Pre- A/N: This is about a week later ^-^

~~~

Jiho s an arm around Hojoon’s waist and pulled him and his chair closer to himself, smirking as Hojoon flinched a bit as his chair was momentarily off-balanced by Jiho’s greedy motions. 

“Jiho you’re gonna make me fall—stop it!” Hojoon whispered under his breath as he glued his eyes onto his paper in front of him as he furiously took notes. He could feel Jiho’s intense gaze on his face and half smiled at his partner’s playful mood, despite it being deadly quiet in their Psychology class. He gently elbowed Jiho in the side to denote that, he too, should be taking notes, but Hojoon knew full well that Jiho took notes in comparison to his own. So usually Jiho just copied off of Hojoon’s notes and all went well between the two of them. 

But Hojoon was getting tired of this routine and decided to switch it up as he placed his pencil beside his paper and glared pointedly at Jiho, raising his eyebrows expectantly. Jiho gave him a dirty look before understanding what he meant and dragged out a piece of paper and a pen, to Hojoon’s horror, and began to scribble some notes down. Hojoon sighed as he went back to his own notes, mentally noting to himself to scold Jiho later. 

Their winter break was coming up soon, which meant that all of their teachers were assigning way too much homework all at the end of the quarter, which was only a week away. Hojoon wanted to melt into a puddle of stress but couldn’t as Jiho decided he’d take on the roll of being a veritable stress pillow/pillar and allowed Hojoon to rant to him about his stress. Then he would  whack him on the head and telling him to finish his homework, to which Hojoon would happily comply to. 

It was weird. Hojoon didn’t think that Jiho had it in him to take care of him so well since it was considerably the opposite for the majority of their relationship was spent with Hojoon keeping Jiho on his feet. Now that Jiho was the one keeping Hojoon sane, Hojoon felt oddly comfortable. He liked being able to run face first into Jiho’s chest and just moan and groan about school until he felt satisfied and would go back to and groaning to his computer. Jiho was his pillar of safety, both emotionally and physically. 

But right now he was just being a with this weird position and sloppy handwriting that he’d doubtlessly not be able to read later. Hojoon merely sighed and continued to take notes until the teacher dismissed the class with a sigh. The students all but leapt out of their seats and vacated the classroom as quickly as they could, the chatter of how stressed they were and complains of the mountains of homework they had resonated with Hojoon on a spiritual level. 

He too tried to get up but was yanked back down as Jiho tightened his grip of his waist as he finished writing something down. 

“Hey,” Hojoon muttered indignantly as he wiggled out of Jiho’s iron tight grip and stood up to stretch, ignoring Jiho’s hurt glance as he packed up his things and slung his bag over his back. Jiho followed suit and walked Hojoon out of the classroom with an arm slung over the other’s small shoulders, a walking position that both found to be very comfortable. 

Hojoon broke the short moment of silence with a short “So, do you think you'll be able to read those notes you took?”

“Absolutely not,” Jiho replied with a smug assuredness that made Hojoon question why he even bothered taking the notes in the first place. 

“Did you take them just to satisfy me?” 

“Maybe.” 

Hojoon sighed out a cloud of mist into the cold air out of exasperation. 

“You know, I’m getting tired of being the designated note taker.” 

Jiho gave him a quick glance pity and squeezed his shoulder gently. 

“I would take more notes Joon, but if I try to make them look legible, I take them too slow and miss a bunch of information. But if I take them at the right speed, they’re impossible to read. So it only makes sense that you take them…”

Hojoon knew his logic was sound, but it didn’t make it any less pitiful that that was his excuse. 

“It’s not my fault you have wizard powers that let you take a lot of notes that are legible and comprehensible!” 

“Yes it is. It’s called practice, which is something you need to do if you want notes like mine” Hojoon replied sarcastically as he kicked a ball of snow out of the way, smiling as it exploded into a puff of white snow. 

“I think having innate talent for note taking is also at play here” Jiho whined as he opened the door to his dorm building lobby and held it open, allowing Hojoon to walk in first. Hojoon nodded in thanks and waited momentarily for Jiho to catch up with him before pressing the button to call the elevator. 

“That is true, but still. You need to practice eventually. I might not be in any of your classes next quarter-”

“Quarter? I thought that the school year was divided into semesters…”

Hojoon chuckled quietly as they entered the elevator and pressed the button before stepping back to stand next to a very confused looking Jiho. 

“No hun, this college, like a lot of colleges, has quarters. One for every season. We’re in fall quarter right now, which ends in about a week” Hojoon explained patiently, as if he were explaining it to a small child, grinning as he saw Jiho nod slowly in understanding. 

“Well, that’s a relief. I thought I was gonna be stuck with my ex for a lot longer than I actually will be!” Jiho beamed, looking down at Hojoon’s amused face happily. Hojoon shook his head and chuckled quietly to himself. ‘You’re such an adorable idiot sometimes… But you’re my adorable idiot’ he thought proudly to himself as he went on his tiptoes to peck Jiho on the cheek, earning a light smack to the shoulder. 

“Hojoooon, not here” Jiho whined, color tinging his cheeks a light pink with embarrassment. Hojoon giggled indulgently as the elevator dinged and opened its doors, allowing the two of them to walk through unhindered by any random group of drunk or tipsy girls. Hojoon loved how Jiho still wasn’t comfortable with PDA and always blushed like he always used to prior to them dating. Hojoon would usually initiate anything that involved kissing and would always get smacked for it, but Jiho would always be the one to hold hands or sling an arm around Hojoon’s waist of shoulder, regardless of where they were. 

The first few days of their relationship was filled with Jiho shyly linking their hands together as they’d walk somewhere, but only when they were walking. As soon as they would enter a building or a classroom, he kept completely to himself, much to Hojoon’s dismayed annoyance. It took a lot of coaxing before Hojoon was allowed to lean on his shoulder in class and even more time before any arms over the shoulder or waist was introduced. 

Hojoon remembered how shy Jiho was when he first kissed him on the cheek in public because the bruise still wasn’t gone from his upper arm. He also remembered how horrified Jiho was once he realized how hard he hit Hojoon was and wouldn’t stop apologizing until Hojoon kissed him on the cheek again and ran away giggling. 

It was funny how that was only a week or so ago. ‘Time sure flew by quickly’  Hojoon mused as Jiho unlocked his door and waited for him to enter first. Hojoon particularly liked that side of Jiho— the side that always treated him like a princess whenever they were entering or exiting somewhere. Hojoon grinned and walked in first, kicked off his shoes and headed straight for the quaint kitchen that he liked to hang out in for some reason. 

Jiho joked that it was because Hojoon liked to make ramen a lot, which usually was the meal they had whenever they’d stay in for the night, typical college life fashion. But if he was honest, Hojoon just genuinely liked cooking for the two, sometimes three is Dongsung was home, of them. He knew that Jiho made it better than him, for reasons which he still couldn't figure out, but he liked the satisfaction of knowing that he could make Jiho happy with something as simple as a cheap meal, as sappy as that sounded. 

Hojoon pulled a face as his thoughts just kept getting sappier and sappier and decided to cook some special ramen for their 10 day anniversary. It wasn’t really for their 10 day anniversary since that was kind of cheesy as , it was just because Hojoon really wanted to make the cheese type of ramen since he was bored of the plain old spicy kind. He reached up to get the one pot that Jiho had and made a face as some dust was at the bottom. 

As he was washing the pot out with a bit of water before putting it on the stove to heat up, Hojoon practically jumped out of his skin as he felt two arms encircle his waist as Jiho lightly pulled him into a gentle embrace, resting his chin on Hojoon’s shoulder innocently. 

“Whatcha doin~” he asked idly, smiling as he felt Hojoon sigh. 

“Well I’m cooking up some cheesy ramen because I’m 100% bored with the spicy kind,” Hojoon replied with a smirk as he felt Jiho kiss his cheek gently, lingering a few seconds longer than normal before pulling away to rock back and forth slightly, humming a little song to himself. Hojoon didn’t really bother to think about how clingy Jiho was being until he let go in favor of sitting on the countertop next to the stove. 

Hojoon glanced up to give him a questioning look as he boiled the water in the pot. 

“What? Sad already? Aww Joon you’re too cute~” Jiho teased as Hojoon threw a dirty glare his way as he plopped the noodles into the water. 

“I’m not sad. Just confused as to why you’re so randomly clingy.”

“Why can’t I give you a hug without you questioning my motives?” Jiho asked with a grin, kicking his legs back and forth off the counter, a soft thud sounding out every time his heel tapped the counter underneath him. 

“That’s not what I meant” Hojoon muttered apologetically, “It’s just weird how if I do anything in public, you turn into an embarrassed tomato. But once we get home, you’re like this” he explained calmly, hoping Jiho would understand where he was going with this. Jiho nodded and slid off the countertop to stand next to him, hands in his pockets.

“I know Joon and I’m sorry about that. I’m just not really used to PDA yet, but I’m trying really hard to get used to it.”

Hojoon felt a stab of guilt go through his chest as he looked up to see Jiho staring at the ground with a guilty expression on his face. 

“I know you’re a lot more comfortable in public than I am and I can only guess that you’re frustrated with me right now, but please understand that I’m not shy in public because I don’t like you. I really like you a lot, but-” he paused to bit his lip before continuing “-that’s exactly why I’m shy in public. I don’t want to embarrass you or myself because I like you so much…” 

Jiho trailed off into silence as his cheeks tinged pink once again as he kicked at the counter shyly, still avoiding Hojoon’s gaze. The other boy stirred the noddles momentarily before putting the cooking chopsticks down to turn and poke Jiho’s shoulder. 

“Hey, look at me for a second” Hojoon said softly, smiling as Jiho slowly complied, cheeks still pink. “I know you well enough to know that you’re not used to this yet, but just trust me. You couldn’t possibly embarrass me in public more than you already do, which by the way, is never. I don’t care if you do a backflip in public and I won’t care if you hug me in the middle of the street—and neither will anyone else either. Okay?” 

Jiho nodded and let out a slow sigh as Hojoon cupped his cheeks and squashed them together, earning a whine from Jiho as he gave him a peck on the each cheek before he went back to making their early dinner. 

“I just can’t help but still feel shy about it,” Jiho mumbled, “ I know that nobody cares about us being us and stuff, but I’m just not used to dating… You, yet, I guess” he concluded apologetically. “I’m not trying to be mean though— oh my god,” he blurted out, face blank with horror as he realized how his words could have been interpreted. Hojoon smiled and finished putting the ramen in two bowls and set them down carefully before facing Jiho once again and put his hands on his hips. 

“Jiho, hun,” Hojoon chided slowly, a small smile tugging at his lips, “I know what you mean so it’s okay— don’t worry about offending me. I know you haven’t dated a guy before, so I can understand why you aren’t comfortable yet. I’m patient, okay?” 

Jiho sighed and nodded sheepishly as he gathered up the bowls in both of his hands and carried them to the table, setting them across from each other as Hojoon walked over with two pairs of chopsticks, smiling as Jiho gestured for him to sit first. Hojoon sat down and smiled as Jiho’s face finally broke into a grin as he smelled the noodles. 

“Oh man, this smells great,” he mumbled as he shoveled in a mouthful of noodles into his mouth, breathing in heavily to cool them down. Hojoon chuckled as Jiho made a face as he took another smaller bite. 

“I think I overcooked these a little bit,” Hojoon said through a mouthful of noodles as Jiho nodded in response. 

“Yeah, I think we can blame that on me since I kept distracting you” Jiho said smugly once he swallowed his boiling hot noodles. Hojoon nodded in agreement but continued eating anyway since he wasn’t about to waste some slightly more-fancy-than-normal ramen that he made. Jiho too ate all of his noodles as well, but not without gagging a few times. 

Hojoon snorted as he finished his last bite and sat up to stare at Jiho. 

“Okay it wasn’t that bad…”

Jiho gave him a scandalized look. 

“The only reason I finished them was because I didn’t want to waste food and I didn’t want to make you feel bad…”

“But……?”

“Well,” Jiho paused, “It was the noodles. They were a bit overcooked…”

Hojoon raised an eyebrow suspiciously. “That’s the only reason? You literally gagged a couple times.”

“Yeah well, I just hit a clump of overcooked noodles a few times” Jiho mumbled as he stood up with a smirk. “Next time I think I’ll cook the ramen.” 

Hojoon nodded with a sheepish smile and handed him his bowl and chopsticks, “Yeah that sound’s like a good idea.” 

After Jiho washed their dishes, they sat down at the table and did homework together for a few hours, chatting every now and again to keep themselves sane until Hojoon had to leave before it got to be too late. Jiho kissed him goodbye before slamming the door shut on a shocked Hojoon as he squealed to himself as he heard Hojoon chuckle to himself on the other side of the door. 

“Love you to Jiho~” Hojoon called out as he leaned against the door to hear Jiho mutter a reply that he didn’t quite catch. He decided that he was probably too shy to open the door again and decided to head home before he gets too tired to go. 

The next day the two of them met up outside of Hojoon’s dorm lobby, as it had become custom for them to meet up in front of each other’s dorm lobbies before walking to class together. Jiho yawned sleepily as Hojoon blabbed to him about this weird dream he had involving giraffes and a speedy hippo chase that somehow involved their weird Psychology teacher. Jiho just let him talk as he linked their fingers together in the cold, enjoying Hojoon’s excited chatter. 

“And then for some reason the main hippo decided he needed to handcuff the professor but he couldn’t ‘cause hippos don’t have freaking hands! Then the professor ran away saying something about learning outside the classroom and the other two hippos chased after him while the main hippo had to keep the giraffe from eating their reports. What’s up with my brain?” Hojoon said as he took in a deep breath, smiling as Jiho squeezed his hand and shook his head slowly. 

“What baffles me the most is that you actually remember your dreams after you wake up. I can only sometimes do that…” 

Hojoon shrugged as Jiho opened the door to their English class and tugged him inside to keep the cold air from intruding on the warm inside environment. 

“Yeah well it’s not always fun when you remember your nightmares in vivid detail” Hojoon mumbled quietly as they sat down and unpacked their stuff onto the surface in front of them. Jiho nodded slowly as he recalled waking up one too many times in a cold sweat from a repeating nightmare he’d had since he was about six or seven years old. He was glad he couldn’t remember that specific nightmare in detail because he’d never sleep again if he could. 

Once they sat down the class soon started after their conversation faded away, their teacher waltzing into class with a pleased look on his face as he announced their final project, much to the students dismay. The teacher shook his finger at the students and had to practically shout to be heard over the “Just because the quarter ends in a week doesn’t mean you can slack off! Plus I haven’t even explained the project yet.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” a particularly annoyed student groaned, making the professor glare at the perpetrator. 

“It means the project I have planned would have been a lot easier, and dare I say more fun, had you all not whined like five year olds that need a nap.” 

His statement caused a wave of hush to fall over the students once they heard him, hushed whispers now filling the room as he grinned at them all. 

“Now, what I was going to assign requires a partner. You all know what to do,” he says quickly, gesturing for everyone to pair up. Jiho gave Hojoon the creepiest grin that Hojoon returned with an equally creepy smile as they linked hands, fingers lacing in between each others grasps. 

“I guess I’m stuck with you again, huh?” Jiho commented, his tone of voice light and sarcastic as Hojoon shrugged. “I guess so.” 

Jiho grinned and squeezed his hand as the professor got the class’s attention once more, the chatter dying down once more as he explained the project, which—true to his words—, was a lot easier than the students had originally thought. The rest of the class was spent with everyone planning how they would go about the project, and before they knew it, class was over. 

The students left the classrooms in droves with smiles on their faces as they conversed animatedly about the project, excitement buzzing around them all. Jiho and Hojoon left within the throng of students but were separated due to the sudden crowd leaving all at once. As soon as they were outside, they immediately joined back up as they headed for the library, hand in hand with matching smiles pasted on their faces. 

“Who would've thought the professor would think of such a project?” Hojoon said after an extended silence between the two as they settled into a couple chairs near their favorite corner of the library, nestled next to the floor to ceiling windows that displayed the sunset melting the blue sky into a breathtaking show of blue and purple and pink hues spreading across the landscape. 

Jiho sighed as he eased himself into the chair and set his bag next to him as he nodded. 

“Right? It doesn’t really seem like it has to do a whole lot with the curriculum we’ve learned over this quarter, but hey— if we nail it we can get some extra points to boost our grade, which is always a plus.” 

Hojoon snorted as he yanked out his laptop from his backpack and set it on his lap, opening it and tapping away as he began searching for the proper images to suit their idea they had come up with in class. “I’m not really worried about my grade, but I can see what you mean.”

Jiho sniffed indignantly as he followed suit, secretly determined to find the perfect first picture before Hojoon did. “I mean, I don’t have a bad grade, but I want to get as high grades as possible.” 

“Overachiever.”

“Yup— and proud,” Jiho commented dryly as he bit his lip as he scanned his screen, Google images failing him in his mission for the perfect picture. He inwardly cursed as Hojoon made an approving noise and turned his laptop screen to face Jiho. ‘Bing images? Seriously? How did he find a good one there?’ 

“You don’t like it?” Hojoon questioned innocently, mood sinking slightly at Jiho’s scrunched up facial expression. His partner shook his head and blinked rapidly before peering at the picture once more before nodding approvingly, albeit very begrudgingly. “It’s good. Fits the theme.” 

Hojoon smiled to cover up his confusion as he turned his laptop to face him once more, shaking the odd feeling he had and dismissed it as a tired misunderstanding as he saved the picture and went back to searching for the other picture. 

A few minutes passed by before Jiho hissed in victory as he excitedly turned his screen to face Hojoon, face lit up in happiness and by his brightly lit laptop. “How’s this? It’s good isn't it?” Jiho bubbled, a cheshire cat-like grin set into his face as Hojoon smiled and nodded. “I like it. How about you send me the file so you can start writing up the words portion while I go print this out?”

Jiho nodded eagerly, pleased that he found a good picture as well as Hojoon as he sent the file and took to writing, fingers dancing over his keyboard due to his sudden rush of energy. Hojoon shook his head as he stood up to print the images, smiling as he patted Jiho’s head on his way over, grin widening as Jiho didn’t even notice as he concentrated on his given task at hand. Hojoon decided he wanted to pat Jiho on the top of the head more often because ‘ wow his hair is so soft! I want to run my fingers through that till I die!! What shampoo does that dork use? I gotta get me some of that’. 

Hojoon returned a while later to find Jiho still typing and in that hunched position Hojoon left him in. Hojoon bit his cheek as he debated on patting Jiho again but found himself doing it anyway. He grinned as he felt a new habit forming, which he was far from opposing. He pinched a tuft of hair and ran it between his thumb and forefinger, enjoying the soft feeling underneath his touch. 

Jiho looked up from his typing once he felt Hojoon touch his head and craned his neck back to see Hojoon smiling off into the distance, mind obviously lost in thought. 

“Joonie~ You good?” Jiho mumbled as his words garnered Hojoon’s attention as the other smiled down at him. “Yeah. Your hair is just really ing soft. It’s cute.” 

Jiho’s face went blank for a moment as the shock of hearing Hojoon’s random harshly worded complement came out of nowhere before he burst out into a fit of giggles as Hojoon sat down at his place once more, a few sheets of paper in his grasp as he struggled to shove them into his folder. He shot Jiho a confused but urgent look but to no avail. Jiho was struggling to not make too much noise as he slowly recovered from his initial shock and looked up to see Hojoon’s bewildered face staring back at him. 

“Wh-what was that for?” Jiho managed to say as he bit his lips to hold back his giggles. 

“What was what for?” 

“‘You’re hair is just really ing soft’” Jiho imitated Hojoon, making a blank face as he did so before erupting into giggles once more, his body curling around his laptop as his giggles shook his entire body. Hojoon huffed as he struggled to not laugh along with him but ended up failing and joined Jiho in his fit of giggles, realizing how weird he must’ve looked and sounded to Jiho. 

“It’s true though,” Hojoon snorted as he took in deep breaths as he began to calm down, Jiho also following suit. Jiho furrowed his brows and sent Hojoon a doubtful look before raising his hand up to touch his hair subconsciously. 

“I’m not kidding” Hojoon insisted “It’s super soft. Like— what the hell do you use? What brand of shampoo? Friggin mermaid tears? I’m honestly kind of jealous” Hojoon chuckled as he watched Jiho sink into the chair with an angry red blush setting into his cheeks as he shook his head slightly, his movement restricted by the chair he was trying to disappear into. 

“I dunno… I just found the cheapest one at the nearest store and settled for that…” Jiho mumbled shyly as he averted his eyes and found that looking at the ground was a whole lot more interesting and less embarrassing than looking at Hojoon in that moment. Hojoon huffed indignantly at his words and shook his head in disbelief. 

“There’s no way you don’t use a special shampoo— theres just no way.”

He paused for a moment before a devious thought surfaced in his mind. He smirked and began to pack up his things as he motioned for Jiho to do the same. 

“I guess there’s only one way for me to find out.” 

Jiho sat up and began to pack his things numbly as well, confusion etched over his features, though the blush refused to leave his cheeks. “Wha… What do you mean?” 

Hojoon slung his bag over his shoulder as he waited until Jiho stood up to grab his hand and pulled him out of the library as he headed in the direction of Jiho’s dorm. 

“Well, I’m never gonna know what brand you use till I see it— or even better— use it myself. So thats what I’m gonna do” Hojoon said into the frigid air with a smug confidence that almost convinced Jiho to simply nod along and go with the flow until he started thinking and realized this wouldn't work out. 

“W-wait— since when were you going to my place? We went there last time, so it’s your turn” Jiho whined as he dug his heels into the snowy grass beneath his feet— but to no avail. Hojoon was surprisingly strong as he dragged Jiho through the grass, ignoring the other’s pleas. 

“Nah, I wanna go to your place this time. Why are you so opposed to it?”

“Well… Cause… Honestly…” 

Hojoon finally stopped to turn around and look at Jiho expectantly as the other stumbled over his words like a puppy taking its first steps. 

“I kinda don’t know where you’d sleep cause I have to use the blankets you usually use now since it’s so cold…” Jiho confessed as he rubbed his hands together nervously, gaze glued to his shoes.

“That’s what you're worried about?” Hojoon asked calmly, a bit of mirth lacing his tone as he put both hands on either side of Jiho’s face and pulled his face up till he was looking at Hojoon, eyes darting around shyly. “Jiho… Oh Jiho…” 

“Actually it’s Shin Jiho but whatever—”

“oH shut up you dork— you know what I meant,” Hojoon snorted as a smile tugged at his lips again at Jiho’s sassy attitude despite his face being squished, “ We can figure that out later—”

“And by ‘figure this out later’ do you mean ‘convince me to share a bed with you since we can’t sleep separately'? I know your tricks Mr, ” Jiho shook his finger in Hojoon’s face warningly, “but you doubt my stubbornness. You will sleep on the cold floor if you try that. Mark my words.” 

“I’d rather cuddle anything that has to do with you, words included” Hojoon shot back, grinning full force as he slipped a hand down to interlock their fingers together as he turned and began walking again, pulling a very quiet and tomato red Jiho behind him. 

——————————————————————————————————————————

A/N: Um… A million apologies for not updating for almost a year :’’’’’’’0 HAHAHAHAAaaaaH FEEL FREE TO HATE ME IN THE COMMENTS 

School is the big culprit here, but also writer’s block until now! At the Oh So Convenient Time of Way To Late To Be Up Writing But Happens To Be The Only Time I Get Inspiration To Write. 

Anyway, here’s the way too late update that took me forever to write :””3 

I hope you liked it! 

PS: who thought chapter 10 was gonna be the actual end cause I failed to upload? ;-; TBH I thought about leaving it there but… GUILT told me I couldn’t so I finally listened. 

PPS: This is actually gonna end in about 2-3 wish chapters, so prepare your hearts ;~;