see that as a legitimate argument. “Yes, but this is the first time that we play it with Minghao-hyung and Jisoo-hyung, so obviously it’s special again.”

Junhui glanced to his right to see that cute and polite smile on Minghao’s lips that clearly indicated that the younger student had no idea what the others were talking about, so he leaned closer to Minghao and briefly translated the question at hand into Mandarin, noticing with a smile the instant understanding that flashed over the younger’s face.

Chan huffed, but he couldn’t protest any further because Jeonghan already nodded eagerly. “Yes, let’s play Never Have I Ever! Who’s in favor?” Except from Chan, everyone raised their hands. “So it’s decided, who’s gonna start?”

“Always the one who asks,” Soonyoung replied with a grin, earning a playful glare from Jeonghan.

“Fine: Never have I ever been to America,” he said confidently, earning a strange look from Jisoo and a groan from Hansol.

“Oh, I’m not the only one?” Jisoo asked in surprise and looked over to the high school senior who shook his head.

“Nope, I’m from New York. What about you?”

“I’m from LA.”

“Cool.” Jisoo smiled at Hansol and then raised his glass in a toast before he took the first sip, copied by Hansol. Both of them grimaced at the alcohol’s bitter taste.

“I want to go next!” Chan exclaimed, his lack of motivation having made way for sudden enthusiasm, and he raised his hand as if he was in school, bouncing excitedly on the pillow that he had put on the floor to sit comfortably. “Never have I ever skipped a class.”

Jeonghan rolled his eyes. “The prof is super boring and I’ve had perfect attendance other than that,” he complained as he raised his glass. Junhui and Hansol toasted to him, then they all drank a little. Junhui, having chosen one of the sweeter alcoholic drinks, savored the taste that was vaguely similar to cherry and other than that mainly sweet, the underlying alcohol not very prominent.

“I got another good one,” Hansol continued, “Never have I ever attended a class in university.” Both Seungkwan and Chan high-fived him for sparing them from this round as well.

“That was the revenge for America,” Jeonghan noted as he toasted to the other university students who raised their glasses back at him.

“Of course,” Hansol replied cheerfully, making Junhui laugh.

They continued to go back and forth with various, crazier getting ‘Never Have I Evers.’ One by one, they eventually switched over to juice or coke. Feeling very hazy as well, Junhui decided to switch to some coke as well once his current drink was empty.

“Never have I ever…” Chan started for the umpteenth time but then trailed off. He was leaning against the side of the sofa, one arm on the armrest and his head propped up against it. “Kissed anyone!” he finished suddenly and pushed off the sofa. “Right, I’ve never kissed anyone!”

Jeonghan groaned. “You’re going to make me drunk.”

“Hyung, you already are drunk,” Chan pointed out, but Jeonghan waved him off.

“Shush, my baby wouldn’t want to make me drunk,” he argued in slightly slurred speech and toasted to the group again before he took another sip of his drink. Junhui copied him, followed by Jisoo, Mingyu, Wonwoo, Soonyoung, Hansol, and Seungkwan. To Junhui’s surprise, though, Minghao’s drink stayed down.

“What about you, hyung?” Seungkwan asked, his words heavy from alcohol, but Junhui just had to glance to his side to see that Minghao couldn’t understand the high school student’s slurred speech.

“He asked if you really haven’t kissed anyone before,” Chan translated into proper Korean. Along with Minghao and Jisoo, he was the most sober one in their small round.

“Ah, yes. Wait, no. I really never kissed anyone.”

“I heard Junhui is a pretty good kisser,” Mingyu commented and Junhui glanced over at him, biting back a grin. Maybe it wasn’t so bad, after all, that he had always told Mingyu about his situation with Minghao.

His eyes went further to his side, revealing a mildly blushing Minghao who looked torn about how he should react, but he didn’t really get a chance to do anything when Seungkwan suddenly his fist into the air, attracting Junhui’s attention with a loud “YES! Wen Junhui!” he began to cheer. Hansol and Soonyoung were the first to join him, followed by Mingyu while Chan laughed at the chain reaction that he had set into motion, leaning against Hansol to keep his balance.

Junhui glanced back at Minghao and then simply leaned closer, holding back laughter when he saw the moment of panic that flashed through Minghao’s eyes—before he leaned more to the side until he could whisper into the younger’s ear in their mother tongue, “I can show you sometime when we’re sober, if you like.” He leaned away to see the other blush furiously and look down before he gave the faintest of nods. Junhui’s heart beat faster and he felt warmth spread from his chest through his entire body, excitement bubbling through his blood like champagne. Minghao had agreed! He had agreed to kiss him!

“But Seungkwan-ah, how did I not know that you already had your first kiss?” Jeonghan complained from the other sofa.

“Do I owe you an explanation to everything?”

“Nope, but to a first kiss definitely! I’m your hyung, I have to know about things like that. Who knows, if you need dating advise, I could be the one who gives it to you, so I obviously have to know about things like that.”

“Said the guy who’s been single for basically all the time I’ve known him.”

Jeonghan raised a hand to his heart and faked a hurt expression. “Ouch, Seungkwan-ah, you’re not being nice!”

“You’ll live,” Hansol replied and shrugged.

“You’re all heartless,” Jeonghan whined and hugged Jisoo as if that could shelter him from any further teasing. “But really now, I’m curious about first kiss stories. I only know Junhui’s and mine, obviously, so won’t you spill some tea here?”

A moment of silence followed, then Junhui shrugged. “I could start off, if you guys like,” he said and leaned back. All eyes turned to him, so he told them about his first boyfriend back in Shenzhen, a relationship that he had kept a secret from his family back then because he had been too afraid to tell them that he was not as straight as they thought.

When he finished, the others also shared their first kiss stories that soon diverged into other funny anecdotes that at least Minghao and Jisoo hadn’t heard before, though many of those stories also turned out to be new for Junhui. They also got stories about Anshan and LA, some of them were familiar to Jeonghan and Junhui, others were completely new, and in Minghao’s case, they got to hear what was probably the cutest Korean ever spoken. That was Junhui’s opinion at least. And if he hadn’t already marveled at Minghao’s cuteness and adorableness before, Junhui knew that this would have definitely been the point at which he would had started.

It was shortly after 3:30 AM when Junhui declared that he’d go to bed, unexpectedly making everyone else follow his example. Junhui got ready first and afterwards prepared the living room together with Jeonghan and Jisoo so that their guests could sleep in it. By the time that Junhui could finally fall into his bed, it was already past 4 in the morning.

The next morning, his alarm went off at 8:45, though Minghao was the one who eventually got him out of bed with the promise for breakfast. Nevertheless, he couldn’t recall ever having gone to drama practice as tired and even hungover as he did that morning. Mingyu on the other hand just laughed about it, claiming that he had felt just as awful the morning after his own birthday party.

 

On Wednesday, still in the middle of finals week, they had their first performance. The dress rehearsal had been more chaotic than any other rehearsal: in the middle of it, Junhui and the female lead had just stared at each other blankly with no recollection of the script and one of the bigger props seemed to have dropped off the face of planet earth. The performance itself, though, went smoothly, and Jeonghan was the cutest best friend afterwards by bringing him flowers. The same thing happened on Thursday minus the flowers and when he bowed again to the crowd on Friday, Junhui couldn’t believe how exhilarated and surreal he felt. He felt lightheaded, like he was flying, but at the same time strange because they all had put so much effort into this piece and he couldn’t believe that this should be the last time reciting those lines, using those props, wearing those costumes, trying to figure out if their play was at least semi-realistic…

After some last cheering backstage, they all grabbed their belongings to go home. Jeonghan, Minghao, and Jisoo were still waiting for him, greeting him brightly.

“Congrats! Final night tonight~ You know what that means? I actually get to see my best friend again!” Jeonghan cheered and casually wrapped his arm around Junhui’s shoulders, so Junhui wrapped his arm around Jeonghan’s waist while they went towards the exit.

“I don’t even know what it feels like to have free time anymore.”

“So we agree on you taking on a smaller role next semester, right? 'Cause I did kind of miss you this semester.”

Junhui nodded eagerly. “Yes, I’ll definitely take on a smaller role next semester! Even though I loved it, this was enough stress for a while now. Plus, I can’t miss out on Jisoo’s limited time with us, right?”

“On what time?” Jisoo asked and leaned forward a bit.

“Limited,” Junhui repeated with a smile. “Because you’ll only stay with us for a year, so we don’t have a lot of time together, right?”

“Right,” Jisoo agreed and nodded in confirmation.

Junhui glanced to his other side and beamed when he found Minghao smiling as well. “So, I think there’s a year-end party tomorrow night, isn’t there? Why don’t we go out to grab something to eat tonight?” Junhui suggested, but Jeonghan shook his head.

“Nah, I’m more in the mood for takeout and spending a relaxed evening in front of the TV.”

“I also like the TV version,” Jisoo agreed, so they all turned to Minghao who once again wore that cute look that showed that he was still trying to figure out what was being said.

“I too prefer being home,” Minghao answered eventually, making Junhui sigh.

“Traitors,” he complained, ignoring the confused gazes he earned in response.

“Right, I already wondered about this during the performance: where did you even learn that word?” Jeonghan asked.

“And the traitors, they shall be sent to the high mountains! To arrive there, they have to cross the big river and pass through the woods that are inhabited by trolls and gnomes and fairies and witches, all waiting for an unknowing, naïve wanderer to pass their territory. And if the traitors do arrive at Paektusan, they shall receive the Heavenly judgement from Tangun and his Father,” Junhui recited one of his lines from the play.

“Yeah, I thought so. Let me guess: you asked Mingyu for help with translations?”

“Nope~ I asked someone else from my year,” Junhui replied and glanced over at his best friend, laughing when he saw the other roll his eyes.

“So I was basically right.”

“But only basically.”

“Smartass.”

Junhui laughed and tightened his half hug on his best friend for a moment. Oh how he had missed this!

 

They ended up ordering pizza for takeout and watching a movie that Jisoo had said was really good. Despite indeed enjoying the movie, Junhui was much happier about the fact that Minghao sat next to him with one arm draped over the backrest most of the time, lightly leaning against Junhui. Even after the movie had ended, they didn’t go to bed right away but instead stayed up much longer, sharing stories. Junhui and Jeonghan had done that a lot during Junhui’s second semester in Korea, when his Korean had become good enough for this, and he realized with every passing hour how much he had missed those talks during the past semester.

It was well past midnight when they collectively decided to go to bed: Jeonghan and Jisoo had still had a final that day and with all the stress that had finally fallen off Junhui, he couldn’t exactly say that he felt particularly awake either. But there was nevertheless still one point on the list of things that he wanted to do that day!

He was the last one to get ready for bed, but when he went into the room he shared with Minghao, he found the younger student still sitting on his bed, doing something on his phone. Junhui went over to the other, then he leaned against the top bed near the ladder. “Still texting?” he asked in Mandarin.

Minghao nodded without glancing up. “Māmā asked me again what time I’ll arrive in Anshan,” he revealed.

“You’re flying out on the 14^th, right?”

Minghao nodded and finished his text message, then he locked his phone and put it on his nightstand. “Exactly. It’s still nearly a month away, but there’s so much that has to be organized, you know?”

“Yeah. I’ll leave on the 20^th and then also won’t come back until August 23^rd.”

“Oh really? That means I’ll be back here before you.” Minghao looked up at Junhui, who tilted his head in surprise.

“Oh really?”

“Yes, I’ll come back on August 18^th.”

“Afraid that you’ll miss Jeonghan-hyung and Jisoo-hyung?”

“No, I was actually more worried about you,” Minghao replied sweetly without missing a beat.

Junhui raised a hand to his heart, acting like he was deeply hurt. “Minghao, my pride! How can you say such a thing to a poor man like me?”

Minghao raised an eyebrow and then patted the spot on the bed next to himself. “You look like there’s something else on your mind except from your hurt pride.”

Junhui sat down, but immediately turned to face Minghao, nodding quickly. “Oh yes, there is,” he started but then stopped, suddenly feeling shy. A week earlier with alcohol, it had been so much easier to just ask Minghao for a kiss. “You see…” he tried once again and diverted his eyes to the Kermit the Frog plushie that lay next to Minghao’s pillow, “I made a promise to you at the party last week. And… well, we’re both sober now, you know..?”

For a moment, neither of them said anything, and even though Junhui could feel Minghao’s eyes on him, he kept looking at the Kermit the Frog plushie next to Minghao’s pillow that in turn stared at the upper bed. “So you’re asking if I would mind having my first kiss now?”

“Yes?” Junhui glanced up and then quickly down into his lap, noticing that he had absentmindedly begun fumbling with his fingers. “You see, first kisses are something important, so I of course couldn’t really have kissed you at the party, especially not in front of everyone else, and then this past week I was still super busy because of the play, but that’s finished now, and-“

Minghao’s laughter interrupted him and made him look up incredulously. “Sorry, it’s just… Why are you so worried about my first kiss?”

“Because first kisses are important! Don’t you know that?”

“Of course I know that, but you’re making a bigger fuss about it than you have to.” Minghao was still smiling, the kind of smile that turned his eyes into crescent moons, though he was quick to get his features back under control, the look in his eyes suddenly challenging. “So, aren’t you gonna show me how to kiss?”

“Minghao!” Junhui exclaimed, but then remembered that they still had neighbors who probably wanted to sleep, so he lowered his voice again. “For a few months, you don’t make any move at all, and now this?”

“Things might have gone differently if you hadn’t gone off kissing your best friend,” Minghao pointed out, making Junhui roll his eyes. “Plus, one of us proclaimed himself as a top during our first meeting and admittedly also acts like that when drunk. So I thought I might as well see what else could happen.”

“You’re cruel,” Junhui complained. “Plus, I am a top!”

“Then why have I still not gotten my first kiss, hm?”

“Just you wait!” He quickly sat up a bit more and simultaneously leaned forward to avoid bumping his head into the top bed, then he started to tickle-fight Minghao, moving quickly to sneak his arms past the other’s defense.

“Yah! Stop! Mercy!” Minghao exclaimed and started laughing, inching away to no avail because Junhui simply followed his moves, blocking any attempt for counterattacks. It was only when both of them were breathless from laughter that he stopped and leaned back, resting his weight on his hands while he watched Minghao, still laughing. Minghao’s cheeks had turned a light shade of red and some laughing tears had escaped his eyes. His lips were still parted as he tried to catch and his chest was heaving, yet Junhui couldn’t help but still think that Minghao looked stunningly beautiful.

“I’m wondering… Maybe I’ll get my first kiss faster if I just stay in China? It hasn’t worked for 19 years, but who knows..?”

“I mean, if you’d like to come to Shenzhen, I’m sure we can also make plans for that, but isn’t it still a bit early for parents-boyfriend introductions?” Junhui teased back, speaking fast enough that his shyness couldn’t stop him, though he did feel an embarrassed heat creeping into his cheeks.

Minghao grabbed his pillow and hit Junhui’s leg with it, then he sat up. “I agreed to spend the next three and a half years with you as well, didn’t I?”

“Yes?”

The younger student shook his head lightly but then grinned. “Let’s see if I can tolerate you for so long.”

“Tole…” Junhui stared at Minghao for a few seconds, rendered speechless, then he pushed off his hands again. “Seriously, it’s time I make you shut up.”

“Oh is it?”

Junhui raised his hand to Minghao’s cheek and nodded firmly while he leaned closer, ignoring the shyness that tried to take over his body once again. “Definitely.” He held Minghao’s gaze, feeling happiness tug at his heart because of the confidence and trust that he saw in them. When he was close enough for their breaths to mingle, he hesitated for another second, nervousness adding to his usual shyness, but he also felt excited and curious. And then Minghao leaned that tiny bit closer and connected their lips.

Their eyes closed automatically and Junhui felt like there were a thousand butterflies fluttering around in his stomach at the simple, soft touch. His heart beat faster and warmth spread through his body, starting in his heart and his fingertips and his lips and slowly taking over all of him.

He leaned back a little and opened his eyes a crack, but at the same time, he felt Minghao move with him, obviously reluctant to stop, so Junhui leaned in and kissed Minghao again. He raised his free hand to Minghao’s arm, tracing it up until he could rest his hand on the back of Minghao’s shoulder, pulling him a little closer. Finally, Minghao also raised his hands to gently rest on Junhui’s waist, encouraging the older to slowly begin moving his lips, giving Minghao time to catch on to what he was doing before he made up his mind that it was worth a shot to go all the way and include tongue as well.

It took a long time and still not long enough until they broke the kiss, both of them a little out of breath and at least Junhui also felt a bit lightheaded from happiness and love. He dropped one hand from Minghao’s cheek to his side and the other until it rested on the younger student’s arm as he opened his eyes slowly and found Minghao looking back at him, smiling.

“So that’s how you kiss someone?”

“That’s basically the deluxe version, yes.”

Minghao stared at him blankly for a moment, then he burst out laughing. “The deluxe version?” he echoed and Junhui rolled his eyes.

“I mean, you did want to find out what kissing is like, right?”

“Sure, let’s not even try to go easy for the first kiss.”

“Nope, never crossed my mind.” Their eyes met, but then Junhui looked away again, laughing awkwardly. “I guess it’s ‘mission accomplished’ now?”

“That sounds like this was a trophy,” Minghao remarked dryly.

Junhui’s head shot up. “No, no, no, that-“ He stopped mid-sentence when he found the other grinning. “Hey, you’re unfair!”

“So? What are you gonna do about it?”

Junhui narrowed his eyes on Minghao. “I’ll go to bed, that’s what I’m gonna do. No more kisses for you tonight.”

“So tomorrow?”

“If you give my heart a break?”

“Then go to sleep quickly so your heart can rest.” Minghao winked at Junhui who smirked.

“Dream of me, okay?”

“I absolutely might,” Minghao replied without missing a beat.

Junhui pulled away all the way and got up, careful not to hit his head. “Good, because I’ll certainly dream about you.” Feeling his cheeks heat up once again, he turned away and climbed up into the top bed.

“Junhui?”

“M-hm?”

“I’m looking forward to tomorrow. Sleep well.”

“You too.” Junhui lay down on his stomach and turned his head sidewise, grinning to himself. Minghao turned off the light, but that didn’t stop the warmth inside him to make him feel like his world was brighter than ever before.

 

Junhui hadn’t known that spending a month with his family could feel as long as this month did. Everything inside him was itching to see Minghao again and even though they called each other, he missed Minghao, missed hugging him, missed annoying him and seeing his reaction, already missed kissing him, sharing a room with him, seeing his blank expression right after he woke up and seemed to take the first couple of minutes to figure out what universe and century he was in…

So, as much as he also knew that he would miss his family in Shenzhen, Junhui was super excitedly when he finally landed in Seoul again. To his utter disappointment, Jeonghan was the only one who had come to Incheon Airport to pick him up, but something about the mischievous sparkle in his best friend’s eyes led him to believe that there was also a reason for that.

They chatted away on the ride back to their apartment and Junhui very much enjoyed Jeonghan’s stories about the summer that he had spent with his family and Jisoo, loving the culture clash between their American friend and Jeonghan’s very Korean family, though Jeonghan emphasized each time that they had been very kind and understanding whenever Jisoo accidentally made a mistake or just ended up mixing up words or getting lost in the middle of a conversation.

“I’m back!” Junhui called out the moment that he stepped into the apartment, his mood immediately getting lifted when he was greeted with the scent of lunch.

“Welcome back,” Jisoo and Minghao called out from the direction of the kitchen, followed by some kinds of cooking instructions from Jisoo.

Junhui paid no further attention to that while he kicked off his shoes and then pulled his suitcase further to his room. He entered and found the bottom bed strangely clean for Minghao already having returned five days earlier, but he paid no mind to it until he looked up and found very familiar green bedsheets on the top bed and a just as familiar Kermit the Frog who was propped up against the railing, staring right at him with a mocking grin.

“Yah! Xu Minghao!”

“Yes?” came the reply from the direction of the door, closer than expected, Minghao’s voice smooth as velvet and too smug for Junhui’s liking.

The older student turned around to indeed find Minghao leaning against the doorframe, Jeonghan standing in the hallway, clearly trying to hold back his laughter, and even Jisoo peaked out from the kitchen.

“Minghao, what’s that?” Junhui complained and gestured towards the bunk bed. “That’s my bed! Why are you occupying my bed?”

“Oh, when I first arrived, you agreed that it’s yours because you’re a top. I think that switching beds fits better, though,” Minghao answered with an angelic smile while Jeonghan behind him finally burst out laughing. Junhui couldn’t do anything but stare at Minghao in disbelief and it only dawned upon him after a few seconds that Minghao was indeed dead serious and wouldn’t change his mind.

“Minghao! My bed!”

 

Students from a different country were fun.

Of course Junhui knew that he was the right person to talk, having arrived in Korea from China for his studies as well and having struggled a lot with Korea and its culture and language, but that was exactly why he thought that students from different countries were fun. Yet he came to realize that sometimes those language issues could also lead to not so funny situations, like the loss of his precious top bed.

“I’m getting you back,” he promised to the bed that he had slept in for one and a half years, ignoring Minghao who had also begun laughing while Junhui begrudgingly started to unpack his suitcase.

 

 

 

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Hey guys, thank you for reading this OS. Please let me know what you think about it in the comments~