Taemin had almost nodded off on the bus back home. He'd had a long day at college, trying to finish off an experiment along with his assigned partner–and secretly his crush–Minho. It wasn’t because the task was hard or the equipment was giving them a tough time, but it was Taemin who grew distracted every now and then, too lost yet focused on Minho’s lips and his bobbing Adam’s apple, instead of counting the pendulum oscillations.

It was Minho’s small habit to read to himself in low whispers and Taemin was extremely grateful that Minho was too engrossed to notice how obviously smitten he was.

That little moment of his lips pressed together before he pouted and bit into his lower lip, his brows furrowed in concentration as he pondered over the experiment, kept replaying in Taemin’s mind. The way he pushed his bold frame up his nose and ruffled his messy, wavy hair...just made him far more adorable than he always was.

His fantasy broke when the bus encountered a speed bump and he realized he was smiling too goofily. He sat up, getting a little embarrassed as he discreetly glanced around him, hoping no one had caught him being silly. When he was sure the other passengers were too busy to have noticed him, he adjusted himself in his seat and rested his head against the bus window, trying to conceal his flushed face from any future gazes.

The bus came to a halt at the red light and Taemin yawned, looking at the many billboards that had come into his view. They had been empty until recently and Taemin’s interest was piqued. His eyes casually glanced over the bunch but returned to the one that had an underwear model that was also holding a perfume of the same brand as the briefs he was wearing. When Taemin realized he had been staring a few seconds too long, he quickly averted his gaze in embarrassment. But his eyes eventually returned to that particular billboard and he discreetly glanced at the hunk posing in nothing but briefs.

Gosh, he shouldn't have glanced. The guy had one heck of a body and damn… his junk.

One thought led to another and Taemin began wondering how Minho’s body was and if he was that big.

He blushed furiously, having no control of how wild his thoughts had become. Somehow he grew angry in his confusion and glared at the underwear model in the billboard, his gaze finally focussing on the model’s face–or half face, since it was cut off only to show the smile.

He was just thoughtlessly staring but suddenly a wave of strange familiarity washed over him and he blinked, thinking that he was seeing wrong. He blinked again, thinking his weird and thirsty thoughts were just making him see things.

But no.

That smile looked a lot like Minho’s. Or to be precise, it was the shape of his plump lips. The upper one was smoothly curved and thicker than the bottom one.

He stared at it more, finding familiarity in the unfamiliarity.

The shape of his chin and the cheeks, the neck, the protruding Adam’s apple… but the moment he focused more on his smile and his lips, he was 100000% sure...because it had been that very smile he had fallen for and it had been those very lips he had fantasized kissing almost every day. But again… he could be mistaken–or deluded was the better word for it. Maybe, he was just imagining this scenario after finding some similarity between Minho and the underwear model all because he was so ually frustrated and insanely attracted to Minho.

“,” Taemin sunk into his seat, his cheeks burning and his imagination growing wilder when he realized that if by any chance, he wasn’t deluded and was right… then that body and that bulge in those tight briefs very well belonged to Minho. “Damn you, Choi Minho.” He whispered to himself heatedly, grabbing his bag and putting it in his lap, hiding the effect his wild thoughts were having on him.

Taemin had 3 hours of lab work the next day. That meant though he could avoid Minho during the rest of the day, he couldn’t avoid him at all in the lab. They were partners, after all. And had a lot of pending work (all thanks to his own self). He didn’t want to avoid Minho. He really didn’t. But it was all because of that stupid billboard that had put the image of Minho in nothing but briefs in his mind and it was now embedded there. It hadn’t given him a wink of sleep last night, unable to think about anything else. He had always imagined Minho to be soft and squishy and just too adorably handsome… but after that billboard sighting and his vivid imagination, he just couldn’t erase the suspicions that maybe Minho was that underwear model.

He was too embarrassed to face Minho, not only because of how flustered he would now possibly get in his presence but also because of how guilty he felt for at the reminiscence of the billboard image (but with a full face) last night. He was losing his cool just at the thought of facing him.

He was so caught up in his own mind that he didn’t realize that he had already reached his lab and Minho had taken the seat beside him.

“Hey.”

Taemin flinched at the greeting, finally pulled into reality… and also right into the situation that he had been frantically planning to avoid for the good of his heart. His body trembled just slightly because Minho’s voice–damn–his voice… he was suddenly more sensitive to it. That gentle, deep voice; it tickled his senses.

“Hi,” Taemin managed to reply, his voice squeaky. He closed his eyes in embarrassment, trying to focus on his laboratory record book so he could push away every other thought from his mind. But somehow his mind was now even more incoherently wild… because his crush was sitting beside him. His crush, who was possibly a really y underwear model. Who was probably sitting beside him, wearing those same tight briefs from the billboard. Oh Gosh, he really needed to do something about how shamelessly his brain thought of such erted things.

When he had pulled himself out of his wild thoughts, he glanced discreetly at Minho who was reading through their lab procedures. Taemin couldn’t help but stare and savor every little detail of his. And he couldn’t help but get surer that the billboard model was him, so him. And with that, he just couldn’t take the whole scenario out of his head. A studious, cute yet dorky Minho who was secretly a super hot underwear model.

It was understandable why he’d want to hide it. Not because it was anything wrong or forbidden. They were masters students and Minho was a couple of years older than him–23 to be exact–and though they were enrolled full time they were allowed to work part time. Taemin figured Minho was keeping it a secret because he liked peace and mundanity. He was just too simple and soft. The way he focused in classes and tried to take part in everything, he probably wouldn’t get to do it the same way if his secret was out. Firstly, because he would get crazy popular.

His iness would probably attract hordes of people and Taemin knew there was nowhere to go but up from there. People would start noticing his other traits, his talents, his charms, and his cute flaws, and would fawn over him more and more (just like him). So it was probably for the best that it was a secret and it was only Taemin that knew. He smiled to himself, returning to his lab work before he would be caught staring.

They had somehow finished that day’s experiments successfully and when they were packing up, Minho stopped short and though Taemin noticed, he didn’t raise his gaze to look at him, because if he looked at him right away, without collecting himself, he would just give away his heart in his eagerness.

“Um, Taemin?”

Taemin looked at him then, his heart racing thinking about what Minho had to say to him. He probably was going to tell him to pay more attention or read through the formulae properly. Taemin had been a little more distracted than usual today, after all.

“You probably heard about the dance that our seniors are planning for us, right?”

Taemin blinked, “Yea-Yeah…”

“I was just wondering,” Minho paused for breath, his demeanor streaking with a flustered nervousness, “If you would go with me?”

Taemin’s mouth fell open slightly as he thought over his words. He blushed, “You-you mean...as in…” He breathed, “As in…?”

“Yes,” Minho answered him. He was blushing a bit too, getting more nervous all of a sudden at Taemin’s response, “Um...you can answer me by the next lab,” He began frantically packing his bag again, “No pressure.”

Taemin just blinked, feeling his heartbeat resonate in his ears, “Oh… okay.”

Minho left after saying goodbye and Taemin watched him leave, biting back the huge smile beginning to take over his face.

Taemin was late to college, and he hurried into class, way out of it, only to find the entire class goofing around. There was a faculty meeting, so the lecture was canceled. Half of the students had left the classroom to get some snacks and roam around campus but Taemin just decided to relax in his seat, to catch his breath. He had literally woken up only 10 minutes ago, gotten ready in a hurry, and ran to class.

Kibum was sitting beside him, turned away, and was talking to a bunch of people. Taemin had noticed them talking about some recent issue of a fashion magazine that Kibum (and maybe those people too) religiously followed. Kibum was his friend from high school–they weren’t close then, but they became friends in college since they were the only familiar faces to each other. Kibum quickly made new friends, but it was hard for Taemin. He had people he talked to in every class, but that’s what it all was. No hanging out together after class, no grand weekend plans. Taemin couldn’t care less though. He liked his peaceful evenings at the dorms–it was when he actually studied. And during the weekends he always went back home anyway.

And though at times he refused Kibum’s offers of going to a cafe or to the karaoke, he was always left with the thought that he’d love to go out to these places if it was Minho he was going with. After all, that stupid lab… it was a zero-credit one… he had decided to bunk it every other week, but he was going there regularly only because of Minho.

He really did a lot of things that were out of his zone for Minho. Things that were silly too. Earlier that week, he’d hit the mall after classes so he could go check out the perfume advertised by the underwear model. Not because he wanted to buy it but because he wanted to check if it matched the scent Minho wore. And it did.

Suddenly, Kibum shook his shoulder, making him straighten up, and Taemin looked at him, slightly annoyed. Kibum was leaning in, a little excited smile on his face as he asked, “This model… doesn’t he look like the guy who’s your lab partner? Minho, right? I know there’s just a partial face but the resemblance is uncanny!”

Taemin blinked his annoyance away at the mention of Minho and glanced at what Kibum had pushed toward him. The magazine. A full-page picture of an underwear model holding an elegant perfume bottle. Fortunately, only the partial face was captured in the picture. It was the same he had seen on the billboard.

Taemin’s heartbeat quickened. After all the evidence (?) he had discovered, he knew it could be Minho and as the only one who probably knew, he now had the responsibility of guarding the secret. He just couldn’t let these guys find out if it happened to be true. Because there was a reason no one knew nor Minho was open about it (yet). The face being cut off that way in the magazine was also probably for a reason.

“Really?” Taemin pretended to analyze it, squinting.

One of the guys standing around their bench leaned down and peeked into the magazine, “Don’t tell me even you think this guy looks like that nerd.”

Taemin kinda panicked. He had been trying to figure out a way to say that he didn’t see it without sounding rude or obviously smitten. But damn his stupid, panicked,