Saturday Afternoon, Winter Break

The boys' new apartment

"Now how about you tell us more about why you want to live here." 

Everyone looked expectantly at Minhyuk who laughed awkwardly.

"Ah well…the dorms were getting a little stuffy and I've been wanting to get away from the rest of my teammates but I can't afford to get a place by myself." Minhyuk explained.

Hyunsik nodded.

"Yeah we feel you about the dorms. But what's wrong with your teammates?" He asked.

Minhyuk sighed. 

"They've been a bit…hmm…how should I put it? I guess you could say they've been sort of cold towards me and it's getting stressful." He replied.

"Why is that?" Hyunsik pressed.

Minhyuk picked up a piece of chicken.

"It's kind of a sticky situation. See the coaches like to play favorites so they tend to give me special treatment and my teammates don't like it, which is understandable, but there isn't really much I can do to fix it."

"Hmm I see." Hyunsik said thoughtfully.

The others continued to ask Minhyuk questions while Changsub sat sulkily eating his chicken.

He felt slightly ticked off that Minhyuk wasn't the jerk he was anticipating him to be. On the contrary he seemed to be a perfectly nice guy. It really wasn't fair. How could a person be so good looking, athletic, friendly, and allegedly fond of cleaning on top of everything?

Changsub glanced at Chorong who was sitting beside him giggling at some bad joke Minhyuk was telling. She caught Changsub's eye and gave him a questioning look as if to ask "What's wrong?"

Changsub shook his head and brushed off the question. He half expected Chorong to go back to laughing at Minhyuk but instead she smiled and squeezed his hand reassuringly.

His heart softened.

"I'm being stupid…" He thought to himself.

The old Changsub probably would've lashed out and succumbed to jealousy but that wasn't the kind of person he wanted to be anymore.

He smiled back at Chorong and held her hand a bit tighter.

The conversation with Minhyuk carried on until the last of the chicken was gone and Eunkwang sat back with a rather loud burp.

"Oppa…how many times do I have to tell you to be more civilized when we're eating with other people?" Bomi scolded as she wiped a bit of sauce from his face with a napkin.

"Sorry." Eunkwang laughed.

He looked around at the group with a bright grin.

"Well I think we've found ourselves a cool roommate don't you think Hyunsik-ah? Changsub-ah?"

Hyunsik nodded in agreement and Changsub gave a noncommittal grunt.

"Hold on we didn't ask him about the girls yet!" Bomi interjected.

"Girls?" Eunkwang asked looking confused.

"Yeah the ones he's been giving money to and smuggling into the boys dorm." Bomi said with a conspiratorial twinkle in her eye.

Minhyuk blinked.

"Wait how did you…" He began.

"Bbom-ah…" Chorong whispered. "Can't you be a little more umm…subtle?"

"What? We were going to get to it sooner or later. We need to know what's going on." Bomi said.

She looked expectantly at Minhyuk.

"Well go on. You might as well explain yourself before we find out about your shady dealings from someone else."

"Woah slow down there must be some kind of misunderstanding I haven't been doing anything shady." Minhyuk said looking flabbergasted.

"Then what have you been doing?" Hyunsik asked.

Minhyuk looked around nervously.

"Can you guys keep a secret?" He asked.

"That depends on what it is." Hyunsik said.

Minhyuk sighed.

"Well not a lot of people know this but I'm actually really interested in learning music."

The group stared at him.

"You? Music? But you're the MVP of the athletics department!" Bomi said in disbelief.

Minhyuk chuckled sheepishly and scratched his head.

"Yeah it's kind of my secret side hobby but I'm apparently pretty bad at it."

"Wait but what does this have to do with the money and the girls?" Chorong asked.

"Oh…I've been paying them to give me lessons." Minhyuk said.

Everyone exchanged looks of surprise. This was a rather unexpected answer that nobody had anticipated.

"So Moon Byulyi…?" Bomi began.

"Is my cousin, she was teaching me piano but gave up after two lessons and said I was hopeless." Minhyuk replied.

"And Jang Seungyeon…?"

"She got me started on guitar but I stopped taking lessons from her after she tried to come on to me."

"Then what about that Thai exchange student?"

"Sorn? She was really good at guitar too but she didn't know all the musical terms in Korean very well."

"And Bang Minah?"

"Oh…Minah…"

Minhyuk paused and suddenly looked embarrassed.

"She told me to give up guitar too but I begged her to keep teaching me so I'm still meeting up with her every week."

"Wow…" Bomi said as she sat back with a dumbfounded expression.

"I hope that clears up your question." Minhyuk said hesitantly.

Bomi cocked her head to the side and furrowed her brow.

"It still doesn't make sense though, why would you need to sneak them into the dorm?" She asked.

"Yeah the music department practice rooms are always open during the day you could've used them." Eunkwang added.

Minhyuk sighed.

"I know…but I can't be seen at the music department because I don't want the coaches to think I'm getting distracted. And besides my training takes up so much time during school that I'm only free late at night."

"Hmm I see." Hyunsik said, his chin. "So that's why you've been sneaking them in so late. We all thought you were bringing them to your room to you know…"

"Oh my gosh is that what it looked like?" Minhyuk asked looking scandalized.

"Well yeah that's what the other guys in the dorm are always doing." Hyunsik replied.

"But I wasn't even taking them to my room." Minhyuk said.

"Well where were you taking them then?" Bomi asked.

Minhyuk hesitated then answered cautiously. 

"To the shed on the rooftop…?" 

"There's a shed up there?" Eunkwang blurted out, "How come nobody told me in three and half years of living in the dorms?!"

Hyunsik sighed and shushed Eunkwang.

"Hyung you're scared of heights. Why would you need to know what's on the roof of the dorms?" 

He looked over to Minhyuk.

"Keep going." He said.

Minhyuk nodded and continued talking.

"Yeah…anyways that's where I keep my guitar hidden. It's pretty secluded so nobody can hear my playing…or 'terrible twanging' as Minah calls it."

"Wow are you really that bad?" Hyunsik asked.

"I guess so." Minhyuk said with an awkward laugh. "That's why I was thinking if I moved in with you music majors maybe you could help me get better."

He looked hopefully at Eunkwang, Hyunsik and Changsub.

The three looked at each other and Hyunsik shrugged.

"Well I don't think it would hurt to give it a try." He said.

Eunkwang nodded and patted Minhyuk on the shoulder.

"Don't worry man I've got you covered on piano and Hyunsik's a bit of a genius with the guitar so I'm sure he can help you out and Changsubbie…"

Changsub quickly shook his head.

"No way! I'm not letting him anywhere near my guitar or my drumsticks." He said with a scowl.

"Changsub-ah that's not very nice..." Chorong chided.

Hyunsik quickly covered Changsub's mouth and gave Minhyuk an apologetic smile.

"Don't listen to him, he'll come around eventually. Won't you hyung?" He said with a meaningful look at Changsub.

Changsub rolled his eyes.

"Fine. Whatever. As long as he keeps up with the cleaning and stays away from my stuff." He mumbled from behind Hyunsik's hand. 

"Sure of course! I love cleaning, just leave it to me." Minhyuk replied.

Eunkwang smiled broadly and looked around at the group.

"Well I think we have a deal then." He said.

Minhyuk's face lit up and he grasped Eunkwang's hands.

"Thank you so much! Oh my gosh you don't know how excited I am I can finally learn from real music majors! When can I move in?" He asked. 

"Right away!" Eunkwang replied enthusiastically. "I'll call the landlord today so we can get you added to the lease."

"Perfect! Well I'd better get going so I can get my stuff ready then." Minhyuk said as he got up from the floor.

"Want me to take you downstairs?" Hyunsik asked.

"Oh no I'm fine, thanks though. I'll probably come by again sometime tomorrow so I'll text you if that's okay." Minhyuk said as he put on his shoes.

"Sure no problem." Hyunsik replied.

Minhyuk pulled on his jacket and turned around to the group.

"Well it was nice meeting all of you! I look forward to being friends!"

"Us too!" Said Eunkwang.

Minhyuk waved one last time then opened the door and left.

As soon as he was gone Bomi squealed and grabbed Eunkwang's arm excitedly.

"Daebak! You're going to be roommates with Lee Minhyuk!"

"I know right? He's so cool!" Eunkwang squealed back.

Changsub gave Eunkwang and Bomi a weird look while Hyunsik and Chorong laughed.

"You two are the strangest couple I've ever seen." Changsub said, shaking his head.

The group continued to their banter as they cleaned up and got back to work organizing the apartment that would soon become home to many more days of fond memories. 

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A/N  Well I must say there are too many stories about Minhyuk being the attractive bad boy stealing everyone else's girls so let's just take him down a notch and make him bad at playing instruments lol jkjkjk I'm sorry Minhyuk sweetie I love you too.