For Hansol's 19th birthday, Byungjoo gave him a pair of slippers. It wasn't a particularly attractive pair of slippers, it was just a pair of red flip-flops with black straps and some sort of line patterns as part of the design. Ultimately, it reeked of nothing but road-side store and clearance sales.

And despite Hansol's endless preaching on how the branded bag he bought the younger for his birthday earlier that year probably cost more than a dozen times the price of the pair of slippers without the discount, Byungjoo still felt satisfied with himself for actually thinking of that up.

For the past year, Hansol had been strictly following the self-set T&Cs for the pair of sneakers he always wore, one that he wore even if it was only a visit to the void deck of their dormitory building to receive some free item from the university. If they were lucky, there'd be some left for them, but more often than not, there weren't and the two of them would have a meal coupon less than the others.

Sometimes, Byungjoo wondered if Hansol ever heard of the concept of double knotting, so that his shoelaces wouldn't fall off every 3 steps he walked and cause their time to be delayed by at least 30 seconds, which included the time Hansol would take to untie and retie until his knot was perfect, with no side longer than the other. Each trip, Byungjoo felt that there were at least 5 minutes delayed from Hansol's little pet peeve of uneven knots.

When he went out to pick a birthday present for Hansol with Jiho, he was surprised on how only a week had passed since the month started and he was already running out. He originally planned to buy a wrist watch or something, but now that his wallet screamed otherwise, he dragged Jiho along with him to one of the streets near their university compound to shop for something that Hansol would most probably like or at the very least, use.

The moment the two walked past the shoe store, Byungjoo dragged Jiho inside in hopes of another pair of sneakers. Yet, after almost 20 minutes of trying on something and looking at every available shoelace-sneaker combination, Byungjoo decided that it was a horrible idea for two reasons- the designs and Byungjoo didn't need an extra hour added in to whenever they had to leave the house so Hansol could choose which pair looked the best for the day.

Sitting on the shelf the two were back facing was three pairs of slippers of similar designs but different colour schemes, and the moment Byungjoo turned around, he realised that those were precisely what he had been looking for, not that it met all the conditions in terms of pricing, aesthetics or anything, rather, it was the fact that it was the best alternative Byungjoo could think of to Hansol's sneakers. That it was only a slip of Hansol's foot and voilà, no waiting time for him to perfect his shoelaces and no waiting time in the midst of their trips for further shoelace perfecting. It was a convenient wear-and-go.

It had been 6 months since Hansol's rather large scale birthday party and despite the blushes of embarrassment on Byungjoo's cheek when Hansol opened his gift box (after Sehyuk's fountain pen and Sanggyun's designer shirt), even the cheapest gift before his was a rather decent snapback, Byungjoo found himself feeling much better about himself when the two managed to go first in line when all the complimentary items were sent in.

Since then, Hansol too, actually liked the idea of a pair of slippers, while they were not particularly pretty or smart on him, they were very, very convenient. He himself realised that there was no more need for him to check his feet every 20 minutes in case his shoelaces fell off. And he grew attached to the pair of slippers, even wearing them to lessons when he realised that dress codes did not seem to affect the students or teachers anymore. Sometimes he saw Sangwon and Sanggyun reporting in pajamas barefoot, so he was sure slippers would not really get him into the biggest of troubles.

That day, the two of them needed to get to Jiho and Hojoon's dorm at the other end of the dormitory compound to complete a group project, and as usual Hansol slipped into the pair of slippers and Byungjoo slipped into his that was of the same design – but was pink with purple straps – that he bought last week.

While Byungjoo's slippers were still as good as new, Hansol's had seen the cruelty of the real world and was suffering the effects of wear and tear. The grooves of the slippers were practically non-existent and by now, the bottom of the flipflops that had previously looked like a washboard had become as smooth as silk.

In any dry conditions, the pair of worn-out slippers would function just fine. "Non-slip", however, in wet conditions, would go completely "high-slip" and that was precisely the problem. On that very day itself, there was a heavy downpour and Hansol struggled choosing between walking quickly or not slipping.

The sheltered walkways were extremely narrow and the strong currents of wind had caused the rain to pour in, which deemed the shelters as good as useless. The fact that the floor was made of ceramic tiles made it even worse as Hansol now had an additional mission of ensuring the pair of slippers didn't slip off the ground or off his foot.

"Byungjoo... Can I hold on to you?" Hansol finally gave up as he stood in an awkwardly hunched position, holding on to one of the poles that was there to hold up the shelter. Initially hesitant due to the fear of rejection, he kept his head down and pouted a little, cheeks tinting pink. "The slippers... are slippery..." he added on, pointing downward, feeling slightly guilty for probably making the younger feel bad over his birthday present.

Hansol could hear the splashes of the puddles as Byungjoo approached him after letting out a simple "sure." Head still kept down, his line of sight followed his roommate's hand as he grabbed his wrist and placed it on his shoulder. His face was heating up and he knew that the intensity of it wasn't exactly just pink anymore. "Are you ok? I'm going to walk now."

Nodding in acknowledgement, and for the sake of telling Byungjoo he was fine, he pulled his left foot out of the water and proceeded with the trip to Jiho's. Eventually, his hand wasn't resting on Byungjoo's shoulder anymore. It was their fingers intertwining and each time he slipped, the other would tighten his grip and his cheeks would go a shade darker and his heartbeat would accelerate so much that he needed a moment to catch his breath.

He swore he was only embarrassed and shocked, but he wasn't ready to point out that Byungjoo's face was also reddening to the point he looked alcoholic.

Letting out a huff, he lifted his foot up to take his next step. Instead, he ended up slipping more miserably than all the previous times combined.

There was an awkward and tense atmosphere between them for a moment after the slip, and this created a distance between them as arms fully stretched out when Byungjoo started walking a bit faster than Hansol.

This caused Byungjoo to pull a bit too hard a bit too late during the slip and Hansol ended up falling to the ground before there was any time for them to react and Byungjoo fell right on top of him, the impact and the suddenness of everything just caused their lips to crash together for approximately 13 seconds, they were both stuck with no idea what to do before Byungjoo stood up and offered his hands to pull Hansol up.

This time, Byungjoo had his head hung low while Hansol pulled his soaked shirt that was now sticking to his back out a little.

"Sorry for dragging you do-."

"Sorry for not pulling you up in ti-."

The simultaneous apology had them staring at one another for a longer time than they had wanted to, with Byungjoo awkwardly playing with his fingers and Hansol scratching the nape of his neck just as awkwardly.

After what seemed like eternity, Byungjoo figured that they needed to get to Jiho's soon and he finally decided upon a solution. Softly tugging on Hansol's sleeves, he kicked his left slipper out and pointed to Hansol's. "That... I... uh... Wear..." He then ruffled his hair in frustration before letting out a loud huff and repeating what he wanted to say, "I'll take your left slipper, so you can... take mine." And Hansol did.

This had made things a lot easier and Byungjoo mentally slapped himself for not offering his slipper earlier, though both of them still slipped countless times afterwards, there was no more falling incidences as much as they hoped for it to occur again.

"So, you guys weren't flushed away by the rain, were you?" The two of them raised their heads to Jiho and Hojoon sharing an umbrella while holding on to one that was closed, with Jiho raising his eyebrows and chuckling once he looked down to see an awkward pink-black combination.

Hojoon tossed the closed umbrella over and Byungjoo attempted to catch it, almost slipping if not for Hansol's tug before the four of them proceeded on to Jiho and Hojoon's dormitory to complete their project.

-

From then on, Byungjoo made timely reminders to himself that every three months, he would buy Hansol a new pair of slippers. This later became a monthly thing as Byungjoo still wondered why he would sometimes return to the dorm to Hansol scraping the slipper against their dormitory door.

And each time, he ensured that the color he chose matched the one he wore.