The intense shuffling of paper was the first thing Chanhee heard as he pushed the apartment door open. Intermittent among the scrabbling noise were small curses, each one growing more frantic the longer the shuffling went on. In the centre of the divide of kitchen and lounge, their six seater dining table was covered in pages. Niel was slightly bent over the table, moving from one end to the other, sifting through the reams of paper and back once more. 

Chanhee slipped his shoes off, face bemused as he watched Niel scramble. He snuck a little closer. Niel’s curses more frequent now; each breath punctuated with a chanted “”. His hair was puffed up, presumably where his hands hand run through it in frustration. 

The pages were covered in scrawling handwriting or fine type-writing. Some appeared to be photocopied sections of books. Others were highlighted and scribbled over.

Niel finally caught Chanhee lurking. His face was panicked and his lip caught between his teeth as he stared at Chanhee. 

“Have you seen a page with my writing on it?” Niel demanded, his voice far more stern than his worried face. “It was an A4 page and has a list on it and a mind-map in the middle.”

“No.” Chanhee scanned the mess again. “Maybe if you kept things in a proper order you wouldn’t lose the important ones.”

“It was in order!” Niel stomped one foot, hands curling into fists. “I knew where everything was in the mess. And my Chaucer notes were right on top!”

Chanhee smiled in surrender and moved to the kitchen instead. He pulled the tub of ice-cream from the freezer.

Niel searched his papers again.

“Did you check your backpack?” Chanhee asked, digging his spoon into the ice-cream.

“Yes.”

“Did you check the bedroom?”

“Yes!” Niel gave an annoyed yell and flounced into the kitchen. Taking the spoon from Chanhee’s fingers, Niel attacked the ice-cream ferociously. “I don’t know where the hell I’ve put it! It had my notes for my assignment.”

“Can you remember what you wrote?” Chanhee pulled a fresh spoon from the drawer.

“No. That’s why I had written it down!” Niel gripped at his hair. He searched the room with his gaze, as though the page would magically reappear.

The door to the bedroom opened, a dishevelled Minsu appearing. He blinked against the bright daylight and shuffled through the lounge. 

“What’s all the noise about?” He asked, taking the spoon from Chanhee and stealing the ice-cream off it. 

Chanhee frowned. He took a third spoon from the drawer. 

“Niel ha—”

“Have you seen my paper?!” Niel snapped across him. 

“Those ones?” Minsu asked around his mouthful. He gestured loosely to the table and its mess. 

“No!” Niel rapped his spoon against the bench. “It’s got a list on one end and a mind map in the centre.”

Minsu’s face was blank. 

“I really need it. It has my Chaucer notes on it. It was my entire layout for my final assignment.” Niel took another large mouthful of ice-cream.

“Can’t you make a new one?” Minsu asked. He sidled closer to Chanhee, getting between him and the bench.

Chanhee tapped his spoon against Minsu’s head. He was directly between him and the ice-cream.

“Ow!”

“Move!”

“I need those notes!” Niel’s voice was squeaky with desperation. 

“OK!” Chanhee dragged Minsu back from the bench, snagging the ice-cream tub in one hand. He crammed a few spoonfuls into his mouth and popped it back in the freezer. “Let’s search the apartment!”

The table was the divide from the lounge. The lounge was dominated by the two desks against the wall and their large desktop computers. A TV held place in the other wall with a saggy sofa in front of it.

The bedroom held another computer and numerous old chests of drawers and dressers. Clothes were spread everywhere. Forgotten things littered the floor; pages from Minsu’s sketchbooks, sheet music from Chanhee’s musicals, notes Niel had written to himself, even the manual of an old cartridge game.

“No wonder you lost it!” Chanhee griped as he bent to collect all the paper from the floor. “You two live like cavemen.” He shuffled the sheet music to the bottom of the pile, pretending he didn’t know of its existence. 

“Uh, I don’t think these are mine,” Niel leaned in from the lounge holding Chanhee’s boxers aloft.

Chanhee refused to comment, bending his head to the task of sorting paper. 

“Well.” Minsu edged past Niel and took his place on the bed once more. “It wasn’t in the bathroom.” He pulled his lapboard over and flicked his mechanical pencil between his fingers.

“Why would I have put it in the bathroom!?” Niel’s face was full of scorn.

Chanhee laughed softly as he sorted each pile. For a semester their shower screens has been papered with the philosophical speeches of Socrates and various other dead people. He kept quiet, knowing Niel was reaching his limit.

“Well, you hadn’t looked there and you couldn’t find it.” Minsu shrugged. He didn’t bother looking up from his drawing. 

“Can you please help!” Niel cried, throwing down the underwear. 

“I did help!” Minsu protested. 

“That’s it!” Niel strode across the small space. 

Chanhee stood and shifted his piles of paper, knowing what was coming. 

Niel grabbed Minsu’s arm, dragging at it and trying to pull him from the bed. Predictably, he instead went flying onto the mattress with one strong tug from Minsu. Niel was immediately pinned. He fought at Minsu, trying to bite him or get an arm free to slap. Minsu paid him no mind, reducing him to a writhing mess of laughter as he tickled him mercilessly. When they were finished Niel was panting, laying still on the bed as Minsu kissed his cheek and sat up once more. Chanhee retook his seat, sitting by Niel’s head and carding a hand through his hair. 

“I’m gonna fail,” Niel groaned. He covered his eyes with his hands.

“Everything will be OK,” Chanhee mumbled kissing Niel’s forehead. “We’ll find it.” He glared at Minsu pointedly.

“Yeah,” Minsu sighed, setting his sketch down once more. “We’ll find it. And if we don’t we can help you with the Chancellor stuff.”

“Chaucer, you bloody art major.” Niel grumbled, he threw his hands from his eye and sighed. 

“What are you working on Minsu?” Chanhee asked, seeing Minsu go straight back to work. He continued Niel’s hair as the younger sulked. 

“I think I finally found inspiration for my major work,” Minsu said. He was intent on the drawing. 

“Awesome!” Chanhee replied. “Can we see it?”

Minsu unclipped the page from its place on the board. With care, he passed it to Chanhee. 

He barely had time to look at the drawing when it was snatched from his fingers. 

“Hey!” Niel’s voice was loud enough to make them flinch. “These are my notes!” He sat up, waving the page at Minsu. “You had them the whole time!” He slapped Minsu’s arm.

“Those aren’t notes!” Minsu retaliated. “That’s chicken scratch and abstract art.”

“It says right here! Chaucer! Satire! 1381 Peasant Revolt!” Niel pointed to each cryptic word. 

Chanhee wasn’t convinced but he wasn’t about to argue either.

“Well I need it. It’s my major work.” Minsu shrugged, plucking the page from Niel’s fingers. 

“Why are you always drawing on my notes!?” Niel took the paper back. “You have like twelve sketchbooks.”

“I can’t help it when inspiration strikes.” Minsu gripped the corner of the page. “It came to me while I was waiting in queue for League. I grabbed the nearest page and started drawing.”

Chanhee raised his eyebrows, looking at Niel with a question in his eyes. 

“I remember now.” Niel nibbled at a fingernail. “I was going to start typing it up last night. But Jonghyun wanted to play Overwatch.”

“You both need to clean up your desks and keep them that way,” Chanhee scolded. 

Minsu blinked at him before exchanging a look with Niel. 

“Excuse me? Who’s makeup covers the entire sink in the bathroom?” Minsu asked. 

“And who’s sheet music appears in random places?” Niel added.

“And who’s socks are always in the entryway?” Minsu continued. 

The page was forgotten between them now.

“And who buys your ice-cream and groceries? You broke uni students,” Chanhee scoffed. “Who bought you the Mei skin you desperately wanted?” He turned to Niel.

“Some guy, I guess,” Niel mumbled. He snatched the paper up and climbed off the bed.

“Hey!” Chanhee yelled after him. 

A kiss was planted into his temple. Chanhee smiled. 

“Where do you think you’re going with my sketch?” Minsu climbed past Chanhee, pausing to kiss his other cheek as he went.

“You can have it back when I’m done!” Niel yelled.

“I want it now!” Minsu yelled back. 

Chanhee collapsed onto the mattress. 

“Niel, give it back.” Minsu was whiny. 

“Just wait,” Niel snapped. 

Chanhee sighed. He was too tired to referee. He tilted his head back, watching the pair of them from the bedroom. 

“Here” Niel’s voice was softer now. “Now I’ve copied my notes, you can have it back.”

Minsu gave a mumbled “thank you”. He showed Niel the drawing properly, waiting for him to absorb it and nod with approval. Minsu wrapped Niel into his arms, letting Niel press his face into his neck. 

Chanhee smiled. He rolled from the bed and went to join their hug. He slipped himself in beside Minsu and Niel, letting Niel be the centre. Minsu swayed them slowly. 

A paper caught Chanhee’s eye. He frowned. 

“Niel, is that my solo from Les Mis?” Chanhee asked. 

He reached over and inspected the music. On the back side there were a long stream of messy notes.

“This is my solo! I looked for this everywhere!” Chanhee couldn’t help but laugh. 

The other two were conspicuously silent.