“Hey, do you want to have lunch with us?” Hakyeon asks, poking Jaehwan’s side while he’s walking on the corridor.

“I, uh, actually have some homework to do before my next class.”

“Hongbin’s coming too.” Hakyeon smirks.

Jaehwan snorts.

“And why do you think that makes lunch with you more alluring?”

“Oh, come on,” Hakyeon rolls his eyes. “You guys seemed to get along very well on Saturday.”

“You couldn’t even see anything,” Jaehwan replies, not even noticing that Hakyeon has already led them to the staircase leading to the cafeteria. “You were wasted.”

“You shouldn’t underestimate my abilities.”

“Abilities to what? Make Hongbin feel embarrassed?”

“Make both of you feel embarrassed! At the same time!”

“Has anybody ever told you that being manipulative is not a virtue?” Jaehwan asks, suddenly realizing that they arrived at the cafeteria.  He can’t oppose now, and maybe doesn’t even want to, so he walks to the counter with Hakyeon.

“I think I’ve already heard that somewhere,” Hakyeon says, choosing a sandwich and paying for it. “But some people are stupid enough not to realize what’s good for them. And by stupid people I mean you and Hongbin.”

“Yeah, I figured that.”

After Jaehwan buys a sandwich for himself, they sit down at a free table. As soon as Jaehwan unwraps his lunch, Hakyeon starts waving his hand in the air. Jaehwan looks up and notices Wonshik and Hongbin walking between the tables towards them. Hongbin doesn’t seem to have noticed them, because he’s too busy talking to Wonshik, but Wonshik tries to hide his obvious smirk from him and that’s enough indication for Jaehwan to assume that he can see Hakyeon.

Jaehwan lets out a sigh unwittingly while watching Hongbin’s small waist and tiny legs as him and Wonshik make their way towards them. Hongbin bumps into a chair and finally looks up, stopping when his eyes meet Jaehwan’s. Jaehwan’s ears turn red and Hongbin averts his eyes, but then Wonshik turns around, telling him something to which Hongbin nods and continues on his way to the table.

“Long time no see,” Hakyeon grins at his not-boyfriend boyfriend and Hongbin.

“What’s up?” Wonshik asks, taking a seat next to Hakyeon.

Hakyeon starts blabbing about something, but Jaehwan is too preoccupied with watching a blushing Hongbin sit down next to him.

“Hey,” Hongbin mumbles, avoiding Jaehwan’s eyes.

“Hey,” Jaehwan mumbles back.

“Oh, I forgot!” Hakyeon exclaims, making Jaehwan all but jump up from his seat in surprise. “I promised Wonshik that I’d help him do his homework before his next class!”

Wonshik looks at Hakyeon like he’s gone mad and opens his mouth to say something, but Hakyeon elbows into his side very evidently.

“We have to go now.”

“Really?” Wonshik asks.

“Really,” Hakyeon replies, looking into Wonshik’s eyes with a piercing gaze.

Hakyeon, albeit having a smaller figure than Wonshik, easily pulls his boyfriend up from the chair, pushing his sandwich into his hands.

“Are you kidding me?” Wonshik grumbles, leaning closer to Hakyeon.

“No, I’m not, you’re going to fail Graphics if I don’t help you with this!”

Wonshik rolls his eyes, but lets Hakyeon usher him away from the table. Hakyeon bids Hongbin and Jaehwan goodbye, but before they could get into considerable distance from them, Jaehwan hears Wonshik say: “If I’m ever breaking up with you, that’ll be because you’re weird as .”

“Shush!” Hakyeon replies and they hurry out of the cafeteria.

“Smooth,” Jaehwan says, watching them leave.

“That’s Hakyeon’s middle name,” Hongbin answers, taking a bite of the pastry he purchased earlier.

They sit in silence for a good five minutes, chewing on their lunches.

Awkward.

“Would you–“

“I have–“

They look at each other surprised for a few seconds, but then Hongbin smiles sheepishly. Jaehwan feels like he’s being pulled on strings, as though he had to reflect everything Hongbin does, so he smiles as well.

“You first,” Hongbin says.

“No, you first!” Jaehwan replies, voice shaky. “Please.”

“Um. So I have to tell you something. You know that I wanted to put one of the pictures I took of you into my portfolio for one of my classes, right?”

“Yeah, you told me you would.”

“Yeah, so I got an A on it.”

“Did you?” Jaehwan asks, raising his eyebrows, smiling. “Congrats!”

“Thanks,” Hongbin smiles back, his dimples visible and it makes Jaehwan feel hot. “It’s actually thanks to you. My teacher loved that picture of you and he’d like to put it on the third floor wall where the best photos are exhibited. If… it’s okay with you, of course.”

“Sure!” Jaehwan grins. “Everyone should see my cute face all the time!”

Hongbin furrows his brow and a small puff of air escapes his mouth as he laughs.

“Yeah,” he mutters. Jaehwan can’t not notice the pink flush on his cheeks. “Cute.”

Jaehwan takes a bite of his sandwich to hide his embarrassment.

“What did you want to say?” Hongbin asks.

“Oh, that!” Jaehwan says and accidentally spits on the table. Hongbin clearly saw it, but doesn’t say anything about it. Jaehwan wants to disappear nevertheless. He chews the bite in his mouth and swallows it while staring at the table with blood red ears as he says: “Uh, I was… I was wondering if you, maybe, if you feel like it… so, I was wondering if you’d like to have a coffee with me? Sometime? Anytime you want?”

Jaehwan can see from the corner of his eye that Hongbin takes a deep breath and starts blinking faster than he normally would. Jaehwan’s heart is in his throat and the few bites of his sandwich he ate suddenly want to escape, but then Hongbin says: “That’d be great.”