Jiho wasn’t exactly sure how they ended up at a coffee shop, still in their pajamas, but he definitely wasn’t complaining, especially when he didn’t have to pay for his drink. He made a mental note that whenever he was around Hojoon his sense of time seemed to fly out the window along with the rest of his senses. It was as if Hojoon’s aura made Jiho a who’d follow him off the edge of a cliff if Hojoon really wanted him to. ‘Okay maybe that’s a bit extreme, but the thought is still on track.’ 

So basically, Hojoon equaled senseless Jiho, for some reason unknown to him. And quite frankly, Jiho would like to know why all this happened consistently but Hojoon never seemed to give him time to think it over, kind of like he was doing now as he poked Jiho’s shoulder with his warm cup of coffee. 

“What’cha thinkin about over there, Mr. Philosopher?” Hojoon joked as he took a sip of his drink, hissing as it burned the tip of his tongue. Jiho chuckled at Hojoon’s comical pose as he fanned his tongue and wrapped his fingers around his own drink, the smell of vanilla wafting up into his nose and tempting him to take a drink even though he knew it was far too hot to consume yet. 

“Nothing important,” he sighed carelessly, lying effortlessly through his teeth. Hojoon stopped fanning his tongue (should Jiho be staring at his tongue that long or is that weird?) long enough to frown at him in disapproval and nudged Jiho’s shoulder with his own playfully. “Oh come on— You’ve been staring at the barista over there for like 5 minutes straight. Do you think she’s hot or something?” His question seemed awkwardly placed, and call Jiho crazy but he thought he heard a hint of jealousy in his tone as the question slipped out. 

But as per usual, Jiho dismissed it as his brain overthinking unimportant details his hyperactive ears would pick up on and moved on. “Well,” Jiho blinked and actually focused his eyes on the girl over the counter, watching her ring up someone’s order with a cheery smile on her face. He hadn’t actually been looking at her, contrary to what Hojoon thought, but now that he was he could sort of see where Hojoon got that idea. “I mean, she’s pretty—but I wouldn’t say anything more than that.”

“Really?” Hojoon looked genuinely surprised, eyebrows slightly raised and eyes wide, focused on Jiho’s face as if they were searching for something—something more. Jiho gave him a weird look and took one last glance over at the girl to make sure he wasn’t seeing something Hojoon was and almost choked on air as he found the girl staring back at him, her cheeks rosy and a shy smile playing across her face. ‘Oh… That’s what he meant… Well, .’  

“That’s not what I—” Jiho started, mouth suddenly dry at the realization that he was being put into a situation that was totally beyond his control, “No, I don’t- ”

“Jiho I don’t get why you’re so flustered. It’s fine,” Hojoon cut in bluntly, his face devoid of any obvious emotion, “In fact… It’s kinda cute,” he admitted, a small, devious smile forming on his face that made Jiho scared to wonder what it meant for him. “How’s this cute?” Jiho spluttered, coffee now completely forgotten, “You’re assuming something that’s not— Look, I don’t like her or think anything of her, I just happened to be staring over there cause I spaced out—”

“Like you always do.”

“Shut up— Anyway, I just happened to look over there at the wrong time, okay?” Jiho breathed out in exasperation, wondering what the reason for him to feel the need to prove himself stemmed from but ignored that thought as Hojoon laughed at his desperation and patted him comfortingly on the back, the action seeming really out of place for that moment. “Oh Jiho, you’re so cute when you’re flustered~ Okay whatever you say,” he chuckled, putting his hands up as if to surrender to Jiho’s words, “Just let me know when the wedding is.”

“Hojoon!” Jiho squeaked in embarrassment and smacked his shoulder, a resounding whack echoing around the small shop followed by Hojoon holding his shoulder gingerly, whimpering in pain. Jiho tried to keep up a facade of anger against Hojoon but desperately wanted to comfort and apologize. Sadly (or not?), his pride decided to get in the way of the rest of his emotions and blocked their path. “That’s what you get for being embarrassing,” Jiho huffed, crossing his arms in front of himself like a five year old throwing a temper tantrum and turned his head away from Hojoon childishly, only to bite his lip hard to resist the urge to look back at his wounded target. 

“Oww… That really hurt Jiho,” Hojoon whimpered and Jiho could clearly picture his face, lips turned down, eyebrows furrowed together and puppy eyes galore— the perfect ‘pity-me-damn-it’ package that Jiho was struggling to avoid. “Well, think about what you say next time then,” Jiho muttered out as he finally gave in and turned back to steal a glance at Hojoon, his heart sinking as yup this was a mistake. Hojoon sniffed and rubbed his shoulder ruefully, shooting Jiho a hurt glare. “You’re gonna pay for that,” he promised coldly, his statement’s seriousness ruined as his frown slowly turned into a smile that only grew wider the more confused Jiho’s face grew. 

“I was just thinking of how I can get you back, and the ideas I’m coming up with are.. Well, you’ll see,” Hojoon chuckled cryptically, Jiho gulping at the thought of Hojoon doing something positively awful for something as bad as he did, which honestly he could have hit so much harder… ‘But I didn’t… He should consider himself lucky’ Jiho thought smugly, his and Hojoon’s conversation interrupted by the barista walking up to them with a slight bounce to her step as she cleared , both boys looking up abruptly, Jiho more regretfully than Hojoon for obvious reasons. 

“Sorry to interrupt, but are you two done fighting? Because some of our customers are getting worried a big fight will break out or something,” she explained somewhat apologetically as she clasped her hands together shyly. Hojoon’s eyes curved up into little crescent moons as he smiled convincingly, waving a hand carelessly as he spoke, “Oh no, we’re fine~ Jiho here just got a bit embarrassed by what I said, that’s all. We’re fine now.” As if to reassure her further, Hojoon reached over and grabbed Jiho’s hands gently, lacing their fingers together as he giggled “See? We’re fine~” 

The girl was blushing almost as much as Jiho was as she stuttered out a small “O-okay well enjoy your d-drinks” before she spun on her heel and rushed into the kitchen behind the counter, muffling her squeals (poorly, very poorly) with her hands as she completely ignored the couple of people standing in line, waiting quite impatiently now for their drinks. Hojoon chuckled at the girl’s behavior and swung his attention back onto his target in front of him who was swiftly turning into a tomato ready to explode any moment. 

Jiho could feel absolutely nothing in that moment except his racing heartbeat that threatened to jump out of his chest. He couldn’t stop staring at his hands intertwined with Hojoon’s as he felt slightly cheated that he couldn’t even feel what was happening not a foot in front of him. His brain would be going a million miles an hour with thoughts running marathons around inside his head if it weren’t feeling as numb as Jiho’s arms were, his thoughts floating around, suspended in the empty space that filled his head from the shock he was dealing with. The one thought that did manage to make its way to a coherent part of Jiho’s otherwise dead brain was ‘Think. I need to think. Alone. For a while.’ 

Hojoon watched Jiho’s face slowly calm down from an angry shade of red to a lighter, calmer shade of pink that rested firmly in his cheeks even as the rest of his face gradually quieted down (mind you, this took about fifteen minutes of absolute silence between the two of them to happen). Once Hojoon was sure Jiho wouldn’t combust at a moment’s notice, he finally asked quietly “You really do like her, don’t you?”

His question hung in the air, the silence that followed it was almost deafening as Jiho felt a weight that had been on his chest suddenly lifted at the idea Hojoon presented. 

‘Oh.’

So that was it, right? It was just the girl… Wasn’t.. it? 

“I…” Jiho’s voice cracked from it not being used for a while and from the trauma his body had just endured. “I don’t… Know…” he concluded lamely, confused excitement coursing though his veins as he slowly began to regain feeling in his arms and fingers again. He flexed his fingers experimentally, forgetting everything that had just happened (apparently) and reveled in the feeling of Hojoon’s fingers against his own. The spaces in-between his fingers seemed to be the perfect home for Hojoon’s, making a flower of warm and cozy feelings blossom inside Jiho’s chest. The small smile that began to creep onto his face confirmed his gut feeling he’d forgotten about earlier. 

‘There’s probably no way it was the girl…’

That same thought was what it took to snap Jiho back into reality, along with Hojoon squeezing back. The culprit of the moment chuckled quietly to himself, uncharacteristically quiet for such an odd twenty minutes of confusing events that seems to whirl by. Jiho finally realized how weird he must’ve looked for the past twenty minutes as he coughed awkwardly, retracting his hands from Hojoon’s warm grasp (he tried to ignore the sinking feeling he felt whilst doing that but failed miserably for obvious reasons) as he tried to regain his composure. “Um, so, I gotta go— I just remembered some homework I uh… need to finish. Um, thanks f-for the coffee,” Jiho muttered as he grabbed his wallet that he never ended up opening and the drink he was so kindly given that he never drank and scurried off, out of the coffee shop, into the elevator, and straight back into his dorm to fling himself onto his bed—the muffled screams into his pillows were his attempts to de-stress. 

“So was it the girl? Okay Jiho, think about everything that’s happened in the last couple months…. Every damn time he… He… Got close I’d…. Freeze up and uh stuff… And he…. Oh God.” Jiho was full on talking to himself by now as he grabbed the sides of his head with both hands and face planted into his pillow, realization hitting him like a ton of bricks.

‘… I might possibly and by chance perhaps quite possibly might have the slightest case of a small little dose of a little bit of crush feeling towards him…’ 

“Crap.” 

And worst of all…? 

“I think he knows. No— he definitely knows.”

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A/N: I liked this so much that I felt like it needed to be in a separate chapter all by itself so… Yeah it’s short >.< 

Plus I didn’t want to not upload for another month again… eheh… Yeah…

If you liked it, comment below? ^u^ That way I know if people even read this and if I should even continue with this fic >u<