“Jongdae? Are you alright?” A voice asked.

Jongdae sniffled as he placed his hands over his eyes. Was he ok? He didn’t feel good. His heart felt heavy and his eyes were watery.

“Are you thinking about them again?”

Jongdae gulped down the lump in his throat and looked up. A black figure hovered over him and reached out to his cheek.

“I feel guilty too. But we need to be strong.” The black figure said in a soft whisper.

Jongdae opened his mouth, but he couldn’t bring himself to speak. His voice refused to come out.

The black figure seemed kind and was speaking in a way that made Jongdae feel safe.

“Jongdae?” Another figure peeked its head into the small room he was in. This figure was taller, but seemed more fragile.

Jongdae found himself straightening up as he wiped at his eyes. He suddenly wanted to be strong. He wanted to show them both that he could be relied on and was willing to do his part to make sure that they never felt sad.

“Jongdae! We’re late! Get up!” Baekhyun shouted as he shook him awake.

Jongdae swatted Baekhyun away as he shouted, “I’m up! I’m up! Didn’t you go to work today?” He asked groggily.

Baekhyun pouted, “I wasn’t scheduled to go in today, so I slept in and the alarm didn’t go off.” He was throwing on a hoodie and ruffled his hair as he ‘brushed’ it.

“Are you serious Baekhyun?” He quickly got up and threw on the first thing he saw. They would need to skip breakfast. “What time is it?”

“Class starts in ten minutes.”

Jongdae rolled his eyes, “That isn’t that bad…”

Baekhyun’s eyebrows furrowed, “Jongdae!”

Jongdae threw on his shoes and tied them, “You just want to see Kyungsoo.”

Baekhyun’s eyes widened and he shook his head, “That isn’t true!”

“Yes it is. Everyone sees the way you look at him. Your eyes shine and you smile a lot more.”

“Alright fine, so maybe I have a small crush on him.”

Jongdae laughed, “Small? You message him all night. And he thinks you’re cute too, Jongin told me.”

Baekhyun eyes shined and he grinned wide, “Really?”

Jongdae smirked, “No, but you see how you lit up.”

Baekhyun’s mouth dropped and he hit Jongdae, throwing him off of the bed.

***

“You guys are on time. I thought for sure that you guys would be late.” Chanyeol teased as Jongdae and Baekhyun walked into class.

“We were going to be, but we somehow managed.” Jongdae told him.

Baekhyun took his seat next to Kyungsoo who looked a bit too eager to see Baekhyun.

“Sleep in?” Kyungsoo asked.

Baekhyun smiled at him, “Yeah, I didn’t have work today.”

The way their voices got high pitched and their eyes sparkled when they saw each other made Jongdae want to throw up.

“Jongdae! You’re here.” Sehun greeted as he scooted closer to him.

Jongdae nodded as he yawned, “Yeah, barely.”

“This is our last meetup before the project is due.” Minseok said as he looked over at his friends and ignored how obviously Kyungsoo and Baekhyun were flirting. 

“Yeah, but we are almost done.” Sehun said.

The professor walked in shortly after the class had settled down. He began the lecture by asking what everyone’s project was going to be about. Many people spoke of how they would be talking about advancements from ancient civilizations. Some spoke of how they would discuss to the class about how the Mayans were the first to use the number zero, another group spoke of how they would be talking about the lost civilization of Pompeii. When it finally got the group speaking about Monalet and Solaris, Chanyeol spoke up first.

“We want to talk about what we think started the war that caused the downfall of both kingdoms.”

The professor hummed in response, “Out of all their advancements, why did you chose to talk about the downfall?”

“We want to take our own idea on it.” Kyungsoo added. “By discussing what we personally think sparked the war. Since many people’s names from both kingdoms have been lost to time, including the entire royal family, we believed it would prove quite a challenge and we want to challenge ourselves using the information and facts that have been collected thus far.”

Baekhyun nodded and added, “And we thought it would be a lot of fun too.”

Kyungsoo giggled quietly as his eyes darted to Baekhyun.

“Excellent, I look forward to hearing about all of your projects next week.”

“Professor,” Someone called out as they raised their hand, “Isn’t it true that Solarians and Monalets believed that if two men put their DNA into a woman then they would conceive a child that was only biologically theirs and have no trace of the woman’s DNA?”

“Yes, that is what some scriptures show us.”

The student smiled, “Then what ‘advancements’ were you referring to earlier?”

The group looked over at the guy that asked. It was the same one that had challenged Baekhyun on the first day of class.

“Monalets also created the very first fountain known to man and Solarians made the first chandelier known to man. Not only that, but both kingdoms made irrigation canals that watered their crops and knew that a plant based diet was much healthier than meat, thus prompting them to live a majority vegan lifestyle. Of course they still ate meat though.” Kyungsoo told him.

“Not only that…” Baekhyun added, “But you chose to do your project on the beautiful architecture of ancient Rome right? Their architecture was definetly magnificent and indeed amazing. But their most famous work, the roman colosseum, was used for entertainment purposes. Entertainment that included fighting for one’s life while spectators cheered on. I agree that there were many people who were advanced for their time, but no civilization is perfect and you, as an archeology major should know that.”

The guy scoffed, “You think you’re so smart huh? ing fairy.”

Baekhyun laughed as he shook his head, “Now I see why you hate Solaris and Monalet so much. You can’t stand the fact that the last princes, known to be way ahead of their time and highly respected by many, were homoual.”

“Alright guys,” The teacher interrupted before it progressed any further. “Let’s settle down now.”

They were visibly riled up, but looked away from each other when the professor spoke. That guy was known to be very homophobic. But Baekhyun couldn’t let him get the best of him. He took a long exhale as he wet his lips.

Kyungsoo noticed that Baekhyun was visibly riled up and placed his hand on top of Baekhyun’s. Baekhyun blinked and looked over at Kyungsoo who wa