When Seunghoon gets kicked out of his apartment once again and ends up at her front door, Joohyun doesn't bat an eyelash. His roommates have always been super passive-aggressive and frankly she doesn't know how Seunghoon has the patience to deal with their antics. If she were him, she would just shoot lasers out of her eyes and knock some sense into them, but Seunghoon is the type to not mind drunk guys staying over with girls and leaving colossal messes behind. He just calls Joohyun over to help clean everything else afterwards, to which she reluctantly says yes because her knees become weak whenever he shows his aegyo.

So Seunghoon is leaning against the doorframe like usual, duffel bag slung over his shoulder, hair slightly disheveled. She rolls her eyes, dramatically gesturing him inside. "Don't live with them next semester," she tells him bluntly.

Seunghoon shrugs. "They're good friends."

Joohyun arches an eyebrow. "Yeah, what's better than throw-up on the carpet and inconsiderate boys who don't wash the dishes?"

He sighs. "Okay, whatever you say. Apparently you're the dictator of my life." He plops down on her couch that unfortunately has a stain from the last time he spilled salsa on the arm rest when he got too excited watching a romcom. He pats down the seat next to him and when she grudgingly complies, he slings an arm casually over her shoulder. "So what's up?"

"The sky," she deadpans because in truth she's kind of annoyed that she can't go to sleep early anymore. Seunghoon always ruins her plans.

Like that one time he came down with the flu the night they were going to attend their first concert together in sophomore year of high school. Or that other time he "accidentally" forgot that her phone was still in his jacket pocket when he went back home so she missed a call for a job interview. There were a lot of times, too many to count.

Seunghoon lets out a chuckle. "Oops, sorry. Did I accidentally ruin something again?"

There he goes, like he's reading her mind. 

She attempts her laser-eye stare (he's helping her perfect it because who knows, it might come in handy if some random guy tries to harass her, he dutifully says), but immediately loses her resolve when their gazes meet because there's that look in his eyes again.

You see, this is Seunghoon, her childhood best friend, the one she literally saw in diapers and shirtless, but back when she was a little girl and he was a little boy, it was completely normal for them. Normal for them to have water fights in the community swimming pool and hold hands sweetly while walking to kindergarten. Normal for them to do homework while sprawled on her bed and to share earbuds while listening to the latest music. Normal for them to call each other late at night with their joys and struggles, and for Seunghoon to wipe away her tears and for Joohyun to give him a massage whenever he pulled a muscle while dancing.

But this isn't normal, the way that she notices how he sometimes stares at her with a certain softness that wasn't there before, something that transcended just being friends. This isn't normal when all their years of high school they had watched each other crush on other people, rooting each other on when needed, even helpfully third-wheeling because they get nervous without each other sometimes. This isn't normal when she's pretty sure they'd agreed that they would stay best friends forever and the concept of one of them liking the other is out of the picture.

However, there he is, and she's caught in his deep stare, his arm still around her shoulders and it's starting to feel too warm in here. "What?" she asks, and it comes out as a squeak, unintentionally.

"Nothing," he replies, suddenly changing his demeanor and whipping out his cavity-inducing cute moves again. He flashes a peace sign and grabs for her laptop, to which he knows the password.

"You're so weird," she mutters, and she guesses that's precisely why she sticks around with him so long. How he's so crazy and four-dimensional (kind of like her, when she's in the mood and not around strangers) yet is also dependable and has his serious moments. Even if he does ruin her plans a little too often.

(She decides she's more than okay with staying up late with Seunghoon because at least he makes it entertaining with his endless stories, and she likes listening to his voice and making fun of him when the moment calls for it. 

Soon the night grows so old that they're both kind of delirious, but thank goodness that tomorrow's Saturday. Er, today, since it's already way past midnight.

They're both completely sober but they might as well not be because Seunghoon is laughing at his own joke and she finds it kind of funny too - this whole situation: Seunghoon laying across the couch and Joohyun somehow resting on his chest, all too aware of his heartbeat.

She swears she hears his heartbeat quickening but maybe it's just her own that's pounding in her ears.

Somehow the topic of conversation switches to their first loves, and he's teasing her with stories of sixth-grade Joohyun being smitten with the class president. But in her mind all she can think of is that maybe that class president dude wasn't her first love after all.

"Do you think we'll ever find 'the one'?" Seunghoon blurts out, his finger caught in a few strands of her hair.

She purses her lips. "Maybe. Hopefully." She looks up at him now but there's that stare again, and she has goosebumps.

"Can I ask you another question?" he says.

She nods, her eyes still trained on him.

"What if I think I finally found her?"

Her heart drops to her stomach, and a bitter taste creeps into . "You really think so?" she utters, a haphazard smile resting on her lips.

This time it's his turn to nod, the corner of his lip turning up in a smirk. His hand finds his way toward hers, and she's surprised at how they still fit together perfectly, like back when they were five. 

"Yeah," he breathes. "I think I found her. Wish I'd figured it out earlier or had the courage to do something about it because I had her right next to me this whole time."

She lets out a breath she didn't even know she was holding and smacks him on the chest only to realize that wow, okay, he must have been making more trips to the gym because those muscles -

He yawns and it's totally unhandsome of him but she kind of likes it. Likes him, she means. 

"Yeah, okay," is all she says. And none of them makes a move to unclasp their hands so they fall asleep like that, her head on his chest at 4am in the morning. 

They had never planned to fall in love, she thinks now, but since when did things ever go according to plan with Seunghoon? Not too often, but for once she doesn't quite mind.)

a/n: wrote this for the kpop-het ficathon a while ago. suhhh cute.