Chen woke up to the warm glow of sunlight streaming through his windows, an unusually peaceful awakening for him. Birds were chirping outside his second-story window and a cicada buzzed in the heat. His arms were folded loosely across his pillow, hands behind his head in a relaxed ease. Yes this would have been a rather nice way to wake up had it not been for one thing.

He sighed. It was probably a bad thing for him to have gone to bed shirtless last night but he couldn’t help it. It was extremely hot this summer, too hot for him to bear, and he concluded that he had no choice but to go to bed without a shirt. And he sighed again as he realized, in his situation, that it wasn’t a good idea to wear only his boxers instead of his usual pajama pants. He also probably could have woken up cool too — at least, that was the intended plan. But too-warm arms wrapped around his waist, a muscled torso only covered by a thin t-shirt pressed against his side, and he could feel almost-even breaths just under his armpit. Without even looking over, he opened his mouth and spoke to the boy that clung so tightly to his chest.

"Tao, get off me."

He didn’t reply to his hyung, but Chen heard his breathing pattern shake a little and he nudged the boy’s head. “Tao, I know you heard me. Get off.”

Tao’s face contorted a little in annoyance and he groaned. “But hyung feels cool.”

"Yeah, well you don’t so get off." Tao groaned louder as Chen lifted his arm off his bare chest and went to get off the bed.The younger boy turned over onto his back and yawned loudly. Chen pulled on a pair of black sweatpants and walked over to the window. He pulled back the curtain and pushed it open.

"Hyung, is it Sunday already?" Tao squinted through the light that now flooded into their room.

"Yep." Chen glanced over and then immediately looked away. Tao’s bed was perfectly neat; untouched. "Did you…how the…when…why the hell did you sneak into my bed?"

Tao sat up and shrugged casually. He threw his elbow over his head and stretched. “You were having nightmares. It looked scary so I came over.”

Jongdae scowled. “Whatever…just…don’t do it again.”

A little whine escaped Tao’s throat. The two are college roommates. Highest grade in the class, two prodigies, two geniuses. Their room is set up like such: two beds on opposite sides of the room and two desks facing the wall on their side. They do their work at the same time, on their own respective desks, every day after classes. They always finish early, go out for dinner together, and get perfect grades nonetheless. They have the easy way up the scale of life without even trying too hard. And even though they were top of the class, they’re personalities probably couldn’t get any different.

On the outside, Chen was the mature one, only cracking jokes around the few friends he had, not including Zi Tao, his roommate, of course. He wasn’t very popular, being more quiet in the classroom than most and didn’t like to mess around when it came to school work and his future. He was gentle, he was kind, and people respected him for what the face he put up in class but they avoided him in a sense -- his silence was too hard to understand.

Tao, on the other hand, was the social butterfly of the two, always surrounded by girls and guys alike. He had the charismatic smile, the princely charm, the right movements and words and the attitude of someone who naturally fits in. Something about him -- his face, his body, his aura -- drew people in like moths to a flame and this was something Chen wished for himself. But he knew better.

In the dorms, the both of them were entirely different people. Chen was a leader, a bit cruel and strict but he cared for Tao. He cared enough to know not to be gentle on him, to not go easy on him. Tao was more childish, mischievous, and he wanted to be babied and spoiled by his hyung. In the dorms, Tao claimed Chen for himself. Jongdae was Tao's silent, mysterious prince-like hyung, his and his alone. And he did not like his things to be taken away.

So when Chen seemed to be gaining popularity at some point, Tao refused to let this happen. He became more clingy and even more persistent than before.

"Hyung, it's Sunday." Tao said, still sitting on the bed. His shirt was twisted up from having rolled around a bit before and his right shoulder was exposed. He didn't make the slightest attempt to fix it.

Chen rolled his eyes. "Tao, didn't I just say that? Fix your shirt."

Tao didn't budge. "Let's go out today."

"God, Tao, look at your desk." He proceeded to walk over to the younger boy's workspace and pretend to tidy things up.

"Stop avoiding the question, Chen-hyung. Let's go out."

"No."

"But why--" But before Zi Tao could even finish his question, Chen was out the door and the maknae was left hanging, clutching the white bed sheets beneath his finger tips.

--

He escaped to the bathroom and hurriedly splashed water on his face. He hated when his roommate brought anything about dating up. Chen sighed as the water dripped down his prominent cheekbones, his nose, his chin. It chilled him to the bone and he let his head drop as he shut off the faucet.

When he returned to the dorm some twenty minutes later, Tao was gone and the bed was neatly made. There was a sticky note on the pillow:

Meet you at cafe at 2 for the usual

Chen stuffed the sticky note into his pocket. He ran his fingers through his hair over and over again and let himself scowl. He keeps forgetting. It's Sunday. He checked their mini fridge quickly, making a mental list of ingredients for the next few days and departed to the grocery store nearby, determined to busy himself if no one else would.

--

"And then he pretended not to hear me," Tao grabbed a potato chip and flung it into his mouth. "And then he coldly rejected me and walked away." His eyes brows furrowed together in an annoyed fashion as he looked at his friend, Kris, for guidance.

Kris looked back at him, smirking, then leaned forward, cupping the boy's face in his hands. "You know," he whispered, trying to be seductive. "You could always just come to me."

Tao stared back at Kris with a fire in his eyes. "Kris-ge, don't kid with me."

Kris sighed and let go. "Yeah, I know." He tipped one side of his mouth up and folded his hands in his lap as he leaned back in his seat. They were sitting on a metal chairs set up near the restaurants on campus, a table between them and an umbrella above to shield them from the sun.

Tao whined, a high pitched noise that escaped his throat as he let his head fall back all the way. He closed his eyes and waited for his ge-ge to say something.

"Why don't you just go for it?"

Tao sat up quickly. "What?" His eyes were wide open and Kris let his smirk grow even more smug.

"Why don't you just take him?"

--

Jongdae tapped his foot impatiently under the glass table, though it was his fault for coming early. He checked his watch. 1:58. He tapped his foot some more. The bell over the cafe door clanged. And in walked a tall, sharp-eyed, cat-lipped boy. Chen smiled and waved him over. Tao seemed to light up as he saw his hyung sitting there waiting for him.

"Ready to go?" Chen stood up.

"Yup!" The younger boy nodded.

Sunday was their hangout day. They both has their own group of friends, their own -cliques-, but those groups didn't wander around together and so Chen and Tao's only times together as friends were Sundays. Saturdays were work days. Sundays was for lunch at their favorite restaurant, an opinion which they seemed to share. Sundays was for milkshakes at the ice cream place which was extremely underrated in Tao's opinion and just much too sweet for Chen. Sundays was for a movie at the old theater a few blocks down, most of the time an old horror film to end the day and start the week. The cafe was simply a meeting spot, sometimes used as more on colder wintery days. But in this heat, they moved on to the restaurant.

It was somewhat of a tradition to eat lunch this late. They were used to it and it came to them as a natural thing, to eat lunch at 2 PM. They used the morning and the first two hours of the afternoon as their own time until they finally had to meet up.

At about 3:30, the two left the restaurant, full and content, but still had enough space for milkshakes. Lunch had been the usual; they order the same thing every week. That, like the timing, was a tradition in itself. They walked a couple blocks, letting themselves get their mind and stomach off of the recent meal and walked into the ice cream place. Tao smiled once he walked in and they were greeted by Kim Minseok, or "Xiumin", who owned the store with great pride.

"Hey, you guys. The usual?" He grinned at them. Tao nodded enthusiastically and Chen gave a smile and a wave. Xiumin was as sweet as the ice cream he served here and so even though Chen had some opinions about the ice cream itself, he had nothing to say about the man that owned it.

They were handed two milkshakes and they paid with exact change. Xiumin continued cleaning up a few tables as Chen and Tao sat down at the same spot they always did and slurped up their chocolate malt and strawberry -- the chocolate for Tao and the strawberry for Chen. They chatted quietly, sometimes talking about friends, events, and gossip and sometimes discussing more educational topics -- theorems, literature, sciences. They enjoyed debating with each other in a more lighthearted way, casually proving each other wrong and bringing up each their own point. When they finished with the drinks, they threw the plastic cups away and waved Xiumin goodbye, who smiled at them until they were out the door.

The movie was probably the best part of their Sunday traditions. It was almost 4:20 by now, having spent their precious time at the ice cream parlor and they walked leisurely to the movie theater, arriving at a precise 4:30. It was almost empty and the bought their tickets, both of them immediately agreeing on the new horror film that had come out a few days past. Chen used his money to buy popcorn and Tao bought the drinks.

"Hyung, what we usually get, right?"

Chen have him a look. "Wouldn't think of getting anything else."

"I was just checking..." And indeed, he checks every week just in case his hyung decided to buy something different.

Tao liked to observe Jongdae in a living fashion. The same drinks, the same flavors, the same toppings, the same styles of cooking. Chen was a man who liked to keep things the way they were, who wasn't used to change. Tao imagines that moving into college must have been difficult for him.

The maknae orders the two slushies, small since they just had milkshakes. (Apart from being great geniuses, the two also had great appetites.) He handed Chen his just as Chen got the large popcorn he ordered. They both felt that ordering separate containers of popcorn was useless; they only really needed one large. Having gotten everything they needed, they walked into the theater and sat in the back to wait for the movie to start.

Tao and Chen both were deathly scared of horror movies which probably explained why they loved it so much. Chen loved the thrill his heart got, something about the loud thumping, something about the way it made his mind race. And Tao loved that he was the only one Chen would let see this side of him.

The movie started out good. As good as a lonely girl walking around a haunted school at night could get. And when the ghost finally showed up, drenched in blood, Chen jumped in his seat with a gasp and grabbed Tao's shoulders. Tao felt his shirt clench up in his fingers and tension in his muscles. He looked over at Chen, wide-eyed, who was staring at the screen with intent focus. His hands stayed on the younger boy's shoulders for a good five minutes. Tao wondered if Chen even realized that he was still holding onto him. Then he thought of Kris's words.

And he leaned over and kissed his hyung.

Chen breathed in with a gasp and tasted the younger boy's lips against his. "Tao, what the-"

He was interrupted as Tao pressed his lips to his again. Chen squeezed his eyes shut. "Tao, dammit." Then he kissed back. The two of them stayed like that, letting their hidden and not-so-hidden feelings flow out in the darkness of the movie theater.

They finally pulled back and the both of them were breathing hard, staring into each other's eyes. "Chen-hyung, why did you never.... Why did you never say anything?"

Chen kissed him hard again. "Dammit. Dammit. You were never supposed to know."

Tao smiled and kissed his hyung lightly, trying to savor every kiss, every moment with him. "Now I do."