Kibum stood in front of the mirror, fixing his messy eye make-up with the utmost concentration—“messing it up to perfection” he explained when Minho had bothered to ask. He usually didn’t because inquiries with Kibum often led to boring day-long explanations with no real point, sometimes accompanied by quotes and graphical representations on the elder’s tumblr. 

On the study desk, behind a pile of unopened and uncreased books, a voice loudly growled and screamed out its problems for the neighbors and the rest of the world in general to hear. The guitars wailed, the drums pattered a mad rhythm, and the chorus was no more than a series of constipated croaks.

"New band?" Minho asked with easily apparent disinterest, slumping with boredom on the edge of the mattress. 

Kibum whipped around and made his special (as Minho had labelled it) Claws of Excitement pose—his knees bent, his arms held out like a beggar’s, his mouth open in an oblong ‘O’. “You’ve no idea how good these guys are! They’re soooo good! If they come to Seoul I’m so gonna go, you know? I’m so gonna go~” his voice lowered in tone as he turned back around and returned his attention to his appearance.

Minho sighed and looked at the big dripping smear of black that was Kibum’s wall clock. “It’s 3:30, Bum. Can we please leave? We’re already an hour late. I have to come back and do my Bio homework...” He would’ve added an “and yours” but saved that argument for another time.

"Why’re you so bloody excited for a…"

"How many times should I tell you? Lecture on isotopes and their medical uses to cure cancer!" Minho supplied with exasperation, throwing his hands up in the air.

"Yeah. That."

"Because…!" Minho paused with a thick blush on his cheeks, trying to think of a reasonable answer that wouldn’t spawn doubt in the other’s mind. "Because… we have a chapter on it next term. A-and…" he pressed his lips together, smoothing his palms along his thighs.

"And?" Kibum finally turned around and blinked at him, his scarred eyebrow raised in question.

"And… Professor Jinki is the keynote speaker…" Minho mumbled in the direction of his lap, cheeks burning like a pot of boiling milk.