"No, Lay! You're going to burn it!"

            "It has to cook for a few more minutes!"

            "You said that seven minutes ago. Give me the spatula, Yixing!"

            "No, it's--ow--Minseok--hold on--it's mine!" Lay yelped and tugged with all his might on his spatula. Unfortunately, Minseok was stronger and tugged back. Fighting in a small kitchen that could barely fit two in a suffocating dorm was never a great decision, and the consequences that followed through usually led to injuries or messes--or both. The two pulled at the same time, Minseok stronger, and Lay's hold on the spatula slipped. The former stumbled backwards, his socks slipping against the wooden floor. Before falling, he made sure to grab ahold of Lay's shirt.

            Lay let out a strangled yelp as he too fell forward. He scrambled to grab onto the counter. His hands knocked against the bowl of pancake batter, and the result was two young men, one on top of the other, on the kitchen floor, with pancake batter splattered over their heads and bodies.

            Minseok groaned, both at Lay's heavy body and the hard floor. He didn't notice the pancake batter at first. Lay, however, did, and despite the mess, he tentatively brought his dirtied hand to give a taste at the batter. Minseok wrinkled his nose. "Yixing, that's gross. Don't do that."

            Lay sniffed, but refused to get off of Minseok. "Don't call me that. And this is all your fault."

            "My fault? You were burning our breakfast!"

            "Who's the cook around here, ge? All you can do is boil ramen!"

            "I am not the one who used up three pancake mixes because the first two mixes had too much or too little water."

            Lay scowled. Still sprawled on the floor, they took a moment to judge very hard at each other's appearances. Some of the batter was already drying on their skin, and most of it slid down their faces and smeared its path. They burst into laughter. It was kind of ridiculous; two grown men tangled on the floor with a rather peculiar substance over their bodies. Minseok wrapped his arms around Lay's waist and pressed a kiss to Lay's batter-covered nose. Lay tried moving off, but his foot slipped on some water he spilled, and he went down onto Minseok again. Groaning, he laid still, completely giving up for the morning.

            "Lay?"

            "Hm?"

            "You do know you weigh more than me, and you're crushing my spine, right?"

            "Yeah."

            The pancake on the stove was forgotten.

            Until it burst into flames. That got the two men scrambling, slipping, falling, and repeat until they were finally able to extinguish it.

            After much needed showers, Lay flopped onto his bed, hair still wet. "Now what? It's twelve, we don't have breakfast, and I'm hungry."

            "We can go grab an early lunch instead when our new roommate comes later," Minseok offered. He dug through their mini refrigerator and threw an iced green tea at his boyfriend. "For now, fill yourself up with this."

            Lay scrambled for the tea. It wasn't his favorite, but close enough. He felt his bed dip as Minseok also jumped onto his bed and situated himself against the wall. Lay's feet settled onto his lap.

            "Why do we even have a third roommate?" Lay asked forlornly, after taking a long sip and glancing at the empty bed at the far right. Minseok's bed was in the middle of the two. "We requested each other as roommates."

            "We are roommates," Minseok reminded. "Just . . . we didn't consider we'd be put in one of the bigger dorms for three people."

            "I hope he's nice," Lay wished. Then he got excited. "Maybe he's a dancer! Then he can join our group, right, Minseok?" Minseok, used to his boyfriend's quixotic thinking, shrugged.

            "I just know that if he's homophobic, he's sleeping in the bathtub."

            Luhan wished his friend wasn't so short, or so . . . Korean. It was hard to depict him from the crowd full of Koreans (with an occasional foreigner), despite the description Chen gave him of his clothes. It turned out Chen was twenty minutes late, and a wave of passengers just exited from their flight. After searching for two minutes, Luhan was starting to get irritated.

            Deep breaths, one, two, you can yell at Chen later.

            "Hyung! Hyu-u-ng! Hyung, over here!" A familiar squawking arose from the crowd. Luhan followed the voice.

            Sure enough, Kim Jongdae (Chen, because the man preferred it with no given reason) appeared before his eyes, dressed exactly like the description told over the pay phone. A man Luhan didn't know stood besides him, clearly expressing he had much better things to do than to be at an airport. Chen gave Luhan a huge grin before opening his arms for a hug. "Long time no see, hyung! Sorry for the delay, but we're here!" His arms wrapped tightly around Luhan. Wheezing at the overly-strong hug, Luhan made no effort to hug back, mostly because of his bulky luggage occupying his arms and hands. Chen pulled away, not seeming to mind, and turned to his unknown friend.

            "Baekhyun, this is Luhan, the student I was telling you about who's going to be transferring to our school from China. Hyung, this is Baekhyun, my roommate. We're the same age!"

            "Nice to meet you," Luhan said curtly.

            Baekhyun studied him for a minute, narrowing his eyes. "Your Korean is good."

            "Luhan hyung studied Korean for awhile before transferring. I think his Korean is better than Tao's."

            Baekhyun gave him another long stare, from the tip of his toes to the top of his head. The Chinese foreigner tried to not mind him. He had better things to worry about than a Korean, whom he barely knew, judging him from their first interaction. At least, he thought he did.

            Until the man dared to scoff at him.

            Luhan surged forward, ready to throw the dainty sunflower on the moving luggage belt until Chen scrambled in front of him. Baekhyun, not noticing their interaction, rolled his eyes and sat down on an empty bench, disinterested. The older man's hands curled into fists.

            "He's like that to everyone. Once you talk to him more, he's really not that bad!" Chen rushed. "Come on, yeah, he's a , but you kind of are, too, and it's really not anything against you. The first day we met, he told me I looked like a gay daisy in heat, which doesn't make sense," Chen paused, blinking. "Oh, but I guess his observation wasn't really a lie." Seeing that his words weren't really processing in Luhan's head and that the man was going to blow soon, he hastily grabbed his arm and tugged. "Come on, we should get going. I haven't been able to unpack all my things, and I want to get it done before tonight. Baekhyun, let's go!"

            Luhan's lips pulled to a frown, but let himself be led towards the exit instead of pulverising the small boy that had too much attitude for Luhan to take. He could deal with the Baekhyun guy later. It wouldn't be good to attract attention anyway, not when he just arrived in the country. The scholarship that the university was offering him was worth too much over one, stupid guy.

             Chen's car turned out to be janky, scratched, and looking like it'd break down any minute. It took a few times to actually start the engine, and a few more times to get the pedal to work. Once they were on the road, though, the trip became smooth.

            "Do you know your dorm number, hyung?" Chen asked cheerfully, glancing at the rearview mirror. Luhan's mood mellowed once they were ten minutes in on the road. "I might actually know who lives there if you do."

            Luhan pulled out a crumpled sheet from his pocket. "It says 110-A on here."

            Chen choked. He swerved to avoid hitting a car. Harsh coughs followed after, and then Baekhyun's snickers joined. Those snickers turned into laughs. "110-A?" Chen questioned weakly.

            "What's wrong with 110-A?" Luhan demanded. "Is my roommate bad? The room small?"

            "No, no," Chen waved him off. His face was suspiciously red. "Your roommates are . . . nice. One of them is a foreigner, too, from China."

            Luhan relaxed. It couldn't be too bad, living with someone who was from China as well. He still didn't know the source of Baekhyun's continuous laughter, or Chen's reddening face.

            Yes, Luhan had anger management issues. Except, it wasn't really a problem. Sure, as a child he may have been expelled a few times, has had to apologize to many injured students, and received therapy sessions periodically throughout his life, but it wasn't serious. People got angry all the time. He just got angry more often. And more violent. And more physical. But again, it wasn't serious. He could interact with people just fine, and they liked him. It wasn't as if it was going to seriously affect his life or get in the way of a relationship. He could control himself if he wanted.

            In fact, he received much more respect from the people whom have seen his 'episodes'. It was a good thing. It wasn't a problem, and he didn't need to be treated.

            Minseok was busy cleaning every single corner of the dorm. He remade the beds, mopped the floor, scrubbed the floor, disinfected the bathroom, cleaned the kitchen, and refolded many of Lay's and his clothes. He made sure Lay's collection of dance books, textbooks, DVDs, and manhwa were organized neatly within their shelves and dusted off every drawer and their one window sill. Then, when he had nothing new to clean, he proceeded to organize the towels by color. Then his socks. Then his shoes. Finally, he ended up scrubbing the sink and refrigerator.

            Lay, watching his boyfriend manically clean from his bed, started to protest when Minseok started on his socks. "Minseok-ge, I don't think the roommate is really going to care. My eyes are hurting from how the room is glittering. And you're going to be tired from all this cleaning." When Minseok ignored him, Lay threatened, "If you get to clean until you're exhausted, then I'm allowed to practice extra long and extra hard tonight."

            That made Minseok pause. Whenever Lay had his extra dance sessions, it usually led to injuries and overexhaustion. Then, when Lay recovered, there still wouldn't be much action from him until several weeks later. "Fine." Minseok threw Lay's socks back into the drawer. "The new roommate is going to think we're pigs."

            "But what if he's the pig, and he finds all this cleanliness disgusting?" Lay countered.

            "If he's a pig, he's sleeping in the bathtub."

            "I think either way, he's going to be sleeping in the bathrub, ge."

            "How'd you guess that?"

            Lay shrugged. He patted the space on his bed while scooting over. "Come here. I found this choreography that I think I want to learn before the semester begins. We can learn it together."

            "The semester begins in two days," Minseok pointed out but made himself comfortable on Lay's bed anyway. Having done this hundreds of times, Lay unconsciously raised his arm, and Minseok ducked under it. The laptop slid to balance on both their legs, and Lay's earbuds were split between them. Minseok's head rested comfortably on his partner's body. "Plus, did you ever do that pre-reading for that Literature course--nope, you didn't, I can tell by your face." Except, given their position, Minseok couldn't really see his face. He only caught a glimpse of Lay biting his lip.

            "I'll do it tomorrow," Lay brushed off sheepishly. "But look! You think we can learn it in two days?"

            Minseok already knew the answer before the video started. Of course they could do it. No doubt Lay could, anyway. Minseok was never up to par with Lay's amazing ability to memorize and excute a choreography within hours. Still, the two of them together passed feats with ease and danced in complete synchronization that even their teachers admired. The longest time they needed to copy a complicated choreography was four and a half days. Dancing was their bond and their bridge, and while Lay's passion for music and dance far exceeded Minseok's, they understood each other's excitement when they learned a new choreography, or their willingness to stay up until two in the morning to create one. And so even though Minseok was absolutely sure they'd be able to do it, he gave his full concentration to the video.

            He concentrated on the angle of their movements, their fluidity of certain waves, their miniscule interactions with one another that somehow made it impossible in the end to solo the choreography. He didn't miss the way Lay tensed in excitement or the hitches of his breath when a particular combination of movements were executed. When the dance ended, Lay paused the video and said, "What do you think, ge? Isn't it a good piece to learn?"

            Minseok nodded with a crooked smile, but then vanished it for a small frown. "It's great, especially if we tweak some of the movements to our own styles," he offered, looking back to the incredible dancers in the video. "We're going to have to choreograph some new parts, though, to make up for that third person's movements."

            Lay coughed. "Well, actually, I was hoping we could do it with our new--"

            "No."

            "But why-y?"

            "Yixing, you can't just assume our new roommate is a dancer, force him into our group to learn a choreography in two days, and, knowing you, work him for several hours without a break! Remember what happened with Henry?"

            "Don't talk about Henry!"

            "I'm going to talk about Henry because our new roommate is going to try to sue you, like Henry, because you don't learn from your actions!"

            Lay gave a dramatic sigh, or rather a groan, and slid down on the bed to bury his face in Minseok's stomach. "Then our new roommate is useless."

            Minseok hummed and patted Lay's head sympathetically. "That's why the bathtub is always an option."

            "Are there bathrooms in the dorms?" Luhan asked. They had finally arrived in front of the university (somehow, the car actually made it) and were in the process of unloading the car. "Or is it a public restroom?"

            "The ones without bathrooms are in the back of the school." Chen grunted, lifting a particularly heavy luggage out of the trunk. "The dorms with bathrooms in the right wing are for the people who are willing to spend a tiny bit more. Some of them have kitchens. Baekhyun and I don't have a kitchen, but we do have a bathroom. Your scholarship must be a lot to be assigned there."

            Luhan shrugged and didn't say anything. Once they finished unloading, no thanks to Baekhyun who was immersed in texting, Chen exhaled and rolled his shoulders. "We should probably get to the office to get your dorm key. I don't know if your roommates are still there, but hopefully you can meet them." He paused to take one, deliberative look at Luhan. Then, abruptly, he jumped onto Luhan with open arms. "I'm so excited, hyung! We're actually going to the same school! Who would have thought, right?"

            Luhan flinched at his friend's loud voice but otherwise did not stop Chen's assult. "We don't have any of the same classes," he reminded.

            "That's okay," Chen shrugged, backing off. "Our dorms are near, so we'll be seeing each other."

            "Yah, Jongdae!" Baekhyun suddenly shouted, already walking away from Luhan and Chen. "I'm going to see Kyungsoo and Chanyeol in the vocal room. You coming?"

            "No, I'm going to show hyung around!" Chen called back. "You're all going to the dinner, though, right?"

            Baekhyun answered that with a wave of his hand, which stood for yes, and disappeared from sight. Luhan raised an eyebrow after him. "Why did he even come?"

            "Curious about you."

            "He pisses me off, Chen."

            "He'll warm up to you."

            Luhan made a dissatisfied sound and swung one of his luggages over his shoulder. The other two packs were stacked onto the small rolling luggage, and Chen had another backpack on his shoulders. They slowly made their way to the office, Chen leading cheerfully.

            "This is the main library, if you ever want to be lame and study. It's open 24/7. There are three libraries on campus, but this one's the biggest. The office is going to be right next to it," Chen narrated optimistically, pointing out a rather large building ahead of them. "Though everything is labeled in pretty big letters, so it won't really be hard to find which is what building. You'll find your way, hyung!"

            "Why the do you guys need three libraries?"

            "The school's rich. The rich spends money on useless stuff. Why else?" Chen looked as if he was offended by the question. "Plus, we look like an academically higher school that way! Oh, here's the office." Chen bounded over to the office door, grunting from the weight of Luhan's packs, and opened it. He gestured Luhan inside.

            The inside was exceptionally luxurious. The warm air gave scents of light cinnamon and vanilla, and it eased the tension in Luhan's shoulders. Some other students were at the counter, wishing for their dorm key and enrollment as well, and being helped by several people. A free student-receptionist behind the counter looked up curiously at the additional two at the door. "May I help you two?"

            "Yes," Luhan replied. He struggled forward with his luggage to reach the high counter. "I'm here for my dorm kai." Luhan paused, noticing his Korean mispronunciation. "Key," he corrected. "The dorm key and papers."

            The girl giggled at his accent.  Feeling his anger spike, Luhan tightened his hold on his backpack and internally in. You can't hit her. You can't hit her. Best behavior. You can't hit her.

            "Oh, sure. May I have your identification and enrollment papers?"

            After several tense moments and Chen's nervous laughter, the two finally exited the building with Luhan's dorm key and information packet in hand.

            "The A dorms are this way, hyung! You're lucky; you don't have to walk so far." Chen swung an arm around Luhan's shoulders and gently guided his friend towards yet another large building that had the biggest crowds seeping in and out constantly. "I think your roommates are still in the dorms, too."

            "Hm." Luhan winced at a shriek from his left, where two reunited girls were hugging fiercely, even though their semester break was only three weeks. "What do you know about my roommates?"

            Chen shrugged nonchalantly, but his face got noticebly redder. "They're part of the gang. One of them is a klutz and forgetful, and the other is a clean freak. They're both dancers--and they're together." The fact that most of Chen's friends were gay was not surprising; it would be more surprising if they weren't.

            Luhan shrugged. "Okay." The older of the two stopped and turned to face the younger. "What's bad about them?"

            "Nothing--"

            "Don't lie to me."

            "Really, nothing, hyung," Chen whined. "They're great people, and good friends with all of us. It's just . . . "

            "Just?"

            "You might not be the best match for them," he said quickly. "I mean, as a roommate . . . or a friend . . . or an acquaintance. They're really straight forward with things, and with your temper--"

            Luhan took a threatening step forward. "I don't have a temper."

            Chen raised his hands up in surrender, his eyebrows furrowed but stance relaxed. "Right, okay. It's kind of hard to explain, but you'll see when you meet them. I may be wrong though, hyung! Maybe all of you will become best friends and go to Disneyland together." He shrugged and gave a cheeky smile. "Oh, they're also not afraid of PDA. Not that they'll in front of you or anything," Chen paused and bit his lip. "Okay, most likely won't anyway, but they're the soft, kind of gross warm couple that makes you shiver."

            Luhan blinked rapidly at his friend, wondering why he ever chose to become friends with him, shook his head multiple times, and sighed. Grumbling, he said, "You made me more confused. Let's just go."

            "Yeah, I think we'll make it. What? No, we're not, but Yixing and I got assigned a three-persons dorm, so we have to meet our other roommate first. No! Why are you like that?" Minseok frowned at his phone screen, clearly disgusted by the person on the other line. Lay watched from his bed, amused, guessing their conversation easily. "Yeah, okay, ten? Sure. Is Suho coming? Okay, see you, then." Minseok shook his head and ended the call, looking up to his curious partner across the room. "That was Baekhyun. He wanted to know if we'll be coming to dinner at ten. Usual place."

            Lay set aside his literature book and stretched. "I haven't seen Yifan in awhile. It'll be fun seeing him again."

            "Lay, you had lunch with him last week."

            "Oh. Yeah."

            Loud, annoying raps thundered against their door. Lay jumped from his bed, while Minseok whirled around. "Room service!" a voice called out.

            Minseok sighed at the familiar voice and went to get the door. "Jongdae, seriously, this school doesn't even have room service."

            He swung open the door, ready to tell their annoying friend to leave, but then stopped when he realized there was one extra person outside. Lay popped up behind Minseok, haven't seen Chen since the end of the last semester. Minseok raised an eyebrow and went back and forth from the stranger he didn't know to the suspiciously gleeful Chen next to him. A happy Chen wasn't anything new. But this kind of Chen meant trouble.

            "Hey, hyung! It's been awhile!" Said student jumped on Minseok for a hug, to which the latter lightly returned, never taking his eyes off the stranger. "You, too, Lay hyung!"

            Lay gently pushed Minseok aside and engulfed Chen in yet another hug. "Hi, Chen." He pecked the latter lightly on the cheek. "Have you seen Baekhyun and Chanyeol, yet? Baba sent the stuff they asked for from China, and I brought it with me!"

            Chen pulled back with curious eyes, but didn't want to ask what the two pranksters needed that could only be retrieved from China. "I was just with Baekhyun. They're both in the vocal room. You'll be at the dinner, right?"

            Before Lay could reply, a loud cough echoed from Chen's back. Lay snapped his eyes up and locked eyes with a mildly irritated Luhan. Minseok rolled his, knowing his partner just noticed the stranger that came along with Chen. Yixing took in the baby-ish features of the stranger, the tense stance, and the several luggages at his feet and on his back. Then he smiled widely, dimple deepening at the increasing curve of his lips.

            "You're our new roommate!" Lay claimed. He approached excitedly to the shorter man and stuck out his hand. "I'm Lay. I was part of the foreign exchange program from China, but I'm a permanent student here now. What's your name? Do you need help with your luggage?"

            When Luhan failed to introduce himself, answer Lay's question, or even respond, Chen laughed and swung an arm around Luhan's shoulders. "He's part of the Chinese exchange program, Lay hyung! From Beijing. We know each other from when he was studying for a short time in Korea a few years back. Weird that he got put in the same dorm as you and Minseok hyung, huh?"

            At the mention of another Chinese student, Lay's eyes lit excitedly, and he rocked onto the tips of his toes. "What's your name?" He asked again in his home language. "You can call me Yixing. This is Minseok-ge." Lay gestured lightly at his partner. "We're sharing a three-person dorm."

            Luhan stared at the Chinese man, realizing this was the foreigner Chen had mentioned. The tension in his body slipped out slowly. It really shouldn't be that bad if he had another person to share his language. "Luhan," he responded slowly.

            "Luhan," Lay repeated, letting the name roll off his tongue.

            "Whoops," Chen glanced at his phone in distress. "Crap. Baekhyun wants me. Chanyeol broke a guitar. Again. And it's the first day of the semester!" Grumbling, he shoved his phone in his pocket and dropped the remaining bags of Luhan's on the floor. "I'll leave you guys to settle. I can give you a tour later, if you want, hyung, or they can take you. Oh! We're all having dinner tonight. You should come to meet everybody." Chen paused to dig out his phone again. "! A piano, too? Okay, I really have to go. Bye, Lay hyung! Minseok hyung! Good luck!" The energetic vocalist dashed off with a stream of muttered curse words under his lip.

            Not knowing what the 'good luck' was for, Lay only half-heartedly waved and smiled back to Luhan. "Do you need help with your luggage?" He was already reaching forward for one of the bags.

            "No," Luhan replied coldly. Lay froze, then straightened and stepped back. "I can handle it."

            "Alright," Minseok smiled a crooked smile. "I'm Minseok. I suppose we'll be sharing dorms for the next several months."

            He looks like a freshman in high school. Luhan took his outstretched hand half-heartedly. "Can I come in, now? I don't really want to stay in the hall with my bags."

            Minseok's smile tightened at his rudeness, but stepped inside the dorm with Lay, anyway. "Sure. We kind of already took beds. Yours will be on the far right."

            "Okay," Luhan muttered, not really caring.

            “How do you like it so far here?” Lay babbled as Luhan struggled with his luggage to settle in in his new dorm. “It’s pretty big, huh? But I guess that’s good, because there are a lot of programs. Do you like dancing? Singing? There are pretty good clubs for that. What’s your major? Are you here for just a semester or a year? Why—”

            “Look, kid.” Luhan gritted his teeth at the annoying questions. You can’t punch him. “The flight here was long, so I’m not really in the mood to talk.” Feeling the familiar anger that built up in his throat and the taste of bitter, harsh words, Luhan tried to restrain himself as he unclenched and clenched his fists at his side. Sharing a dorm with two roommates was bad enough. Sharing it with a talkative, hyperactive junior and a—Luhan sneaked a quick look at the other man who had otherwise been quiet—weird junior? Yixing had called him ge, but the man looked like a high-schooler for God’s sake—made it worse.

            Lay frowned at the obvious tenseness of his new roommate. He outstretched a hand to the other. “Luhan? Are you okay?”

            Seeing the hand coming his way, Luhan flinched and harshly slapped Lay’s hand. “Don’t touch me!”

            Suddenly, Luhan found his back slammed against the wall behind him, a strong, restraining hand against his chest. His eyes widened when he saw calm, brown eyes of the once-quiet man staring back at him. When he tried to protest and push Minseok back, the hand on his chest pushed harder, and Luhan quickly realized he couldn’t move.

            Jesus Christ, Luhan thought, bewildered. How the is he so strong?

            “I think you need to cool it,” Minseok said quietly. “I understand the flight was long, and it’s disorientating to be in another country, but my partner’s just trying to help. You say one more harsh word to him or touch him violently again, and you can damn well be sure that you’ll be sleeping in the bath tub. Understand?”

            Luhan once again tried to shove Minseok off but failed. Grinding his teeth, he spat out, “Fine. Can you get your ing hand off me?” The hand was removed, and Luhan took the opportunity to shoulder past the two men and escape from the dorm. “I’m out of here. Don’t touch my stuff.” The door slammed behind him.

            He shoved his hands in his pockets, shoulders hunched, and made brisk steps down the hall. No longer able to contain his anger, Luhan cursed and threw a wicked punch at the wall. The wall shuddered. A small indent formed.

            Well, , Luhan bemused. That wasn’t me.

            “Are you okay?” the older man murmured to Lay, seeing his partner cradle his wrist.

            “I’m fine,” Lay assured Minseok. “I shouldn’t have bombarded him with questions.”

            Minseok frowned, snaking an arm around Lay’s waist and pulling the man closer to him. Their bodies touched. “It wasn’t your fault. That guy has issues.”

            “Yes, well,” Yixing half-heartedly agreed. “He wasn’t what we expected. Still, I can’t help but think he has way more going on than just anti-social issues . . .”