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The Longest Time

Summary:

Mingi is just a normal college student, concerned with normal college student things: forcing himself awake during classes, making the most out of a five dollar bill for dinner, and being as overly affectionate as possible to his soulmate, Yunho (definitely not just to piss Hongjoong off, though that was an added bonus). When Yeosang finds Jongho, and Hongjoong and Seonghwa are revealed to be long-lost soulmates (plot twist, I know), Mingi feels all the pieces of his life falling into place. And then there’s Jung Wooyoung, crashing into his life with spilt coffee and a strange request: for Mingi to help him track down his soulmate before the timer on his wrist reaches zero.

Notes:

Hi again! I'm back with the promised sequel to T-Minus! This is admittedly a lot longer than I was intending, and I went a bit crazy with the idea - turning a sequel to a short one-shot into a multi-chaptered fic - I'm so sorry.

This concept became my favorite thing ever, it's perfect for Mingi and it's perfect for Wooyoung, and I loved getting into the side relationships from T-Minus (if you haven't read yet, it's perfectly okay to read this one on it's own, but if you're interested, it's the original seongjoong oneshot I wrote :) ). I fell in love with Yunho a lot writing this, and Wooyoung too, and Mingi, and I'm honestly upset that it's over.

There is a brief mention of some side character illness - the character doesn't appear in the fic, but if you have questions about it, let me know!

Lastly, I made a playlist for this fic that I am absolutely in love with, and if anyone is interested, I am totally up for adding it to spotify and dropping the link ;)) Happy reading, and stay safe out there!

Chapter Text

6 years, 147 days, 11 hours, 43 minutes, 2 seconds

Mingi likes to think the beginning for him was in high school.

He can’t even remember much of his life before then, except maybe the moments leading up to the beginning where he was so nervous he nearly cut a finger off shaving or where he was so frustrated because no matter how hard he tried, the bow tie he’d picked for the occasion would always tilt a little to the left. His mother had even helped him, but on the bus ride to school, Mingi’s hair had been ruffled and that pesky little bow tie somehow made its way off-center.

Meeting Yunho for the first time was a clear start to Mingi’s life. Mingi remembers the whole thing so vividly; he hadn’t even been looking at his timer those last few moments to be sure it was him, and yet as his eyes found Yunho’s, he saw his entire future in that puppy dog face. It was as if nothing in life mattered until Yunho, that nothing in life would ever matter without Yunho.

Mingi still feels this way.

He feels it so strongly when he wakes up beside Yunho, just moments before their alarm goes off, and he can see every edge and curve of Yunho’s face lit up by the sunlight streaming in through the crack in their curtains.

He rolls over to turn off his phone before the alarm starts blaring and wakes the sleeping boy beside him, and then turns back to face Yunho, face to face with their noses nearly touching. Mingi knows he could stay here forever, listening to Yunho’s soft breaths and watching the older boy sleep, such a peaceful expression on his soft face, his nose scrunching cutely and his eyes starting to blink tiredly and-

“Oh,” Mingi breathes, “Goodmorning, sunshine.”

Yunho yawns, and Mingi smiles, his heart doing a thing as if this isn’t a daily occurrence, as if Yunho yawning is some monumental thing that Mingi has never experienced before. And Mingi supposes it is, because Yunho yawning today is new just like Yunho yawning yesterday was new, and Yunho yawning tomorrow will definitely be new and Mingi can hardly wait for it. And then Mingi is stuck wondering how he can handle anything when he can barely handle Yunho yawning, when something so simple feels like his whole world is right there in front of him.

Yunho is looking at him, his eyes raking over Mingi’s face like he’s outlining every inch of it. When they flit up to his eyes, a small smile appears on his face. “Were you watching me sleep?”

Mingi ignores the way Yunho’s poofy cheeks seem to flush slightly, because he’s sure his heart will explode if he thinks about it too hard, and says instead, “Do you remember when we met?”

Yunho’s eyes crinkle as his smile grows wider, and Mingi feels like he can’t breathe. “Of course I do, you wore a little bow tie, remember? With the tie and your hair, I could tell you had tried so hard; I felt stupid in my t-shirt and jeans.”

“It was Harry Potter,” Mingi reminded him, bumping their noses together. “And I could use all the help when it comes to you.”

Yunho shakes his head, but he’s still smiling, and he doesn’t argue back. “I wish we had pictures -- do we have pictures?” he asks, but Mingi can’t answer because he’s lost in Yunho’s warm eyes and then eyeing his soft lips, and when Yunho catches him, his eyes flicking down and then back up again, Mingi goes for it, closing the (nearly nonexistent) gap between the two and pressing his lips against Yunho’s.

It’s soft and it’s quick, nothing but a short peck, but when it’s over Yunho’s eyes are closed, and Mingi feels his heart soar as it’s like they’re waking up again, like they’re waking up and everything’s brand new.

“I just need a picture with baby Mingi and a bow tie,” Yunho says, a little breathlessly, his eyes still closed. “The little bow tie and your hair all done and didn’t you have glasses? Baby glasses on baby Mingi--”

Mingi kisses him again, and they both melt into it immediately, bodies gravitating towards one another and lips slotting against each other perfectly like they’re pieces of the same puzzle. Mingi registers somewhere in the fuzziness of his brain that he needs to ask his mother for pictures later, but it feels like there’s no room for thought, only for Yunho, Yunho, Yunho.

There’s nothing frantic about it; Mingi kisses Yunho slowly and surely, his hand cradling his poofy cheek and brushing their noses together lightly. He feels more connected to Yunho than ever in this moment, like he’s not only conscious of the way his own breath hitches and his heart beats quickly, the way he’s holding Yunho and relaxing into him, but every way Yunho moves, breathes, and touches as well.

When he pulls away, he kisses Yunho’s nose, cheek, forehead, and then lips again, and then rests their foreheads together. They’re so close, when he speaks, it’s like he’s mumbling against Yunho’s lips, and he can feel every breath ghosting across his face.

“It still feels like then,” Mingi breathes, “Like everything is so new, all these years later. Like I wake up and I’m seeing you for the first time. Like it’s the start of something amazing, still, even now.”

“It’s the start of everything,” Yunho corrects, and Mingi smiles so wide because he understands, because of course he understands, he always understands, and he will always understand. There’s nothing quite like that feeling, in a whole world of feelings, the feeling of being understood to this level, and Mingi wants to kiss Yunho so bad but he can’t because he can’t stop grinning.

Yunho pecks his lips once more anyways, though it ends up missing mostly and landing on Mingi’s front teeth.

Mingi feels a bit dazed, but he knows it’s time to get up, so he rolls over away from Yunho and off the edge of the bed, kicking his feet out at just the right time to catch himself (he most certainly is not responsible for that one time he fell off, despite whatever Yunho likes to claim).

“Where do you think you’re going?” Yunho whines, trying to grasp onto the back of Mingi’s shirt as he moves away.

Mingi turns around to look at him, all spread out across the bed, a pout on his face as he reaches for him, and every single part of Mingi wants him back in that bed. It’s ridiculously unfair of Yunho to put Mingi in this position, who’s never been very good at self control, and he nearly chokes on his “To make breakfast?” that comes out so uncertain it’s like he’s asking Yunho for his permission.

It’s a miracle Mingi hasn’t moved yet, because Yunho cutely kicks all the covers off and climbs over to Mingi’s side of the bed, pulling himself up to join him.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Mingi squeaks, because he has greater things to worry about than the tone of his voice when Yunho’s hair is sticking out in all directions the way that it is and he’s stretching his arms over his head and yawning again I mean what is it with the yawning does he want to give Mingi a heart attack?

Yunho snorts. “To help you make breakfast. Did you really think I’d let you go on your own? To use our kitchen?”

Mingi pouts. He isn’t that terrible in the kitchen; he’s been living in an apartment with Yunho for over a year and hasn’t started any fires. He opens his mouth to protest, but the older boy shakes his head.

“Yet,” Yunho answers his thoughts, ruffling his hair on his way out of their bedroom. “I’m pretty sure Seonghwa will fucking beat my ass if I let you burn down the apartment complex.”

Yunho has a point there, and cooking with him sounds nice, so Mingi loses the pout and follows his boyfriend into the kitchen.

Mingi likes to think they’re cute and domestic, making eggs together and singing Frozen as they dance around the kitchen. To be fair to Yunho, though, which Mingi lives his life to be, the Frozen is mostly Mingi. And the dancing is really just Mingi running from Yunho as he tries to hit him with his wooden spoon (no, that is not an innuendo, unfortunately). And making eggs is really Mingi making some weird shit and Yunho cooking them a nice breakfast.

“INTO THE UNKNO--OWW!” Mingi screeches when a wooden spoon hits him square in the nose.

Yunho shushes him, wrapping his arms around Mingi’s waist from behind. Mingi pouts at the wooden spoon now shoved in his face, especially when Yunho uses it to rub his injured nose. But then Yunho coos in his ear, kissing his neck, and then his shoulder, and Mingi’s pretty sure he’s floating a bit off the ground, because a lack of gravity is the only thing that can explain why his knees haven’t given out yet and sent him sinking to the floor.

“The neighbors, Mingi,” Yunho reminds him, and Mingi knows he’s talking about Seonghwa down the hall, “it’s still early.”

There are few things that Mingi is scared of in this world (or maybe more than a few but who’s counting anyways) and one of them is an angry Seonghwa. He stops singing Frozen.

They stay in the kitchen to eat the eggs, sharing off of one plate with one fork and Mingi tries not to feel too pleased when Yunho puts a hand under his chin and feeds him a bite. It’s a bit disappointing to know that everything Mingi made ended up in the trash, but Yunho’s eggs are good, and Mingi tells him so when they’re finished, mumbling it into the crook of his neck where he has made himself at home.

Yunho rubs his back, reminding him they have to get ready for classes, but Mingi doesn’t want to let go, so they end up doing a weird shuffle to the bedroom to get some clean clothes, and then again on their way to the bathroom. Things would’ve been much easier if Yunho had agreed to carrying Mingi, but apparently he’s too big. When Mingi offers to hold Yunho instead, the older boy just laughs and hugs him tighter, which Mingi takes as his very convincing offer to compromise.

If someone told Hongjoong that Yunho and Mingi brush their teeth together, like they’re some old married couple taking turns spitting into the same sink, he’d have a fit, and that’s why no one tells Hongjoong that Yunho and MIngi brush their teeth together.

But Mingi loves every minute of it, especially once they start their war of making the funniest faces they can think of to each other, the ultimate goal to make the other spit up toothpaste on themselves. Everyone always ends up with a bit of spit down their sleepshirts, but it’s all in good fun, especially when just licking his lips has Yunho practically snorting toothpaste.

While Yunho combs through his hair repeatedly, attempting to get it to stop sticking straight up, Mingi runs a hand through his own, fluffing it up slightly and calling it quits. He smirks at Yunho’s glare in the mirror, and ruffles his boyfriend’s blonde mop as soon as he’s done combing it. Because he doesn’t want to get murdered, he makes up for it with a warm back hug and a kiss to Yunho’s cheek.

They’re dressed and ready, finally, and Mingi can’t stop looking at Yunho through the mirror. He turns to the boy in his arms, nosing his ear, and giving him another small kiss. “I love you,” he whispers, breathing in Yunho’s hair and eyeing the older boy in the mirror.

Yunho’s hand comes up to pinch Mingi’s cheek, tapping him slightly to get him to let go long enough for Yunho to turn around to face him. Mingi sighs as Yunho’s arms come around his lower back, pulling him back in closer. “I love you too,” he says, smiling so prettily as he gives Mingi's nose a little nudge with his own before pulling away altogether and leaving the bathroom.

Mingi stays there an embarrassingly long amount of time, attempting to collect himself and remember how to breathe.

When he thinks he’s got it down, he heads out to go find his bag and keys, because as much as he would like to forget he has classes and real world things to get to, he does have a bus to catch.

Yunho is waiting for him by the door, since his classes are a bit later on in the day, and Mingi has to head out earlier. He hates leaving Yunho, but he loves kissing Yunho, and so that’s what he does, aiming a kiss to the corner of his mouth as a quick goodbye.

Yunho has other ideas, though, and grabs his shirt, pulling him back in for a deeper kiss. They kiss against the door until Mingi can’t remember his own name, and then Yunho pulls away, kissing his nose quickly and leaving him with a “good luck, babe!” Mingi stands there a bit mystified for about 30 seconds before he determines that he looks too much like an idiot to remain frozen much longer. That, and he’s going to be late to the bus.

Once Mingi makes it out into the hallway (a great accomplishment, honestly), he hovers around the door a bit to make sure he didn’t forget something important before leaving. He checks his pocket for his keys, which are (surprisingly) there, and then straightens his backpack and heads out.

He’s two steps down the hall when Seonghwa’s apartment door opens, and a boy much shorter than Seonghwa steps out.

“Hongjoong?” he calls, and the other boy whips his head around to meet Mingi’s eyes, looking like a deer caught in the headlights with one foot still halfway inside his boyfriend’s apartment.

Seonghwa and Hongjoong, despite having known each other since they were practically born and being soulmates (plot twist, right?), had decided it was still too soon to move in together. Or so they told all of their friends. What Mingi was seeing was clearly contradicting that, but hey, who was he to judge?

Hongjoong is still looking like he’s committed some crime, like he’s waiting for whatever words come out of Mingi’s mouth next.

“So, the weather’s been looking pretty nice lately, huh?” Mingi says.

Hongjoong sighs, taking his foot out of the door and joining Mingi as they begin to head down the hall. “Yeah,” he says, shaking his hands out in a very obvious sign of relief. “Yeah, it has.”

They’re barely to the stairwell when Mingi speaks up again. “So, are you fucking yet?”

He’s definitely judging.

They walk to the bus stop together, Hongjoong redder in the face than Mingi’s ever seen him, and it’s honestly refreshing. Mingi giggles a little at the boy who’s now all flustered.

“And who the hell do you think you’re laughing at?” Hongjoong snaps. Despite being half his size, Hongjoong is one of the other (few) things in the world Mingi is afraid of, and he shrinks a bit at the older boy’s threatening glare. He holds himself back from singing the K-I-S-S-I-N-G song, cause he’s not sure how well that will go over.

Riding a bus to campus is a pain in the ass, and they dodge what feels like a crowd of people and a few suspicious substances Mingi prays aren’t bodily fluids to find a pair of open seats in the back.

Mingi refuses to sit down, because he’ll “crinkle his pants.” Hongjoong reminds him that it’s “wrinkle” and also he’s currently wearing jeans, but Mingi chooses to ignore him, spending his time instead attempting to balance himself while the bus moves without touching anything else.

Unfortunately for his bus-riding partner, he is very bad at balancing on a moving bus, and “without touching anything else” ends up excluding Hongjoong’s bright blue head of hair, which, after the third incident, he reveals took him hours to style. Among other words. Which Mingi would like to ignore. (Because “hours to style” means he was at Seonghwa’s apartment a lot longer than he will admit to Mingi). (And also because they were mean).

If he’s being honest, the crinkling was an excuse. He loves his little game. But Hongjoong’s here, so he’s not being honest.

He tries to ask Hongjoong about his new relationship, and how Seonghwa is doing, but Hongjoong threatens to put his earbuds in if he won’t shut up, and so he focuses more on his game.

They make it to campus, and are bombarded by what Hongjoong refers to as “millions of sweaty college students” (there are maybe a dozen people in their immediate vicinity max). Mingi doesn’t mind the others, but he knows Hongjoong pretty well, and so he’s prepared to go find somewhere quieter to regroup for a moment.

But the older boy just waves his hand, admitting that he was planning on ditching Mingi anyways to go hang out in his studio and get some work done.

Mingi sighs, waving as Hongjoong walks away across to the opposite side of campus. Mingi doesn’t spend much time in the arts building, but he knows his friend has his own fancy shmancy studio there where he can record music for his classes. (Mingi knows it better as the place Hongjoong likes to go to avoid humanity, and, by extension, Mingi).

But it’s okay, and Mingi doesn’t mind a whole lot, making his own way across campus towards the humanities building, which is on the West side, far from Hongjoong’s fancy studio (he’s pretty sure the thing has AC, unlike half of the other old ass academic buildings, which isn’t really fair). He sees a lot of students along the way, and waves to a pair of boys he knows chilling on a park bench in the middle of the quad.

“Felix!” he yells across the green space, like they’re not in a public place and there’s not a bunch of other people around.

But the blonde-haired boy, who had previously had his head in the lap of his older friend, Chan (Mingi doesn’t know him too well, just through Felix), jumps up and begins waving like a maniac at Mingi.

“Mingi! How have you been?!” he screams back, just as loud, and the boy beside him covers his ears.

Mingi flashes a thumbs up. “I’ve been good! You?!”

“Doing just great! How’s Yunho?!”

“Great! Chan?!”

“I’m doing fine!” Chan yells too, and Mingi grins at the pair.

“Well I’m off! Have a great day!”

Felix’s voice follows him halfway to the humanities building. “You too!”

Mingi’s first class on Thursdays is European History. It’s never too bad (the short attention span suffers, always), and the professor rarely keeps them the full time, so Mingi’s out of there with plenty of time before his media studies (moviemaking!) class.

He even manages to run into Jongho on his way from the humanities building, and catches up with him quickly outside.

“Jongho!” he wraps his arm around the other, tucking him into his arm. Jongho squeals a bit, and manages to break through (Mingi is much stronger, he just let him win so that he’d feel good about himself), swatting at the older boy when he tries to ruffle his hair.

“Are you on for lunch again today?” Jongho asks, and Mingi grins even brighter.

“How are you and Yeosang? Are you moving in yet?” Jongho splutters a bit, his ears turning pink, and Mingi is beginning to enjoy this effect he has on others -- first Hongjoong, and now the younger boy. He uses Jongho’s embarrassment to his advantage, pulling him back in to mess up his hair.

“We’re not even -- we haven’t --” Jongho takes a deep breath. “I think I asked you a question first.”

Mingi skips ahead a bit, not wanting to be too late to his next class, and sends Jongho a thumbs up. “I’ll be there!”

As much as he teases the younger, Mingi really likes Jongho, and he can proudly say that out of all of Yeosang’s friends, Jongho has warmed up to Mingi the fastest. He turns to glance at the boy once more (who has his hands cupped over his ears to cool them down), and then smiles to himself, moving on to make some movies.

Mingi likes his schedule, except that he can never find time for lunch with his boyfriend, who has his first class soon after Mingi’s last one ends.

They do have a lovely Thursday tradition though, one that Mingi would totally say didn’t involve making out in the back hallway on the third floor of the science building, but that wouldn’t be being completely honest.

“I love you,” Yunho breathes against him, and Mingi gasps when he sinks his teeth down into his bottom lip. He really wishes he could control himself sometimes, but he is pretty sure he let out a whine somewhere in there around the time Yunho soothes the bite with his tongue.

In retrospect, it probably isn’t the best place for making out -- Mingi’s back pressed uncomfortably against a bulletin with signups for the theater department’s upcoming play, the occasional pushpin stabbing his backbone -- but Mingi doesn’t have a lot of time for thinking about past regrets when he’s with Yunho, and his body’s pressed against his like this, and his breath is hot in his face, and he’s whispering words against his mouth and --

“Ahem,” comes a voice to the left of them, and they part (truly, truly unfortunately) to look at Seonghwa, standing there with an unreadable expression on his face (but that Mingi can guess isn’t happy). “Class?” he asks Yunho, who groans before reaching for his backpack.

Oh yeah, Mingi did neglect to mention that Seonghwa is often a part of their little tradition. He shares a calc lecture with Yunho, and the two ride to campus together in the morning. It isn’t ideal, Mingi knows, but...well that’s really it. It’s not ideal.

Yunho combs a bit of hair behind Mingi’s ear, and leans in for another soft kiss, which Mingi melts into almost as much as the last one. “I’ll see you this afternoon?”

Mingi nods against him. “Good luck at class.”

Yunho smiles his little smile before jogging off to meet up with Seonghwa, and Mingi remains stuck there, pushpins digging into his back, trying to catch his breath, which seems to be becoming a recurring theme for him.

He eventually heads off to find Jongho and Yeosang for lunch, once he’s regained at least some of his working brain cells.

Mingi loves his friends -- he’s known Yeosang so long and Jongho has already managed to worm his way into their little family, the little fucker -- but they’re a bit unbearable to eat lunch with, alone at least.

The two claim they’re not romantically involved yet, and they’re just teasing out this whole soulmate thing before they make any drastic decisions, starting out just friends, and Mingi could accept that, he would accept that, if it weren’t for the fact that it’s utter bullshit. They get a booth to sit in in the dining hall, and the pair sit across from Mingi, their thighs touching and talking amongst themselves like they’re the only people in the world. As they talk (and Mingi eats), Jongho is trailing his eyes over every inch of Yeosang’s face like it was etched by the gods and Yeosang is staring back at him so intensely Mingi is a little afraid they’ll start going at it any second, right in front of his salad. Or, right in front of his salad if he had a salad, but he doesn’t because he’s not that healthy and also the ones in the dining hall are kinda sus.

To save him from his misery, Mingi begs Hongjoong to come join them so he’s not alone, but Hongjoong only leaves him on read, and Mingi is too offended to push it further. So he ends up suffering his way through it, convinced it’s some sort of cosmic karma for forcing Seonghwa to watch him and Yunho making out, or maybe for falling asleep on Seonghwa’s couch again, or even that one time when Hongjoong walked in on the pair when Mingi was right in the middle of--

“So do you have any other plans today, Mingi?” Yeosang asks politely, finally turning towards Mingi like he’s just realized he’s there.

Mingi shrugs. “Studying, sleeping. Not sure yet.”

Yeosang nods, looks like he’s trying to come up with something else to say, and then turns back to Jongho with the lovey eyes that Mingi thinks are a little scary, coming from the older boy.

After eating, Mingi debates studying in the library with his bit of extra free time this afternoon, but he ultimately settles on heading home to take a nap.

Things feel as though they’re starting to fall into place -- Yeosang finding Jongho, Seonghwa and Hongjoong getting together -- it’s like everything in his life is coming together, Mingi notes, and then he proceeds to step in one of the mysterious fluids on the bus. He makes it home okay though, even without Hongjoong’s hair to grab onto for balance.

Mingi is an expert at taking naps. He’s so good at it, they should give him some sort of award for it, or build some sort of nap-taking shrine in his honor. Mingi wonders what a nap-taking shrine would look like, if it’d be some sort of statue with him sleeping, and then he passes out for nearly five hours and realizes he’d never deserve something so epic.

“Goodmorning, sunshine,” Yunho grins when he finally makes it out to the kitchen where he’s making dinner (or where he’s already made dinner, since it’s now around seven o’clock).

“Why didn’t you wake me up?” Mingi whines, pouting at Yunho despite pulling him into a big hug.

Yunho snuggles closer to Mingi, burying his nose in his hair. “You were too cute, I’m sorry,” he mumbles, and Mingi forgives him instantly.

Pulling away rather reluctantly, he sighs at his boyfriend’s beautiful face. “I’m really fucked for this English test tomorrow morning,” he admits.

He wants nothing more than to climb back into bed with Yunho, holding him close all night, but, as the universe seems to be punishing him for saying everything was going alright, he instead fishes out his phone and sends a quick text to Yeosang to meet him for coffee in an hour; he needs an all-nighter. Yeosang isn’t the best pick within the friend group for helping him out with English, but he is the best at pulling an all-nighter (except maybe Hongjoong, but Hongjoong hates helping Mingi so he’s out).

Yunho reads over Mingi’s texts, and then groans into his shoulder. “An all-nighter? That’s not healthy, Mingi, you’ll be better prepared for your test if you stay home and get rested.”

“I’m really unprepared, and I need a good grade, you know how bad I did on the midterm,” Mingi says. “I’m sorry,” he adds quitely, his chest hurting slightly because disappointing Yunho is absolutely unacceptable. But Yunho wraps his arms around his waist, burying his face in Mingi’s neck from behind.

“You’ll never disappoint me,” he whispers, and Mingi’s breath hitches because no matter how long he knows Yunho he’ll never get used to that. “I’m just worried, baby.”

“I’ll be fine,” he assures him, his mouth dry. He taps Yunho’s hands on his stomach. “But I should get ready, I need to get going soon.”

“Eat something first!” Yunho insists, untangling himself from Mingi and reaching for a plate that he shoves in front of the younger boy. “I made this for you.”

Mingi eyes the food, and then his boyfriend, whose wide puppy smile must be fake. “I think I’m okay, actually. I wasn’t planning on eating before catching up with Yeosang.”

In a normal situation, Mingi would hate himself for the pout that crosses Yunho’s face. But in his defense, all that is on the plate before him is a hard boiled egg, cut in two, and a pile of potato chips.

“C’mon,” Yunho protests, “try to be a little healthy if you’re staying up all night.”

That’s healthy?” Mingi asks, and Yunho frowns, little crease lines appearing on his forehead. Mingi sighs; it really isn’t fair to him in the slightest, but he reaches for the two halves of egg, stuffs them in his mouth, and pecks Yunho right on his little frown lines between his eyes before going off to get changed.

When he’s ready to go, Yunho sends him off with a kiss, a cute little peck on the corner of Mingi’s mouth, and a promise that if he wakes him upon his return he’ll be sleeping on Seonghwa’s couch for a month.

So it’s with semi-high spirits and a rumbling stomach that Mingi heads off to the group’s favorite coffee shop right off campus, a 24 hour place perfect for this type of procrastination.

Mingi likes the bus better at night, cause there are less people, and less people means less judgment when he sticks his arms out to the side and spends the whole ride fighting to maintain his balance. He gets a few weird stares, but he’s having fun, and that’s all that matters. (Yes, he’s only saying that because Hongjoong isn’t there.)

The bus stop that drops him off at campus is literally yards from the coffeeshop, and there’s no one around since no one left the bus with him, so Mingi skips his way there.

The place is small, so he expects to see Yeosang the second he opens the door, as the boy practically camps out there 24 hours a day. Instead, as he pulls the handle open, he runs right into another person, seemingly frantic and in a hurry. Upon impact, the entire contents of the (scorching hot, Mingi would like to add) coffee cup in his hand are emptied onto Mingi.

As Mingi sits there, blinking, trying to figure out if he’s suffering from third degree burns, he waits for an apology from the smaller stranger still frozen in the doorway. What he gets instead is a “Holy shit man, can I ask you a huge favor?”

 

6 years, 146 days, 22 hours, 37 minutes, 42 seconds