The first thing Sunggyu sees when he opens his eyes is another bright orange square. He flinches, the neon orange colour burning his eyes early in the morning and even seems to be glowing in the dark morning light.

If this goes on, he is going to be blind one day.

He shuffles out of bed, already having an idea in mind what he is going to do.

__________________

Woohyun wakes up to a certain weight on his head.

He sits up without even thinking twice to remove the certain weight, and it slides off his forehead and onto his bed, its fall cushioned by his blankets.

Woohyun feels around his bed, before his hand hits the mysterious item. He picks it up, feeling the squarish edges, and then he decides to open his eyes.

It’s a stack of post-its. In what Woohyun thinks is the most disgusting colour ever. It’s in a shade of disgustingly dark blue (Woohyun hates dark colours), and even the words written on the first piece are difficult to read.

He brings the post-its up to his eye level, and squints at it, trying to make out the handwriting on the top of the stack.

And then he gets it.

 ‘I hate bright colours.’

He stares from the message back to the dull purple post-it, and then back again to the message. Peeling off the top layer, Woohyun yawns, searching around for a pen. He finds one, abandoned on the ground.

Woohyun picks up the pen, hesitating for a moment before clicking it and writing on the second piece of post-it. He then proceeds to walk all the way to the other side of the room, where their shared table is located. Picking something off the table, he peels off the layer of the post-it that he has written on and pastes it on top.

When he’s done, he places the pen and his message on Sunggyu’s bedside table.

Woohyun reaches for his phone, and checks the time.

He has a busy morning ahead.

__________________

Woohyun raps his knuckles repeatedly against the typical wooden door of a dorm impatiently.

“Myungsoo!” 

The door creaks open by a crack, and Woohyun pushes at it, but it doesn’t give way.

“Shhh!” Myungsoo pokes his head out, putting up a finger to his lips as he opens his room door, indicating for Woohyun to keep his volume down. “Sungyeol’s still sleeping.” 

“Sorry,” Woohyun apologises, before trying to push his way through the small opening that Myungsoo has opened.

The door doesn’t give way. Woohyun can only guess that Myungsoo is being lame.

“I’m not letting you come in until you tell me why you’re disturbing me and Sungyeol.” Myungsoo says stubbornly, keeping his weight on the door so that Woohyun cannot enter.

Woohyun raises his eyebrows suggestively. “Disturbing you what?” 

He immediately regrets his choice of words when Myungsoo proceeds to squish his fingers between the door and the doorframe. Woohyun yelps in pain, trying to pull his fingers out of the deadly contraption only to let Myungsoo accidentally close the door a little bit more out of shock at his sudden high-pitched yell.

“Myungsoo!” Woohyun accuses the boy behind the door, who is starting to laugh, once his fingers are a safe thirty centimeters away from the door. Myungsoo snickers, his eyes a deadly mischievous glint, as he opens the door completely.

“Did that hurt, my poor darling? Do you want me to look at your fingers?” Myungsoo puts on a fake British accent, and despite his ‘pain’, Woohyun manages to crack a small smile at the bad imitation.

And then he decides to play along. “Please kiss it for me,” Woohyun says, lifting his knuckles up to Myungsoo’s face level. “My mother always tells me things that hurts get better with a kiss.”

Myungsoo smacks his fist away, a ghost of smile still evident on his face. “Are you coming in or what?”

“Don’t be so impatient,” he replies, pushing Myungsoo to one side and entering the shared dormitory. Woohyun blows lightly on his three swollen fingers, out of which the middle one seems to be swelling up the most, trying with little success to put himself out of more pain.

“You can find ice in the fridge,” Myungsoo directs him to the kitchen, while he takes a detour back to the beds. Woohyun watches the younger boy go as he attacks the refrigerator, stuffing several ice down a random plastic bag, pressing it against his swollen fingers.

He watches as Myungsoo picks up Sungyeol’s scattered blankets and places it down gently onto the sleeping male. Somehow, he finds the action oddly familiar.

“Are you somehow related to Kim Sunggyu?” 

Myungsoo lifts an eyebrow, obviously amused. He lets Woohyun’s question process in his mind for a few moments before snickering gently, walking towards him.

“What makes you think that I’m related to Sunggyu?” 

Woohyun keeps his silence, even if a million reasons on why Sunggyu and Myungsoo are related are running treadmills in his mind.

“Woohyun hyung, if you’ve been taking care of kids for a long time, helping to cover them with their blanket is nothing new,” Myungsoo smiles, patting his friend’s shoulder. “Don’t forget that little date we have next next week.” 

“I remember,” Woohyun mumbles. “Does Sunggyu do community service at the childcare center too?” 

“Something like that,” Myungsoo shrugs. “You wanted to ask me something?” 

“Oh, uh,” Woohyun smiles sheepishly. “Can you try to get Dongwoo to find me? Alone, preferably.” 

Myungsoo frowns. “Why do you want me to find Dongwoo? You see him every day.” 

“Yes, but he’s been avoiding me. I want to ask him stuff.” 

“Just some advice. Dongwoo is an  extremely sensitive person.” 

Woohyun doesn’t get the hidden message behind Myungsoo’s words, but he still nods anyway.

__________________

Woohyun is bored out of his mind.

It’s a Tuesday, and on Tuesday, he is almost all free. He doesn’t need to go for any lectures, and he’s alone, because all his other friends take up a million other courses or activities.

It makes him feel a little degraded, though, the fact that he’s learning lesser than the rest. 

So Woohyun (who is a little scared of losing out), decides to check out the library, goes there empty-handed.

He finds the library almost empty, except for a few hardworking students flipping extremely thick books, copying down notes, and several students that are hunching over the tables, enjoying whatever comfort the flat tables give in the form of sleep.

Perhaps he has been meeting up with Sungjong in the library too many times, but he makes his way through the maze of shelves to the table that they always frequent; the small, circular one at the back of the library. Every time they go there, the table is always empty. It is almost as though the area where the table sits is haunted with crazy ghosts, or infected with an infectious plague that kills, that somehow, no one else (as far as Woohyun sees) has claimed that table except for Sungjong and him.

But today, the table is occupied. And then Woohyun suddenly understands why the table is always deserted and empty.

He takes a split second to react before a smile takes over his neutral expression, and as he pulls out the seat directly opposite to whoever’s sitting there, he calls out, “hey Gyu.” 

Sunggyu doesn’t even bother looking up, but instead tears out a square of paper from the pad that he is writing on, scribbling furiously on it.

Finally he finishes writing on the paper, and with two fingers, slides it across to Woohyun who slides it to the end of the table to pick it up.

As usual, it takes him quite a long time to decipher Sunggyu’s scribbles.

For your information, this is a library. And it’s Sunggyu-sshi to you.

Woohyun smiles, noting that this is probably the longest Sunggyu has ever said to him, indirectly. He looks up, spotting that Sunggyu’s still writing with that pencil, and reaches out for one of the pens scattered on the table.

He doesn’t notice how Sunggyu starts glaring at him the moment he picks up the pen and writes a reply.

Sunggyu’s glare doesn’t stop even when Woohyun’s finished writing and is passing the note back to him, starting to spin Sunggyu’s pen with his fingers.

He drops the pen.

And then Woohyun can finally sense Sunggyu’s glare as he quickly ducks down to pick up the pen.

After he straightens up, he doubles back to find out that Sunggyu is still glaring at him. Woohyun lets the pen fall from his fingers, which he almost immediately finds out is a horrible choice when there is a sick sounding click when the pen hits the table.

Sunggyu snatches the pen back almost immediately. He flips open the note, and Sunggyu swears he has never been so exasperated in trying to talk to anyone before. Even with her, she’s so much more obedient than Woohyun.

But Sunggyu-sshi is too formal, Sunggyu-ah ㅠㅠ

He writes a reply that has hardly anything to do with what Woohyun writes,

Don’t touch my things.

When the paper reaches Woohyun, he frowns a little reading Sunggyu’s reply.

He picks up another pen that is loose from Sunggyu’s pencilcase, and writes quickly, before passing both paper and pen back to him.

But then how am I going to reply you?

Sunggyu’s reply is short. And annoying.

You’ll find a way.

Woohyun feels a small pout growing onto his face. He glances up to find out that Sunggyu has now kept all his pens securely in his pencilcase— the only thing he can use right now is the pencil in Sunggyu’s hands.

He snatches it right over, and when Sunggyu looks up, Woohyun is literally obliterated, if looks can kill.

Like what? I cut myself and write with my blood?

When Sunggyu flips the paper around, and he reads Woohyun’s short yet killer sentence, Woohyun senses a sudden change in atmosphere. The atmosphere is suddenly a lot more tense than before, and the neutral expression on Sunggyu’s face has dropped.

Instead, now in its place is a dark, unseeing expression.