Chapter 2

Cute

Once they were out on the street Seungyoon found himself wondering which car that was Mino’s, but instead of walking over to a car had Mino unlocked a creaky wooden door to the back alley beside their apartment building. 

Peeking around the corner he found Mino taking out two helmets from a shed smiling brightly. That was when he spotted the scooter behind Mino’s back. 

    "Might get a bit cold on our way there so you better zip up your jacket" Mino said before handing him a helmet. He weren’t quite sure why he had assumed that Mino as a student would have a car, but the whole riding on a scooter idea kinda caught him off guard. 

Watching Mino roll his scooter out on the street he could easily tell how fond Mino was of his scooter. 

    "Isn’t it cool? An authentic vespa" Mino bragged getting on before patting the space behind him. 

There is no going back now he thought before getting on behind Mino. His helmet had a distinct female smell and he could easily see how it could be romantic getting picked up for a date like this. 

    "Better hold on tight, they won’t let me hear the end of it if it’s my fault you fall off and crack your skull on our way up one of these hills" Mino said sounding more serious than needed, but he could only smile at this. After all had Seunghoon’s lack of information about the bathroom situation had almost already caused him a cracked skull.  

Wrapping his arms tightly around Mino’s chest he was a little surprised at exactly how muscular his upper body was, Mino had appeared to be somewhat skinny from his first impression, but that he could now asses was quite wrong. Not that it was a big deal, he himself was skinny as a stick and there was nothing wrong with that. 

Catching himself mid-thought musing over body types he chuckled, it had been too long since any guy caught his attention, but the more he learned about Mino the more intrigued he became. 

The trip up to campus weren’t long, but just as Mino had mentioned quite steep with winding roads leading up to a cluster of huge buildings spread out over a wast area. It was quite lucky that he had caught a ride the first day, because now he didn’t have to look around for it or figure out the busses. 

There was only one alarming issue, the bandaids. 

Jumping of Mino’s scooter at the edge of the road leading into the main campus square he hesitated for a moment. 

    "What?" Mino asked, not getting of his scooter. "The semester only starts today for first year students, the rest of us begins next week. So I’m sorry you have to go alone" Mino explained as if he was a kid not wanting to go into another kid’s birthday party alone. 

    "I’m fine going on my own don’t worry" he began and got interrupted my Mino’s laugh, it now became evident to him that Mino had only been messing with him. 

Ignoring his laughter he pulled up his beanie and pointed at the bandaids "I still need to deal with these!" he said a hint of desperation leaking into his voice as he said the last word. 

Mino just waved his hand, motioning for him to get closer. Not sure what he wanted Seungyoon hesitated. 

    "It has probably stopped bleeding right?" Mino said and he nodded in response. 

    "Yeah?" He said walking up to Mino now, but still feeling skeptical. 

    "So just take them off, If someone asks just tell them you were in some great accident or something" Mino said and before he knew it was his forehead getting the rough treatment as Mino pulled of the bandaids one after another. 

Surprised by the sudden jolt of pain he blinked hard to not show Mino that his eyes were getting watery. The cold morning wind weren’t helping the case either and he sniffled hard before rubbing his face once. 

    "Aw, don’t cry!" Mino said smiling a cheeky smile at him "Want me to kiss it better" he teased mockingly. In response he sneezed and Mino laughed. Rubbing his nose he wondered if he was about to catch a cold, terrible timing was something of a norm for him. 

    "I’m not crying, it’s the wind!" he exclaimed and turned slightly towards campus to indicate he was leaving. "Thank you for the ride" he said giving Mino a small wave before he started walking. 

    "No problem, see you back home" Mino replied while putting his helmet back on.  

For some reason was he repeating that last line in his mind several times as he walked across the campus square. See you back home. No one had ever told him that before, maybe except his mother. It felt nice to think about, even if it had just been his neighbor who had said it. 

He had begun his day on campus hunting down the nearest bathroom to check exactly how bad his scratches looked. It weren’t too bad, his skin was a bit red from the bandaids but removing them was probably the easiest solution to his problem. 

It didn’t take him long to find the auditorium where he was suppose to meet his new classmates and he was surprised to see one of his neighbors up on the stage when the initial greetings were over. 

Jiho or Zico as he had asked to be called had walked on stage as a part of the schools buddy scheme for first year students. That lifted his mood considerably, because it meant that he now knew one person on campus already and that usually made things a bit easier. 

Listening to the introductions, explanations and instructions for new students he was starting to regret not eating a proper breakfast. Hopefully there would be a break soon. 

During the break he joined some other guys following the signs to the cafeteria and since they were all passionately discussing music weren’t it hard to keep up with the conversation at all. 

Once break was over and they returned back to the auditorium could they see that there where lists of groups were hanging on the wall inside the auditorium. 

It was time for the much dreaded "get to get to know each other through games" session. Shuddering at the prospects of potential embarrassment and awkwardness he studied the list and found that he was in Zico’s group. 

Zico led his group cheering loudly along with two girls and a tiny guy with glasses who had yet to say a word. They wore bright shirts over their normal clothes with the word buddy on the back and Zico was sure acting the role, pointing out directions for two girls to the closest bathrooms, explaining the metro system to the guy who showed up almost an hour late and reprimanded a guy jokingly for making advances on one of the buddy girls in a slightly rude way. 

Soon they were all sitting in a circle out in the autumn sun with everyone introducing them selves and adding an animal to their name to make it easier to remember. Unable to think of an animal starting with S he was feeling the pressure as his turn approached. It weren’t that he couldn’t think of any animal, but snake of sludge didn’t really sound like animals he wanted to be associated with. 

    "Seungyoon, Seal" he finally said, clapping half heartedly with out realizing it actually made him look quite a bit like a seal. 

Zico laughed and mimicked his clap and the next person clapped too despite having a name starting with V and said Vasp as his animal. 

The next game was even worse, forcing each person to say their name and then all those in the circle who had said their names before them. Luckily for him was he only fifth in line and he knew Zico’s already. 

The day went on like that, more games forcing them to get to know each other better, then a tour of campus before ending at the same auditorium to meet a couple of their teachers. 

When he walked of campus in the afternoon was it with a content feeling, things had gone well and he had already made a couple of acquaintances. There was going to an evening bar crawl the same evening and so he hurried home to eat and relax a bit before heading out again. 

Having managed to navigate home quite easily with the bus leaving campus he hopped of the bus one stop early to pick up some essentials from the super market along with some skin colored band aids for the next time he had a run in with Jinwoo’s cats. 

Stepping into the hall he met Jihoon by the post boxes grappling with way too much mail. Hurrying over to help he couldn’t help but to laugh a little. 

    "Mino said he checked the mail last week, but there is no way we got all these in less than a week" Jihoon complained with puffed up cheeks. Seungyoon helped sort out the mail which proved to be 95% advertisements and free news papers. He waited with the remaining mail while Jihoon went back outside to throw away all the unwanted advertisement. 

As he stood there holding the envelopes he spotted a few that probably were bills and one that smelled kinda funny. 

    "What’s up with this one?" he asked Jihoon holding up the envelope. He grabbed it and smelled it too and laughed before turning it to see whom it was addressed to. 

    "Ah it’s for Mino, he got fans these days" Jihoon said walking towards their apartment door leaving him to follow seeing as he was still holding the rest of their mail. Grabbing his groceries bag he followed after Jihoon into the opposite apartment from his own. 

Their apartment seemed to be exactly mirroring the apartment he lived in, but it appeared to be even more worn down than his with blotches of paint missing exposing the wood behind it on several places. The living room got dark curtains in a dusty maroon color with a grey floor carpet. Leather chairs and a worn down leather sofa stood surrounding a huge flat screen tv. 

Jihoon was opening a can of soda