Archive of Our Own

Taekwoon had been hoping to get an apartment for his junior and senior years of university, but as life has it, when he opens his notifications, he’s met with the name Andromeda Hall under his dorm title.

The Andromeda Halls aren’t even suites; they’re just dorm rooms, though supposedly they’re much nicer than the regular dorms. Probably because they’re not for freshmen, except those in specialized programs. He was shooting for the Delphinus apartments, or at least the Gemini suites, but this will have to do. It’s not like he really has a choice anyway.

Come move-in day, he finds himself dragging his luggage up the dorm steps alone. His roommate, Lee Jaehwan, who had somehow found his number through a friend of a friend, has already moved in and is waiting for him. He’s incredibly talkative, Taekwoon learns quickly.

“Have you met our neighbors yet?” Jaehwan asks, and Taekwoon shakes his head as he rearranges the lamp on his desk. His bed is lofted, and even though he’s tall, he’s going to have to climb on his chair to get onto the bed. He debates on sending a maintenance order to get it unlofted.

It takes him a moment to realize Jaehwan is still talking. “Wonshik?” Taekwoon asks, tuning in just in time to hear his name. “Kim Wonshik, sophomore?”

“Yeah!” Jaehwan replies, grinning, happy that Taekwoon has actually been listening to him. “History major? Do you know him?”

Taekwoon takes a breath and moves his lamp to the other side of the desk, away from his bed. “We’re in intervarsity soccer together. Where does he live?”

Jaehwan points towards their left. “Right next to us.” When Taekwoon doesn’t reply, except for a slight nod, and instead opts to move the TV to the top of his cabinet, Jaehwan pulls out his phone.

“I’m gonna go say hi to Hongbin,” he says, an Taekwoon tries not to let the relief show on his face. “I promised him I’d say hi and get coffee or something. You want anything?”

“Latte,” he replies instantly, and Jaehwan laughs.

“I knew you had a sweet tooth,” he says, and heads out the room.

Half an hour later, after Taekwoon has his Playstation set up, somebody knocks at his door. For a moment, he thinks it might be Jaehwan and doesn’t bother getting up from his chair, but then again, Jaehwan probably isn’t the kind to quietly knock. Plus, he has a key.

When he opens the door, a boy with dark brown hair and an ugly pastel blue polo shirt is standing in the hallway.

“Hello?” he tries, and the boy grins.

“Hi! I’m Hakyeon!” the boy says, looking up at Taekwoon. “I’m your RA for this year, nice to meet you!” The boy, Hakyeon, holds out his hand, and Taekwoon stares at it for a moment before shaking it. Hakyeon is a few centimeters smaller than him, but his hand is incredibly warm and his grip is stronger than it looks. “Are you Jaehwan?” he asks.

“Taekwoon,” he corrects, and Hakyeon’s eyes widen. “Jung Taekwoon.”

“You have such a pretty voice!” he exclaims, then freezes. Taekwoon stares at him, face flushing, and Hakyeon laughs nervously before apologizing. He checks Taekwoon’s name off on his clipboard and says, “There’s a floor meeting at 7PM, in the lounge, a few doors down to your right. Don’t be late!”

Taekwoon watches him grin and head off to the next room, and gently closes the door. Jaehwan still isn’t back yet, and as he stares at the spot where he was sitting before, a small sigh escapes his lips.

He really wishes he got an apartment.

Jaehwan talks so much that Taekwoon is glad when 7PM rolls around and they shuffle out of their rooms into the lounge. He recognizes only two people: Eunji, the girl from his Chemistry class last semester and Wonshik, his teammate on the soccer team.

“Oh, Taekwoon hyung!” Wonshik greets, grinning up at him. “You got stuck here too?”

Taekwoon sits down next to him and nods; Jaehwan deposits himself on Taekwoon’s other side and falls into easy conversation with two of the other girls after waving Wonshik hi.

“I met Jaehwan earlier,” Wonshik explains, then gestures to the boy sitting next to him. “This is Hongbin, my roommate.”

Taekwoon smiles (or, well, tries to smile) and introduces himself, but any further conversation is cut short when Hakyeon walks in.

“Hyung!” one of the boys calls, “you said if you were my RA you’d drop out of college.”

“I’m considering it,” Hakyeon replies with a laugh. “Since you’re an ass, I can point you out first. That’s Sanghyuk, the resident freshman. He thinks he’s cool because he skipped a grade and is the youngest one here. If he bothers you, come to me.”

Sanghyuk flashes them all a grin.

“Anyway,” Hakyeon says, looking down at his clipboard. “If you guys haven’t met me already, I’m Cha Hakyeon, and as you can see from this ugly blue shirt, I’m your RA for the year. I’m in my junior year, and I’m double majoring in business and economics, with a statistics minor. So if anyone else is doing that, we have something to bond over! Feel free to ask me for help on anything.”

He hears Sanghyuk mutter, “overachiever,” under his breath, and Hakyeon glares at him.

“Says the one who skipped a grade!” he retorts, and flips over a page in his clipboard. “Do you guys want me to go over dorm rules first or do you wanna do introductions first?”

It doesn’t take long for the dorm dynamics to form. Taekwoon and Wonshik get along the easiest since they play soccer together, and Wonshik seems to get along with everyone, so Taekwoon finds it easier to settle in. Taekwoon, Wonshik, Eunji, and Sunyoung are the ones who frequent the lounge the most, because Wonshik likes to talk and Taekwoon and Sunyoung have a class together.

It takes even less time for Taekwoon to realize just how screwed he and Jaehwan is for the way they set up their room. Their beds are both put against the wall that they share with Wonshik and Hongbin, which leads to a lot of awkward silences and lost sleep.

Jaehwan manages to drag him out to Hakyeon’s room that Thursday to complain about it.

“Can I go?” Taekwoon asks, the tips of his ears already turning pink. “I have a quiz tomorrow.”

“I’m going to go insane,” Jaehwan cuts in, before Hakyeon can excuse either of them. “You have to make them quiet down.”

Hakyeon stares at them both. “Can’t you tell them not to bring over people so often? I can’t yell at them for bringing over girls...”

“I’ve heard things that would make my little sister cry,”Jaehwan continues, not caring that Hakyeon looks more unsettled than either of them. “I love them, but they need to shut up when it’s 4AM and I have a class at ten.”

Hakyeon scratches the back of his head and puffs out his cheeks. “I’ll tell them to stop bringing over people... and to be more quiet when they go at it? But which one? Taekwoon? Are you okay?”

Taekwoon really does not want to be here, having this conversation. If his ears were pink before, then the flush has definitely spread to the rest of his face, and he refuses to meet Hakyeon’s eyes. There’s just something very... unsettling about knowing your who your soccer teammate is banging, and very intimately so. And then on top of that, it’s embarrassing that Hakyeon knows that he’s embarrassed by this. “I want to study,” he says quietly, and tries to slip away, but Jaehwan pulls him back.

“He doesn’t believe me!” Jaehwan whines. “Tell them exactly who they’re bringing over.”

Taekwoon will absolutely murder Jaehwan. He gives him a warning glare, but Jaehwan is too immersed in getting their neighbors to shut the fuck up to actually notice Taekwoon plotting his murder. “Each other,” he sighs, and looks at Hakyeon’s confused face. “They’re... It’s each other.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Hakyeon replies. Taekwoon wants to crawl into the ground, and Jaehwan looks like his head is going to explode like those old Gushers commercials.

“They’re. Fucking. Each. Other.”

Hakyeon stares at them both, Jaehwan seething from his outburst, and Taekwoon, who refuses to pick his head up from the floor. “Oh,” he says. “Why’d you make it so complicated? Just say that. Jeez, I have to make sure they’re having safe sex too.”

Jaehwan doesn’t bother to hear the rest, vouching to throw his hands into the air and grumble his way back to their dorm room. Hakyeon gives Taekwoon a bright smile, and Taekwoon, in turn, flushes again, looking everywhere but at Hakyeon. “Are you okay, Taekwoon?”

“‘m fine,” he mumbles, and begins to turn away, until Hakyeon speaks again.

“Was that... uncomfortable for you?” he asks, then corrects himself. “Rather, which part was? The gay sex part, or the part that it’s Hongbin and Wonshik?”

Taekwoon quickly turns away at the second part of the sentence and excuses himself, ignoring Hakyeon’s laughter.

“Cute,” he hears Hakyeon say, and he ducks his head.

Hakyeon, as it turns out, is delighted to have another junior in the dorm and clings onto Taekwoon whenever he can, which is quite often, since Jaehwan is loud and annoying and the lounge is only ten feet away from his dorm room. It's useful when he needs things (like coffee), but most of the time it's just annoying and slightly overbearing.

“How’re your studies going?” Hakyeon asks, reaching over Taekwoon’s lap to grab a chip from Sooyoung’s outstretched hand. She offers him one too, but when he shakes his head, she shrugs and plops it into her own mouth. Taekwoon ticks away at his keyboard instead, googling something about metalinguistics and structure-dependency, and sighs loudly when Hakyeon pushes at his shoulder. “I’ve told you I’ve taken this class before, I can teach you. You don’t have to google all of the definitions.”

Taekwoon gives him a look that has Hakyeon sitting in his seat properly and grabbing one of the textbooks spread out over the coffee table. “Alright, alright, I’ll behave. Lemme know if you need any help!”

Taekwoon purses his lips and googles another definition. He sneaks a peak at Hakyeon, and flushes when said person grins at him. He asks Sooyoung to switch places with him.

Nearly three weeks into school, Hakyeon still bothers him every time they cross paths, and Taemin has been bringing girls over every weekend, except no one understands how he finds so many girls and how it’s a different one each time. Wonshik swears that he saw two girls walk out of Taemin’s dorm at the same time, and, after asking, Taemin smiles and whistles as he walks past them.

Andromeda Hall is a strange place, Taekwoon decides.

“I’m making a coffee run!” Hakyeon hollers, and Taekwoon grins when he spots Min rolling her eyes. She grins back. “Who wants?”

Nana’s door slams open then, and she stumbles out into the lounge, hair looking more like a bird’s nest than actual hair. “Me! I haven’t slept in two days, I need black coffee, the largest kind, the strongest kind-”

“I think you need to sleep,” Sanghyuk replies, but quiets down at Nana’s glare.

“I can sleep after I’ve gotten A on my Organic Chemistry exam, thank you very much. Get me two coffees if you have to!”

Hakyeon sighs and pats her cheek. “There’s water in my room, drink that first so you don’t get dehydrated. Brain needs to be actually working. Promise me?”

She sighs and blinks away the sleep. “Promise.”

“Good,” he says, and turns to everyone else in the lounge. “What about you all?”

Taekwoon watches as Daehyun, Youngjae, Soojung, Sera, and Hani all ask for coffee.

“Okay,” Hakyeon mumbles, looking at everyone. “That’s a lot more than I expected. Taekwoon! You’ve been playing cubefield for half an hour, come with me.”

“Me?” he asks, looking around him. He already lost the moment Hakyeon started yelling in the hallway, but now he looks at his score and sighs. If he thought he could glower his way out of it, Hakyeon decides to prove him wrong by picking his laptop up and placing it on the coffee table. He sighs in defeat.

“Come on! Get some fresh air, come with me, I can’t carry it all.”

Hani gives him a fighting! motion and giggles as he’s dragged out of the dorm. Taekwoon sulks all the way down the street as Hakyeon chats away about his week, and he sticks to one worded answers as best as he can.

“You know,” Hakyeon says as they reach the coffee shop and get on line, “for someone who refuses to talk, you act very cute.”

“What?”

“You,” Hakyeon repeats, grinning at him, “are very cute.”

He turns to the cashier and lists off the many drinks as Taekwoon spins his mind around this statement. He’d never been called cute before, except from his parents and older sisters and their friends, but never anyone his age. And Taekwoon- honestly, there’s no way someone who looks like Taekwoon could be cute, with how tall he is and how cold he looks. “I’m not,” he says after they’ve moved to the side, and refuses to look at Hakyeon. He stares at the barista instead, who gives him a tight smile as she fiddles with the coffee machine.

He can feel Hakyeon smiling next to him. “Aw,” he coos, “am I making you embarrassed?”

Taekwoon doesn’t bother to answer, instead opting to rub at his ears, which are already bright pink, and puts the first two drinks into a cup holder. He makes a mental note to try harder to avoid Hakyeon, because this constant blushing cannot be good for his health. Too much- he doesn’t know what causes blushing, but whatever it is, it needs to stop. That, or Hakyeon needs to stop being overbearing.

“Here,” Hakyeon says, handing him one of the cup holders. He grabs the other one, and motions to head out. “Nine drinks in total. One, two, three... yup! We’re good!”

“Let us in, children!” Hakyeon yells, banging on the door. Both Hakyeon and Taekwoon forgot their dorm keys, and after a good few minutes, the door is shoved open by Sanghyuk, who grins at them.

“Coffee’s here!” he yells behind him, and Taekwoon hears a collective cheer coming from the lounge. These damn kids, it's barely noon.

“You kids, you don’t even care about us, you just want the coffee,” Hakyeon sniffs, vocalizing his thoughts, and holds the door open for Taekwoon. “I expect you all to pay me back by the end of today!”

Taekwoon laughs as Sanghyuk grabs the cup holder from him and runs up the stairs to the second floor, where everyone else is sitting. “This one is Sera’s, this one is Youngjae’s, this one is... oh!”

“Oh?” Sera asks, grabbing her mocha.

He turns to Hakyeon and pouts. “I forgot to order one for me,” he says.

Hakyeon grins and puts down the cup holder he’s been holding, taking one drink out and placing it in his hands. “Why do you have no faith in me, Taekwoonie?”

Taekwoon looks at the cup in his hand and back up at Hakyeon with wide eyes. “This is-”

“A latte. Because I like you a latte.”

Sanghyuk boos in the background as Taekwoon’s face flushes despite himself, and Hakyeon grins. “You are cute!” he exclaims, and Taekwoon tries his hardest to give his most intimidating glower, though his hands around the cup are pleasant and warm.

Soccer practice had ended nearly an hour earlier than usual, which is something Taekwoon is grateful for because he’s nearly three chapters behind in his linguistics class, and he’d been trying to find the time to catch up. But before that, Taekwoon needs to throw his nearly two weeks worth of laundry into the washing machine. Even now, his practice shirt clings to him in sweaty patches, and the only thing keeping him from just taking his shirt off (aside from how embarassing that is in general) is the prospect of Jaehwan jeering at him.

“Taekwoon!” someone calls out as he reaches the steps of his dorm. It’s Wonshik, who also looks sweaty and gross, but not nearly as much as himself. The perks of being goalie. “Are you free this weekend?”

“I guess,” he mumbles, hoping this isn’t going where he thinks it is.

“Some of the guys and I are gonna go drinking,” Wonshik explains, and Taekwoon holds back a sigh. “You interested?”

“I dunno,” he replies, and keys himself into the building. “I’ll let you know later.”

He takes off his shirt in the stairwell anyway and thinks about how he will definitely not go out this weekend.

Jaehwan comes back from dinner just as he’s about to haul his laundry bag down the stairs.

“I wouldn’t go do laundry right now if I were you,” Jaehwan warns, shuffling past Taekwoon.

“Why?”

Jaehwan flops onto his bed and says, “It’s wet,” very unhelpfully, and turns over. “Wake me up in an hour.”

“I won’t,” Taekwoon threatens, and carries his bag down the stairs. Jaehwan has a penchant for over exaggerating, so if anything, one of the washing machines probably broke down.

As he reaches the basement floor, Taekwoon realizes with a start that he couldn’t have possibly been more wrong.

Well. He’s right, but. Not right enough.

The sound of dripping water is the first thing that keys him in, but it’s not until water splashes underneath his feet that he realizes just how bad it is.

The floor of the laundry room is covered with water, about four or five centimeters high, and standing in the center of the room is none other than Cha Hakyeon, looking very much guilty.

“Taekwoon!” he calls out, and laughs nervously. “Came to wash your clothes, huh?”

When Taekwoon doesn’t answer, just takes in the damage (there’s sparks flying out of the washing machine Hakyeon is standing next to, which can’t possibly be safe), and turns to look back at Hakyeon. All of the doors to the washing machines are open, and there’s even water dripping out of a few.

“Bad time to do that,” Hakyeon continues. “But you could keep me company until the maintenence guy gets here! It’s just a leak.” At Taekwoon’s constant staring, Hakyeon remedies his statement. “Okay, well. It’s more than a leak. It turns out that I didn’t see the ‘out of order’ sign, and used the wrong washing machine. Well. There were multiple out of order signs. How urgently do you need to do your laundry?”

“It can wait,” he says, and walks back up the stairs.

“Wait!” Hakyeon calls, and Taekwoon hears water splashing before he stops.

He sighs and turns around.

“Would you like to keep me company?” Hakyeon asks sheepishly.

He watches Hakyeon scratch the back of his head before he purses his lips. “No.”

Hakyeon looks more desperate than he does offended, which Taekwoon doesn’t get, because why would Hakyeon want to spend any more time with Taekwoon? Taekwoon, who goes out of his way to avoid speaking to anyone, and would definitely get lost trying to keep a conversation with Hakyeon. “Why not?” he asks. “It’ll be fun. The maintenance guy will be here in two minutes, and do you really want to haul your luggage upstairs and back down again?”

Taekwoon watches him run foward to wrap his hand around Taekwoon’s wrist gently and tug.

His hand is small and warm, and Taekwoon tries to hold back a sigh when he feels the squish of the water soaking into his socks.

“I haven’t gotten to talk to you all week, so you can update me on classes, studying, soccer, anything! I’ll listen to it all.”

He jumps up to sit on the washing machine, and pats the one beside him. Taekwoon simply looks at him and frowns.

“This is not how they got out of order,” Hakyeon explains. “Come on, it won’t hurt. You probably don’t want your cleats to get ruined anyway.” He can’t imagine how his cleats would get damaged, but he hops up onto the machine next to Hakyeon and looks between his wet socks and Hakyeon, who is giving him this unexpectedly fond look. “How was your day?” he asks.

Taekwoon shrugs, still wondering if it isn’t too late to make up an excuse and head back up to his room. He really doesn’t think anyone would try to steal his laundry if he left it here. “Fine.”

“What did you do?”

“I went to class-”

“What class?”

He glares at Hakyeon, who only laughs at him.

“Exercise physiology.”

“What’d you learn about?”

“Physiology,” Taekwoon deadpans, looking straight at Hakyeon. “And exercise.”

Hakyeon grins widely and reaches forward to ruffle Taekwoon’s hair. “Did you really think that would stop me from asking questions, Taekwoonie? You haven’t known me nearly long enough! When I want something, I will definitely get it.”

“What do you want?” Taekwoon snaps, swatting at Hakyeon’s hands.

“You.”

Hakyeon continues to smile, except this time Taekwoon feels chills going down his spine. Hakyeon looks like he can see it, too. “What?”

“I want to get to know you,” Hakyeon remedies, except his tone of voice implies otherwise. “Is that so bad?”

“I don’t want to,” Taekwoon replies. He looks down to hide his face, but he’s pretty sure the his ears are bright red. Embarrassing, he thinks. This is too embarrassing.

Someone comes walking down the stairs then, and Hakyeon clears his throat. “We’ll see,” he says, cupping Taekwoon’s face. He pats it, then hops off of the washing machine. “Are you the maintenance worker? I’m so sorry for calling you at this hour...”

“I’ll do my laundry later,” Taekwoon mumbles, and follows Hakyeon off the laundry machine, walking past him and the newly come maintenance worker.

“It was nice talking to you!” Hakyeon calls after him.

Taekwoon spends the next three days avoiding Hakyeon as much as possible. It would be more, but it's nearly impossible to avoid someone who lives next door to you and is intent on always ruining your day.

“Why does Hakyeon like you so much?” Eunji asks, watching their RA walk past the lounge, giving Taekwoon a pat on the head as he passes. “I mean, he likes everyone, but it’s a bit more with you.”

Sanghyuk grins at Taekwoon and bites down on a potato chip. The clock reads 11PM, and Taekwoon tries not to think about his super quiz in the morning. He tries to calculate how much he’ll sleep. “I think he takes it as a personal challenge,” Sanghyuk says, as Taekwoon frowns at him. “Hakyeon always gets along with and adores everyone. Maybe Taekwoon is some new enigma he has to figure out.”

“I don’t think you blow kisses at your personal challenges or whatever,” Sunyoung points out. “I mean. It’s cute.”

Taekwoon sniffs and closes his laptop. He’s going to lose even more concentration, and it wasn’t as if he had much of it in the first place anyway (he reflects solemnly at his latest cubefield score).

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to take a nap,” he mumbles, and exits as fast as he can. “Wake me up in an hour.”

Eunji and Sanghyuk are talking about their calculus homework as he leaves, and he lets out a long withheld sigh. Everything about Hakyeon is stressful, he decides at least. Or maybe everyone makes him stressful. Either way, it confuses him, and glowers as he feels the tips of his ears heat up at the memory of his last conversation with Hakyeon.

As he rounds the corner, someone bumps into him, apologizing as they stumble backwards. “Sorry I wasn’t looking where I was goi- Taekwoon?”

“Hakyeon?” Taekwoon asks back, and flushes when Hakyeon grins that same grin he does when something sinister pops into his head, like the time he kept making very loud gay sex jokes when Hongbin and Wonshik were around. Jaehwan had instantly forgiven him for the previous happenings.

“It is you!” Hakyeon laughs and pats him on the back. “I knew you were the only giant-sized thing in my dorm. Where are you headed off to? Your room? Don’t you usually study in the lounge?”

“Noisy,” he says, and pauses when a loud burst of laughter sounds from behind him. He nods his head in punctuation.

“I’ll quiet them down, don’t sit by yourself, that’s not fun,” Hakyeon replies. “I was just gonna go get the door stop, because I bought like, three giant boxes of donuts and two of those big coffee crate things. Wonshik and Taemin said they were going to pull all nighters, and so am I, so I brought us all stuff! Can you help me carry them in?”

If Taekwoon was going to say no (which he was), he doesn’t get to, because Hakyeon is pulling the backpack strap off of Taekwoon’s shoulder and placing it on the ground. When Taekwoon doesn’t instantly follow, he grabs his wrist and tugs him along.

“Why do I have to make you do everything?” he asks. “C’mon, I even got the parking spot right in front of our dorm.”

“You have a car?”

“RA privileges! Free dorming and free parking pass.” Hakyeon grins at him and heads to an old, grey Honda. “Her name is Candy. She’s old, but great. She was my uncle’s before he moved to America.”

Taekwoon watches him pop open the drunk and pull out a couple of boxes of food, which he hands to Taekwoon. “I thought you said you had three?”

“Well,” Hakyeon says, grabbing the carton of coffee. “There’s definitely three boxes, if you don’t count any of the others.”

Hakyeon closes the trunk and scampers away before Taekwoon has the chance to say anything back to him, and so Taekwoon stands in the front of the parking lot with multiple boxes of donuts and wonders what is wrong with this school.

Or maybe it’s just Hakyeon.

Taekwoon really doesn’t mean to join the all nighter party in the lounge, but somewhere after 4AM, he realizes that Jaehwan really isn’t going to snore any lighter, and Taekwoon isn’t going to get any more used to it, so he grabs his laptop and notebook and trudges out to where Hakyeon, Taemin, Wonshik, and Amber are sitting.

Hakyeon looks up first, and grins brightly at him, looking way too awake for someone who hasn’t slept in a very long time. “Taekwoon! You came?”

“You joining us?” Wonshik asks through a yawn, and pats the space in between him and Hakyeon. Taemin looks too immersed in his textbook to say anything, but he waves in Taekwoon’s general direction anyway.

“I have a ‘super quiz’ tomorrow,” he explains, and sits down. Hakyeon reaches over and pets his hair, and Taekwoon, too dazed and tired to do anything, turns beet red and stares at the ground until Hakyeon decides it’s time to stop.

“Amber’s here too,” Hakyeon explains, letting his hand rest at the base of Taekwoon’s neck. It’s nice and warm, but just the fact that it’s there sends shivers down Taekwoon’s spine. Hakyeon doesn’t look like he minds enough to remove it. If anything, he gives the same smile as he usually does when he teases Taekwoon. “Her and Taemin are studying for bio, I’m studying for Business Ethics, and Wonshik is writing an essay.”

Taekwoon nods and opens his laptop, sighing as Hakyeon’s hands leave his neck. Someone hands him a cup of coffee, and he chugs it before reaching for his notebook.

It is going to be a long night, he realizes.

“Is that the sun?” Amber asks, squinting at the window.

Taemin follows her gaze and groans. “God, fuck. We have two more chapters.”

Hakyeon doesn’t even look up from his textbook, too busy underlining sentences and highlighting phrases that it takes Wonshik to slam his laptop shut and fall off his chair for him to even acknowledge the rest of the room. “I’m done!” Wonshik cheers, head immediately falling forward. “Actually, I haven’t revised it at all, but that’s okay. I’m done.”

Taekwoon just nods silently and goes back to looking at his powerpoints and checklists of what to know. He’s almost done with going over everything in general, but then he has to make sure he’s gotten all the tiny details down, too. He hates science.

“We should go for a champion’s breakfast,” Amber suggests, and taps Hakyeon’s ankle. “What do you think?”

He doesn’t look up from his notes and nods. “Sounds good.”

Amber looks at Taekwoon, who look at Wonshik, who looks at Taemin, who is also too busy staring at his Biology textbook to respond. Taekwoon can’t think of a time Hakyeon hasn’t been responsive and always ready to give some extra input, but now he seems shut off and out of it. Amber motions to Taekwoon, then points to Hakyeon.

“Uh,” he mumbles. “I’m... gonna take a nap?”

Wonshik stares at him, and also motions to Hakyeon.

Amber very quietly smacks her forehead, and Wonshik rubs at the bridge of his nose. He blinks, not quite sure what he’s done wrong, or what he’s supposed to do at all. “Wake me up... in half an hour? ...Hakyeon?”

He gets a half committal sound in response and shrugs. Truly, he does want to take a nap, so he places his laptop on the chair he was occupying and curls up on the floor on top of the blankets Hani and Seohyun left for them.

He wakes up to someone shaking his shoulder, and a much brighter room. “Hmrph?” His eyes hurt, and it feels like the only thing sleep did was remind him of all the other sleep he’s not getting.

“Wake up Taekwoonie, it’s been nearly forty five minutes.”

“Hakyeon?” That’s... definitely Hakyeon’s voice.

“Yeah,” he says, and the blobs in Taekwoon’s vision come into focus. There’s Hakyeon, looking over him with this lazy smile on his face, and Taemin, who has an eyebrow raised at him. When they meet eyes, Taemin turns away and crawls back over to where he and Amber were. “Are you awake now?”

He makes a sound and sits up properly, tossing the blanket he’d haphazardly threw over himself. Even though someone put the blinds down, the sun is still shining through the window, the rays delicately casting shadows over everyone.

“It’s seven,” Hakyeon explains as Taekwoon rubs the lingering sleep from his feels. He can feel Hakyeon carding his fingers through his hair, but can’t get himself to care enough. “Amber suggested getting breakfast at eight. Is that okay with you?” Taekwoon nods through a yawn, and leans backwards to pick up his laptop. “You might wanna give these to Wonshik,” Hakyeon continues, pointing at the blankets. He then points at Wonshik, curled up in a ball on one of the chairs, and Taekwoon sighs, getting up and dragging the blankets over him. “Are you okay?” Hakyeon asks. “In dire need of coffee or anything?”

As much as Taekwoon would like to say yes, he shakes his head and plops down onto one of the couches and grabs his laptop, opening up whatever document he was previously viewing. Hakyeon watches him, and then after a few moments, turns and goes back to his own notes.

At the insistence of Hakyeon, Taekwoon ends up going to his two other classes that day, and glares at him when he comes back, slamming his door shut and falling (well, climbing first) into his bed.

He wakes up some time after nine, and looks around in confusion when a warm, pleasant aroma fills the room.

Cookies.

It definitely smells like cookies. Except - there’s no Jaehwan, and definitely no cookies. Taekwoon would very much like cookies. He trudges outside and into the lounge to find almost everyone sitting around the coffee table and TV, with giant trays of cookies laid out. “Taekwoon hyung!” Jaehwan yells, attaching onto his arm. “You woke up! I was going to save some for you, but I guess I don’t have to now.”

“Why are there cookies?”

“We made, like, three extra trays of cookies,” Sunyoung says from the other side of him, a cheery smile on her face. “I work at the bakery across from the science building. It was really busy in the morning so we made a lot of extras, but then it dulled down and we had too many, so we all took some home with us. Then I think Hakyeon went out and got milk, and Jongin is grabbing his WiiU from his room.”

“Taekwoon!” someone cries out happily, and Taekwoon feels someone wrapping their arms around his torso, their front pressed up against his back. “You were so moody at me earlier today, it hurt. I even got you a latte! Some of the ice melted though.”

He sighs. It would be Hakyeon. Speak of the devil, and he shall arrive, decked in an ugly blue RA polo shirt. “Latte?” he asks, just as Jongin and Taemin drag a giant plastic box full of video games into the lounge. He follows Hakyeon towards the back and plops himself down onto one of the couches as Hakyeon hands him an iced latte.

He sips it tentatively and smiles. It tastes good, and the ice hasn’t melted all that much. For a moment, Hakyeon and Taekwoon sit next to each other in silence, watching all the other students in their dorm run around and talk to each other.

“I’m happy you’re in this dorm,” Hakyeon says, reaching down to grab a water bottle. “Having someone else the same age as me is really nice.”

Taekwoon gives him a small smile and watches Jongin turn on the Wii, cheering when the TV flashes white. “Is being an RA hard?” he asks.

He watches Hakyeon lean back in his chair out of the corner of his eye and puff out his lips. “Sometimes it’s draining,” he replies. “To have to chase after twenty kids and make sure they’re all doing well and happy and none of them are failing or having a hard time - especially the ones who refuse to talk to you.” He looks pointedly in Taekwoon’s direction at that statement, and Taekwoon pretends he didn’t hear, leaning down to take another sip of his latte. Hakyeon laughs. “Cute.”

Taekwoon huffs. “No.”

“Other times it’s really fun,” Hakyeon continues on, “it’s like having twenty more friends who can all lean on you. Like now- look at them all, having fun. Can you imagine some other RA, who just made everyone sign their dorm agreement forms and never talked to anyone again? As if they would ever get to have everyone gather together like this. It’s a Friday night, and everyone’s choosing cookies and milk and some videos games over getting piss drunk at some bar.”

Taekwoon considers that. He was never one for being social, but now that he thinks about it, he’s spent infinitely more time in the lounge with the other kids in this dorm, even if he wasn’t talking, than any of his other dorms. He knows everyone’s names and some interesting stories about them.

“I hope you can open up more,” Hakyeon states, finally. “I know being quiet is part of your personality, but I think it would be really nice if everyone could actually be friends as well as dorm mates. They say there isn’t much opportunity to meet people once you’ve graduated and settled down, right? Why not befriend the ones closest to you?”

“Hyungs, do you wanna play?” Jongin asks them both, and Taekwoon and Hakyeon look at each other for a moment before Hakyeon puts his water bottle down.

“I’ll play!”

Taekwoon quietly sips his latte and watches Hakyeon join the other kids and grab a controller. Ten minutes later, Wonshik appears from who-knows-where and makes Taekwoon also play, and he spends the rest of his Friday night playing Smash Bros and eating cookies. It’s a fun night.

He spends most of Saturday sleeping in and watching a new TV show on his laptop, only getting up to eat at the dining hall with Yoseob and Jonghyun. Then, later at night, he joins Wonshik and the other students for their intervarsity soccer game. They’re versing another college on the other side of Seoul, one that he hasn’t really heard of, but he remembers they lost to that school last year, so Taekwoon really wants revenge.

“Yeah!” Wonshik screams, tugging his shirt off. “That’s what they fucking deserve, especially after that dirty ass play in the beginning.”

Taekwoon laughs as they walk back to their dorm. His ankle really hurts from when the opposing team’s defender dived to get the ball away from him, and hit the side of his foot where the shin guards don’t give much protection. The defender got a yellow card, but Taekwoon’s ankle was still swollen and painful.

It’s okay. They won, in the end: 6-2.

“Are you going to get your ankle checked?” he asks, running his shirt though his hair like a towel. That’s maybe a little disgusting, in Taekwoon’s opinion.

Taekwoon shakes it off. “It’s fine, I’m just gonna take a shower and ice it. You?”

“Nah,” Wonshik says, opening the door to the dom. “No point in showering if I’m just going to get more dirty after.”

Taekwoon scrunches his eyebrows together in confusion, until Wonshik winks and all but struts into his dorm room, calling Hongbin’s name, and Taekwoon flushes pink.

When he gets into the bathroom, one of the showers is already being used, and Taekwoon realizes he did not bring any of his stuff with him. After staring at his dirty reflection for a solid thirty seconds (his bicep is also scraped up, something he didn’t even notice until now), someone starts to sing from the shower. At first, it startles him, so he turns the faucet on, just so if anyone asks, he can say he was doing something. It takes a brief moment, but he realizes just who’s singing: Hakyeon.

Taekwoon doesn’t expect Hakyeon to have such a nice voice, so nice that he ends up standing at the sink for much longer than necessary - long enough so that the water turns scalding hot, and he retracts his hand as soon as he feels the pain shoot up his arm.

“Fuck,” he mumbles quietly, and turns the water back on, colder, letting it soothe the burn. The singing suddenly stops, and he hurriedly turns off the faucet and turns to run back into his room.

“Taekwoon!” Hakyeon calls out, peering out from behind the shower curtain. Taekwoon sighs from where his hand is resting on the door knob. He’d just almost gotten away. “Were you here the whole time?”

He doesn’t know what ‘the whole time’ means, considering Hakyeon’s shower lasted a grand total of maybe three minutes, but like hell he’s going to admit he wasted three extra minutes of hot faucet water just to listen to Hakyeon’s voice. “I washed my hands,” he says, and slips out the door.

Hakyeon’s smiling, he knows, he can feel it from his room, and that makes him mad. And very uncomfortable. A fluttery kind of uncomfortable. Fuck this shit.

Nearly ten minutes into sitting in bed and icing his foot (he’ll just shower later) and staring at his notes, he realizes the song that Hakyeon was singing. It’s an older one, from when he was in high school. He likes that song, quite a bit, and sings it himself.

“You should join the choir,” Jaehwan says after he’s finished singing. “They’d always appreciate another guy, and Jonghyun won’t get all the solos again. Hopefully.”

Taekwoon stares at his notes with as much enthusiasm as he can muster, which isn’t much, and eventually sighs in defeat. “I’m on the soccer team,” he replies, tossing his notebook onto the desk. He should probably get a new bag of ice, this one is almost completely melted.

Jaehwan laughs at him. “The choir isn’t as nearly as intense as soccer. It’s only once a week, Wednesday nights at nine. It lasts an hour. I used to do it but I have lab this semester then.”

Taekwoon nods and climbs into his bed, sighing sadly as his toes stick out the other side. “Can you grab me another bag of ice?”

“I’ll get you more than that,” Jaehwan winks at him, doing finger guns as he leaves the room. His elbow hits the doorknob, and as he howls in pain and stumbles down the hallway, Taekwoon shakes his head and opens his laptop.

Someone knocks on the door half an hour later, and when Jaehwan doesn’t open it, Taekwoon sighs and calls out, “It’s unlocked.” The door opens, and Taekwoon watches Hakyeon walk into his room, bag of ice dangling from his left arm. Taekwoon sighs - he should’ve known.

“Aww, what kind of response is that?” Hakyeon whines, placing the bag of ice on his desk. Taekwoon leans back as Hakyeon reaches for his face, and grimaces when fingers pinch at his cheeks. “Taekwoonie, I went through so much trouble trying to get ice for you, Jaehwan didn’t want to do anything. And why is your bed so high? How did you even get up here? Isn’t that bad for your leg? What happened to your leg anyway, I was gonna ask Wonshik but his room is off limits right now-”

While Hakyeon is rambling, Taekwoon leans down to grab the bag of ice and places it on his ankle, shifting his posture so he’s sitting up properly in bed. “Someone kicked me in soccer, the shin guard didn’t block it,” he explains softly, as Hakyeon climbs onto his bed and motions for him to move aside. “There’s not enough space.”

“Jeez, fine, make it more complicated for me,” Hakyeon grumbles. “I even told Sunyoung to grab a latte for you from her bakery. She makes them extra sweet.” Taekwoon watches him shuffle over and hop over onto his bed, miraculously missing his ankle and plops himself against the other wall so they sit at 90 degree angles. “Can you lift your legs?”

“It’s not that bad,” Taekwoon sighs. “It’s just swollen.” He lifts his legs, and then wonders for a brief moment why he even listened to Hakyeon, but Hakyeon slides his own legs under Taekwoon’s and fiddles with the ice pack so it’s properly placed on his ankle again.

“So what were you doing anyway? Were you watching something?” Hakyeon asks, looking at Taekwoon’s laptop. He gasps mockingly, and clutches at his chest. “Was it porn?”

Taekwoon has to resist the urge to roll his eyes. He ends up doing it anyway, and Hakyeon laughs at him. When Hakyeon gives him the laptop, he flips it open to the soccer game he was watching. “It’s Arsenal versus Real Madrid,” he explains.

The stream plays then, just as Ozil scores a goal. “Isn’t that the one with Ronaldo?” Hakyeon asks, pointing at one of the figures. “He’s the only one I know.”

“He’s on Madrid,” Taekwoon explains, pointing at all the players. “That’s Sergio Ramos, Pepe, and Casilla. Ozil is on Arsenal. See there - he just passed the ball to Sanchez.”

“You like soccer a lot, don’t you?” Hakyeon asks, poking his thigh. His leg twitches, and Hakyeon’s mouth opens in wonder, but Taekwoon glares at him. He’s ticklish, and he doesn’t need Hakyeon to know that.

“I used to be on the Youth team,” he explains, not sure why he’s telling Hakyeon all this. Maybe it’s just because he’s still excited from winning earlier. “I had to quit in high school because I tore my ACL. Now I can play intervarsity, but not for the college team. It still acts up sometimes, which is why I always have crutches.”

Hakyeon doesn’t disrupt him once, but once he’s finished talking, he hums slightly and nods his head. “So... exercise science major, psychology minor, ex-pro soccer player, current intervarsity player - your future goal is probably something like being a sports psychologist?”

Taekwoon shrugs, watches as Ronaldo tricks out someone and passes the soccer ball to Bale. “Something like that.”

Taekwoon digs out one of his old crutches anyway, because by Sunday night his ankle still hurts, and it’s not going to get any better walking around campus with a heavy backpack.

He’s sprawled out on Wonshik’s bed Monday night, textbook on his face, when Hakyeon comes in. Hani pokes him in the side to get his attention.

Hakyeon shuffles on his feet before looking over at them. “What are you doing on Wednesday night?”

“I have class until nine,” Hani says, as Taekwoon shrugs. Depending on how their coach feels, they may or may not have soccer practice.

“Lab,” Jaehwan replies.

“Hongbin, Wonshik! What about you guys? What are you doing Wednesday night?”

“Hongbin,” Wonshik answers without skipping a beat, and Jaehwan cackles as Hongbin starts to violently cough into his fist. He kicks Wonshik in the shoulder, as Taekwoon grins quietly and watches Hakyeon’s reaction.

“Fine, I didn’t want to invite you guys anyway,” he sniffs. “Go take your kinky shit somewhere else. Taekwoon, Hani, do you even know if that bed is clean?”

“Smells fine,” she says cheerily. Hakyeon rolls his eyes.

“Fine, well, my friend is treasurer for some club, and they’re having a GIM on Wednesady. I promised I’d spread the word.”

“‘Some club’,” Jaehwan air quotes.

Hakyeon shrugs. “I did my part, and I’ll be there. I’ll bother you guys later, this room smells gross.”

Taekwoon laughs as Hakyeon leaves, then decides to go to his room if all he’s going to do is pretend to look at his textbook and nap.

Hakyeon bothers him and the rest of the dorm for the next two days, but Taekwoon ends up not going to the event, mainly because, well, he doesn’t want to.

He goes out with Yoseob and watches a movie, and comes back to review over some notes and sleeps early. His ankle still hurts, and wonders who he’ll have to bully tomorrow to carry his backpack to his class, if he can get anyone to do it.

Anyone but Hakyeon.

“It’s only one crutch,” he protests. “I can carry it.”

“Don’t be stupid,” Hakyeon says, swatting away Taekwoon’s hands. “I have an hour until my next class anyway. I’ll even carry your bag back from class if you need me to! Did you want to stop by a cafe and get a drink? If Sunyoung’s working, we can persuade her to give it to us for free.”

He sighs and heads out, leaving Hakyeon to jog after him. He already knows he doesn’t have a choice and is going to be dragged into the bakery, so he lets Hakyeon do it without forcing him (though he kind of does want a coffee).

Sunyoung places her hands on her hips and purses her lips when Hakyeon asks for two free mochas, ready to kick them out, but in the end, because Hakyeon is Hakyeon and always ends up getting what he wants, one way or another, she only charges them for a small when they both get large.

“Now,” Hakyeon says, adjusting the backpack straps, “what class? Where to?”

“Linguistics,” Taekwoon replies, with the least possible enthusiasm he can muster. Taekwoon takes pride in how much disinterest he can express. It truly is a talent, especially around Hakyeon, who always seems to be pulling reactions out of him, whether he likes it or not.

Even Hakyeon wrinkles his nose. “I took a class once in freshman year, never again. Not my cup of tea, but I know a few people who are actually linguistic majors. Yifan, do you know him? Also a junior.” Taekwoon shakes his head. “Oh, uh. Jackson? International student?” Another shake. “Kevin?” Another.

Taekwoon doesn’t know much people, has a hard time getting himself out there, scares away most people. Another talent of his, except less prideful.

“Oh, well, I know too much people for my own good,” Hakyeon continues on blabbering, waving hi to someone who walks by, if not to prove his point. “Anyway, are you free this weekend?”

“Me?”

“No, the bird over there,” Hakyeon says, pointing to a blue jay watching them walk by. “Obviously you.” Taekwoon frowns; the bird was cute.

“I guess.”

“It’s my friend’s birthday, we’re all going out to a bar. Do you want to come with?”

“Why don’t you ask Jaehwan?” Taekwoon asks. Jaehwan is much more of a partier, and infinitely more fun at social events. He really doesn’t want to go out, especially drinking with people he doesn’t know.

“Jaehwan’s going home this weekend, I already asked him,” Hakyeon says, sipping his mocha. “Why aren’t you going home? First weekend into October, been at school for a while, perfect time to check in on the family.”

“My nephew's birthday is next week,” Taekwoon explains, looking his phone. Hakyeon looks at him then, with bright eyes.

“You have a nephew? What’s his name? How old is he?”

“Mingyu, 2 years old,” Taekwoon says, holding out his hand. “Thanks for carrying my backpack.”

Hakyeon grins at him and hands his backpack over. “No problem. I hope you change your mind, though!”

Taekwoon considers it, but in the end he doesn’t go, and instead wakes up at two in the morning to the sound of someone falling over in the hallway, and already knows who it is before he goes outside.

“Taekwoon!” Hakyeon calls out from the floor. “You’re here! I was sad you didn’t come with me, it was so much fun!”

Hakyeon doesn’t sound very drunk, and his face doesn’t look very drunk either, but he’s still sitting on the floor.

The door behind him opens, and Soojung peeks her head out to look into the hallway. Her eyes go from Hakyeon to Taekwoon, and mouths, ‘What is going on?’ at him. When Taekwoon shrugs back, she takes one final look at them both and gives him a ‘you deal with it’ look and shuts the door. He sighs.

“You’re not wearing a shirt,” Hakyeon points out, not noticing the unspoken conversation above him, then giggles. Taekwoon rolls his eyes and makes his way over, holding a hand out for Hakyeon to grab. “Wish you came,” he repeats, grabbing Taekwoon’s hand. “It was Jiyoon’s birthday! She got sooo drunk, it was hilarious.”

Once he’s on his feet, he stumbles into Taekwoon’s chest and pulls away, leaning back against the wall. Taekwoon watches him grin again. “You’re so cute,” he continues, “everyone thinks you’re so intimidating and scary looking, but that’s not true at all.”

Taekwoon purses his lips as Hakyeon blabbers along, obviously inebriated. “Go to sleep,” he finally says, face flushing when Hakyeon wraps an arm around his waist. For balance, he tells him. He’s very drunk. His hand is freezing cold where it connects with the pale skin of his torso, and a full body shudders run through Taekwoon.

Hakyeon laughs instead as they reach his door (which, Taekwoon realizes, took them way too long to reach, considering it’s the first one). “You can’t even give orders well.” Taekwoon rolls his eyes and pulls at the knob. “What? Did you think I just leave my room unlocked all the time, like you?”

“I-”

The key that was dangling from Hakyeon’s hand falls onto the floor, and Hakyeon’s smirk changes into a frown. “Well, my body coordination isn’t back yet,” he deducts, sighing. “Can you get that for me?”

Taekwoon frowns and picks up the key and hands it to him, sighing. Hakyeon doesn’t look or sound all that drunk as he says he is, but as Hakyeon opens his door, he thinks that maybe he should’ve realized beforehand that nothing is ever as simple as he thinks it is with Hakyeon. “What?” he asks, when Hakyeon looks at him.

“Nothing,” Hakyeon says, flipping the light switch on. “It’s just that you take orders so well. Good night, Taekwoonie.”

The door closes, and Taekwoon stares at it blankly. His face flushes.

What?

Hakyeon seems to remember nothing the next morning - anything between his “I swear I only had fourteen shots” to “and then I was standing naked in my room at 4am” seems to be missing from his memory. Taekwoon would like it if it stays that way.

By Monday, Taekwoon deems it time to throw the crutches back into his closet and go back onto the field. His super quiz from two weeks ago is handed back to him, and while his grade isn’t the best, it isn’t the worst. Taekwoon will take all the little victories he can get. Jonghyun, who is walking beside him, sadly stares at his own quiz. “I’m sad,” he says, just in case Taekwoon didn’t hear him the first four times.

“You got the same grade as me.”

“Yeah, but now I’ll have to try just as hard on the next quiz.”

Taekwoon takes one last glance at the board to make sure he’s gotten the homework right (he did the Bio class’ homework once without realizing) and sighs. “Where’s Yoseob?”

Now that it’s mid-October, it’s alternating between hot and cold, and right now, it’s unusually cold, considering yesterday all Taekwoon wore was a tanktop (until Jaehwan started jeering). Everyone else also seems to be confused about the weather - a girl wraps her arms around her body as she runs in the directions of the apartments. A boy by the water fountain takes off his scarf and tosses it to his friend. Someone jumps on Taekwoon’s back then, sending him tumbling a few feet.

Yoseob scratches the back of his head. “Sorry,” he says. “Thought you knew I was there.”

Taekwoon purses his lips but says nothing.

“I think I saw your RA on the way here, by the way,” he says, once Taekwoon fixes his posture. “Hakyeon, right? He was in my Calculus class. Fucker used to always break the curve, every time.”

“I hate those kids,” Jonghyun sighs. “Dining hall, right? Oh wait - that’s him right there. His backpack is open.”

Sure enough, there is Hakyeon is waving to a girl, backpack wide open, little tiny packets inside it gleaming. Jonghyun gasps from beside him.

“Are those-”

Hakyeon is yelling something to this girl while walking backwards, towards Taekwoon, except his eyes can’t leave the little tiny tin packets in his backpack. What are those, even? Sauce packets? Hakyeon doesn’t seem someone to hoard useless things like that. Maybe he’s a secret BBQ fanatic.

Taekwoon shakes his head. Don’t be stupid.

“Hey,” he says, once Hakyeon is a few feet away from them. “Hakyeon, watch where you’re-”

“Holy sh-” Hakyeon trips over Taekwoon’s shoes and falls onto his back, all his books and packets and everything all over the ground.

He stares down at Hakyeon, who’s fumbling with the massive amount of little packets and rambling about how sorry he is and oh my god this is not what it looks like I swear-

And that is when Taekwoon realizes that the little packets are not sauce packets, but are lots and lots of condoms.

Hakyeon must notice that Taekwoon’s only now gotten what they are, probably by the fact his face is heating up, and so he splutters, “I’m sorry! I’m just taking these because the Health Center is giving them out for free and like, free stuff, plus I’m an RA, right? So I grabbed a bunch and oh my god I’m sorry I’m just gonna-”

He grabs the remaining bunch in his arms and pushes his way past Taekwoon and Yoseob, except maybe he pushes a little too hard, because now Taekwoon is also on his back, on the floor, Hakyeon next to him, who’s scrambling, and oh god, there’s condom packets all over him.

Brushing off a couple that are on his chest, face probably a brick red color (Yoseob and Jonghyun are howling with laughter from beside them, those brats), he sits up at flicks a few more in Hakyeon’s direction, who doesn’t even bother to pick up the rest, just grabs what he can and flees in the direction of their dorm building.

He doesn’t even have the heart to get up. Jonghyun is laughing so hard he has to hold onto the nearest bench for support. Yoseob tries not to laugh when he sees Taekwoon’s face but gives up when Taekwoon sits up and stares at the ground despondently.

It takes Hakyeon nearly three hours to talk to Taekwoon again, but it takes three days for Taekwoon to respond back.

“I said I was sorry Taekwoonie,” Hakyeon whines, motioning for Eunji to get up from her seat next to him. She glares at him before picking up her notebook and moving next to Sunyoung. He takes her spot happily and pokes Taekwoon in the shoulder until he gets annoyed enough and shuts his laptop and goes back to his room. “Taekwoon-ah!”

“You’re annoying,” is all Taekwoon manages to say before he shuts the door.

Taekwoon reappears from his room two hours later when he realizes it’s impossible to study when Jaehwan is Skyping his girlfriend and Taekwoon’s bed is in clear shot of the webcam.

“You did spill condoms all over him,” he hears Wonshik saying.

“I didn’t mean to!” Hakyeon snaps. “I worked so hard trying to get him to open up...”

Something in Taekwoon bristles, and he and uses the backdoor to leave the dorm.

Hakyeon continues to bother Taekwoon, and Taekwoon continues to desist.

It’s not about some condom packets, though he does laugh when Hakyeon throws a handful at Taemin and Jongin’s room, especially when Jongin screams and Taemin shrugs and grabs two. Hakyeon looks at Taekwoon then like a precious gem, which makes Taekwoon’s stomach do flip flops. He doesn’t like that.

What he really doesn’t like is that Hakyeon keeps trying to get him out to meet people and go to events and push Taekwoon to do things when he’s not ready or doesn’t want to. He vaguely wonders if Taekwoon is the first introvert Hakyeon has ever met. He also wonders how it’s possible to get increasingly annoyed at someone you like.

There’s a knock at Taekwoon and Jaehwan’s door then, and they both turn over to see Hakyeon.

“Yes?” Jaehwan asks, leaning back in his chair.

“You’re going to fall,” Hakyeon says, leaning against the doorframe, and Jaehwan snorts in response. “Also, what are you doing this weekend?” Jaehwan opens his mouth to speak, but Hakyeon cuts in first, looking pointedly in Taekwoon’s direction. “Both of you,” he clarifies.

“It’s Halloween, isn’t it?” Jaehwan replies. “I’m going drinking.”

“All three days?” Hakyeon asks, and Jaehwan shrugs.

“Probably Friday and Saturday at least. Why?”

Hakyeon grins at them and pulls out his phone. “Keep Sunday open. If not for me, than at least for your liver’s sake. Sunday night - dorm Halloween party!”

He peels himself away from the door frame and heads over to the next room to deliver the same message to Hongbin and Wonshik. Before Taekwoon can even turn his face to look at Jaehwan, Hakyeon appears in the doorway again.

“And don’t even think about skipping, Jung Taekwoon!”

He leaves again, and when he doesn’t come back, Jaehwan looks at him and grins. “You’re so fucked,” he says, and Taekwoon sighs.

He texts his mom and asks if he can visit home.

Hakyeon keeps talking about how his efforts to get Taekwoon to join the group have failed and that he worked so hard to get Taekwoon to “open up”, and that annoys Taekwoon very much.

So much he actually says it to Hakyeon one day, when he’s trying to persuade Hakyeon to not make him go to the free crepe night at the bakery Sunyoung works at. One, he’s just had an early soccer practice and is super tired, two, his knee is acting up again and he doesn’t have the energy to dig out his crutches, and three, he doesn’t want to. He makes sure to tell this to Hakyeon when he gets invited into his room to pick up his charger, and then bothered some more to go to said event.

“Stop treating me like a problem,” Taekwoon finally says, and Hakyeon skids to a full stop.

“What?”

“You...” Taekwon starts, but trails off inevitably, anger flaring up in his gut. He should have prepared this speech beforehand, because now he just seems like a fool. An angry fool. A justified angry fool, just one that doesn’t know how to put things into words.

Hakyeon doesn’t look offended, though. “What do I do?” Hakyeon asks, trying to help Taekwoon along, and that makes him a little annoyed too. His stomach does the fluttery thing again, which also sucks. Focus, Taekwoon.

“Stop treating me like a problem,” he repeats. “Stop getting me to open up to others and saying it’s bringing us together as a dorm. It’s not. Stop- you’re trying so hard for yourself.”

Something flares in Hakyeon’s eyes, but whatever emotion it is, he manages to hold it back well. “For myself?” he asks, instead.

“If you wanted me to ‘open up’ to everyone, you would actually put in the effort to get to know me, not just bring me lattes and hope I love you. Do you know anything about me?” Taekwoon finally manages to get words out. “Do you know what I like to do in my free time? Do you know who any of my friends are? What makes me happy or sad? Or do you just care about my major, my favorite drink? Stop treating me like some puzzle piece that needs to be solved.”

He thinks that maybe Hakyeon understands what he’s talking about now, because his face softens the more Taekwoon rambles.

“Oh,” he says. “I didn’t know... I didn’t know you thought of all my advances like that. I’m sorry.”

Taekwoon doesn’t expect a response so calm. “What?”

Hakyeon takes a deep breath and pulls out a chair. “Do you want to sit down? I think there’s a talk to be had. Do you like chamomile tea?”

Taekwoon stares at Hakyeon blankly, and when he doesn’t sit down, Hakyeon gets out the electric kettle anyway.

“You thought I was trying to get you to open up and go out more for my own personal gains,” Hakyeon says, uncapping his water bottle and pouring the contents into the kettle. “Like your introvertedness was an issue to be fixed. Am I right? Also, do you want the blue cup or the red cup?”

“Blue,” Taekwoon says, finally deciding to take a seat at Hakyeon’s desk.

Hakyeon speaks as he goes around his room, fishing out mugs and tea bags, all while saying, “I’m sorry that’s the message you got, because that’s not what I was trying to convey at all. I don’t think it’s a problem, and maybe the whole saying that you should ‘open up’ was wrong of me, so I’m sorry. I just wanted-”

The kettle beeps then, and Taekwoon jumps in his seat. Hakyeon laughs, except this time, his face is the one that’s dusty red. Fuck Taekwoon’s stomach, and the flippy flops. He’s supposed to be mad.

“I just wanted to get close to you,” Hakyeon finally admits, as he pours hot water into the mugs. “I wanted to know you, more than an RA. As like a legitimate friend.”

Taekwoon releases the breath he didn’t know he was holding. Friend. Friend. He doesn’t understand how he can be mad at someone and like them too. Hakyeon makes everything so difficult. “You can do that without all the... badgering,” Taekwoon decides on, whispering a thanks as he grabs the mug from him. He smiles, and when he looks up, Hakyeon’s smiling too.

He sits on the desk, so he gets to look down at Taekwoon. “I could,” Hakyeon agrees, picking up his own cup. “I think I’ll do that from now on. How do you propose we do that?”

“I don’t like crowds,” Taekwoon says. “But I like sitting with people I like.”

“You’re already doing that,” Hakyeon says mockingly, then laughs. “No, no, I’m kidding. Where shall we go sit, then?”

Taekwoon looks down at his cup, blushing. The tea is now golden, and he takes a tentative sip from it. “Right here is fine,” he states, and doesn’t look up.

Despite what Taekwoon thinks, things don’t change much after that.

Well. They do and they don’t.

Hakyeon still bothers Taekwoon to do anything and everything with them, except this time, he stops putting Taekwoon on the spot, and doesn’t push when Taekwoon says no more than two times. In turn, Taekwoon starts to say no less. The day he suggests that the dorm sit down together and watch a movie is the day that Hakyeon gasps, hands clutched to his cheeks, then preens at him, face contorted into such an ugly grin that Taekwoon finds himself blushing. That face is so ugly it’s probably considered attractive in a parallel universe. Maybe Taekwoon’s from there. “It’s fine if we don’t,” Taekwoon ends his suggestion with.

Like hell Hakyeon would let that happen. Or not happen, rather.

He lets Hakyeon pick the movie, and finds out he really likes watching sci-fi movies. He learns a lot about Hakyeon, actually, and learns that he doesn’t know much about his RA, which is concerning, seeing how much he likes him (Taekwoon also spontaneously lies, like right now).

He comes late to the movie viewing because he actually decides to shower after soccer practice, unlike Wonshik, who is gross and needs to learn how to be a hygienic human being.

He also pretends to ignore Hakyeon’s grin when he squishes himself in between him and the wall, ready to fight (read: angrily stare down) anyone who tries to make a comment. Daehyun looks like he wants to, but thinks better of it.

“How was your day?” Hakyeon whispers, looking down at where Taekwoon’s slumped himself, hand coming to scratch at the back of Taekwoon’s neck. He glares at him, too, but doesn’t move, and Hakyeon only grins back at him knowingly. “Hm?” he prompts, much too smug.

“‘Twas fine,” Taekwoon mumbles, facing the wall. Someone snickers from the other side of the room, and he makes sure to murder them later. Sounded like Soojung.

November passes much more quickly than it should, mainly because December is already upon them and Taekwoon has to sign up for a winter class because life is pain and changing his major at the end of freshman year really screwed him over. Like he could ever actually a veterinarian anyway. When he’s doing super well as a sports psychologist, he’ll just adopt a bunch of animals. His future husband won’t get a say, unless it’s to suggest another pet.

The dorm is also in a frenzy - Sanghyuk cries over his many exams, Seohyun is trying to find ways to get extra hours into her internship, and Hyorin is debating whether she should get on her knees for her TA. Taekwoon thinks she’s joking at first, until she shrugs and continues to paint her nails. Hongbin clicks his tongue at him and tells him to ask Hakyeon help him with his own classes. “He likes you way too much to say no, I don’t know why you’re not taking advantage of it.”

Taekwoon rolls his eyes in response.

“Oppa,” Nana asks, looking up from her flurry of sticky notes and flashcards in the corner of the lounge she’s laid claim on. Taekwoon almost wants to pat her head and tell her to slow down. “Are you going to the library? Can you print my study guide out for me?”

“How long is it?” he asks, and she beams at him.

That is how Taekwoon runs into Hakyeon in the library, trying to print out his lecture notes and a 32 page study guide for Nana. Hakyeon is tucked behind a bookshelf by the wall, reading glasses perched over his face as he highlights a line in his textbook. Taekwoon didn’t even know Hakyeon actually used to those glasses to see.

He’s never seen Hakyeon so focused before, and he almost forgets to grab his papers until someone nudges him in the back. Hakyeon is usually so hyperactive and loud, that it's hard to imagine him actually sitting down and quietly reading a book, but he hardly looks out of place in the midst of other studious kids, hood of his sweater falling off his head.

Taekwoon’s almost about to get away with his stuff when Hakyeoon looks up then to adjust his hood. Their eyes meet over the printing station, and when Hakyeons face contorts into that gross, ugly, puppy-saving smile, Taekwoon realizes he’s screwed.

“The dorm was being too noisy,” Hakyeon explains, when he manages to get Taekwoon to sit down with him (mind control, telepathy, black magic, bad karma - these are his excuses). “I don’t like the stressed atmosphere, so I came to the library. You should stay with me!”

“I have to give these to Nana,” Taekwoon explains, holding out a packet of papers. At Hakyeon’s pout, he finally says, “Do you want to eat dinner together?”

Hakyeon looks at him, then to his phone. “It’s three in the afternoon,” he deadpans.

“Do you want to eat dinner at dinnertime?”

“Sure!” Hakyeon smiles. “With who?”

Taekwoon mouth nearly runs dry. “No one? Did you want to invite someone?”

A lightbulb goes off in Hakyeon’s head then - it makes Taekwoon smile. Hakyeon laughs at that as he says, “I was just confused. I thought you were- you know what, never mind. Right. Dinner it is, I’m ready. I’ll be there. That also means no more granola bars for me.”

Taekwoon laughs. “No granola bars.”

Finals finally comes down upon them all, and Taekwoon finds his bank account dwindling exponentially (“At least it’ll never reach zero, right?” Sanghyuk jokes, and everyone stares at him).

Jaehwan has half of his dorm already packed and ready to move out for winter break, because most of the humanities majors have their exams in the first week of finals.

Hakyeon drags Taekwoon out with him once the snow falls, the day before his linguistics exam, and they end up sitting across from each other, sandwiched by the window and the bookshelves surrounding them. It feels nice, sitting on a high chair and blowing the steam off the top of his latte as Hakyeon thumbs the rim of his hot chocolate and talks about his finals schedule.

“It’s going to be weird,” he says, sighing. Taekwoon watches him look out the window to where a couple is walking together. “When you’re all gone for winter break. I’ll be here by myself.” The girl slips, and the boy follows, and they laugh together. It's cute.

“That’s not true,” Taekwoon replies. “I’ll be here.”

“Really?”

He nods, taking a sip of his latte. It burns his tongue a little bit, but he doesn’t really mind all that much. “I’m taking a winter class.”

“Oh.” Hakyeon fumbles a bit, a little lost for words, but then he beams at Taekwoon, teeth and all. It reminds him of what Hongbin had said earlier, about Hakyeon liking him too much to say no. “You have to practice soccer in the snow? For intervarsity?”

He doesn’t know how special he is though, considering Hakyeon just likes people, and people is plural. Where does he fit in there? Is there a venn diagram of things he likes, and is Taekwoon in the middle of that? Does that even make sense? “Yeah. We practice indoors, and it’s only every other day.” After he a pause, he adds, blushing, “it’s also optional.”

“That’s great,” Hakyeon says, grinning. “I won’t be all alone. Aside from you and Wonshik, the only other person staying in the dorm is Soojung, since she’s taking a winter course.”

Taekwoon nods firmly and takes a sip of his latte.

He goes home for a few days in between fall and winter session and comes back to a room all for himself, which would be great, except the heater appears to be broken in everyone’s room except for common areas.

“It’s not broken,” Hakyeon explains, once Taekwoon is seated in the lounge. “The university just doesn’t want to spend more money. It comes on and off like every other hour or so.”

The next thing Taekwoon learns rather quickly, is that taking a statistics class in a winter session is a really bad idea.

“There’s three exams,” Taekwoon tells Soojung, after she complains about her politics class, “Almost once a week.”

Taekwoon also realizes that he’s very bad at statistics. He learns this very soon, actually, when he takes a practice exam two days before the real thing and doesn’t even manage to get a 30.

“How’re you two doing?” Hakyeon asks, as he does every day, placing two mugs of hot chocolate on the coffee table, pushing one to Taekwoon and the other to Soojung.

“I got into a fight with my professor,” Soojung quips, and both he and Taekwoon laugh.

“That’s nothing new,” Hakyeon replies, flopping back down on the couch and cupping his own drink. He’d stolen Taekwoon’s mug, for some odd reason (“The snowman picture is cute,” he says), and likes it when Taekwoon uses his. Taekwoon likes it too, but probably for different reasons.

“I’m failing,” he states, looking down at his textbook. He has no idea what it says.

“Oh,” Hakyeon says. “Well, that’s not good. When’s your first exam?”

“I just had it two hours ago.”

He can feel Soojung staring at him from her side of the room. “What class is it?” she asks. “Can you get a tutor for the next two exams?”

“Statistics.”

There’s a brief silence before Soojung sighs and walks out of the lounge. “You’re a fucking idiot,” she says, which doesn’t really make him feel any better. Actually, that makes him feel pretty bad. Yeah, it’s a basic stats class, but still- “Hakyeon is a statistics minor,” she continues, staring at Taekwoon. “Easiest A ever. I’m gonna go take a nap, you two talk it out.”

Taekwoon listens in stunned silence as the soft padding of her socks against the wooden floor disappears, then looks at Hakyeon, who is staring back at him, just as confused. “Are you really taking a statistics class?” he asks. “You told me it was math.”

“It is math.”

“Yes, but,” Hakyeon places his cup down and makes some sort of gesture Taekwoon can’t decipher. “Statistics. You know I’m minoring in statistics. You see me doing stat homework all the time. Taekwoonie, why didn’t you ask?”

“I didn’t remember,” he lies, face flushing.

It’s pretty hard to forget that Hakyeon does statistics, especially when it’s all the homework he ever complains about. Taekwoon just can’t find it in himself to ask for help. It’s embarrassing, also the idea of asking Hakyeon is, well, also embarrassing, but in a very different way.

Somewhere along the line, he started to like Hakyeon, and that’s confusing.

Hakyeon is looking at him like he’s just heard a very unimpressive joke, but doesn’t comment on it. “Well, now you remember. Would you like me to help you?” he asks. Taekwoon’s face flushes, and mumbles something under his breath that sounds like an affirmative. Hakyeon sighs, which makes Taekwoon feel bad for disappointing him, then says, “Can you please give me a clear answer?”

“Yes,” he mutters, a little louder. “I- I think I need help.”

They’re silent again, except then fingers slide into his hair, and Hakyeon is beaming down at him. “Good boy,” he says, “See, was that so hard? We can start tomorrow.”

He walks back to his room, and Taekwoon stares at his textbook and definitely does not think about how nice it felt to be called that: good boy.

It’s also embarrassing.

Sanghyuk calls Hakyeon an overachiever for a reason, he finds out.

“This is pretty basic stuff,” Hakyeon comments, looking over Taekwoon’s homework. “Z-tests, paired t-tests. Have you covered ANOVA tests?”

Taekwoon shakes his head.

Hakyeon makes a face and nods again, then grabs Taekwoon’s notebook. “This is easy stuff, you’ll get it in no time. Especially with me as a tutor! Look at you, being taught by the smartest and hottest tutor.”

Taekwoon laughs, glancing over at Hakyeon, who’s grinning at him, probably waiting for Taekwoon to roll his eyes.

When he doesn’t, Hakyeon grabs a pen and starts to write down some notes. “Time to pay attention,” he says, and gets right into it.

Tutoring with Hakyeon, Taekwoon finds out very quickly, is strangely sexual. Perhaps it’s Taekwoon’s perverted mind that over examines every detail, but Hakyeon’s hand that isn’t writing is always placed on Taekwoon’s back or thigh, only ever moving it when Taekwoon comments (which he’s doing much less of) or if his leg twitches.

He whisper praises right into Taekwoon’s ear, calling him good boy, telling him, he did so well - it zaps straight through Taekwoon like electricity.

At night, alone in his room, he imagines Hakyeon whispering it into his ear as he fucks into him slowly, and each time, Taekwoon comes into his hand with a muffled moan, and stares up at the dark ceiling.

Taekwoon gets his first exam back two days before his second exam, and stares despondently at the bright red 41 written on it.

“Who even cares?” Hakyeon asks. “You’re gonna get a hundred on the second exam anyway, you’re doing so well.”

The tips of Taekwoon’s ears turn pink at that, but he says nothing.

“Come on,” Hakyeon continues, turning the page in his notebook. “We’ve still some reviewing left to do, right?”

Taekwoon doesn’t do nearly as well on his exam as he hoped he would, but Hakyeon is excited for him nonetheless.

“That’s great,” he says, looking at the blotchy 81 on Taekwoon’s exam. “Next time we’ll try for a 91, but this is good too.”

It’s a half assed praise, but it’s still praise and Taekwoon appreciates it, even if he knows that deep down Hakyeon is also probably disappointed he only got an 81.

“Sorry,” he mumbles, and stares at his toes. He hears the clink of Hakyeon’s mug as it’s placed on the table.

“Sorry? Sorry for what?” Hakyeon probably knows he’s not going to get an answer, but he asks anyway. Taekwoon doesn’t even raise his head, just lets his exam flop by his side, the red numbers staring back at him angrily and demanding him why he didn’t know more, pay a little more attention, do some more reading-

“Look at me,” Hakyeon says, and just like that, he does, committed to obeying each and everyone one of Hakyeon’s demands - he would probably bend over backwards for Hakyeon if he asked - would enjoy doing it for Hakyeon. He’s briefly reminded of the day Hakyeon told him he obeys orders well. “It’s okay,” Hakyeon continues, bringing Taekwoon out of his own thoughts.

He tries not to think of how normally Hakyeon does that too, without ever telling him to ‘pay attention’ or ‘stop daydreaming’. He’s just Taekwoon’s anchor, always there to hold him down and let reality come up to him again.

“Yes, I wanted - and expected - you to do better, but you trying and caring is the important part. Maybe there were things I could’ve done better, teaching methods, not skipping over small details, who knows. But going from a 47 to an 81 is awesome. You did a great job, and you should be proud of that. I’m proud of you. I was, and I still am.”

Hakyeon gives him a final smile, and Taekwoon releases the breath didn’t know he’s been holding.

There’s the telltale flush that’d been building up ever since he stepped into Hakyeon’s room and by now he was sure his face was bright red. “Thanks,” he manages to choke out.

There’s much more he wants to say. Like maybe, ‘I want to do better for you’, or ‘I only got this far because you were there’, but nothing comes out and, god, why are words so hard?

Hakyeon leans over his desk and grabs another mug sitting in the corner, and hands it to Taekwoon. “Do you want lavender tea?” he asks. “I was just about to watch a movie, but since I have all this lavender tea and suddenly you, in my room, why don’t we sit down and watch together?”

As always, leave it to Hakyeon to figure out exactly how to salvage the situation without making it awkward for Taekwoon.

He nods mutely and sits on Hakyeon’s bed, watching him fumble with the electric kettle.

Halfway through Hakyeon’s lecture Taekwoon finds his eyes drooping shut and shoulders hunching forward. He has no idea what Hakyeon is talking about anymore, something about the t-distribution, and after a moment his head finally falls.

“Then you have to take the degrees of freedom and put that- Taekwoon?”

He feels Hakyeon shifting, then hears the click of the pencil he places on the table. “You should have told me you were bored,” he finally says with a sigh. “I could have made it fun.”

“Nothing about this is fun,” Taekwoon grumbles, and bites his lip when Hakyeon brushes his bangs out of his face.

“I said I could make it fun, not that it was right now,” he replies.

Taekwoon says nothing, picking his head back up and tucking it into Hakyeon’s shoulder. He sighs contently as Hakyeon pets his hair. They stay like that for a while, until Hakyeon’s phone beeps and Taekwoon figures he’s been slacking for too long and picks his head up. He watches Hakyeon tap at his phone, turning down his friend’s offer to get dinner.

“You should eat.”

Hakyeon turns a page over in Taekwoon’s textbook as he shakes his head. “I’ll just ask Soojung to pick us something from the dining hall. I said I wasn’t leaving until we finished this chapter.”

Taekwoon puffs his cheeks out and looks over at Hakyeon. Now that he’s sure that he likes Hakyeon, he just has to figure out if Hakyeon feels any way at all the same way. The problem is that Hakyeon likes everyone, and while he may dote on Taekwoon more, everything seems incredibly platonic.

“Do you want to try this problem?” Hakyeon asks, getting his attention. Taekwoon pouts, because no, he definitely does not want, but takes the pencil from him anyway.

Taekwoon starts spending more time in Hakyeon’s room, unsure if it’s because Hakyeon prefers to tutor him here or he’s just used to it by now, or maybe it’s the fact that he likes being in Hakyeon’s space. Whatever it is, Hakyeon doesn’t ever comment on it, doesn’t ever tell Taekwoon to leave.

RA Hakyeon, student Hakyeon, and person Hakyeon are all different. There’s overlap, of course, them all being one and the same person, but it’s almost as if Hakyeon turns on and off specific parts of his personality when he needs to. RA Hakyeon is loud and overconfident and social, while student Hakyeon is stubborn and focused. Taekwoon likes them all.

After his final exam he spends the next two hours alternating between drifting in and out of sleep on Hakyeon’s bed and watching him write his final paper. There are different colored highlighters scattered across the desk and floor, and sharpie lines on his face. It’s cute, how Hakyeon seems to not notice any of it.

After a few more minutes of watching, his eyes droop, and he falls asleep.

He wakes up to the sun filtering in from the window right next to the bed and groans. His body aches from the uncomfortable position he slept, and briefly wonders why he slept in such a weird way until he feels the body next to him.

Hakyeon is tucked in between him and the wall, arm flung around Taekwoon’s torso. His face still has sharpie marks on it, and he chuckles, shifting to get a better look.

When Hakyeon’s arm is moved, his eyes also crack open, and he looks up at Taekwoon before yawning. “Are you finally awake?” he asks.

“Finally?”

Rubbing at his eyes, Hakyeon nods. “You fell asleep on my bed as I was writing my paper. I would’ve moved to the lounge, but something told me this would be okay too. Is it?”

Taekwoon flushes and nods, suddenly very thankful he sleeps like a log and not a starfish.

“D’you think your final grade came out?” Hakyeon asks, and receives a groan.

“Don’t wanna think about it,” Taekwoon grits out, tossing the blanket over his head. “I’ll check tomorrow.”

Hakyeon grins and flops on top of Taekwoon, who yelps. “You can’t hide from me!”

Taekwoon doesn’t get a 91. He gets a 95, and nearly breaks down Hakyeon’s door trying to tell him.

“Hold on,” Hakyeon calls out from his room. “Unless you’re the police or my dog, you can wait.”

“Hakyeon,” Taekwoon calls out as loudly as he can (which is probably not very loud), “open the door.”

He hears brief shuffling, and then the door is opening, revealing a shirtless Hakyeon with wet hair. “Yes?” he asks, tossing a towel onto his bed. “What was so urgent you couldn’t wait for me to get dressed for?”

Taekwoon shoves his exam into Hakyeon’s face, giddy, and watches Hakyeon’s expression turn from confused to surprised to ecstatic within seconds.

“You did it!” Hakyeon laughs, “I told you you would, didn’t I?”

Taekwoon grins and envelopes him into a hug, crushing Hakyeon against the door. “It’s all because of you,” he says.

A hand comes up to pet his hair, and there’s Hakyeon’s voice, smooth and velvety in his ear, “Nonsense. You did so well, you did everything. You’re always so good.”

There it is again, that zap, little pricks of electricity. They pull apart, Taekwoon inexplicably breathless and face bright red.

He really wants to kiss Hakyeon.

The rest of the residents move back in the dorm, Jaehwan takes up even more space than he did before. When he logs into Skype, Taekwoon decides it’s time to invade the lounge again, and goes out to find the radio on, and sees Seohyun singing with Hakyeon.

“You guys have nice voices,” Hongbin tells them as Taekwoon takes his place on the couch behind them. “You should do a duet together. Or try harmonizing or something.”

“Taekwoonie!” Hakyeon greets, running over and flopping next to him. “You can sing too, right? I’ve heard you sing before.”

“You have?”

“These walls aren’t very thick,” Hakyeon replies, watching Hongbin chug water. He winks at Taekwoon before saying, “Isn’t that right, Hongbin?”

Seohyun screams when Hongbin just barely misses spitting water all over her face. “I can’t wait until I get an apartment,” he mumbles under his breath, wiping his mouth.

“I liked this song,” Taekwoon says in between laughs, grinning back at Hakyeon.

Seohyun excuses herself to wash her face and Hongbin retreats to his own room glumly, leaving the two of them with the radio still playing. “Shall we sing?” Hakyeon asks, when he realizes they’re the only ones left.

Taekwoon carefully places his head on Hakyeon’s shoulder and starts singing.

Hakyeon pets him and joins in.

“My girlfriend is visiting in three weeks,” Jaehwan tells Taekwoon over breakfast. “She wants to stay for the weekend, but I mean, it’s cool if you don’t want-”

“It’s fine,” Taekwoon says, shoving a piece of toast into his mouth. His class starts in ten minutes, and if he’s late again his professor will probably murder him. “Just tell me when.”

It isn’t until he comes back to his dorm when he realizes exactly what Jaehwan means.

The weather gets wam enough to not have to constantly wear winter jackets and scarves, and for the first time in a long while, Taekwoon finds himself reading outside and enjoying the March weather in a loose sweater.

Unfortunately, he can never be too comfortable without Hakyeon coming and ruining his parade, so he sighs in defeat when Hakyeon sprawls himself over Taekwoon’s lap and reads his textbook normally.

“Cute,” Soojung snarks as she walks past them to her class. Taekwoon makes a face which has her stop for a moment, looking in between them for a second before grinning. “Taekwoon’s like a big bear,” she finally says.

“Isn’t he?” Hakyeon quips, patting Taekwoon. “A big, fuzzy, cuddly bear.”

“Bears bite,” Soojung replies, fixing her posture. Her backpack threatens to fall off her shoulder anyway.

Taekwoon smiles at her as Hakyeon pounces, sending Taekwoon back to the ground. “That makes me a lion, then, right?”

Taekwoon blushes as Soojung rolls her eyes and gags. “I’m going to class,” she announces, leaving.

“I can see up your skirt!” Hakyeon yells after her, and she gives him the middle finger before disappearing into the crowd of students.

The moment is silent and still except for the rising of Taekwoon’s chest and the look in Hakyeon’s eyes. It draws the air out of him in one short gasp, for a wild, panicked moment, he sees Hakyeon’s eyes flicker down to his lips, his neck, before he coughs and straightens his posture. “That was fun,” he concludes, getting off of Taekwoon, “but I knew I couldn’t study outside. Too many distractions.”

A frown tugs at Taekwoon’s face as Hakyeon brushes the dirt off his pants and grins down at him. “I’ll see you later, Taekwoonie!”

Sanghyuk is rendered speechless the Friday night when Jaehwan’s girlfriend steps into the dorm lounge, short curls bouncing along as she walks. Jaehwan takes her backpack, and she introduces herself to everyone with a lipgloss slick voice more perky than Jaehwan’s, and a short purple dress covered in frills and bows.

“What the fuck?” he hisses, when she retreats to his and Jaehwan’s room - now hers and Jaehwan’s for the weekend. Taekwoon successfully moved out all his important items into Hakyeon’s room the day before she arrived. “She’s actually cute? Why the fuck would she go for someone like Jaehwan?”

Taekwoon leaves the lounge when Min and Nana gang up on Sanghyuk, and successfully manages to quietly slip into Hakyeon’s room.

“Oh, you’re here?” Hakyeon asks, looking up from his notes. Taekwoon watches him place his reading glasses on the desk and look up at him. His fingers thin and nimble where the pen spins in his other hand. “I thought you had soccer.”

“It’s midnight. It ended a while ago,” he mumbles, then looks around. He and Hakyeon hadn’t really planned anything - Taekwoon had asked yesterday if he could stay in his room, and Hakyeon had said yes. “Yura is here.”

“Is she? I should go say hi,” he says, getting up. “You should go get changed. It’s late, we should sleep. I was just gonna finish this page anyway.”

We should sleep. It rings in Taekwoon’s head when the door shuts behind him, as he changes into sweatpants and a thin t-shirt. We.

He thinks back to the other day, when Hakyeon looked down at Taekwoon like he was-

The thought makes Taekwoon flush. He doesn’t even want to finish the sentence, and instead climbs into Hakyeon’s bed, squishing himself as much as he can against the wall. When the door opens, he pretends to be scrolling through Naver on his phone.

“I thought you slept shirtless?” Hakyeon jokes, tossing his key onto the table. “Suddenly scared by me?”

“Don’t be stupid.” Taekwoon snorts, rolling over when Hakyeon tugs his own shirt off. “Do you?”

“Yes,” Hakyeon simply says, as the mattress dips behind him. “I hope you don’t mind. Unless you want me to grab a shirt?”

“I don’t care,” Taekwoon mumbles, opening up Tetris. His face burns, his ears burn, and when Hakyeon’s fingers accidently skim across his shoulder blades, the skin underneath his shirt burns there too.

Hakyeon’s arm presses against his back, and, yeah, okay, maybe Taekwoon should have considered the fact that he would be sharing a tiny bed with the man he’s in love with. None of this was going to be comfortable. He hears Hakyeon laugh, before he makes a noise in confusion.

“You know,” Hakyeon says, mirth swimming in his voice. “For someone as big as you, you take up such small space.” He pokes Taekwoon’s back until he turns around to face him. “Why is that?”

“Why is what?”

“Nevermind.” Their breaths mingle, and it takes all of Taekwoon’s willpower to keep his eyes focused on Hakyeon’s. “There’s a word people like you, Woon-ah. It’s called tsundere.”

“You-” Taekwoon huffs and turns back over. This was stupid. Hakyeon is stupid, and Hakyeon is laughing at him and trying to pull him back over, but Taekwoon is going to refuse, because Hakyeon is stupid and-

“You’re so tsundere,” Hakyeon giggles, pushing Taekwoon onto his back. He climbs over him and brushes the bangs out of his face. Taekwoon’s face turns bright pink. “You know, I used to think you just blushed at everything, since you’re so shy in general. But I’ve learned.”

Taekwoon stares at him for a moment, hoping his face looks intimidating. Hakyeon doesn’t seem like he’s buying it. “Learned what?”

“That it’s all because of me,” Hakyeon says carefully. His hand strokes Taekwoon’s cheek softly, and like before, Taekwoon feels his entire body burning up, seizing itself, refusing to let him breath. “Is that true, Woon-ah?”

He can hear his heart hammering in his ears. Hakyeon is staring at him with eyes that are fire, that consume him entirely, silently. “Yes,” he confesses, quietly.

Someone moves first - he doesn’t know who, him or Hakyeon, but they’re kissing- Hakyeon’s hands are cupping the back of his neck, licking into his mouth, wild and fast and swallowing all the little sounds that Taekwoon makes.

He breathes hard through his nose and gasps when Hakyeon swipes his tongue along Taekwoon’s bottom lip, then pulls on it. Despite his inexperience, he can’t possibly let Hakyeon so all the work, he realizes, and gives what he has, which, after running his hands through Hakyeon’s hair and tilting his head, is apparently not nearly enough. Hakyeon still dominates the kiss, but Hakyeon seems to be okay with that- wants that, even, as he tugs Taekwoon’s head back to nip at his jawline.

“Hakyeon,” he cries out, when a tongue curls around the edge of his ear, burning hot. “Hakyeon-”

Hakyeon hushes him, hands sliding under his shirt, smoothing across the expanse of his stomach, and he whispers, “Don’t say anything, don’t think about anything. Let me take care of you, okay?”

Taekwoon doesn’t know why he nods, doesn’t know know how his body responds to Hakyeon’s fingers so easily, back arching when Hakyeon bites at his neck and pinches his nipple at the same time.

A hand wraps around his erection, and Taekwoon’s vision blurs, sees nothing but flames and ecstasy, the way Hakyeon surges forward to kiss him again, open mouthed, tongue swiping across his teeth. “You’re so pretty,” he whispers, leaning back, and Taekwoon whines. “Can I...?” he asks, hand leaving Taekwoons cock and sliding lower, past his thighs.

“Yes,” he hisses. “Please, Hakyeon, just-”

The air is cold and frigid when Hakyeon pulls Taekwoon’s pants and boxers off and gets off the bed to retrieve the lube from his desk drawer. Taekwoon had accidently spotted it once when trying to get a sharpie, but hadn’t said anything about it. At first he wondered how Hakyeon had gotten off, if it was anything like Taekwoon, who was usually rushed and quiet, partly due to embarrassment and the prospect of having a roommate, but Hakyeon seems to be the opposite.

He can’t help it when he shivers at Hakyeon’s hand on the underside of his thigh, lifting it up, leg jerking awkwardly. Hakyeon is looking at him with that same unadulterated gaze, the one that makes Taekwoon’s insides melt and simmer in his gut. “You’re cute,” Hakyeon says, and grins when Taekwoon’s face colors red again.

He watches Hakyeon pour lube onto his fingers, can feel his heart beating so fast he thinks might just die right here, under the heat of Hakyeon’s gaze, the hardness of his touch. Everything feels like too much; Taekwoon wants to shrivel up and hide, maybe.

But it also feels so good, and Taekwoon tries to clench down on the whimper that threatens to escape when Hakyeon slides one finger into him, cold and slick. “God,” Hakyeon gasps, leaning down to capture his mouth in a kiss. “You’re so fucking cute, I want to eat you up.”

“Please,” Taekwoon finds himself saying, and chokes on a moan when Hakyeon adds in another finger, fucking him fast and hard. He’s so wound up, so strung out that he doesn’t think he can last much longer. His orgasm creeps up on him, and when Hakyeon slides in his third finger and presses up against his prostate, Taekwoon bites down a scream. “Please,” he finds himself begging. “Oh, please, please.”

“Please?” Hakyeon asks, pushing down on Taekwoon’s thigh as he continues to fingerfuck him. “You’re so desperate, Taekwoonie; if only I knew before what a devious little kitten you are.” Taekwoon’s leg jerks again, and Hakyeon smirks, leaning down to lick at his cock. “You would like being called kitten, oh, Taekwoonie. What a dirty little kitten, my dirty little kitten, all mine. Why did we wait so long for this? You’re so willing, so willing and open for me, oh Taekwoon.”

“I’m gonna-” Taekwoon gasps, tears welling up in his eyes. It feels like his body is on fire, like everything is too much, too overwhelming. “I’m gonna come, Hakyeon, I’m going to-”

“Come for me, kitten,” Hakyeon whispers, pressing his fingers up against Taekwoon’s prostate mercilessly, and suddenly Taekwoon sees stars, mouth open in a voiceless shout as he orgasms, clumps of come landing on his stomach and Hakyeon’s arm.

The moment is still as Taekwoon regains his composure, Hakyeon watching him like a hawk. He realizes with a start that Hakyeon is still hard, hell, still has all of his clothes on. “Hakyeon,” he says, throat dry, reaching out. “Let me-”

“No.” Hakyeon’s voice is firm and Taekwoon instantly retracts his arm. He watches as Hakyeon stares at him with something dangerous in his eyes, which doesn’t disappear when he leans down to kiss Taekwoon. He smiles against Taekwoon’s lips. “You’re so obedient, I love it, I love you. Can I try something?” Taekwoon nods without thinking, and Hakyeon pets him, scratches behind his ear before he pulls away and shrugs his pants off. “Did you like my voice?” he asks, and Taekwoon stares at him blankly, unsure of where this is going.

“In general?”

“No, silly, just before. When we were, you know,” Hakyeon mumbles, uncharacteristically shy.

It clicks in Taekwoon’s head - Hakyeon likes dirty talk. Well, there are plenty of things he’s realizing that Hakyeon likes, but he didn’t think Hakyeon liked giving dirty talk. “Ah,” he says, swallowing. “I- yes...”

“Yes?” Hakyeon asks, and Taekwoon nods in confirmation. “Good then,” he continues. “Say red if you want to stop, okay?”

Taekwoon blinks at him. Never in his life did he think he’d be in a situation where he needed a safe word, but then again, that was Hakyeon’s charm, he supposes. Everything about Hakyeon has been new and adventurous. He nods then, and Hakyeon’s face changes.

It’s now he finally takes in Hakyeon’s disheveled look. His hair is sticking out in weird parts, and his skin is shiny with a thin sheen of sweat. In the dim lamplight, his face glows, yet-

Yet his eyes are dark and predatory and something in Taekwoon coils, a sharp zap running through his body. “Taekwoon,” he says, and Taekwoon looks. “Kitten,” he says, hand curling around his cock, and oh, oh. This was Hakyeon’s game. “You were so good to me,” he whispers, “you did everything I said, you’re so obedient. I should’ve known before, but seeing it for real...”

Taekwoon watches as he swipes his thumb over the head of his cock, smearing precome everywhere, and Taekwon’s dry throat seems like a desert now. He swallows thickly, suddenly wanting to wrap his own lips around Hakyeon’s length.

“Kitten,” he gasps, eyes scanning over Taekwoon’s naked frame. He feels the shortly gone flush coming back, spreading across his chest and neck. “You know what I want to see? Since I’ve seen you like this, I want to see you on your knees, begging for me to let you come, begging for me to fuck you.”

Taekwoon moans, hands coming up to cover his face. He imagines it, his hands curling into the bedsheets as Hakyeon takes him from behind hard, fingers curling into his hair and forcing him to choke out pleases and masters before he can come. Taekwoon moans, turns his head to the side as he hears the slick sounds of Hakyeon jacking himself off over him. It feels so dirty, he feels so dirty and used, which shouldn’t make him feel this good, but because it’s Hakyeon, he wants to do it more.

“Look at me,” Hakyeon orders, and Taekwoon pulls his hands away, forcing himself to look at Hakyeon’s face and not his cock. “Pretty kitten,” he says, voice hitching, and his thumb comes up to pull at Taekwoon’s lower lip. “You have such a pretty mouth, I want to see what you’d look like choking on my cock, want to see what you look like with my come all over your face.” Taekwoon whines, wishing he could reach out and touch Hakyeon, but he also knows he would be reprimanded for doing that. “I want to leave dark bruises on your pretty skin and pull on your hair and make you cry say my name over and over - I want, fuck, ah, to feel you under my skin, Taekwoon, my dirty little kitten, my baby, oh-”

“Please,” Taekwoon croaks. “Let me touch you, please,” he whines, and when Hakyeoon looks at him, gaze heavy and desperate, he reaches forward and wraps his own hand around Hakyeon’s, glancing up before he carefully leans down and tongues at the slit, and Hakyeon gasps as he comes, hand coming up to grip Taekwoon’s hair and pull back, baring his neck as strips of come coat his face and clavicles.

Taekwoon hears himself moaning, the ends of his hands and feet tingling with lust. Once Hakyeon releases his hold, Taekwoon falls back, gasping for breath. “Let me clean you up,” Hakyeon says after a moment, petting his head.

He feels dirty and used, both his own and Hakyeon’s come painting his body, and groans when he thinks back to what they’ve just done. It wasn’t supposed to end up like this, none of this was, but Taekwoon can’t help but feel a balloon of satisfaction float up inside his chest. I love you, Hakyeon said before.

He feels the paper towel on his skin, and leans forward, desperate for a kiss, and sighs in content when Hakyeon gives him one, wiping the remnants of semen on his face and chest and tossing it into the trash can. “Now,” Hakyeon says, climbing into bed with him. “We sleep.”

Maybe it’s because of Hakyeon, maybe it’s because they’ve just had sex, but his eyes close soon after, and enters a peaceful, dreamless sleep.

Taekwoon’s phone goes off, the alarm he’d forgotten to delete, and frowns at it before hitting snooze. It’s Saturday, he doesn’t have to be anywhere at any time, and smiles into his pillow. And then realizes with a start that he’s not alone.

Right, he realizes, sitting up; last night happened. Hakyeon looks at peace when he sleeps, curled up on his side, hands carefully folded over each other. If his face glowed last night, it looks nothing compared to the morning sunlight filtering in through the half-closed blinds.

Taekwoon’s chest hurts, it hurts so much, he loves Hakyeon so much, doesn’t think he’s ever felt this way about anyone before. He can’t pinpoint a beginning to these feelings, and figures maybe that’s how love happens. Quietly, like someone slipping happiness into your back pocket without you knowing.

Taekwoon didn’t get to touch Hakyeon last night, frowning at this sudden realization. His hands curve over Hakyeon’s cheek, and stifles a groan when his thighs ache. His lips also feel tingly and sore, and when he comes up to touch them, they feel soft and spongy from how swollen they are.

He remembers Hakyeon’s confessions, his fantasies, and thinks that maybe he can get started on one of those. Just thinking about Hakyeon last night makes him grow hard, and he slides back as far as he can, careful not to wake Hakyeon up, and pulls the blanket down.

“Cold,” Hakyeon suddenly says, arms wrapping around himself before his eyes open. “What, did you think I was asleep?” Taekwoon feels a wave of embarrassment wash over him as Hakyeon raises an eyebrow in mocking innocence. “What were you planning on doing?”

“Nothing,” he says, a reflex, and curses mentally. This is exactly the opposite of what he wanted to do.

“You know,” Hakyeon replies, looking up at him, “you do have a pretty mouth.” He reaches out a hand to cup Taekwoon’s face, thumb smoothing over his cheekbone, before it tugs at his lips.

“Can I suck you off?” Taekwoon asks around his thumb, before he can overthink it and back out. Hakyeon’s hand withdraws, and he follows it blindly, upset at how much he wants Hakyeon already.

“Of course you can, kitten,” he says, resting his hands under his head, and Taekwoon’s cheeks burn at the nickname. He’d forgotten it already, but it all comes back to him, the weight of the name like a collar around his neck. Fuck.

He leans down slowly, mouth opening slightly. Hakyeon’s already half hard, eyes fixated on him, and the thought of Hakyeon watching him so closely makes him feel embarrassed, hands shaking as he quickly jerks Hakyeon until he’s hard again.

He’s only given head once, when he was a freshman in college and wanted to experiment, and realized rather quickly that one night stands weren’t really his thing. This is nothing like that one time though - he may be nearly as inexperienced as he was back then, but now it isn’t a nameless guy in the basement of a house party, but Hakyeon, who’s warm and full of smiles and knows exactly how to guide him around.

Carefully, he flicks his tongue against the crown of Hakyeon’s cock, eliciting a gasp from him, as his head falls back against the pillow. “You’re so good,” he says, when Taekwoon swirls his tongue around the head. “Such a good boy,” he gasps, and there Hakyeon is again, with his talking. He should’ve known from the start that Hakyeon would be vocal in and out of bed.

Bracing himself on his elbows, Taekwoon carefully wraps his lips around him and sucks. Hakyeon is hot and heavy on his tongue, his presence above him as comforting as always, especially as his fingers curl into Taekwoon’s hair, thumb rubbing circles in the spot right behind Taekwoon’s ear. His face flushes in embarrassment at the high pitched whimper he lets out around Hakyeon’s cock, eliciting a moan from Hakyeon. He forces himself to breathe hard through his nostrils and go down on Hakyeon, hands going to where his mouth doesn’t reach. Hakyeon talks through it all, praising, calling him a good boy, a good little kitten, keep doing that, oh god-

Taekwoon sucks, hard, and eyes start swimming with tears as he comes back up for a breath before his lips slide over Hakyeon’s cock again. He hollows his cheeks this time, desperate to get Hakyeon off.

“Taekwoon,” he gasps, hands pulling desperately at his hair. It hurts, but also feels so, so good, and Taekwon moans again. “Oh, Taekwoon, stop or else I’ll come, Taekwoon-”

Taekwoon narrows his eyes and looks up at Hakyeon, pleased with how he looks: Hakyeon’s hair sticks to his forehead in clumps, and his mouth is open now, but wordless as his neck arches, veins prominent. The point, he thinks silently, is to come, and so he bobs his head a couple of more times before he closes his eyes and forces himself to relax so he can take Hakyeon in all the way, and then Hakyeon is moaning loudly, stuffing his hand into his mouth to muffle the sound as he comes.

Taekwoon doesn’t mean to swallow, he really doesn’t, but Hakyeon tastes salty and unpleasant, so he swallows it as quickly as possible, a little satisfied with himself. Hakyeon lies below him, trying to get his breathing back together as he looks up at Taekwoon with all the affection and love in the world. “Come here,” he whispers, and Taekwoon follows, nuzzling into him. “I should’ve left more marks on you,” he sighs, fingers brushing against the underside of Taekwoon’s jaw. “What was I thinking?”

“We have time,” Taekwoon mumbles into Hakyeon’s neck, and knows without looking that Hakyeon is grinning.

“I guess we do,” he says.

He doesn’t emerge from Hakyeon’s room until three in the afternoon, and thanks whatever higher power there is for the lounge being empty for once in his life. He knocks as softly as he can on his own dorm door, and when Jaehwan opens it, his mouth drops open.

“What?” he asks gruffly.

“I, you-” he shakes his head, moving so that Taekwoon can come into the room. “Nothing,” he finally decides on. “I just... you know what? Nothing. You might, though, you might...”

Taekwoon grabs his bag to take to the shower and looks back at Jaehwan with a raised eyebrow. He’s sure he looks like someone who just had sex, but after Wonshik and Hongbin (and especially Taemin, and in Taekwoon’s opinion, Sunyoung and Soojung, except they’re much more secretive about it), it shouldn’t be that bad. Especially after Jaehwan also got laid last night, if his messy hair and bruised lips is anything to go by.

“Here,” he says, tossing something at Taekwoon. He catches it, and looks down at the bottle.

“BB cream?”

“You’re going to need it,” Jaehwan says. “It’s Yura’s. You guys look the same shade, so it’s okay, but as long as... Just. She won’t mind, okay? Go shower.”

Taekwoon stares at the little bottle and carries it into the bathroom. He tugs his shirt off and catches a glimpse of his reflection in the mirror, gasping.

Hakyeon was not lying when he said he would cover Taekwoon in marks. His neck and jaw are littered with hickeys, the ones from this morning still fresh and red, and the ones from last night having darkened into black and blue.

BB cream, right. He has that, props to Yura. He has to make a mental note to thank her later, but after he jumps into the shower, blushes. There’s no way he’s going to walk up to her, hand her the bottle he just used to cover all of his hickeys with, and thank her for letting him use it. No way in hell.

He thinks back to Hakyeon and finds himself growing hot again, head automatically ducking at the voice replaying in his head, telling him what to do, how he’s such a good little kitten.

He hands the bottle back to Yura with his head pointing at the and mumbles something similar to a thanks, before he finds himself pushed back down onto his own chair, Yura looking down at him. “You did such a shitty job,” she sighs, uncapping the bottle. “Let me help you.”

“This is embarrassing,” he says, as Yura’s fingers brush against his neck, wet with product. He looks at the door for help, but Jaehwan is long gone, taking a shower himself.

She shrugs, lips curling up in amusement. “You get used to it,” she tells him honestly. “How long have you liked him for?”

“I don’t know,” he admits, tilting his neck so she can swipe the cream on the underside of his jaw. “A while. I think I liked him before I knew I liked him.”

“That’s good,” she says, smiling sweetly at him. Her hair is neatly brushed, tied back in a pretty pink bow that has her bangs framing her face nicely. He can’t see any marks on her, and figures she’s very good at this covering up thing. “Reminds me of when I confessed to Jaehwan. Anyway, there you are. There’s more under your shirt, but if you wear something with a higher collar, it should be fine. You should buy this.” She motions to the BB cream, letting Taekwoon have one last look at it before she tosses it into her bag. “It’s very good for marks like that.”

“Thanks,” he finally says at least, before he heads out. “I’ll consider it.”

He eats dinner with Jonghyun and Yongguk, who both thankfully don’t notice anything. Jonghyun talks about his senior thesis, and Yongguk about his newest slam poem.

“Oh look,” Jonghyun says, cutting Yongguk off, as he’s trying to read the last few lines of it. “It’s Hakyeon. Have you confessed yet?”

The comment catches Taekwoon off guard, and he chokes on his pumpkin latte. “W-what? How did you know?”

Yongguk grins at him, the wide ‘I-know-something-you-don’t’ grin that makes him feel self conscious. In that moment, Hakyeon looks over as well, waving a greeting as he sits down at another table with his own friends. Taekwoon hides his face behind his mug and waves as discreetly as he can.

“We all know,” Jonghyun deadpans. “Taekwoon, you’re so obvious. Your whole dorm probably knows it. You’re lucky we support you.” Yongguk nods in agreement from beside him. Taekwoon wants to sink into the ground and hope it swallows him up and never spits him back out. Where is the void when you need it?

“He’ll confess one day,” Yongguk says, stabbing a piece of meat with his chopsticks. “He won’t tell us either, because he’s too shy. Right, Taekwoon?”

Taekwoon glares at a piece of asparagus in his plate. Fuck this very particular peice of asparagus. It probably gave him all the bad luck he has right now. “Right,” he says as an afterthought, then looks up wildly. “No, that’s, no. Nope.”

Jonghyun and Yongguk are already grinning at each other, and Taekwoon sighs and goes back to staring at the Bad Luck Asparagus.

“Hey,” Jonghyun says after a while. “Do you wanna go to the bar? I had an exam yesterday, but didn’t get to go out.”

Taekwoon glances at Hakyeon, who looks like he’s very invested in whatever conversation he’s having, laughing wildly and pointing at one of his friends. If there’s one thing Taekwoon knows about relationships, it’s to never let your friendships die when one starts. “Yeah,” he says. “Let’s do that.”

Jonghyun grins at him. “I’ll call some others.”

He steps into Hakyeon’s room that night to find him already sleep. Granted, it’s three in the morning, and he’s still drunk from all the shots Himchan and Sunhwa made him drink. Most of it has worn off on his way back home, but the fuzziness of his mind still lingers as he kicks his sneakers off. He feels more open, more talkative.

“Taekwoon?” Hakyeon’s voice sounds from below the blankets. “Are you here?”

“I’m here,” he slurs, leaning against the wall as Hakyeon appears from the blanket. His eyes blink away any fatigue, Taekwoon follows this tongue as he licks his chapped lips. He wants Hakyeon to kiss him very, very much. “I missed you.”

“Come here,” Hakyeon says, sleepiness clouding his voice, and Taekwoon falls into his arms, sighing happily. He wants to stay here forever.

“I want you,” he whispers into Hakyeon’s neck. His veins burn, his gut burns, everything burns under Hakyeon’s touch. “Want you to take me.”

“Taekwoon,” Hakyeon breathes, pulling away to look at him properly, eyes raking over his face. “You smell like alcohol. Are you drunk?”

“No,” he lies, pressing a kiss to Hakyeon’s clavicle.

Firm arms grip his shoulders and push him away, and Hakyeon is leaning over him, any tiredness gone. “Taekwoon,” he says slowly. “Not when you’re drunk. Never when you’re drunk.”

“I want the same things sober!” he whines, wanting to reach forward, but Hakyeon has him pinned down, grip tight like iron. “Please,” he begs, “I love you, I love you so much and I want you to fuck me, Hakyeon.”

“Taekwoon,” he says, voice stern, “I’m going to make this clear only once: I’m never going to do anything while you’re under the influence, okay? I love you very much, but no.”

Hakyeon loves him, Taekwoon’s brain processes. He loves him but he’s not going to fuck him. Not when he’s like this, at least. “Okay. I hope I’m sober very soon,” he says childishly, knows knows it’s childish, but doesn’t care. Not right now, anyway.

Hakyeon laughs, pulling him close. “Me too,” he says. “Now go to sleep.”

In the morning, while Taekwoon is out trying not to rip his brain out his skill and yell at it for not drinking any water last night, Hakyeon is out doing RA things. He promised Jaehwan and Yura he would eat brunch with them before Yura has to take a train back to Daegu.

“No marks today,” she comments, and Taekwoon flushes. “What happened last night? When most people get together, they don’t stop for anything. Honeymoon season, you know?”

He stares at his food. “I went out last night,” he admits, not quite sure why he’s telling Yura this. Maybe it’s because he refuses to look at Jaehwan, who has little bruises dotting his chest. He only notices because Yura had looked, seemingly proud of herself, and Taekwoon had followed her gaze. “I got drunk,” he says, trying to get rid of any thoughts. He really doesn’t need to know about his roommate’s sex life.

“Ah,” she hums, plopping a piece of seaweed in her mouth. “That’s good you didn’t, then.”

I guess it is, he thinks, and changes the topic. Jaehwan comes in then, loud as always, and for once, Taekwoon is thankful for it.

Taekwoon moves his stuff out of Hakyeon’s room when he gets back, now that Yura’s gone. It isn’t much, just some clothes and his laptop, except he’s still sad that he doesn’t get to sleep with Hakyeon anymore. Well, he guesses he can, but still. They should take things slowly, or as slowly as you can take things when you get finger fucked on the first night.

He walks out into the lounge to hear Sanghyuk laughing at Hakyeon. “How does it feel to be fucked in the ass, hyung?”

“You little brat-”

He sees Sanghyuk running past him, then Hakyeon, who stops a few feet away from him, looking between the two.

“Taekwoon hyung!” Sanghyuk calls out, laughing. “Good job Saturday night.” He gives him a thumbs up, and Taekwoon glares at him, which sends Sanghyuk running into his room and locking the door.

When he hears the click of the lock, Hakyeon sighs and places his hands on his hips. “These kids... Well, we should probably slow it down.”

Taekwoon nods in agreement, and neither of them acknowledge Taekwoon’s drunken confession the previous night.

He doesn’t know if “slow” for Hakyeon means “not touching each other at all,” and also “not acknowledging said relationship around anyone else,” because that is exactly what Hakyeon does.

After a couple of days everyone stops teasing them, and he even catches Wonshik giving him a few concerned looks.

Hakyeon acts like everything is normal, still wraps his arm around Taekwoon when they’re sitting together, still brings him discounted lattes and dotes on him, but everything is the same as if it were before they got together. Hakyeon doesn’t kiss him, not even when they’re alone.

“So,” Wonshik casually says, two weeks later, the day after their win against Yonsei, “what’s up with you and Hakyeon?”

“What?” Taekwoon takes his shirt off, and throws it onto the field with more force than he really should. “What are you talking about?”

Wonshik sighs and points at his discarded jersey. “That. That is what I’m talking about.”

Taekwoon huffs, fanning himself with his hands. Now that it’s April, the weather is hot and humid, and instead of drying uncomfortably to his skin, the sweat clings to his brow and drips down his temple, musky and unforgivable. “I don’t know,” he admits, leaning down to pick up his jersey. He tosses it properly onto the bench. “I’m going to run a lap.”

“Wait for me!” Wonshik yells after Taekwoon takes off, and jogs after him.

“What’s wrong with you?” he echoes Wonshik’s question to Hakyeon, when he’s helping put stuff into his car.

“What?” Hakyeon echoes his earlier answer, and Taekwoon hates this, already knows he’s not going to get an answer out of him, but damn it, he’ll try.

“Why are you ignoring me?” he demands, and sees the way Hakyeon’s features soften, how he looks at Taekwoon with such concern and love. It hurts, it really does.

“I’m not ignoring you,” Hakyeon says, reaching out to touch his arm, but Taekwoon flinches away. “Taekwoon, I-”

“Do you not love me?” he finally asks, voicing his biggest fear, and winces when his voice breaks. Hakyeon steps closer, places his hands on Taekwoon’s face.

“No, of course not, Taekwoon, please-”

He steps away, not ready to deal with anything. He can already feel the tear tracks on his face, and rubs at his eyes. “Don’t say anything if you’re just going to lie,” he says, and walks away.

He can do this. Taekwoon may be heartbroken, but he is not weak.

Now that it’s hotter, Taekwoon’s practices are longer and harder, with matches coming up much more often. It’s intervarsity, so it’s not nearly that intense, and Minhyuk is ready to sub in for him if he wants to take a break, but the practices mean he doesn’t have to face the disappointment that is his and Hakyeon’s relationship.

He still practices, but brings out the crutches when he’s not, and makes sure he always has someone to carry his backpack for him, so Hakyeon doesn’t have to bother him.

“Are you ready?” Minho, the team captain asks, and everyone nods their head yes. They yell their chant before heading out onto the field to verse one of their biggest rivals. Taekwoon makes sure he gives it his all.

Taekwoon scores the final goal, breaking the tie to their team’s side as 3-2, right before the buzzer rings, and everyone jumps on him, screaming.

“You did it!” Minho yells, pulling him into a giant hug. He can feel Wonshik jumping on him from behind, and Sandeul’s hands in his hair. Somewhere from beside him, Minwoo is yelling. He grins, ducking his head into Minho’s chest, giddiness crawling up his throat.

They’re not the best team in the college pool, intervarsity or varsity, but Taekwoon is also sure this is their best season yet. He laughs as everyone pulls apart, Hoseok still clinging to his shoulders and bouncing as they head to the bleachers.

“Hyung,” Wonshik whispers, when Hoseok’s gone away to his friends. “You have a visitor.” Taekwoon follows his gaze to find Hakyeon standing at the bottom of the bleachers, wringing his hands together. “I’ll go,” he says quickly, leaving Taekwoon to fend for himself. He sighs, looks at Hakyeon again, and makes his way over slowly.

“Hi,” Hakyeon says quietly, eyes shifting between Taekwoon’s face and the ground.

“Hi,” Taekwoon replies, much less firm that he wanted to sound. His head hurts, his heart hurts.

Hakyeon holds his hand out, giving him a small smile. “I got you water.”

“Thanks.” Taekwoon doesn’t mention how he has his own water bottle, and takes Hakyeon’s anyway.

Quietly, they stand watching each other as everyone clears the field. He doesn’t know where his teammates are, especially because Minho always yells at anyone who tries to leave practice or a game early without any prior reason. He hopes Wonshik gave a good enough reason. “Let’s sit,” he suggests, and they find a seat higher up on the bleachers.

“I’ve never seen you look like that before,” Hakyeon says, picking up Taekwoon’s water bottle and handing it to him.

He takes it gratefully, and waits for Hakyeon to continue. When he doesn’t, opting to stare out at the soccer field, Taekwoon prompts him. “Like what?” he asks.

Hakyeon shrugs, turning to look at him. “Like... I dunno. Like you had dropped all your inhibitions. Like there was no wall in between you and whatever was in front of you.”

Neither of them say anything for a while. By now the sky is a golden yellow, with little red hues peaking out over the treetops. Taekwoon does his best to not think about how he wants to hold Hakyeon’s hand. He hates this.

“For a moment I was jealous of the soccer ball,” Hakyeon admits, breaking the silence, then stretches his arms out over his head.

“But I guess it was all my fault,” he sighs, then turns to face Taekwoon. “I’ve been thinking about you all day,” he says, then shakes his head. “I mean, I think about you every day. Let’s talk.”

“Talk?”

Hakyeon nods, and doesn’t look very happy about it. In fact, he looks very serious, and that makes Taekwoon’s stomach churn. He isn’t going to take back his confession, is he? He actually didn’t like Hakyeon at all, and that night he was just really horny and had a warm body next to him. Or maybe he thought he liked Taekwoon, but decided that Taekwoon wasn’t what he wanted. Taekwoon feels his blood run cold as Hakyeon looks down at his hands, the same, small hands that he so desperately wants to hold. It hurts. “The truth is, I should have been much more transparent with you,” he says. “I didn’t think... I didn’t think we should have a relationship.”

“What?” He was right, Hakyeon doesn’t love him. Maybe Hakyeon never did, maybe Taekwoon really was just an easy fuck, easy to rile up and use for one weekend. “You don’t love me?” Taekwoon croaks, already feeling bile clawing its way up his throat.

“I didn’t say that,” Hakyeon says, reaching over and grabbing one of Taekwoon’s hands. His palm is cold, but Taekwoon still stupidly relishes in it, still feels his hand warm up where it connects with Hakyeon’s. “It’s just that... Taekwoon, I’m your RA. It isn’t right, that there’s some power dynamic that exists outside either of our powers, and I’m not okay with that.”

Taekwoon lets out the breath he didn’t know he was holding. So that was it. That was it. “Stupid,” he mumbles, shoving Hakyeon’s foot with his own. “You’re so stupid,” he repeats. “I hate you.”

“But I love you,” Hakyeon says, and he sounds so sad, so pitiful, that Taekwoon can’t find it in himself to say anything back. He leans forward to capture Hakyeon’s mouth in a kiss, and almost bawls at how perfect it is, how this is what he’s been wanting, needing, for the past few weeks.

“Me too,” he says, and Hakyeon beams at him, wide and bright, and sunshine oozes out of Taekwoon, thinks that maybe he’s just found happiness in a person all over again. “So much.”

Hakyeon looks down at their hands and his smile dims; Taekwoon clutches his hand tighter. “I’m still... not comfortable with the idea of us being together while I’m your RA,” he says. “I’m sorry, Woon-ah, but can I just ask... that we hold off a bit longer? Until the semester ends?”

Taekwoon scans Hakyeon’s face, eyes drawn down to Taekwoon’s lap, looking but not seeing, and he brings him into a hug. “Yeah,” he says, patting Hakyeon’s back. “Of course we can. There’s only a month left anyway, right?”

Hakyeon chuckles, hugging Taekwoon back. “Right. It’ll be easy. Do you even know where you’re living next year?”

Taekwoon pulls back, grins at him brightly as he announces, “Yeah. I got the Delphinus apartments.”

Hakyeon laughs, kissing Taekwoon. “Really? That’s amazing! The best of the best. That means you’ll get your own room, too!”

“Right,” Taekwoon nods, blushing.

“And don’t forget summer,” Hakyeon says. “If I remember correctly, we only live forty minutes from each other. We can meet in the middle.” Taekwoon nods again, grinning at the ground. “Stop that,” Hakyeon demands. “Kiss me.”

Taekwoon does.

“Welcome to the Gay Apartment,” Wonshik says with a lame flourish of his hands. “In which everyone is gay, except for Jaehwan.”

Hakyeon laughs as he walks in, taking in the extremely under-decorated apartment. “Wow, if only I wasn’t an RA again, I could’ve taken Jaehwan’s spot.”

“How’re your new kids?” Hongbin asks, pouring Hakyeon a cup of tea. “Are they as fun as us?”

“Not even close!” Hakyeon cries out, sliding onto the bar stool. “They’re all so mean and cold, except for Hyuk-ah, who’s living in Andromedas again. And none of them ever sit in the lounge.”

Taekwoon shakes his head from beside Hakyeon and slides into the other seat. He still has to get his syllabus figured out, write everything down into his planner, and email one of his professors for a quick question about the textbook. But for now, he’ll spend as much time with Hakyeon as possible. “Hurry up,” he whispers, where Hakyeon’s taking a long sip of his tea. He hears Wonshik snort.

“Yeah,” he mocks, “better hurry up Hakyeon, I hope you haven’t eaten before you came here.” In the background, Jaehwan makes gagging noises. “Shut up, Jaehwan,” Wonshik hollers. “Everyone already knows you like getting it up the ass from girls, don’t pull that shit on us.”

“Wonshik!” he shrieks, chasing him out of the door. “It was one time!”

They hear Wonshik screaming back, “You liked it!” as the footsteps fade down the hallway.

Hongbin coughs into his fast and starts into the hallway. “So, uh. I’m going make sure my boyfriend isn’t dead.”

They watch Hongbin walk out, sigh on his lips, and Hakyeon laughs as the door shuts behind them. “It’s going to be an interesting year for you,” he says, continuing to drink his tea.

“Yes, well,” Taekwoon says, thinking about everyone having their own rooms now. “Yes,” he finishes, lamely.

“Show me your room, boyfriend,” Hakyeon says, getting up from his chair. He tugs on Taekwoon’s belt loops, pulling him off the stool and in the direction of two of the bedrooms. “Before they come back.”

“My bedroom is on that side,” Taekwoon replies, pointing in the opposite direction, then adds, “boyfriend.”

Hakyeon kisses him, and although walking backwards in his day-old apartment to his room is rather difficult, they manage it. As soon as the door closes behind them, Hakyeon presses Taekwoon up against it, licking his way into Taekwoon’s mouth. “I missed you so much, my little kitten.”

“Me too,” Taekwoon gasps, already lightheaded. He tugs at Hakyeon’s shirt, pulling it off, and presses his hands against Hakyeon’s stomach. At Taekwoon’s insistence, Hakyeon joined the gym he works out at when not in school, and now his abs are more prominent, the muscle hard and firm underneath his fingers. “Missed you. So much.”

“It’s so cute,” Hakyeon says, grinning against Taekwoon’s lips, “how easy you are for me.”

The comment catches him by surprise, and his face heats up at the implication. He’s pulled away from the wall and pushed back onto the bed, Hakyeon looming over him with a smile on his face.

“The fact that everyone thinks you must order me around is...” he brushes Taekwoon’s bangs away from his forehead. “Laughable.”

Taekwoon shudders beneath him, watching the way Hakyeon shrugs his hoodie off and leans down to kiss him again.

“Should I tell them how wrong they are?” he asks, suddenly cupping Taekwoon’s erection, and he gasps loudly, arms coming up to clutch at his shoulders. It makes him feel lightheaded, and so, so vulnerable. But he likes it. He likes the idea of being vulnerable and open to Hakyeon, likes the fact that Hakyeon can do whatever he wants with him, can use him however. “Should I tell them how desperate you are for my cock?” he continues, pulling Taekwoon’s jeans and briefs off. “Should I tell them how you beg, should I show them?”

Taekwoon gapes blindly at the ceiling as Hakyeon bites down on his shoulder. He reaches underneath the pillow for lube and condoms, and pushes it into Hakyeon’s chest.

“Aren’t we a little impatient,” Hakyeon teases, licking up his neck. “What if I want to take my time with you, huh, Taekwoonie? What if I want to take your apart piece by piece, see you come undone without me even touching you. Do you think you could do that?”

Taekwoon can’t help the little sounds that come out of his throat, high pitched and airy, especially as a hand comes up to grip at his hair, and his vision blurs when his head is pulled back. “H-Hakyeon,” he whines, “please.”

“Can you?”

“Yes,” he gasps, already so, so hard. It’s been so long, he wants Hakyeon right now. “But please, Hakyeon, please.”

Hakyeon pulls away to cover his fingers in lube, and carefully slides a finger into Taekwoon. “You’re so tight,” he says, a little breathless, and Taekwoon’s chest rises, rises, rises. He doesn’t understand how he can possibly affect Hakyeon in this way, but as a second finger is added, is so glad he does.

Taekwoon moans then, as fingers nudge at his prostate, and a high pitched whine threatens to leave his throat when Hakyeon twists his fingers.

“My beautiful kitten,” Hakyeon murmurs, kissing Taekwoon’s forehead, his cheeks, his temple, his nose. “My beautiful, dirty kitten. So filthy, so open, just for me.” He pulls his fingers out, then pushes them back in, and Taekwoon sees stars. “just for me, right? he asks, massaging that spot.

“Yes,” he gasps. “Ah - yes, yes, just for you.”

Hakyeon pulls his fingers out, leaving him empty and yearning for a brief moment, before he hears the tearing of the condom, and Hakyeon’s hands, slick with lube, pressing up on his thighs.

“You’re so pretty,” Hakyeon murmurs, dipping his fingers back into Taekwoon one last time. “And so good. Are you ready?”

Taekwoon can’t help as his face heats up at the praise, nodding helplessly, can’t help that he wants more of it, all of it. “Yes,” he breathes. Hakyeon lines up against his entrance, then presses in slowly, watching Taekwoon carefully. “Hakyeon,” he gasps, feeling so full. It stings a little, but he knows he’ll get used to it, which helps him relax, helps Hakyeon sink in all the way.

“Fuck,” he hisses, arms clinging to Taekwoon’s biceps as Hakyeon bottoms out. He feels so full, his head spins as the pain and pleasure battle with each other. “Oh, kitten, you’re so tight, fuck. Kitten.”

“Move,” he gasps, shifting his hips, and feels a full body shudder run through him at the feeling.

Hakyeon braces himself, places his hands beside Taekwoon’s head, and leans down to kiss him, sucking on his tongue and he starts to thrust into Taekwoon. “You feel incredible,” he grits out, little beads of sweat forming on his brow. “You’re so tight and perfect, you take me in so well.”

If Taekwoon weren’t already flushing, he would blush a darker a shade of scarlet, and instead tries to focus on Hakyeon sliding in and out of him. It feels good, but Hakyeon is going slow, which would be nice if he meant to, but the movements are strained as Hakyeon tries very hard to hold himself back. “Hakyeon,” he whispers, “please, more.”

Hakyeon grins down at him and leans back, shifting his weight onto his knees, and lifts one of Taekwoon’s legs up before he fucks into him, hard and fast, and the contrast takes Taekwoon by such surprise a scream tears it’s way from his throat, and his gasps turn into hiccups, grabbing onto Hakyeon for some type of support. It feels so good, Hakyeon wants to do this forever, wants Hakyeon to take him like this.

Then Hakyeon leans forward, and Taekwoon fights back another scream when his cock hits up against Taekwoon’s prostate, sending his vision swimming and jaw going slack. It feels like the air got punched out of his lungs, feels his body, wound up tight, start to uncoil, rising to a peak. “Touch yourself, kitten,” Hakyeon orders, and Taekwoon does, hand coming to slide over his own cock, trying so hard to reach his end. “Come for me,” he says, and when he digs his thumb into the slit, he does with a long drawn-out cry, and Hakyeon moans, thrusting into him a few more times before he also orgasms.

Hakyeon pulls out after a moment, tying up the condom before throwing it into the trashcan and settling back into bed next to Taekwoon.

“That was nice,” he says after a while, and Taekwoon snorts, drawing the blanket up over them.

“Tired,” Taekwoon whispers, curling up into Hakyeon’s chest. He may be physically bigger, but Hakyeon has a way of making him feel small and secure in his arms. “Sleep.”

Hakyeon chuckles, kissing his forehead. “Alright.”