The next morning everything was sort of a haze. You woke up in your bed, luckily not too hungover, but missing a chunk from what happened the previous night. As you forced yourself to sit up and get out of bed, a vague memory returned to you. Minseok. You reached up to touch your lips. That couldn’t have really happened, could it? It didn’t suit him at all to get so close to you. But you remembered the feeling clearly. Soft, pillow-y lips…

For now, you pushed the memory and strange feelings that came with it into your mental ‘think about it later’ box, a box that was frequently overflowing on account of you never dealing with its contents, and grabbed some clean clothes to go take a shower.

Minseok was in the kitchen. For once, he didn’t look as if you’d caught him burglarizing the place. He looked rather at ease and greeted you with a smile. Immediately the memory came rushing back to you, and you felt a strange fluttering in your chest. He’s adorable. At least while sober you had the presence of mind not to say things like that out loud.

“Hey, I made some coffee. Are you very hungover?” He asked, gesturing at the pot of coffee in the machine. The butterflies came rushing back in. What a perfect human being, to offer you coffee in the morning. You smiled and noticed the aroma of coffee lingering in the air. It smelled really good.

“I’m alright, coffee sounds wonderful. Thank you.” You folded your clean clothes in your arms and placed them on one of the barstools. You had intended to walk into the kitchen and pour yourself a cup, but Minseok had already poured you a cup and pushed it towards you across the countertop. So you took a seat on the closest barstool and wrapped your hands around the mug. It was comfortably warm.

“Did you sleep well?” You asked, blowing on the coffee before taking a small sip. “It’s really good. The coffee. It doesn’t have as bitter an aftertaste.”

“It was slow roasted and mixed during the process, so they’re roasted more evenly. I think that helps.” Minseok answered, taking a sip from his own mug. “Oh and I slept well. Did you?”

Weird. You’d never sat down to have a conversation with him like this. Maybe because you were both more introverted people. Minseok didn’t feel like he’d be draining a lot of energy to talk to. You decided you’d like to do this kind of thing more often, and sipped your coffee again. Perfect.

“We should put the beans on a shared grocery list. That way I chip in and we can both have more.” You offered, letting your hands slip off the mug as it was becoming hot to the touch. “For once I wasn’t tired, so I think I slept well. I was unconscious for most of it so I don’t remember.”

He laughed. He actually laughed at your silly joke. Your heart thumped and you quickly took another sip from the coffee, trying to distract yourself from the feeling by burning your tongue with scalding hot coffee. It didn’t work.

“Are you doing anything today?” Minseok asked. There was a hint of nervousness to his voice. Much like you, he also chose to hide it by drinking coffee. The question sounded like an invitation. You were finally getting closer, so you didn’t want to reject him if it was an invitation.

“I have to work on my thesis, but I have coupons for a movie. They expire tomorrow, so maybe...” You fumbled for words. “If there’s anything worth seeing... I have two coupons. We could go together?”

“Yeah that sounds fun. I’ll check the schedule.” Minseok nodded, reaching for the coffee pot. “I’ve got soccer practice at twelve, so we could go around three thirty and maybe get dinner afterwards? They say it’s better to have dinner after the movie because you’ll have something to talk about.”

“And I forgot to get groceries.” You added, glancing at the cabinet you knew to be empty. “Sure. I’ll go take a shower now. Thanks for the coffee.”

“It’s no problem! Can you turn on the laundry after you shower? I put my reds in there, there’s still room for more if you have red things.” Minseok finished his coffee at the same time you did, and grabbed both mugs to put them in the sink. You nodded at him and grabbed your clothes, trying to remember if you had any red laundry.

“Will do. Do you have white laundry? Want to run one of those.” You said, stifling a yawn as you slipped off the stool. Maybe there was one red tank top in your laundry. You’d check it later. Minseok shrugged, running the mugs under increasingly warm water.

“Some of my underwear is white.” He looked a little uncomfortable talking about it. You couldn’t blame him, it’s awkward talking about underwear with people you weren’t related to, even more so if you kissed...- You rejected the thought by clearing your throat.

“See if you have any before you leave for soccer. I’d rather not leave it in the machine for too long after it’s done.” You stated curtly, then headed to the bathroom to avoid talking about the subject again. It was just fabric. There was nothing weird about it. There was nothing wrong about saving water and energy by combining laundry.

Minseok wasn’t in the living area anymore when you got out of the shower. You didn’t hear any noise from his room, but experience taught you that this didn’t mean he wasn’t in there. After checking your laundry, there was indeed a red tank top, you the laundry and were about to head into your bedroom to work on your paper when Minseok’s door opened and he came out carrying a sport’s bag. For a brief moment, you pondered on what he might look like wearing his soccer jersey. No. Bad Hana.

“I didn’t find any… Laundry.” He smiled, maybe due to nerves, but it was endearing anyway. You just nodded, reminding yourself that there was still nothing weird about doing laundry together when you share a living space. Laundry is laundry.

“Alright, good to know. Have fun at soccer!” You raised your thumb at him, feeling the blood creeping into your cheeks. Fortunately, Minseok was the kind of person to ignore your awkwardness when you ignored his. As you were once again considering your luck in having him as a flatmate, Minseok stopped on his way to the door and turned to you. You blinked.

He took another few steps towards you, stopping just short of touching you. It reminded you of the previous night, and your heart leaped. Crap. Were you catching feelings for him? He just stood there for a few moments, and the feeling worsened with every second that passed. Your face had to be entirely red by now. As you considered diving into your bedroom to hide and scream into a pillow, Minseok exhaled. It seemed like he finally came to a decision. At least you weren’t the only one feeling awkward, huh? The thought was encouraging enough to make you smile.

“I’d… You’d be welcome to come along some day but… I know you’re busy. But you’re welcome to come any time if you wanted to. If you’re not busy. I’m going now.” He laughed, then leaned closer to you and kissed your cheek.

Your heart jumped all the way up into your throat and your chest felt tingly and warm. He just kissed you. Short, shallow breaths, inhale three seconds, hold for three, exhale in three. You had to remind yourself, or you might have started hyperventilating. Minseok had already turned around and walked, or bolted, to the door before you could reach a hand up to touch the spot.

He kissed you. The butterflies swerved excitedly through your stomach, and you felt nearly lightheaded. This really wasn’t supposed to be happening. And yet you definitely weren’t asleep. Maybe Soojin would…- You couldn’t tell Soojin about this. She’d never stop making fun of you. The internet had to have answers.

The internet indeed had answers, but they were contradictory and none of them were helpful at all. After half an hour, you made a rational decision. Put it all in the ‘think about later’ box and focus on your paper. Your professor wanted an update on Monday, and you hadn’t written the 200 words you told yourself you would write every day.

Initially it was difficult to focus, but as you read and reread your literature reviews and sources, it became easier to submerge yourself in the issues of asthma patients during flu seasons as they had been changing in with the recent trend of influenza outbreaks. The keys on your keyboard clicked soothingly as you typed. You almost disliked pausing to formulate the next sentence.

You were flipping through a 16 page paper trying to find the data on flu-related pneumonia cases in asthma patients from 2016 when you heard your bedroom door open. Instantly, the nerves you’d been ignoring all came rushing right back. Especially when you noticed the water dripping, neatly, from Minseok’s hair onto the towel he’d wrapped around his shoulders. Why did wet hair make him look so good?!

“Oh, I didn’t hear you knocking.” You managed, paperclipping the paper together before putting it on your desk next to your laptop. Minseok raised a hand and knocked on your door before breaking into a smile at his own silliness. It helped, you also laughed. “Come in.”

“I’m sorry for interrupting you. Were you in the middle of writing? I really hope I didn’t make you forget what you were going to write halfway through! What are you working on? I mean, you said your thesis, but specifically… I mean… Eh… I can give you some time to finish up if you… It’s half past three, so…” He sighed and scratched his neck. “There’s a movie called House of Hummingbird, it looks like an interesting movie. It plays at four.”

“I was at the end of a paragraph, actually.” You shrugged, quickly hitting save on your document. “About to add a table, but I can do that later. Do we have time for tea before heading out?”

Your back felt stiff. You rolled your shoulders back to the satisfying crackle of your joints. Minseok looked unnerved at the sound, it had been louder than they typically were, but said nothing. He didn’t have to. His eyes did the talking. When he noticed you noticed him staring, he quickly turned to look through your room.

“Have you read all those books?” He asked in an attempt at an airy tone, gesturing at your bookshelf. “That’s a lot of books.”

“My bones just pop some of the time. The doctor says it’s nothing to worry about. Is it weird?” You asked, grabbing your cardigan from your desk chair and pulling it on. Minseok stiffened but said nothing as you approached him. “It doesn’t hurt, actually. Sorry for scaring you.”

“Does it happen a lot?” He gave you a cursory glance, then dug his hands in his pockets. That seemed to be a nervous habit of his. You decided not to question it and shrugged.

“Sometimes more than other times. I hear it a lot at night, but I’m not sure if I notice the popping more at night or if it actually happens more. So, that tea?” You batted your eyelashes at him, and he finally snapped out of it.

“We’ve got time for tea. I have… Actually, how about we have some tea in the cinema café?”

“I see I’m not the only one who forgot to do groceries. Maybe we can shop for groceries tomorrow?” You bumped your shoulder playfully against his. He answered in kind, then grabbed your hand. Something was definitely weird about this, you thought as you headed to the door. But it felt nice to be holding hands. After putting on your shoes, he went right back to holding your hand.

Holding hands, going out for drinks, a movie and then dinner… That sounded like a date. But this definitely wasn’t a date, right? Minseok would have said something like that if it was, right?