Adventures of Campus: Whores and Love
Pairing: Reader x Seungmin
Word count: 25k
Genre: Romance | Fluff | Mild Angst | Slice of Life | Friends With Benefits AU | “More than friends, not quite lovers” AU | College AU
Kim Seungmin, captain of the baseball team and one of the most popular guys on campus. Almost as if it’s a blessing, he has practically the entire campus throwing themselves at him, which not only fuels his ego, but it also fuels his desire to not want a serious relationship.
At least until you come along. And Seungmin’s biggest problem with having casual sex with you is the fact that you’re exactly like him.
Warnings: A lot of implied sex | Alcohol usage | Felix is an alcoholic with ADHD
Masterlist | Ao3 Link
Adventures of Campus Masterlist
i.
“Go! Go!”
Seungmin makes a break for it. He tosses the wooden baseball bat aside and sprints to the next base as fast as his legs can carry him. He reaches first base with the ball still high in the sky and the players of the defence team trying their best to gauge exactly where the ball will land.
He spares a glance at the sky when he reaches second base only to see it slowly coming back down towards the field.
“Faster, Seungmin!”
He isn’t sure exactly who it is that’s cheering his name, but he gathers that it’s from one of the cheerleaders that crowd at the right end of the field—the one that he’s quickly approaching and dodging defensive players to reach.
“Just one more,” Seungmin thinks to himself as he manages to bounce off of third base and forces himself to run as fast as possible to reach home base.
He can hear his name being cheered repeatedly by the cheerleaders and the students that watch from the bright green painted bleachers.
From the corner of his eye, Seungmin is able to see someone dashing towards home base in an attempt to stop him from reaching the final plate.
Until he drops the ground and slides across the dirt with his eyes squeezed shut, praying that he manages to reach home base. He manages to slide himself directly onto the plate and dodges the jumping player as the crowd erupts.
Seungmin opens his eyes, when he hears the screams and cheers, looking around in almost disbelief that he’s won his team yet another game.
His teammates charge towards him in joy and lift him up, his hands flailing about in an attempt to balance himself. Seungmin watches as people crowd him to chant his name.
“Seungmin! Seungmin! Seungmin!”
The adrenaline pumps throughout his veins at the feeling of so many people cheering him on like he’s the only person in the world who matters right now.
Because Seungmin’s damn good at baseball and he knows he is.
But the fame doesn’t matter to him as much as actually getting to home base in time.
He doesn’t care about the pressure that could overcome him from being labelled the best batter in his team, he doesn’t care about the people that cheer for him the moment he appears, he honestly doesn’t really care that much whether or not he loses because, at the end of the day,
Seungmin just really fucking loves baseball.
And he doesn’t care about the outcome most of the time, he just loves the rush that he feels when he plays. He loves how it feels when he swings the bat and he can see the ball shooting into the sky like it’s a star.
There’s a different sort of a rush that comes with baseball and it's nothing like the rush he gets when he’s swinging his bat. He’s never felt anything like it and nothing ever makes him feel the same because nothing compares to the rush he gets when he’s sprinting along the edges of the playing field and chasing the rubber plates on each end.
He’s never loved a sport as much as he’s loved baseball. Seungmin doesn’t care about the way his best friends Yang Jeongin and Hwang Hyunjin make a big deal over the fact that baseball “isn’t anything other than taking your frustration out on a little ball”. There’s just so much about baseball that fills him to the brim with joy.
And most of all, Seungmin loves the way baseball makes him feel like he can do anything in the world.
But Seungmin also doesn’t really expect Hyunjin or Jeongin to actually understand that much when Hyunjin’s in the national male gymnast team and Jeongin’s part of the university’s top swim team.
He just loves doing it and he loves Jeongin and Hyunjin enough to not care about the jokes or teases they make towards his sport.
。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆ 。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆
“That was actually really good,” Jeongin claims as he and Hyunjin crowd around Seungmin. “I don’t even know anything about baseball, but I could tell that hit was it.”
“How are you feeling about going to nationals?” Hyunjin asks, completely disregarding Jeongin’s presence by pushing his way closer to Seungmin as they walk towards their lecture hall.
Jeongin whines in protest, but doesn’t really do much to counter Hyunjin because he knows that if he does anything, Hyunjin’s going to end up doing more than just cry and Jeongin really doesn’t want to have to deal with a crying Hyunjin in the middle of the media building’s hallway.
None of them are exactly trained with dealing with a crying Hyunjin because when he starts crying, he starts crying.
And Seungmin and Jeongin know him enough to try and avoid anything that can make him sad. Especially after his last breakup where he sobbed on the dining room floor of Seungmin and Jeongin’s shared flat with a bottle of red wine in his hands like he was some divorced housewife.
Which is actually one of the best introduction stories that Seungmin has because Hyunjin was only a mutual friend of Jeongin. So, when Seungmin had come home from a bad date that night to see a lanky graphic design student drunkenly crying, “give me another chance,” on his dining room floor, it was a bit more than awkward when morning came with Hyunjin’s sobriety. Or was it his kitchen floor? Seungmin honestly can’t remember.
“I’m really happy about it,” Seungmin nods his head with a smile on his face, “I like baseball and I like that I’m good enough to actually get this far.”
“You’d have sex with baseball if it was a person,” Hyunjin jokes.
Seungmin throws a glare his way, but just like Jeongin, he doesn’t make an effort to do much.
“Anyway,” he clears his throat, “with baseball, I’ve never doubted my ability in it. I know when I might lose and I know when I’ve probably hit a pretty damn good hit. I’m pretty sure the guys are gonna have a party tonight to celebrate the win.”
“Speaking of which,” Jeongin cuts in, “are you going?”
“Seriously?” Hyunjin laughs, making the both of them turn to look at him. “This guy would never pass up a party,” he snorts, “he doesn’t even get drunk—he’s just there to have sex.”
“I never do it with the drunk ones,” Seungmin quickly defends himself.
“Right, you just wait for the ‘lone wolf’ in the corner of the room, sipping on their drink like they’re in a movie or something,” he rolls his eyes.
“I’m practically a baseball prodigy—I might as well be the main character,” he jokes. “I just have to find my second lead.”
“Whatever you say, big guy,” Jeongin chuckles while patting Seungmin on the back. He lets out an annoyed grunt as he shrugs Jeongin’s hand off, but it doesn’t stop the slight smile that tugs on his lips.
Their relationship is as tight as it can get. After the entire drunk Hyunjin incident, Seungmin had taken it upon himself to get to know him better. He knew that there had to be more to the poor heartbroken man than the temporary alcoholism that came with his breakup.
And Seungmin learned that he was right.
Hyunjin’s one of the nicest people that he’s ever met and he’s more than blessed to have come home that night to Jeongin saying, “I can’t calm him down—do we give him a sedative?”
He always laughs whenever he thinks about their meeting because when he and Jeongin had met for the first time, Seungmin hadn’t expected that Hyunjin would be tumbling into his life so suddenly.
Seungmin and Jeongin knew each other from their first year of university. Jeongin graduated early and was in Seungmin’s Film class, the two of them clicked almost instantly and decided to share a flat together only after their first semester of knowing each other.
“I think I’ll miss out on the party,” Hyunjin says.
“Me, too. I have a pop quiz tomorrow morning and I really don’t want to piss off Mr Khoo after what happened last time I missed the quiz,” Jeongin huffs.
“To be fair, you had told him you were late because you had to get your hair done,” Seungmin reminds him with a laugh.
“My hair is important! It was a perm and I would have had to wait another month to get an appointment with those guys!”
“And you had to tell him?” Hyunjin laughs as well. “You could’ve easily gotten away by just saying you had a family emergency or a doctor’s appointment! I’m a graphic design student—I can forge a doctor’s note easily!”
His voice echoes throughout the hall and every other student turns to look at him with wide eyes.
“Jin, don’t brag about that in the middle of the hallway,” Seungmin hushes and places his hand on Hyunjin’s shoulder lightly.
“Right,” he lowers his head in embarrassment. “But hey, Yeni, if you need anything physically forged, just let me know and I’ll see if I can Photoshop it.”
“I’ll give you twenty bucks next time,” Jeongin nods ecstatically. “Actually, could you forge one for tomorrow morning so I can go to the party tonight?”
Hyunjin stops his movement and stares at the younger man, “I have an assignment. I’m not going to forge a doctor’s note for tomorrow morning because I’m not going to that party which means you don't get to either.”
“W-What?” Jeongin scoffs.
“It’s only fair!”
“No it’s not! Seungmin, tell him it’s not!”
“I don’t want any part of this,” Seungmin chuckles as he quickly starts walking towards his politics class while the two continue arguing.
“Hyunjin, come on!”
“I’m not doing it!”
“You’re just jealous that Felix likes me better!”
“Don’t bring Lix into this or I’m taking the offer back completely.”
。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆ 。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆
ii.
Seungmin wanders into the house without much hesitation. The loud bass of the music booms throughout the neighbourhood and he can practically feel his entire body vibrating along with it. He’s come to accept the loud bass and strong smell of alcohol after the past few years of being in the university’s baseball team because every time they win, Felix gets his entire house to throw a party that typically has the entire university invited.
Upon entering, he’s not really that surprised when he sees one of his baseball-mates, Lee Felix, almost blackout drunk as he stumbles towards him with a hop in his step, giggling madly.
“Minnieeee!” Felix slurs when he sees Seungmin approaching him. “You…” He starts and sluggishly throws his arm over his shoulders to lazily pull him towards him, “you… are so good at baseball, man,” he groggily says, hiccuping right afterwards. “Like… I don’t… How do you do it?”
Seungmin holds back his laugh, a ghost of a smile pulling at his lips as he listens to Felix.
“I just… want you… I want you to have all the sex life can offer,” Felix continues. The pitch of his voice is fluctuating intensely, but Seungmin doesn’t hold it against him when he knows that Felix is a borderline alcoholic.
Felix isn’t exactly one of Seungmin’s closest friends, but he’s in the baseball team and he’s a pretty nice guy, so he never really sees anything wrong with hanging out with the guy whenever he invites him out.
The main problem is that Lee Felix only ever wants to hangout if it means he’s getting a drink or four. He’s either very drunk and very sweet or only very sweet.
“That’s sweet, thank you,” Seungmin smiles.
“You can… There’s this person… That you can try approaching…” Before he can even continue, he passes out in Seungmin’s arms.
“Woah!” he exclaims when he realises that Felix has put all of his weight on him. “Alright, buddy, that’s enough ginger beer for you.”
Seungmin takes the liberty in turning around to lay Felix onto his back and lift him up in a very odd piggyback where Felix is completely limp.
He carefully pushes past the crowd of people that are completely oblivious to the pair and makes his way up the stairs. Seungmin’s been inside the shared home enough to locate Felix’s bedroom with ease, slowly pushing into the third door on the left where it’s completely dark save for the glowing colour changing lights coming from Felix’s PC.
Seungmin always wondered why Felix was so willing in spending money on his gaming setup, but even he has to admit that the RGB fans that glow within the pristine white case with the transparent side panel. The white leather chair is facing away from Seungmin, but he’s always itching to sit in it with how the cushion is absolutely perfect for literal days of sitting on.
He plops Felix onto the neatly made bed. Seungmin stands still at the side of his bed, wondering whether he should tuck the poor man into his bed before the sound of a chair squeaking surprises him.
Seungmin looks upright and almost drops Felix onto the ground in shock when he sees you sitting on Felix’s gaming chair, eyes wide as you watch what happens with a red solo cup in your left hand.
You both stare at each other without moving for a moment. Seungmin looks around the area awkwardly before he finally sets Felix down safely and stands upright. When he takes a few more steps closer towards you, he’s finally able to see exactly who you are; head of the cheerleaders and one of the best gymnasts in the university.
“What are you doing here?” he asks loudly.
“Aren’t you going to lower your voice? The poor guy’s sleeping,” you chuckle softly.
“When Felix blacks out, he wouldn’t even wake up to an explosion,” Seungmin reassures you with a laugh. He takes another step closer to you and smiles, “what are you doing up here? I wouldn’t have expected the head cheerleader to be camping in a gamer’s bedroom in the middle of a party.”
“Oh, usually I’d be downstairs,” you claim while nodding, “but I’m not really feeling the vibe right now.” You turn to look at the cup in your hand and swirl it around for a moment, “Felix really needs to stop being in charge of drinks because I’m pretty sure he puts himself into these blackouts himself.”
“Ahah,” Seungmin breathes out the laugh almost sarcastically, but only because you’re right on the dot there.
“But, I’m actually in here because I needed to talk to Felix about something. I don’t know what I was expecting, coming to a party at his house and hoping to talk to him,” you sigh, “but here we are.”
“How important was it? I doubt you’d be able to get anything coherent out of him for the next ten hours.”
“It wasn’t that important,” you laugh as you stand. “I’m just going home then.”
“No, hold on.” Seungmin digs his hands into the pockets of his grey pullover. “If it’s something not that important, then you wouldn’t mind sharing it with me, would you?”
You tilt your head slightly and raise an eyebrow.
“Depends on what the outcome is.”
“How about I take you down to the ramen place right outside the neighbourhood and we’ll see?” Seungmin suggests.
You let out a small laugh as your arms crossed over your chest, “I don’t think I should be expecting much out of the baseball team’s captain. I’d just end up being a score for you with how you’ve managed to work through most of my team.”
“Who said I was keeping score? I just like the exercise,” he smiles coyly.
Seungmin would definitely be lying if he said he wasn’t attracted to you in some way or another. As head cheerleader, you had many eyes on you and you weren’t the captain for no reason. You’re truly the best of your entire team. Your confidence practically oozes off of you whenever you’re out performing in the field or for competitions and you’ve been able to lead your team to national tournaments.
You and Seungmin were also practically the same person as far as he heard.
Students on campus were terrified of the two of you only because you shared the same style of expressionless eyes and barely showed much of a smile unless you were with your friends. You were also known around campus as two of the more active captains who would mingle at parties and would always be seen leaving with a new person at almost every party.
So it isn’t news that you were both looking at each other with a different sense of want.
“I’ll take that offer for the ramen,” you say as you walk past him and push your hands into the pockets of your light blue denim jacket. “But you’re paying because I left my wallet at home.”
“You’ll find a way to make up for it.”
“And don’t turn this into some kind of a porno,” you turn your head slightly to give him a glare which only makes him laugh.
。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆ 。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆
iii.
There’s something different as Seungmin walks into his first class of the morning with a minor headache from having actually only slept about three hours, movement sluggish as he carries himself up the dark blue carpeted stairs and backpack practically thrown onto the floor when he finally reaches his seat.
He almost collapses into the blue cushioned chair and immediately pulls down the wooden table folded against the seat in front of him, hunching over to smack his face onto the desk. Too little sleep means a too unaware and unbothered Seungmin.
“Hey,” Jeongin hisses with his elbow violently nudging Seungmin’s.
“What?” Seungmin groans without lifting his head.
“Felix wanted me to pass you this.” His hand slides under the small gap between Seungmin’s arm and the table, letting a piece of paper remain as he removes his hand and makes Seungmin sit upright when he sees it.
“What is this?”
“I don’t know,” Jeongin shrugs, “he passed it to me this morning when we bumped into each other in the cafeteria.”
Seungmin stares at the wrinkly piece of paper before he gently unfolds it.
(Y/n) told me you put me in bed. Thanks for that. I’ll buy you lunch later so text me because I’ll definitely forget.
“Couldn’t he have messaged me this?” Seungmin wonders out loud once he’s done reading it.
“You know how Felix gets,” Jeongin shrugs. “But there’s also something else—”
“Seungmin!” He’s rudely interrupted by the high pitched squeak of Hyunjin’s voice as he barges past a pair of students to get into the lecture hall, stumbling up the carpeted stairs and scrambling to where Jeongin and Seungmin are sitting—and also watching in confusion. “Seungmin! Seungmin…” Hyunjin pants heavily as he stops right in front of Seungmin’s desk and collapses onto the cushioned chair in front of the two.
“Dude? Did you actually run all the way here?” Jeongin snorts when he sees how out of breath Hyunjin is when he’s a national gymnast.
“You…” he raises a slender finger to point directly at Seungmin’s face, “went home… with (Y/n), right?”
“What?”
“(Y/n)... head cheerleader… top gymnast of the university… after me?!”
“Oh, yeah, we had sex,” Seungmin nods.
“Well…” Hyunjin lets out a horrific sounding groan as he sits upright and finally catches his breath. He throws his arm over the back of the chair and slams his phone, screen up, onto the table, “you’re not the only ones who know.”
On the phone screen, Seungmin’s able to recognise the university’s confessions page on Instagram.
I’m not one for gossip, but I saw Kim Seungmin and (Y/n) leaving Lee Felix’s party last night. Knowing those two, I can’t imagine what else they’d be doing together >.<
“Jesus Christ, don’t these people have anything better to do?” Jeongin scoffs as he picks the phone up to read the post more clearly, but Seungmin remains unbothered; eyes staring at Hyunjin in confusion.
“Where were you before this?” he asks calmly.
“I ran from my apartment across the street. I was having breakfast with Yeji—and she might be mad at me now—but I ditched breakfast the moment Wooyoung sent me the post and ran here,” he explains with his breath still heaving slightly.
“You ran from your apartment to the lecture hall to show me this?” Seungmin repeats simply. Hyunjin nods and rests his cheek against the chair, unbothered about the fact that none of them are sure of the last time it was cleaned, but he really just doesn’t care and he’s tired. “Jin, I don’t care about these things.”
“I know you don’t, but still,” Hyunjin shrugs.
“You could’ve texted me—what is up with you guys and not texting me today?” he wonders in slight disbelief.
“Felix is forgetful. His ADHD makes him a little bit spicier than usual, so I’ve just learned to roll with what he decides,” Jeongin waves his hand off, eyes still glued to Hyunjin’s phone.
“Why are you so invested in that anyway?” Hyunjin scoffs when he sees just how immersed in the post he is.
“The comments are interesting,” he shrugs. “Hey Min, check this out: ‘what if they end up deciding they both like each other and stop sleeping with other people?’.”
Jeongin peeks up from the phone to look at Seungmin who stares at him with his bottom lip jutting out in thought before he shrugs.
“I don’t know, I’ve never thought about commitment before.”
He finally puts the phone down to look at Seungmin in disbelief.
“What?”
“Are we really surprised here? He fucks anything that walks,” Hyunjin snorts.
“What?” Seungmin raises his hands in defence, “it’s not something that I actively think about. I have other things to worry about.”
“Yeah, but haven’t you ever thought about what happens after uni? Whether you’re gonna get married or just live a life alone?”
“Don’t put it that way,” Hyunjin scolds while lightly smacking the back of his hand against Jeongin’s. “Not everyone is into a life of marriage and kids, Yeni. I don’t even think I wanna get married either.”
“I’m not saying that everyone needs to get married, I’m asking whether you’re going to have a ‘college-whore’ phase or if you’re just not really down to actually getting into a committed relationship with anyone.”
Seungmin stares at him for a moment before shrugging, “never thought about that.”
Jeongin furrows his eyebrows but decides not to question it. He knows that Seungmin isn’t a hopeless romantic like he is, but Jeongin’s always thought that he’s at least wondering about marriage or his future relationships.
“When it happens, it happens,” he states nonchalantly.
Seungmin’s not the kind of person who thinks about his future relationships as in depth as Jeongin does. He’s more worried about his future career to actually wonder about whether or not he’ll end up marrying someone from university or someone that he eventually finds or who eventually finds him.
He’s never had any worries about what happens to his love life after he graduates because Seungmin’s not even interested in the idea of a committed relationship just yet. He doesn’t worry about what happens in the future and he makes sure that whoever he spends the night with knows that he isn’t intending on anything else other than just sex.
Which is why he’s somewhat surprised that you actually ended up leaving your number on his bedside table because Seungmin’s aware that you’re not exactly a ‘committed relationship’ person either. The both of you take the crown as the university’s one-night stands.
If you or Seungmin went to a party, you’d always end up leaving with someone, and the only reason why everyone knows is because you both came across one single person who wasn’t exactly the best at keeping secrets; not that it bothered the both of you. If anything, Seungmin thinks that it helps avoid any sort of attachments people form towards him.
“How was it, anyway?” Jeongin asks.
“What?”
“(Y/n).”
“You’re fucking sick,” Seungmin scoffs.
“I don’t mean it that way!” he gasps, cheeks burning red as he leans away from the baseball player. “You know I don’t!”
“I know; your reaction is just funny,” he laughs. “They left their number on my bedside table and asked if we could meet up again sometime soon.”
“Have you texted them?” Hyunjin pipes in.
“Not yet, no,” Seungmin shakes his head.
“Why not?”
“I’m swamped with assignments right now. I don’t have time to just ‘hit someone up’ out of nowhere. When the time comes, it comes,” he explains.
Jeongin nods knowingly and turns his attention to his own phone—where Hyunjin assumes that he’s back to looking at the confessions page post because it had actually garnered quite a bit of attention from the students of their university.
Hyunjin and Seungmin stare at him for a moment before finding ways to preoccupy themselves. Seungmin lowers his head against the table just as he did before and allows himself to fall asleep while Hyunjin takes his phone away from Jeongin’s table to scroll through Instagram mindlessly waiting for their professor to show up.
And until you walk in with your own clique; Lee Felix, Seo Changbin, Shin Ryujin, and Hwang Yeji.
Hyunjin’s the first to notice only because Yeji appears in front of him with her hand on her hip and a rolled up worksheet in her hand.
“Abandoning me at breakfast—really?!” she scoffs as she smacks him on the head with the booklet.
“Ow! Ow!” Hyunjin whines—even though it really doesn’t hurt that much—and uses his hands to try and block her advances.
“Not even an explanation afterwards,” Yeji huffs once she’s done with her attack.
“I’m sorry! I just had something I really wanted to show Seungmin,” he mumbles.
“So you abandon me in the middle of the restaurant when you were the one who stood outside my apartment yelling at me to ‘hurry the fuck up’ so that we wouldn’t miss the breakfast menu?!”
“I’ll make up for it, I promise!”
“You better, Hwang Hyunjin.” Her lean arms cross her over chest, the fabric of her black bomber jacket bunching up before she turns to Seungmin and Jeongin, who had been watching the entire thing, and smiles, “how are you guys doing? I feel like I never get the chance to hang out.”
“Oh, so you’re nice to them?” Hyunjin rolls his eyes.
She doesn’t even look at him as she smacks the paper in his face once again and keeps the sweet smile on her face as she looks at his friends.
“You’re always busy with cheerleading,” Jeongin whines. “We want to hang out with you and your friends so bad, but you guys are never free!”
“It’s not our fault that you guys are always busy with your own things,” you chuckle from behind Yeji with your hand resting lazily on the strap of your black messenger bag.
“Hey, you and I have practice around the same time,” Seungmin claims, his tone playfully sharp, but all you do is shrug with a smug smile on your face.
“We share the field with the rugby players, so Changbin’s as preoccupied as we are.”
All attention turns to Seo Changbin, the only rugby player out of the entire friend group, but he looks between all of them before his shoulders raise into a shrug.
Changbin’s a bit more on the quiet side. He’s a big guy, body practically gifted by the universe for rugby; which he actually ended up loving when he first tried it out. The sport only encouraged him more to work out so that he would be strong enough to take down literally anyone on the field. But for a big guy with a stone cold demeanour, Changbin’s an absolute sweetheart underneath.
He doesn’t talk that much in public, but when he’s behind closed doors and surrounded by people that he’s comfortable with, Changbin is the loudest and most chaotic out of all of them. The hole that remains in he and Felix’s living room proves that, while this guy is usually the ever so calm and collected man, alcohol makes him forget how strong he is when he’s swinging around a fifty kilogram kettlebell like it weighs nothing.
The twenty-three year old is already in his masters program, but he ended up clicking well with Felix and Ryujin because he’s a pretty funny guy when he isn’t clutching a rugby ball like his life depends on it as he barrels through four other people who are either the same size as him or way bigger.
“I have no comments on this. I just hang out with whoever wants to hang out,” Changbin mutters.
“You’d think that maybe Seungmin would be spending more time with your crew since half of you guys are on the field,” Jeongin snickers.
“I’m usually out of the locker room before most of them are in,” Seungmin confesses, turning to Felix who only nods in agreement.
“Seungmin never sticks around. Even the times that I do catch him, it’s right before he leaves and he’s usually heading somewhere else,” he explains.
“What the hell are you doing right after baseball?” Hyunjin scoffs out a laugh.
“People.”
Both groups freeze. Heads slowly turn to look at Seungmin who moves his attention to his phone instead, ignoring the way everyone is staring at him for his comment. He looks up at everyone calmly and smiles.
“God, I hate this guy,” Ryujin laughs. “He’s so confident in himself that it hurts.”
“If I was as good at baseball as he is, I would probably be the same,” you snort. “He gets ass whenever he wants and it’s not like anyone’s itching to date him either.”
“They have a point,” Changbin nods in agreement.
“Stop feeding his ego,” Jeongin rolls his eyes, head shaking when he sees the smug look on Seungmin’s face. “Hyunjin and I already have a hard time with him gushing about baseball.”
“I’m good at it.”
“You say that one more time and it loses its charm, yeah?” you threaten jokingly. Seungmin turns to look at you and he swears he feels something clicking in his head the moment you make unwavering eye contact with him.
The two of you stare at each other, unblinking, as though it’s some kind of a power challenge to see who would end up folding at each other’s cold glares.
“Christ, get a fucking room,” Felix laughs when the two of you have been staring at each other for quite a while.
“It’s a game,” you claim as you finally turn away from him to look at Felix with a smile.
“When did you guys come up with it? When he was ramming himself into you?” Hyunjin snickers.
Yeji all but smacks him again with the piece of paper, muttering something under her breath along the lines of, ‘fucking idiot’, before she plops herself right beside him.
Her action seems to make some kind of domino effect which leads the rest of your friend group sitting around Seungmin and his friends, you sitting directly beside him without saying anything else.
He lowers his head once again, wanting to take at least a ten minute nap before class is supposed to start and everyone is preoccupied with chatting with each other to bother him; all except for you.
You sit beside Seungmin with your gaze locked onto nothing as time passes by.
Jeongin takes notice of the action, but he doesn’t say anything about it and laughs when he hears Hyunjin and Yeji laughing at something Changbin had said, deciding to let you snap out of your trance on your own.
But your thoughts rage inside of your head like a hurricane.
And Seungmin peeks up from his arm ever so slightly, watching the way you seem completely lost in your own head and are almost unaware of anything happening around you.
He waits a moment longer before turning his head down just as Felix turns to you and nudges you lightly.
“You okay?” he asks softly.
You blink a few times and turn to him with a nod, “yeah.”
Seungmin stays silent and chooses to pretend to be asleep until he hears the professor greeting the class brightly.
。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆ 。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆
iv.
Seungmin swings his wooden baseball bat just as the pitcher throws the ball at him, the white and red stitched baseball flying straight to the sky.
“Good hit, Seungmin!” his coach praises.
He doesn’t say anything as he lowers his bat and continues to watch the ball fly across the field in the same direction as the team of cheerleaders on the other end right past the rugby team.
Seungmin’s eyes stop at you, where you watch your team form pyramids and instruct where they need to go or how they should be posing. He lets his gaze linger for a moment and just watches the way you interact with them, Yeji briefly dropping from her position to say something to which you nod.
He still hasn’t called you yet, but something inside of him seems to be reaching out to you from the way he just can’t tear his gaze away from you; even as he’s walking to another end of the baseball field to let someone else practice.
Seungmin lets out a sigh when he sits on the grassy ground and brings his baby blue water bottle to his lips.
“Good hit, Min,” Felix praises, seemingly appearing behind the captain from out of nowhere, but the suddenness of his appearance doesn’t bother Seungmin that much.
“Thanks,” he nods. He watches as Felix sits beside him with his own water bottle and towel in one hand and a baseball glove in the other, the dark brown leather worn out from years of use as it snugly wraps around his right hand.
“What are you doing after practice?”
“Not sure yet. I’m waiting for Hyunjin and Jeongin to say something because they both have practice, too.”
“The gang and I are gonna go bowling. You wanna join?” Felix offers.
“‘The gang’,?” Seungmin laughs.
“It’s easier than saying everyone’s names,” he chuckles.
“If Hyunjin and Jeongin are up for it, then yeah,” he nods.
“Do you ever do anything without those two?” Felix leans back onto his arms with a teasing smile on his face.
He isn’t exactly wrong about asking.
No one really sees Seungmin anywhere unless there’s at least one of the two around with him—he has exceptions of parties because he knows that he probably won’t end up leaving alone and he doesn’t want to burden any of the two of them with him suddenly disappearing when they’re dr unk.
“They’re good company,” Seungmin hums. “They make my life a little bit better.” Felix lets out an exaggerated coo at that and leans close to pinch his cheeks, to which Seungmin starts groaning and swatting at his hands.
“That’s so sweet!” he gushes.
“Felix,” he whines, thanking the universe that Felix lets up after a moment with a bright smile on his face and his teeth showing.
“But, hey, if you ever want some people to hang out with, just let me know. Everyone likes hanging out with you because they think you’re funny.”
“I thought Jeongin told you to stop feeding my ego,” Seungmin laughs.
“It’s the truth,” Felix claims, laughing slightly as well. “You’re a pretty neat guy. Don’t be so distant, okay? We’re all here if you want someone to chill with.”
Seungmin smiles. He knows that Felix really tries to be there for his friends and he absolutely adores how caring and attentive the dyed blond can be. It actually blows Seungmin’s mind sometimes at how Felix is so bright and willing to be friends with practically anyone. He’s so open and loving to anything and his presence alone just seems to lighten the mood
“I’ll let you know if I’m down for bowling,” he nods.
Felix smiles as well, his lips pursing into a more clumsy looking smile this time.
“Oh, I should also let you know this,” he leans in closer and lowers his voice. Seungmin’s smile fades the moment Felix speaks again because his tone has completely changed, filling with ice which contrasts his usually bright and sweet voice, “don’t fuck with (Y/n).”
He pulls away slowly and looks at Felix, eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he stares at the man.
“They mean the world to me and God forbid you do anything that makes them sad,” Felix continues with the same tone. His brown eyes, usually soft, have hardened into a glare which could make anyone crumble out of pure intimidation. “Don’t you dare do anything to hurt them. I know they’re not the committed type, but don’t do anything fucking stupid.”
“Woah, dude,” Seungmin sits upright and shakes his head, “I’m not interested in anything more than just sex, man. I wouldn’t do anything to intentionally hurt (Y/n). I’m not the type of person who leads people on and ghosts them; I make it clear that I don’t want a relationship and if it gets sticky, then I just talk it out with them.”
As if a switch was flipped, Felix’s entire face softens and he smiles goofily, “ah, I trust you.” He stands up and lets his hand gently rest on Seungmin’s shoulder to give him a slightly shake, “I’m just looking out for (Y/n).”
He smiles at Seungmin once again before running to the field to practice.
Seungmin stays in his spot in pure disbelief, watching the way Felix goes on as though he hadn’t completely threatened him, and it makes him wonder:
What the hell is he getting into?
。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆ 。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆
“Strike!” Hyunjin cheers as he bounces away from the lane and back to the plastic bench where Yeji and Ryujin wait.
“Wow, you’re actually good at something,” Yeji jokes when he returns.
“At least I can get a strike. You can’t even get the ball to stay in the same lane,” he remarks and sticks his tongue out at her.
She lets out a huff and raises her hand to push his head away from her before turning to Ryujin who only watches in amusement as the pair interact.
Seungmin chuckles from where he is as well. He knows that Hyunjin and Yeji have reached a point in their friendship where the jokes and the teasing can be a little bit more extreme than usual, but they both know each others’ boundaries and they would both pounce on the first person who would try and use the same style of joking with either of them.
“Min, you’re up,” Changbin calls. He turns away and looks at the screen.
He’s not that far behind from where you sit at the top and knowing you, there’s a high chance that one of you would end up turning this into a battle.
It’s not you or Seungmin’s egos.
Seungmin just realised that long ago when you had first met at a party in your first year and you were playing beer pong against him. Your intense determination to win while also keeping the mood light is one of your biggest charms, he thinks.
“I’m not good at bowling, but I’ll try,” he chuckles as he stands up. You return to the plastic bench and give him a smile that says you’re actually rooting for him.
“Aim for the pins this time, Kim—not the gutter,” you joke.
“I have better chances aiming at Changbin but he’d just catch the ball.” Seungmin laughs when Changbin lets out a bashful giggle, curling up into a ball and letting out a sound akin to an excited screech.
He only laughs harder when you and Felix burst out laughing, the three of you practically crumbling to the ground out of the laughter that bubbles in your stomach.
“What the fuck?!” Felix laughs. He lets himself completely sit on the floor and clutches his stomach as he continues to uncontrollably laugh. The reaction from the three of you only makes Changbin giggle harder as well, his cheeks burning from how hard he’s smiling while you and Seungmin stay frozen in your spots from laughing.
Hyunjin, Yeji, and Ryujin stay in their spots, watching as the four of you collapse in disbelief. They had been preoccupied with a meme on Ryujin’s phone to have caught Changbin’s strange screech despite it being loud.
“Maybe we need to record everything these guys do so that we don’t miss anything,” Ryujin jokes.
“Too much happens when all of us are together,” Hyunjin chuckles. He pulls the black beanie off of his head and runs his hands through his light brown hair, giving it a shake before he slips the beanie back on.
Seungmin finally regains his composure and picks up one of the dark green bowling balls off of the return machine, truly intending to do his best until he overhears you and Changbin talking about the scores.
“If he actually gets this one, then he’ll definitely win,” he mutters, trying to keep his voice low to avoid Seungmin from hearing him.
He pauses for a moment as he stands at the end of the lane.
He could afford to lose one game against you.
Seungmin swings his arm back and rolls the ball forward, purposefully flicking his wrist in a way which sends it steering towards the left and hitting only three of the white and red pins.
“Damn it,” he huffs when he stands upright, turning around to see you eyeing him curiously as Changbin and Felix start laughing.
“Looks like (Y/n) wins this round,” Felix claims as he pats you on the back. You give him a small smile, but turn your attention back to Seungmin as he trudges back over to the plastic bench, fauxing his disappointment with a sigh.
“I’m done with bowling,” he huffs.
“We can head over to the arcade right next door. My hand’s honestly starting to hurt,” Hyunjin mumbles.
“That’s because you can’t throw a ball properly,” Yeji rolls her eyes.
“Oh, and you throwing it in the gutter is throwing it properly?” he argues.
“Can we leave before they start arguing?” Ryujin slips past them to cling onto Changbin’s side who only laughs.
“I’d really rather be at an arcade where I can’t hear them call each other ‘fucking dipshits’,” he jokes.
Hyunjin and Yeji glare at each other for a moment longer before they both smile and let out a laugh.
“It’s still funny even now,” she claims as she stands up. “Ah, I’ll never get tired of teasing you.”
“Have you guys actually ever gotten into a fight?” Changbin asks as all of you start heading towards the entrance of the bowling alley.
“Once before,” Hyunjin nods. Yeji links her arm with his, the both of their movements starting to synchronise almost instantly to the point where they’re walking at the same exact speed with practically the same footsteps.
“We were having a movie night at his apartment and I accidentally broke this gift from his boyfriend at the time,” she explains. “It was this cute little glass cat statue. The head came clean off and we ended up in a screaming match because I honestly hadn’t intended on breaking it, but Hyunjin was really mad.”
“All’s good now. We just decided from then on that we won’t scream at each other when we’re mad,” he hums.
Seungmin glances his shoulder at them and smiles. He and Jeongin have always thought that Hyunjin and Yeji were one of the healthiest friendships that they’ve ever seen, but he honestly isn’t sure on whether or not it’s because they just get along so well or if some divine power decided that they were platonic soulmates.
“It’s easier this way anyway,” Yeji continues.
“We don’t end up getting into that many fights if we just talk it out instead of waiting for it to fester,” Hyunjin smiles proudly.
You smile and nod, “kudos to the two of you then. I’ve known way too many friendships which tore apart because they were too ‘nice’ to each other.”
“We need to point out each other’s mistakes in order to grow,” he claims, “and we’re aware of each others’ boundaries enough to know when to not joke around.”
“And you guys have never been attracted to each other romantically?” Seungmin raises an eyebrow.
“Never had the attraction before,” Yeji shrugs. “I mean, we’ve thought about it and we’ve talked about it, but there’s no actual want or need to be in a romantic relationship.”
“So, we just stick by each other's side and ruin each other’s day,” Hyunjin snickers as he unlinks his arm to pat her head.
“It just feels like we’ve always meant to be siblings or something.”
“Oh! Jeongin said he’ll meet us at the arcade,” Felix pipes in after slipping his phone into the pocket of his black sweatpants.
“He had a swim meet just now,” Seungmin nods. “The swim team practices way longer than the on-field athletes do. I’ve asked him before why they practise for three hours, but he says it’s mostly because they need more time to change and warm up.”
“I’ve always wondered why I never see him around the place around the evening,” Ryujin hums.
“He’s always busy around the evenings, but whenever he’s not, Yeni’s trying to find things to do that doesn’t include swimming or his assignments,” he jokes.
“Hell, I do that too,” you chuckle. “I’d rather not think about cheerleading or gymnastics when I’m not practising or performing because it just makes me overthink.”
“I totally get that. I don’t think about rugby either,” Changbin nods ecstatically.
“I think we’ve all just collectively agreed not to think about our sports when we’re not actually doing them,” Felix chuckles.
“Life is easy that way,” Seungmin hums.
。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆ 。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆
Seungmin stands behind Jeongin and Felix with his arms crossed over his chest, watching with an amused smile on his face as they play one of those car racing games.
“Get out of my way!” Felix shouts when Jeongin crashes right into his car.
“You’re in my way!” Jeongin argues.
Seungmin laughs, his head shaking slightly. Nothing in the arcade is really catching his attention ever since the House of The Dead machine got put out of service, but he likes the environment and he likes watching his friends compete against each other.
“Not playing anything?” Ryujin asks, seemingly appearing out of nowhere; which is a habit of hers similar to that of Felix.
“I get more fun out of watching these two compete,” he snorts. Just as he speaks, Felix’s dark red car slams right into Jeongin’s and the younger screeches out of frustration.
“Come on, Lix!”
“It’s not my fault this damn console is so hard to control, okay?!” Felix groans.
“It is entertaining,” she laughs.
Ryujin looks around briefly, spotting where you’re playing one of the claw games on your own in the other end of the room. Changbin’s gone to repeatedly punching the punching bag to try and continuously beat his high score while Hyunjin and Yeji have busied themselves with the Dance Dance Revolution machine.
She laughs quietly to herself when she sees the way you let out a sigh at the way the metal claw drops the janky looking dog pulushy for the fourth time.
“Are you any good at claw games?” Ryujin turns to Seungmin, but he shrugs without looking at her.
“Never got much fun out of those scamming machines,” he claims.
“Fuck this game!” you exclaim.
Only then does Seungmin actually turn his head to see where you drag yourself away from the machine, grumbling curses under your breath as you make your way to where he and Ryujin are.
“Bad run?” he laughs.
“Claw games are scams,” you mumble. Your arms cross over your chest, a frustrated huff leaving your lips when you glance at the machine once again.
“We can always play one of those rhythm games to take your mind off of it,” Seungmin offers with his head jerking in the direction of the MaiMai DX machines.
“I can’t play MaiMai; I get confused,” you shake your head.
“What about the SEGA machines? I’m pretty sure they have Street Fighter there.”
You turn around to look at the machines Seungmin is referring to, staring at them in thought before you nod.
“Yeah, those look more fun.”
Seungmin immediately starts making his way towards the games with you following closely behind, Ryujin watching with an eyebrow raised. She doesn’t say anything about it and instead turns her attention to Jeongin and Felix; who have only crashed into each other once again.
“Are you good at these?” Seungmin questions as you sit on one of the plastic stools right in front of the Street Fighter machine.
“Not anymore,” you say as you extend your hand towards him.
Seungmin gives you a look before he realises that you’re asking for his share of the tokens, to which he places them into the palm of your outstretched hand.
“I haven’t been to an arcade for a while,” you continue and slide the tokens into the coin slot. The game starts and you choose your characters.
It’s been way too long since the last time you had played Street Fighter, so you’re hoping that you actually remember some of the controls.
Seungmin, on the other hand, was here a few weeks ago with Jeongin and Hyunjin where he had kicked both of their asses five minutes into the game.
The round kicks off smoothly with Seungmin giving you time to re-learn the controls while he stays moving up and down in one spot until you come kicking his character in the face.
“Wha—hey!” he exclaims. “I gave you some time!”
“And now I’m done with the time,” you giggle.
Maybe you lied when you said you weren’t as good anymore.
Just a little bit.
Seungmin was having a seriously hard time trying to beat you with the same type of strategy that he was used to against his friends. He feels his entire body tensing at the realisation that you’re actually way better than he had originally thought, his hands slapping the round buttons and giggling the black joystick aggressively in an attempt to win this match against you.
“Wow, so I do remember,” you laugh when you K.O. his character with ease.
“I hate you,” he grumbles and leans back in his seat, sulking at the idea that he’s just lost to you. “Let’s do another one.”
You glance at him and raise an eyebrow.
“Why? For you to lose again?”
“Let’s do another one so that I can kick your ass this time.”
You breathe out a laugh, “whatever makes you happy.”
You put in more tokens and let the round start once again, only this time, Seungmin chooses Ibuki and you choose Zangief.
The game moves slowly as the both of you take your time in trying to take each other down, but you realise quickly that Seungmin isn’t holding back and that there’s a reason why he chose a character that had more mobility.
He dodges all of your attacks with so much ease that you almost miss how fast he moves Ibuki around the screen.
Every time Seungmin’s able to actually hit you, you gasp and laugh. Whenever you hit him, however, Seungmin laughs and tells you that you’re cheating because you lied in the first place.
“I didn’t lie!” you scoff, still focused on trying to either avoid his attacks or kick his ass.
“You said you weren’t good!” he argues.
“I never said I wasn’t good, I said that I hadn’t played in a while!”
“Oh, please.” Seungmin rolls his eyes yet continues to completely beat the shit out of Zangief.
You sit back in disbelief when he actually wins, turning to you with a triumphant smile on his face.
“I told you,” he grins. You huff and cross your arms over your chest, unable to stop the smile that still breaks its way through your efforts; which only seems to make Seungmin smile even more.
“Hey, Sex Bots!”
You both turn your heads in the direction of Jeongin’s voice to see him waving his hand in his direction.
“We’re gonna get food and then come back, you guys gonna be alright on your own?”
You turn to Seungmin who shrugs.
“We’ll be fine!” you call, waving when he does. “Just text me if anything!”
Felix nods and leaves, following the Hyunjin, Jeongin, Ryujin, and Yeji out.
Which means that Changbin’s not with them.
“Wait a minute,” Seungmin says as he sits up slightly to look at them. “Where’s Changbin?”
You turn to look at him, thinking the same exact question before you hear Changbin’s infamous giggle coming from another end of the arcade which makes the both of you turn in the direction of his giggle.
Lo and behold, there Changbin is at the claw game machine you were at before, only he has three plush toys in his arms and another being pulled out of the machine.
“No fucking way,” you gasp.
“Wow, he’s actually pretty good at that,” Seungmin comments.
“He’s surprisingly good at it,” you claim as both continue to watch Changbin slide another token into the machine to play another round.
“Maybe you could convince him to give you one of the plushies.”
“No, that hurts my pride,” you simply say as you turn to Seungmin. He keeps his eyes on you and as though there’s some kind of a link in your brains, you both think of one thing.
“You wanna stay over tonight?” Seungmin asks.
You tilt your head slightly and smile, “sure.”
。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆ 。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆
v.
Seungmin isn’t exactly surprised to see that you’re gone by the time he wakes up to the blare of his alarm. You had been doing it ever since the first time you had slept together, so he wasn’t expecting you to stay anyway.
He thinks it’s better this way because he actually has a few things that he wants to get done before he has to leave for lunch with Ryujin because she just really wants to try one of the new cafes in the area and no one wants to accompany her except for him.
He runs a hand through his messy hair, movements laced with pure laziness because he hates the idea of having to actually get out of bed to do things. All Seungmin wants to do on a Sunday afternoon is laze around and waste the hours since it’s one of the only days where he doesn’t have any practice or class.
He pulls himself out of bed and out of the bedroom, not even bothering to put on anything other than the sweatpants that he had haphazardly thrown onto himself right before you both went to bed.
Seungmin’s movements are sluggish, reeking of sleep as he makes his way into his small kitchen. It’s tiny, but it’s perfect for one guy who doesn’t really cook that much because he’s constantly pampered by leftovers from Yeji.
He rummages through his fridge and lets out a relieved sigh when he catches sight of a tupperware containing some jajangmyeon from the night before. Seungmin doesn’t care about what he eats right now; he just wants to get his brain moving.
With the tupperware shoved into the microwave, Seungmin wanders around his apartment groggily and freezes for a moment when he sees his living room.
There’s a metal band sitting right at the edge of his coffee table; a black band that he knows only one person wears. Seungmin assumes that you probably took it off when you got to his apartment but forgot to grab it on your way out, so he picks it up instead and takes it back into his bedroom right after he pulls the already heated noodles out of the microwave.
Seungmin plops himself into his desk chair with his breakfast, his hand placing your black ring right beside his laptop as he pulls open his laptop. He lets out a loud groan when he reads the last line he had stopped at the night before.
Right before he had decided to text you because he was feeling a little bit spunkier than usual; which in Seungmin’s own words means that he had a hard on and you were the only one of his benefits who he had the number to.
He lets out a loud groan when he reads the last line that he had left it on and throws his head back in frustration.
He really doesn’t want to write this paper—at least not right now.
Seungmin turns to look over his shoulder at where his phone sits on his bedside table. There’s a few thoughts running through his head which fill him with ideas on what he could probably be doing now instead of this paper.
He could easily call Jeongin and Hyunjin to bother them for the morning. Seungmin even has the chance to try and see how many drinks he can get into Felix by noon. Maybe he could call up Changbin to see what he actually does other than rugby and exercise.
Whatever choices Seungmin feels like he has just either don’t seem appealing enough for him to want to do willingly or he just doesn’t feel like doing it at all.
He could call you.
Which is the only thing that he seems to find appealing right now.
But he’s also just spent an entire night with you trying to prove his point that he can, in fact, take control after you had made a joke to Ryujin about how he can be a raging sub.
Seungmin shakes his head to force the thought out. If he thinks about the night before, he’s going to end up with an even bigger problem than his unfinished assignment. The moment he turns his attention back to his screen where his KakaoTalk program sits open.
Felix:
Dude
Ik you don’t care about these things
But like look
Attached image (1)
Upon seeing the image, he’s able to see that it’s a FaceBook post; which leads him to have a feeling that he knows exactly what it’s about.
Felix:
Just saying that you and (Y/n) don’t seem so ‘just fucking’ to the public
Minz:
Dude
You’re right
Idc
But thanks for the update
Usually I get them from Hyunjin
Felix:
Hyunjin’s busy with making up for breakfast with Yeji
So I’m giving you the message instead
What are you even doing anyway?
Minz:
I’m recovering from last night’s post-nut clarity while trying to finish my assignment
Why
Felix:
Just wondering
Everyone else is busy with their own things
You wanna have breakfast?
Minz:
Breakfast?
Or are you just going to that one restaurant that sells morning mojitos?
Felix:
You’re the one suggesting it so I don’t see why not
👀👀👀👀
Minz:
Idc
I’ll do anything but this assignment
I’ll meet you there in an hour
。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆ 。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆
“So… you changed our lunch plans because Felix got drunk on mojitos?” Ryujin asks as she stands at the end of the table, her gaze fixated on the way Felix has his head resting against his head on the wooden table.
“I don’t want to get into it,” Seungmin chuckles. He pulls out the seat beside him and pats it before she obliges to sit down.
“I hope you don’t mind, but (Y/n) said they don’t have anything going on today, so I invited them for lunch,” she says as she drapes her jacket over her lap.
“It’s fine,” he nods.
“What about Felix?”
“Felix wouldn’t even be conscious enough to realise there’s two more people here,” he laughs. “I doubt he’d even wake up if you guys were to try.”
“I’d rather not,” Ryujin makes a face, “last time someone tried waking Felix up from his drunken daze, he ended up punching Changbin in the ribs.”
“What?!” Seungmin laughs. “And I always thought that Felix wasn’t the kind of person who wouldn’t actually hit anyone on purpose.”
“He usually is, but Changbin decided that splashing water on him was a good idea.”
Seungmin pauses. He stares at Ryujin in shock as he tries to imagine what the scenario could’ve possibly looked like, but he simply can’t imagine Felix punching someone. She nods at him when she sees the pure confusion on his face.
“I-I just can’t,” he mutters.
“Right?”
“It’s like it’s impossible to see Felix that way.”
“I know!”
They’re both interrupted when you come into the restaurant, looking more dishevelled than usual with your bag not even properly closed.
“Fuck, I’m sorry,” you sigh and plop yourself into the wooden stool right beside Ryujin. “Shit—my dog just…” your hands mimic an explosion, “like… shat all over my apartment.”
“What?” Ryujin leans away slightly to look at you in shock.
“Yeah, I think he ate something,” you mutter while shaking your head. “He’s fine now because I’ve given him meds and cleaned up the entire place—but holy shit, I felt so bad for him.”
“What even happened?” Seungmin laughs, the sound coming from pure disbelief.
“I woke up, saw that Ryujin had texted me, and when I got out to the living room, there was literal shit everywhere. I took him to the vet yesterday and she said it seemed to be just a simple tummy ache, but I hadn’t expected him to just explode like that.”
“Shit…” he trails off. “The day has barely begun and I have a blackout-drunk Felix, and information about your dog’s diarrhoea.”
“Hey, it’s a wonderful fucking world,” you chuckle.
“When did you even take your dog to the vet? I thought we spent the whole day together with Yeji and Hyunjin,” Seungmin questions, his arms moving to rest on the table.
“I went home after the picnic, remember?” you remind him. “I went home, took Haru to the vet, then you texted me at midnight.”
“What are you doing texting (Y/n) at midnight?” Ryujin raises her eyebrows, suggesting what she already knows is most likely the answer.
“Oh, we fucked because they made that joke to you,” he answers nonchalantly.
“Damn, our jokes are getting you two laid? I wish my life was like that,” she sighs longingly, her lips jutting out in an exaggerated manner to show that she’s joking.
“Just let either of us know, I’m dying to get someone else that isn’t Seungmin,” you roll your eyes.
“That’s not what you said last night.”
You glance at him, ignoring the way Ryujin’s jaw has dropped and you click your tongue in annoyance when you see the smug look on his face. Seungmin leans back in his chair and crosses his arms over his chest. His tongue pokes against the inside of his cheek and he cocks his eyebrows at you.
“This guy’s a fucking asshole.”
“You love me,” he laughs. You poke your tongue out at him, which only makes Seungmin laugh even more.
Ryujin laughs to herself, leaning back in her seat as she watches the way you two bicker.
“God, you guys sound like an old married couple,” she claims with a chuckle.
“As if,” Seungmin gasps.
“No, we don’t,” you scoff.
You’ve both turned your attention to look at her in disbelief instead.
“Can you believe that?” he shakes his head when she doesn’t say anything, turning to look at you.
“Loser,” you mumble while shaking your own head.
Ryujin’s eyes widen and her lips part in even more amusement at the idea that you’ve both pushed the idea aside. Yet again, she doesn’t say anything and quickly changes the topic instead, not wanting to delay her beloved lunch any longer.
。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆ 。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆
vi.
“I just got the text from Hyunjin,” Jeongin announces as he scrambles into the kitchen where everyone is already gathered and arranging the neatly wrapped presents. “They’re almost here—get the lights!”
Changbin nods quickly and rushes to turn the lights off in the living room of their shared home. The group breaks as everyone tries finding appropriate hiding spots, you disappearing behind the dark blue couch.
“She likes surprises, right?” Seungmin asks as he follows you without much hesitation and crouches right in front of you.
“She loves them,” you nod. “The cheerleading team surprised her for her birthday last year and she almost cried.”
“That’s…”
“Yeji cries when she’s happy—Hyunjin really wasn’t joking when they said they’re the same,” you reassure him. He lets out a hum at that and nods. “Did you follow the list I sent you?”
“I was too scared to go off of it,” he chuckles.
“Good. The list exists for a reason.” You give him a pursed lip smile and a thumbs up. “Don’t go off the list.”
“Everyone; shush!” Felix hisses when he sees the outline of Hyunjin and Yeji through the glass of their front door. The room goes silent with the only sound of the both of them talking to each other vaguely making its way through the door.
The lock to the door clicks open before it swings open slowly.
“Where is everyone?” Hyunjin asks softly.
“I’m pretty sure Changbin said that he’d be here,” Yeji mutters.
As if on cue, all of your friends jump out from behind the couch just as Changbin switches the light back on, everyone yelling, “happy birthday!” which sends Yeji stumbling backwards in shock. She lets out a laugh right after and a bright smile breaks on her face.
“Come, come!” Ryujin urges as she takes both of her hands and starts pulling her into the kitchen where a strawberry cheesecake sits on the counter with two big candles and two small ones arranged in a straight line. “Make your wish, Yeji.”
“Wait, this is so sweet!” Yeji coos. She looks between all seven of you with her eyes sparkling. “Thank you guys.”
“We know how much you enjoy these,” you smile when she slings one arm around your shoulders and pulls you closer to her. Her other arm slings around Hyunjin to pull him close as well.
“And you said that you were too busy tonight to spend more nights partying,” she laughs at him.
“Ah, you know how it is,” he chuckles. Yeji smiles brightly at him anyway and Seungmin feels his chest filling strangely when he sees the way they look at each other with so much love.
But it’s a form of love that he knows isn’t a romantic one.
“Okay, okay, blow out your candles,” Changbin quickly says. “Then we can get down to drinks and presents.”
“Drinks!” Felix excitedly gasps.
Everyone ignores his obvious excitement of getting alcohol after not having any drinks the entire day and focuses on Yeji as she clasps her hands together and closes her eyes.
。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆ 。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆
No one’s sure as to how it had gotten this chaotic, but Changbin and Hyunjin are passed out on top of each other in the middle of the living room with the broken coffee table right below them.
Seungmin stands next to the couch and stares silently as he tries to make some sense out of how they could have possibly broken the table. You stand on the other end of the room with the same exact look painted on your face, eyes unblinking as they start stirring slightly only to roll over each other and continue to sleep.
Yeji had disappeared into Felix’s room to sleep long ago and Ryujin passed out on the couch a while after. Jeongin is hunched over the dining room table as he snores; leaving you and Seungmin as the only ones who are still awake—slightly tipsy, but awake. Felix is, oddly, nowhere to be found, but you both assume that he passed out somewhere considering how easy it is for him to pass out after drinking.
“These guys are insane,” you mumble and stumble towards Seungmin’s side of the living room.
“You know how they’re like,” Seungmin sighs with the shake of his head. You reach his side and stare at the two for a moment before you turn to him.
“Wanna fuck?”
“How drunk are you?”
“Only tipsy.”
Seungmin narrows his eyes at you before you raise your hand and flick him right in the centre of his forehead, the captain letting out a yelp and stumbling backwards slightly.
“What the hell?!”
“Would I be able to do that properly if I were drunk?” you huff.
“Fuck,” he grumbles while rubbing his forehead. “Proved your point, but was that really your go-to?”
“It’s effective.” You smile at him teasingly and stick your tongue out at him.
“It hurts.”
“Aww, I’m sorry. Want me to make it up by taking my pants off?” you coo. Seungmin sneers at you but starts walking towards the nearest bathroom with you following, a gleeful smile etched onto your face.
He pulls open the door and turns the light on right before he grabs your waist, shoving you against the countertop. You let out a gasp at how sudden the action is, but you’re not given that much time to react when Seungmin practically slams his lips against yours.
“Feisty, tonight, huh?” you tease, breath heaving when he pulls away for a moment.
“Shut up.” His hands slip under your shirt, fingers grazing and grabbing at your skin as he smothers your neck and jaw with kisses. “You should put that mouth to good use every once in a while.”
Fingers thread into your hair before roughly grabbing and angling your head back slightly.
“Who pissed in your soju?” you continue, but he only narrows his eyes.
“You drive me fucking crazy,” Seungmin groans right before he lets your head go and he starts pulling at your shirt. You move first and tug his black hoodie off just as his hands manage to slide yours off, both of them tossed aside haphazardly.
There’s a squeak coming from the bathtub that makes you and Seungmin freeze. The white shower curtain moves slightly, followed by what sounds like something slipping on the inside of the tub. You and Seungmin look at each other as you both try to figure out whether or not you’ve imagined the movement, but when something else seems to fall from inside the tub, it confirms that someone is in there.
Seungmin pulls away from you and rips the shower curtain back to show Felix sitting with his knees to his chest and his eyes wide open as he tries to avoid eye contact with either of you. His face is bright red, blank of any expression and not moving at all; not even blinking.
He doesn’t say anything as you and Seungmin stare at him. All three of you are waiting for someone to say something, but you and Seungmin look at each other and Felix continues to stare at the wall, frozen like a doll, which makes you realise that no one’s going to say anything first if you don’t.
“Felix?” you call as you push yourself off of the marble counter and stand beside Seungmin.
“H-Hey, dude,” Seungmin nervously coughs.
“We were j-just… you know—”
“Please, God, just leave,” Felix blurts out.
“Yeah!” you squeak while grabbing your shirt off of the floor. Seungmin quickly throws his hoodie on and pushes you out of the bathroom. You slam the door shut and lean your backs against it without saying anything. You turn to Seungmin, the both of you not doing or saying anything before bursting into fits of giggles.
“They’re never going to let us live that down,” he giggles.
“Oh my god, the poor guy,” you breathe out in almost pure disbelief with your hands pressing against the sides of your head.
“I’m just glad that we hadn’t gone too far.”
“Can you imagine if we hadn’t noticed at all?” you ask with a laugh, your hands covering your face.
Seungmin only laughs more when he sees your reaction and slings his arm over your shoulders, pulling you flush against him as you start to walk towards the stairs.
“Come on, we can always head to my place,” he suggests. There’s a brief moment where Seungmin presses a featherlite kiss to the side of your head as you can only continue laughing, stumbling alongside Seungmin while filled with pure glee.
“I’m alright with that,” you hum as you let your own arm loosely wrap around his waist to keep him close.
Seungmin smiles, glancing at you. There’s definitely still some alcohol in his system from the way he’s feeling a little more loving than usual; especially towards someone who he has no intentions in getting into a real relationship with.
But he accepts the feeling for the moment because, if he’s being honest, Seungmin’s never felt more alive with anyone before.
And he kinda likes the feeling.
。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆ 。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆
When morning comes, so does Seungmin’s headache. He definitely had way more to drink than he usually would, but he’s also certain that by the time you had gotten to his apartment, the both of you were already sober.
Seungmin stretches his arms out as he lays in his bed and curls into the first pillow right beside him. He squeezes the pillow lightly, but his eyes open once again when he realises that the pillow’s not only warm, but it’s moving.
“Comfy there?” you tease lightly. Seungmin raises his head only to realise that you’re comfortably laying in his bed with your head lazily angled in a way that lets you look at him.
“You’re better than my bolster,” he chuckles without making any attempts at moving away from you. You don’t seem to mind either, only facing the ceiling and closing your eyes. You let out a long sigh and allow Seungmin to cuddle into you with your hand wrapping around him when he moves impossibly closer.
“Are you doing anything today?” Seungmin asks.
“I’m usually on stand-by for if anyone wants some company and it’s a Sunday, so I don’t have any practice,” you hum. He feels you reach for your phone from the bedside table, lazily looking through your messages while Seungmin stays with his head now positioned on your chest and his arms wrapped around your waist.
“What time is it?”
“Ten.”
“What do you want for breakfast?”
You let out another sigh and move around a little bit as you put your phone back onto the bedside table. Your arms return to Seungmin, which makes him look at you, and you smile softly.
“Let’s order and stay in bed. I rarely ever get to just relax on Sundays,” you suggest. Seungmin looks up at you and nods at that, already reaching for his phone right beside yours.
He returns to his comfortable spot with his head laying on your chest and his phone in his hand as he scrolls through whatever restaurants are delivering this early. Your hand runs through Seungmin’s hair as he does, your entire body relaxing in the moment and makes you close your eyes.
The feeling of sleep starts to fill your mind, intoxicating you and lulling you back before you hear Seungmin speaking.
“There’s a brunch spot nearby that’s open,” he says and shows the screen of his phone to you.
“Get me anything that doesn’t have any pickles or onions in it,” you state and lower your head once again.
“I’ll get you the only thing that seems to have pickles and onions,” Seungmin snickers.
“If you do that, I’m never fucking you again,” you threaten with a lilt in your voice.
“Ah, you’re no fun,” he scoffs as he starts rolling away from you.
“Don’t go,” you whine.
You wrap your arms around Seungmin and roll together with him and straddle his waist, hands on either side of his head with your head lowered.
“I was just joking. You know I can’t resist you,” you grin, face inches from his.
Seungmin stares at you without saying anything, blinking as the seconds go past before he raises his head to kiss you. You let yourself melt into the kiss before pulling away to see a wide smile on his face.
“I’ll get you something without pickles or onions,” he promises softly. Only then do you lay down on his chest and nod.
“Thank you.”
Seungmin tosses his phone somewhere on the bed and wraps you in his arms. He lets out a contented sigh and closes his eyes when you snuggle against him, his right and moving away momentarily to drape his blanket over the both of you.
“We should do this more often,” he suggests jokingly with his arm running up and down your back soothingly.
“I’m really not opposed to that,” you laugh, body sending vibrations throughout his. “I should’ve stayed the whole night more often.”
“I don’t blame you for not doing so. It’s not… something you do when you’re trying to avoid feelings.”
“Yeah, but I feel safe here,” you state.
Seungmin’s arm freezes right in between your shoulder blades, the sudden halt of his actions making you look up at him with a raised eyebrow.
“Why? Flustered?” you tease.
“No,” Seungmin claims. “I’ve just never had anyone tell me that before.”
“Well, I’m your first then.” You crawl up his body a bit and press a gentle kiss to the column of his throat.
He basks in the warmth, feeling a sense of pure comfort enveloping him as you relax against him yet again.
。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆ 。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆
vii.
You watch Seungmin from your spot at the benches, elbow resting on your knee and your hand propped up to rest your jaw on. He jogs laps around the field with the rest of his teammates and Felix following closely behind, the two of them exchanging laughter every once in a while.
“(Y/n)!” Yeji calls. You turn your head in her direction to see her running towards you. “We’re trying to figure out where we should put Yeosang.”
Your attention shifts to the group of cheerleaders—your team of cheerleaders—who are practising one of their own routines. Yeosang stands awkwardly at the side as he watches the group toss Yuna into the air.
“How many people is this routine for?” you ask while furrowing your eyebrows. You stand from the bench and approach the group, realising that, for some reason, there’s way more people in this group than you think is necessary. “You guys can split up and have five in two groups. That way you can make it bigger.”
“We were trying to avoid having more than one group for this routine, actually,” Seonghwa claims as he helps lower Yuna to the ground.
“Then eliminate people,” you state.
The group look between each other awkwardly before Yeosang nods, “it’s for the best. We don’t want it to appear overcrowded when we only have Yuna flying.”
“Alright,” she nods, pushing the stray strands of hair out of her face and flat onto her head.
“Seonghwa, you’re in charge of this team.”
“Okay,” he nods, turning back around.
“We need to start planning for the Summer Tournaments,” Yeji tells you when you take a step back to watch the routine. “Are we doing it with the whole squad?”
“I’d advise not to take everyone just in case some people can’t show up at the very last minute. We could do one of our older routines with a few tweaks here and there.” You cross your arms over your chest and bite your lip. Just as they’re about to throw Yuna into the air, you feel as though something in your head is screaming at them to stop; take a step back, something’s not right. “Stop!”
They all halt, almost dropping Yuna to the ground, but Yeosang quickly catches her with his arms around her waist.
“What’s wrong?”
“Tie your shoelaces, dumbass.” Seonghwa looks down and his face burns at the realisation that both of his shoes are untied. Not only that, but half of the team have theirs untied as well. “If any of you had tripped in the middle of trying to catch Yuna, all of you would’ve fallen and she would’ve gotten hurt.”
Four of them lower to the ground sheepishly to tie their shoes while Yeji snickers from beside you, her arms crossed over her chest.
“Good eye, Captain,” she hums. “But about the Summer Tournament, what routine were you thinking of?”
“I was thinking of pulling together a few of them and asking which one the majority of the team feel like doing.” You take another step back and watch with your finger pressed against your lip as the team starts with the routine. You let your eyes scan over every single person in that team, the movement of all six of the students to see if you can find any mistakes which could easily end up affecting the entire team. “Okay, good,” you praise once they’ve finished. “Lia; keep an eye on your footing, you could’ve slipped which could be more bad news to you than it is for everyone else. Yuna, work on your recovery when you’re thrown into the air—Yunho, throw this woman properly.”
They all nod at your feedback and start to disperse.
“Remember we have practice at the same time tomorrow!” Yeji announces just as the team heads towards their bags by the bleachers.
You turn around and find Seungmin once again. He lets out a laugh when one of the other baseball players, Jongho, throws a bat in his direction. Seungmin dodges the wooden object only to pick it back up and chase him with it.
You feel a smile pulling at your lips, a laugh huffing out of you as your arms cross over your chest. Seungmin seems to shine a little differently when he plays baseball, and you can’t help but stare at him as he runs around the field. They must be done with practice, you think, considering the fact that none of them are lining up to pitch anymore and it’s mostly them just playing in the field.
The rugby players are about done with practice as well and you see Changbin jogging towards Felix and Seungmin, the three of them chatting while you watch.
“(Y/n), Ryujin and I are going to check out the new cafe right outside campus,” Yeji says, her voice pulling your attention away. “You wanna tag along?”
“Yeah, sure,” you nod. “Just give me a while to wash up. I don’t like going around while I’m sticky.”
“We’re not going right now. We were planning on meeting at the cherry blossom tree in a few hours since Ryujin still has classes.” The both of you start walking in the direction of the campus cafeteria that faces the field. A few of the other students that were on the field run past you and you just watch as they do.
“(Y/n)! Hwang Yeji!”
You both turn around to see Felix sprinting towards you with his arms outstretched, but you take a step aside right as he’s about to hug you and he ends up stumbling over his own feet and crashing into the ground.
“I told you not to hug me,” you state.
“Just once,” he grumbles as he rolls over without seeming to be in any pain and stands up.
“Not at all.”
“You’d happily hang around with Seungmin, though.”
“That’s because we meet each other almost every night,” Seungmin’s voice answers from behind you, making you turn around to see him and Changbin standing behind both you and Yeji.
“That’s the deal,” you claim while jerking your thumb in Seungmin’s direction.
“Why the hell did you just government name me?” Yeji laughs.
“It’s nice to say every once in a while,” Felix claims as his hands brush over the front of his pants.
Seungmin approaches you and slings his arms over your shoulders. “Mine or yours?”
“Depends on how late I’m out with Ryujin and Yeji,” you shrug. He nods at that, but doesn’t make much of an effort to move his arm away even when your friends stare at the both of you.
“What? I can’t put my arm around the person I’m fucking?” Seungmin asks.
“That’s…” Yeji trails off, “you know what? It’s fine—everyone stop looking at them.”
You smile, “thanks, Yeji.”
She blows you a kiss in response, her movements over-exaggerated as she laughs.
Your arm slings around Seungmin’s waist as you turn to look at him. He smiles at you and pulls you aside.
“Jeongin and I are watching a live gig in town tomorrow night after dinner. You wanna come with?”
“Tomorrow night?” you repeat, which makes Seungmin nod. You purse your lips together and let out a huff of air, “I think I have plans with Felix tomorrow night, though. He wants to watch a movie, so I might be at his house.”
“You can postpone that,” Seungmin scrunches his nose up. “Look at the pros: if you come with me, you get sex. If you don’t… well then, you don’t get sex with me.”
“That is a tempting offer,” you sigh. “But Felix and I have some things we need to talk about and I promised him I would make it for tomorrow night.”
Seungmin smiles and nods, “alright. Just let me know if you need anything.” He presses a kiss to the side of your head and you smile as he does, allowing yourself to bask in the feeling.
“Woah,” Changbin gasps, which tears the both of you out of your bubble. “Non-sexual kisses?”
“Stay out of it,” you practically bark at him. He raises his hands up in defence at your tone, but Seungmin laughs and squeezes your shoulders against him.
“Stay down, pup.” He pats your arm gently and you lean into him as you stick your tongue out at Changbin. The rugby player narrows his eyes at you with his lips parted in confusion as he looks between you and Seungmin.
“What kind of fucking pet play are you guys into?”
“Fuck off, Bin,” Seungmin snaps this time. He lets out a laugh this time and turns to the rest of your friends with his mouth agape.
“Are you seeing this?” Changbin laughs.
“I had to get used to it,” Felix grumbles. “Hanging out with (Y/n) at night gets cut short because Seungmin gets horny.”
“He’s my plus one,” you hum.
“He must’ve been trying to plus himself into you that night in the bathroom,” he scoffs.
“Oh god, I almost forgot about that,” Yeji laughs. “I can’t believe you guys almost fucked in the same bathroom that Felix was in.”
“To be fair, we didn’t know he was in there,” Seungmin defends, the smile on his face saying that he shows barely any regret for the incident.
“And we left before we did anything else,” you add with a wide smile on your face.
“Why is it that the only time these two are showing emotion is towards my suffering?” Felix sighs.
“It’s our charm.” Seungmin raises two fingers to show him the peace sign. “Anyway, now I’m bored, so I’m going to drag (Y/n) away because I’m hungry.”
“Just eat with us,” Changbin looks at him in surprise.
“None of you are as fun as them.”
“All they do with you is fuck and bully you!” Yeji laughs heartily.
“And it’s entertaining for me,” he claims proudly. You laugh and smack his chest lightly.
“I have no choice. I’m already spending tomorrow night with Felix,” you say.
“You guys aren’t even dating—there aren’t any obligations,” Felix points out.
“Seungmin’s still my friend. If I had made plans with him and you invited me out, I would’ve turned you down, too.”
“‘Friend’, my ass,” Changbin scoffs. “You two stay the night and cook each other breakfast. You guys wouldn’t do that if you were ‘just friends’.”
“How about I show you what ‘just friends’ is like,” Seungmin takes a step forward but you pull him back with a laugh.
“God, they’re even able to hold you back,” Yeji points out in slight shock. “Hyunjin always said that whenever Seungmin was about to beat someone up, not even Jeongin could stop him.”
“Shit, really? Jeongin’s one of his favourites, too,” Felix laughs.
“Jeongin is his only favourite. He doesn’t have anyone else that he likes more than he likes Jeongin,” she jokes with her arms crossing over her chest.
But even as a joke, Yeji knows that she’s right, because getting Seungmin to openly tell people that he likes you means that he definitely favours you. And the way that he glances at you and smiles without saying anything proves that he has another favourite other than Jeongin.
“Aish, he has another favourite; look at that,” Changbin clicks his tongue on faux annoyance.
“Jeongin cooks me food and gives me his PlayStation account and (Y/n) lets me sleep with them. Give me a reason to make you another one of my favourites and I’ll do it,” Seungmin says right before he turns around with you still in his grasp and brings you away from your friends.
“Can I at least have a hint as to how?!” he asks loudly as the both of you walk away.
“Either give me the best head of my life or bring me lunch! Pick your poison!”
。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆ 。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆
“Here,” Felix says as he tosses a bag of chips in your direction. “I convinced Changbin to give me his alcohol stash, so we’re drinking tonight.”
“How do you not have your own stash?” you joke as you take one of the glass bottles from him.
“I keep finishing it and Changbin hides it from me because he doesn’t want me to get alcohol poisoning.” He plops himself beside you on the couch and rests his feet on the coffee table as the movie starts playing.
“I’m actually surprised that you haven’t gotten alcohol poisoning from the amount that you drink during parties,” you huff. You tear open the bag of barbecue chips and stick your hand into the bag as the move goes on.
“I’m actually vomiting most of it out before I sleep,” Felix claims, voice muffled from the mouthful of his instant ramen. “I may be an alcoholic, but I try being as careful as possible, and usually, I end up vomiting everything out before I sleep to stop myself from vomiting in my sleep.”
You look at him with furrowed brows, eyes narrowed slightly as you take in the information.
“Huh.”
“It stops me from dying,” he shrugs. Felix doesn’t say anything else as he turns his attention to Arrietty instead, watching at the way she runs into her house with the giant leaves.
You’ve always thought that Felix had more to him than the alcoholic party animal that he shows everyone. The fact that he’s actually trying to stop himself from getting alcohol poisoning and stopping himself from possibly dying makes you realise that he’s actually aware of what goes on inside of his body and how people see him.
“The party animal thing is just an image I like having,” Felix continues when he realises that you’re still thinking about it. “It’s fun for me and I like alcohol. So, I guess it ties together.”
“I guess it does,” you chuckle. You pull the blanket higher up your body and let your body relax into the soft cushion of the couch.
“How’s the… you know?”
“Better,” you answer with a shrug, your eyes not leaving the TV screen even though you know that Felix is looking at you. “It’s getting better and the idea of it isn’t bothering me as much as it used to.”
“That’s good,” he hums. “Does Seungmin know?”
“We don’t talk about our feelings,” you state just as you fill your mouth with chips.
“You guys look like a couple, you know.”
“You know how I get with these relationships.”
“Yeah, I do,” Felix claims. He angles himself so that he’s looking at you properly, “but you aren’t usually this affectionate with them in public. And you don’t spend the night—you said it yourself; when the sun rises, that’s when you leave.”
“That doesn’t mean that I can’t do it now with him,” you shrug.
“You guys spend practically everyday with each other, you kiss, you cuddle, you cook for each other, you hang out together, you fuck—but you guys don’t actually talk about your feelings? Don’t you ever wonder whether you guys are probably—”
“Felix.” Your voice comes out colder than usual, the tone stronger than you’ve ever used with him, and it makes him shut his mouth. You turn to look at him and let out an inward sigh, “we’re just friends. Don’t look too much into relationships that aren’t your own.”
“(Y/n).”
“Committed relationships aren’t my thing; you know that. I’ve been in enough of them to decide that no one’s worth my commitment,” you continue as you turn your head to look away.
“I get that it must’ve been hard because of your past relationships, but haven’t you ever thought of the future? What about if you’re ever going to get married? What happens when we all graduate and start working?”
“I’ll think about it when it happens,” you state.
“You can’t just push this sort of topic away. It’s me—come on. We can talk about these things when we don’t talk about them to anyone else,” Felix persists.
It’s a strange charm that he has; the ability to talk to anyone about what’s bothering them. The way he’s able to ask anyone to talk to him about their feelings even if it’s someone he had just met.
You let out another sigh and turn your body towards him. His eyes visibly light up at the way that you’re finally giving in to talking about exactly what’s bothering you, readjusting himself so that he’s facing his entire body towards you.
“I just can’t handle the idea of letting more people hurt me.” Your words come out slowly, every single one of you going through your head before leaving past your lips. “And I’d rather be the one to leave before they do.”
“Honey, that’s called abandonment issues,” Felix jokes. “But that can’t completely stop you from committing to someone.”
“I know it can’t, but it’s hard to just push it away like it doesn’t do anything to me at all,” you sigh.
“There’s always room to try. You just have to work on it. When the right person comes around, you’ll totally be able to push the feelings aside and get along with it.”
“But what if that never happens? What if I’m never sure about it?”
“One unloyal ex doesn’t mean the rest will be,” Felix reassures you with his hand holding onto your forearm gently.
“Try three,” you deadpan.
“Not everyone is a cheater!” he insists.
“But all of the ones I’ve been with have,” you argue. “I just don’t think I’m strong enough to go through with it again.”
“(Y/n), you can’t live in fear forever. You’re going to have to face this head on one day and you’re going to have to hold on. If someone comes by and you really end up loving them, you can’t just push them away because you don’t want to get hurt again,” Felix reasons. His hand squeezes your arm gently, “you’re going to have to go with your gut, okay?”
“I know I’ll have to eventually, but what if I just never know?”
“Then you’re just gonna have to fly with it. Go with the floor—ride the vibe—do anything. Don’t let it stop you from falling in love.” His hand lowers to hold onto your hand as his left hand puts away the plastic bowl to hold onto your other hand. “It won't stop you forever. You’ll learn to grow and deal with it in ways that let you be with people. I know you’re not aromantic—you know that you’re not. We’ve had that talk before—and you’re definitely not ace, either; that’s Ryujin’s thing. You just have to let yourself fall sometimes, and eventually, someone’s gonna catch you.”
You stay silent and allow Felix’s words to settle in your thoughts. Your eyes flit to look away and you blink a few times as you take it in. The idea of marriage isn’t something that you started thinking about after your most recent ex because that one completely changed your outlook on relationships almost entirely.
“You can do it, alright?” Felix reassures you gently with his hands still holding onto yours. “I know you can. There’s just some things that you’ll need to get over first. If you ever need anyone, you know that I’m here to talk.”
You nod and smile.
“Thanks, Lix.”
。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆ 。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆
“What are you craving?” Seungmin asks as you both walk together, your arm linked with his as you look at the flowers that bloom.
“I’m fine with anything,” you hum. You’re honestly more into the view than the idea of eating because it’s quite rare that you actually get to see the cherry blossoms blooming when you’re not on campus, and the feeling of actually walking through a park being your main focus.
Seungmin smiles when he sees the way you look around, obviously distracted, but he doesn’t do anything to move your attention. He knows how much you like cherry blossom trees; it’s the only reason you enjoy spring as much as you do.
He waits until you’ve returned to reality and your attention has moved to Seungmin.
“This is really pretty,” you say as you turn back around to look at the trees.
Seungmin holds onto your arm without waiting for anything else, the smile on his face never fading as he watches how in awe you are. Warmth runs throughout his body as he does, the feeling flooding his veins and just filling him to the brim.
Until his smile fades and he realises that something is very wrong with what he’s feeling.
You turn to look at him and smile widely, your teeth showing and the corners of your eyes crinkling.
Seungmin feels dread crashing into him and his lips part in realisation.
It can’t be.
He’s never come across this issue before. Maybe he’s overthinking this. Maybe he’s just never been in a casual relationship like this with a friend he was so close to before.
Yeah, that’s probably it, Seungmin thinks. It casts reassurance through him—albeit slightly—but it’s enough for him to return the smile when you lean up to kiss him on the cheek.
“Thank you for taking me to see the cherry blossoms,” you say gleefully.
“I know how much you like them, baby,” he chuckles. Seungmin’s hand raises to pat down your hair gently as you look at him and you smile even more.
Yeah, he’s probably just not used to being in a casual relationship that’s also growing more platonically. That has to be it.
。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆ 。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆
viii.
You let out a laugh as you lay against Seungmin’s bare chest, the captain laughing as well and the vibrations from his body running throughout yours.
“How are you so sure?” you laugh.
“Saw it with my own eyes, babe,” he chuckles. “I can’t believe that Changbin was right. I mean, that guy can’t even hold any secrets to save his life, but I wasn’t expecting that to be true.”
“And she just told you?”
“Spilled like a broken faucet.” Seungmin runs his hand up and down your own bare back, his fingers leaving goosebumps wherever his skin meets yours as you both bask in the morning glow. “And don’t tell anyone that I told you this. Yeji would kill me.”
“If she didn’t want anyone knowing, she shouldn’t have told Changbin,” you joke.
“Hey, it’s not his fault,” he scoffs, raising his head to look you in the eyes. “And you can’t blame Yeji either—Changbin said she told him by accident and he now had to bear the crushing pressure of keeping Hwang Yeji’s secret of being a furry.”
“Accidentally walking in on her looking at furry art made me wonder how Felix must’ve felt in the bathtub.”
“Hey, at least ours was expected,” you snort. “What were they supposed to do in the first place? Run away from the both of us? They know what we’re like. The fact that we’re together just doubles how bad we can get.”
“I know, but sometimes I do feel a bit bad about it,” Seungmin laughs.
“Nothing we can do about it,” you hum. He only laughs more and lets his hand fully rest on your back. “What do you want for breakfast? I think I should still have some groceries left from last week’s run.” You start to sit upright and Seungmin follows your movement with his hand moving to hold onto yours.
“You definitely should. You bought a lot of shit last week,” he points out.
“That was only because you kept telling me to buy enough for you. Therefore, I now have enough for two people.” You give him an annoyed look, but Seungmin only smiles cheekily in response. You throw on a stray shirt that sits at the edge of your bed as you stand up, “what do you want to eat? I think I have a recipe for waffles lying around somewhere.”
“I’ll eat whatever as long as I’m cooking it with you.” Seungmin stands from the bed as well, grabbing the pair of shorts that he had been wearing the night before and looking around for his shirt. He stops moving when he sees you standing at the doorway to your bathroom and his hand raises to point at you, “you’re wearing my shirt.”
You look down at the black t-shirt before realising that Seungmin’s right, but you only shrug in response and run a hand through your bedhead, “it was the first thing I found. I would’ve put on mine if I had grabbed it first.”
Seungmin only smiles as he approaches you to wrap his arms around you.
“You’re lookin’ a little too cute to have just woken up,” he teases right as he presses kiss to your forehead. You only scrunch up your forehead and raise your hands to push him away; only jokingly.
“Stop it,” you groan.
“I’m right and you know it,” Seungmin laughs when he sees the disgruntled look on your face when he continues to pepper kisses all over.
“Minnie,” you whine and finally get him to pull away.
He only smiles as he does, hands holding onto yours as he sways a bit, “alright, alright. Let’s get the waffles going before we both have to leave for the day.”
“We’re also staying in your place tonight because I’m going to need to go to another grocery run after we cook,” you say as you leave your bedroom.
Seungmin stays in his spot for a moment and watches as you go, but he feels a strange pang in his chest when he does. Shaking his head, he chases after you.
“What if we just go for a grocery run together tonight?” Seungmin suggests.
“I’m not opposed to that,” you claim.
You open the door to your fridge and start rummaging through it while Seungmin pulls out your pan from the cabinet; the past few weeks of him staying over made him more familiar with your kitchen. You bend down slightly and push aside some of the stuff, trying to find the butter, only to feel a hand smacking directly onto your ass.
“What the fuck?!” you gasp loudly with a jump, but Seungmin wraps his arms around your waist to stop you from turning around.
“God, I love that ass,” he chuckles against the skin of your neck.
“I get that you do, but you didn’t have to hit it that hard,” you scoff. Seungmin only lets out another laugh before he presses a kiss to your skin and pulls away.
“I have to prove it some way.”
“There’s something called ‘gentle love’, okay? Don’t go smacking my ass just because you want to prove that you like it,” you huff as you pull out butter from your fridge.
“Whatever you say, sweet cheeks,” he snorts.
“And no naming it,” you say strictly and point your finger at him.
Seungmin grins and shakes his head, “that’s something I can’t do, baby, and you know that.” You scrunch your nose at him once again, but he responds by pressing a sweet kiss to your lips instead. “Let’s get those waffles cooking.”
。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆ 。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆
You walk into the library with your ears plugged, not paying much attention to whoever walks past you as you do, and make your way to the third floor where the bean bag section is.
You’re hoping that it’ll actually be empty today so that you can take a nap, but it’s the bean bag section. And when you’re in a university filled with sleep deprived and soulless students, the bean bag section of the extensive library is the best spot on campus.
Just to your luck, three of the bean bags are empty.
And to add more to your luck, Seungmin is comfortably sat on one of the bean bags with Hyunjin and Jeongin beside him, all three of them with their laptops out and their earphones in. Before you’re able to do anything, Hyunjin looks up from his laptop and smiles when he sees you. He beckons you over and you oblige without much hesitation, making your way to the group until Jeongin and Seungmin look up as well.
“Hey,” Jeongin whispers as he waves at you.
You return the wave with your right hand and pull up a bean bag from the side to join them, instinctively pulling it on the other side of Seungmin.
“Hyunjin’s trying to find a topic for his dissertation,” Seungmin claims softly.
“I can’t think of anything. I feel like I’m going crazy,” Hyunjin mumbles as he looks at his screen in frustration. He pulls the top shut and lets the device slide to the floor. “I thought I’d be able to think more about it in the library, but focusing on culture topics makes it impossible.”
“Writing anything on culture is like identifying exactly what’s wrong with society and putting it into words,” you chuckle.
“That’s called psychology,” Seungmin jokes. Jeongin snorts loudly and slaps his hand over his mouth when one of the students gives him a dirty look.
“What are you guys doing?” you ask, referring to Jeongin and Seungmin by looking between them.
“We’re here for moral support because we’re waiting for our next classes,” Seungmin answers. “I’m just trying to finish up my politics paper. I managed to get most of it done over the weekend, so I’m giving it a final push before I submit it tomorrow.”
“I’ve finished most of what I need done by this week, so I’m taking a break while I wait for the rest of the pressure to come in,” Jeongin says as he places his open laptop on the floor and leans back in the bean bag with his arms outstretched above his head.
“What about you?”
You lean back into the cushy bean bag and shake your head, “no assignments for me. I came here for a nap.”
“I might take one now, too, actually,” Jeongin groans as he lowers himself lightly until he’s able to rest his head on the fabric.
“So, you’re both just going to leave Hyunjin and I to our own devices?” Seungmin gasps, mocking disbelief.
“You guys are big boys, you can deal with it yourselves,” you chuckle with a sigh and close your eyes.
A few moments pass and you start to feel the lull of sleep, but the constant jerking of your head keeps waking you up and you furrow your brows in slight annoyance.
Until a hand rests on your head and guides you to a shoulder where you feel the vague smell of a cologne so familiar embracing your senses.
“Bring a neck pillow next time or you’re going to wake up in pain,” Seungmin mumbles, soft enough only for you to hear.
“Fuck you,” you grumble.
。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆ 。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆
“What are you gonna do about it?” Jeongin asks.
He and Seungmin sit on their balcony with the sliding door closed just in case Hyunjin would accidentally walk in on their conversation since he has a habit of letting himself in. A half-empty bottle of red wine sits on the glass patio table in between them, two wine glasses sitting on two sides of the bottle.
“I don’t know,” Seungmin mutters while shaking his head. He picks up the glass nearest to him and sips the wine slowly, letting the tangy taste of the alcohol hit his tongue. “It feels like there’s nothing I can do.”
“Talk to them,” Jeongin immediately says. “You’ll never know unless you talk to them.”
“I can’t risk it. I don’t want to lose them that easily just because I didn’t know how to keep my mouth shut.”
“Seungmin…”
“It’s all temporary anyway,” he cuts him off, “love is temporary. You can’t rely on it forever.”
Jeongin purses his lips together and sighs.
“You can’t say that forever.”
“I can’t expect them to just happen to be okay with it either. We both agreed there would be no strings attached—hell, it isn’t easy for us to eiven get attached in the first place! Why the hell did it have to be them?” Seungmin groans and hangs his head between his hands as the weight of it starts to truly show itself to him. “(Y/n)’s too nice. I can’t lose them, Jeongin.”
“Telling them doesn’t mean that you’ll be losing them. You guys are friends before anything else. (Y/n)’s loyal to their friends,” he insists. “You can’t bottle this up forever. Wouldn’t it be better to at least know?”
“I don’t know.”
Seungmin leans back in his chair and looks out at the sky. The sun has started to rise in the distance and he can see the colours of the sky blending together as it starts to lighten. He and Jeongin had been out on the balcony since he had gotten back from spending the day at your apartment, only returning to their shared apartment right before midnight and with a look on his face that made Jeongin pull out his cheapest wine and a pair of glasses.
“Please, Min. At least talk to them. You’ll really never know what happens unless you talk to them,” Jeongin places his hand on Seungmin’s knee, giving him a reassuring squeeze and a small smile.
Seungmin responds by nodding and giving him a tight-lipped smile.
“I’ll talk to them,” he mumbles.
“Don’t let it get too far. You remember what happened with Hyunjin,” he chuckles. Seungmin lets out a hearty laugh as he nods, turning his attention to the wine, looking between the bottle and Jeongin.
“Oh my god, heartache… wine… Yeni—Am I turning into Hyunjin?” he laughs.
“You’re not sprawled on our kitchen floor yet,” Jeongin shakes his head, “until then, you’re still Kim Seungmin.”
Seungmin chuckles and nods.
“The one and only.”
。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆ 。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆
ix.
Hyunjin had a suspicion from the very beginning that something was up between you and Seungmin; something more than just the two of you sleeping together. Whenever he mustered up the courage to ask Seungmin, he replied with, “bite me”, which meant that he wouldn’t confirm nor deny his suspicions.
And as the months had gone by, the idea of it just normalised itself to Hyunjin that you two were just close because you had the opportunity to be as closely intimate as you usually are. So, Hyunjin had forgotten about it. He let himself get used to whatever PDA that you and Seungmin would subject all of your friends to and so did everyone else.
At least until now as he and Ryujin sit across from each other with wide, nervous eyes. Apparently, she had been having the same exact suspicions as Hyunjin has had and she had refrained herself from talking about it with anyone mainly because she didn’t want to accidentally overstep your boundaries.
“I thought I was the only one,” Hyunjin breathes out a sigh as he leans back in disbelief.
“No,” she shakes his head, “I’ve noticed this since the very beginning. (Y/n) doesn’t act like this normally with anyone.”
“What if they actually do end up falling in love? Seungmin isn’t the kind of person to act on a crush. He just lets it pass without doing anything.”
“You think (Y/n) would do anything? They end up leaving first because they don’t want to get hurt.”
Hyunjin scoffs slightly and Ryujin only bites the inside of her cheek as she looks away from him.
“(Y/n)’s going to break his heart and it wouldn’t even be their fault,” she mutters.
“Seungmin’s going to break his own heart. If he doesn’t say anything, he’ll never know whether they’re willing to try a relationship,” Hyunjin argues.
“No, Jin, you don’t understand,” Ryujin looks at him sharply. “(Y/n) doesn’t get into committed relationships because they don’t believe that anyone would willingly commit themselves to them. They leave when they feel like they’re starting to get attached because they don’t want to risk putting themselves through another breakup.”
“But the year is ending. Are they just going to keep avoiding relationships for the rest of their life? What happens when we all graduate and they both just never end up getting over each other?”
“If they don’t end up getting together, they’ll both probably force themselves to fall out of each other.”
Hyunjin frowns.
He’s always known that Seungmin wasn’t the kind of person who would think about the idea of marriage or romantic relationships, but it’s starting to get painfully obvious to him that Seungmin’s falling in love with you.
And Ryujin’s able to note the amount of times that she’s noticed you falling in love with him just from the way you act. You’re sweeter whenever he’s around and the way Seungmin always seems to be the first person that you think of makes it less of a question to her.
They exchange a look that makes Ryujin shoot straight in her seat, “don’t tell Yeji! I know you guys tell each other everything!”
“I won’t!” he exclaims, mouth opening and closing similarly to that of a fish as he shakes his head violently. “There are things I don’t tell Yeji because I don’t want her telling Changbin. I don’t know what’s wrong with that woman. She keeps telling Changbin things even though she knows that he’s horrible at keeping secrets.”
“They’re both terrible at keeping secrets. Maybe it attracts each other,” Ryujin jokes.
“I really wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the reason,” Hyunjin laughs. “You can’t tell Felix either. He’ll just try therapy-ing (Y/n) to the point that they realise there’s something up and it’ll scare them from being with Seungmin in general.”
“I’d trust Felix to keep a secret. He knows (Y/n) most out of all of us and he knows that he shouldn’t mess around with their privacy,” she claims.
Their eyes meet each other again as Ryujin leans back and crosses her arms.
“I just don’t want (Y/n) leaving him dry just because they got attached,” she mumbles.
“It’s not like there’s anything the both of us could actually do,” Hyunjin sighs. “We can’t exactly convince them to not dump each other.”
“It sucks that we’ve noticed this,” Ryujin huffs. “All we get to do is watch them fall apart.”
“What if we matchmake them?”
“You’re stupider than Yeji makes you out to be.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?!”
。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆ 。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆
There’s a strange feeling that overcomes Seungmin as he stands outside of your apartment door. He blinks rapidly and continuously clenches and unclenches his fist in an attempt to calm his nerves.
Maybe it’s because he hasn’t done this before.
Confessing to someone isn’t exactly something that Seungmin does often considering how difficult it is for him to actually get attached.
He raises his fist and prepares himself to knock on the door, only for it to rip open. The man in front of him is as startled as he is and Seungmin takes a step back in shock.
“Sorry, I was just leaving,” he mumbles and slips past the captain. Seungmin watches as the man leaves, wondering why he looks so familiar.
“Min?”
He turns back to your door to see you peeking out of your bedroom, hair dishevelled and clothes haphazardly put on.
“Come in,” you beckon him inside and Seungmin obliges, closing your door behind him. “Did you message me? I haven’t checked my phone in a while,” you say absentmindedly as you look at your phone.
“I-It’s fine, I didn’t,” Seungmin shakes his head. “Was that guy…”
“Song Mingi from the rugby team,” you answer. “I was bored and he said he was in the area. I would’ve messaged you if I knew you were still nearby.” You put your phone away and smile at him, “what’s up? You don’t usually come by unannounced.”
“I just…” he trails off, trying to find the right words to say before he realises just how stupid this is. “I was bored,” Seungmin lies as he takes a step towards you. “But, I see that you’re probably already tired.”
You purse your lips together, not saying anything for a moment before you shrug.
“I’m down for another round.”
“I don’t want to tire you out too much,” he shakes his head and smiles. “It’s fine. I’ll just come by tomorrow.”
“Are you sure?” You reach your hands out to hold onto both of his wrists to bring Seungmin closer towards you. “I really don’t mind.”
“I’m sure,” he nods.
You let out a small sigh, but smile nonetheless.
“Okay. Just let me know if anything comes up.”
“I will.”
Seungmin lets you kiss him on the cheek right before he leaves, the sound of your door locking coming just as he closes it.
He lets out a sigh and swallows thickly.
Seungmin’s not going to risk possibly ruining your relationship; not when you’ve both gotten this far as friends alone.
No, Seungmin just can’t bear the idea of losing you. As he stands outside your door, he realises that he doesn’t care whether or not he gets his heart broken. He only cares that he’ll be able to keep you around.
。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆ 。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆
You find yourself in Seungmin’s bed yet again. Only, this time, you’re awake while he sleeps soundly underneath you. There’s a battle going on in your head that refuses to let you fall asleep and you’re not entirely sure on what you’re supposed to do.
Graduation is in a few months.
And you’re falling in love.
But you don’t know what to do. You have the choice of staying and being with Seungmin. You could tell him that you’re in love and hope for the best, but that side of your heart argues with the other side; the one that tells you he’s just going to leave you like all the others did.
You’ve thought about taking Felix’s advice and trying to push past your fears, but the idea of having to actually go through with it makes you feel tired and it scares you even more than the initial idea of accidentally falling in love.
You sit up slightly to look at Seungmin’s face properly; the way his eyes are closed, face empty of any sort of stress whatsoever. You’ve come to truly adore the way he looks when he’s sleeping because he looks so peaceful and adorable; the way his lips are jutted out slightly with his cheeks blushed slightly.
If you leave, you’ll be throwing this away.
You’ll be throwing away the closeness that you’ve gotten so fond of; the feeling of Seungmin’s hands, the way he fills you with more comfort than you’ve ever imagined, the way he makes you feel truly wanted and loved.
Seungmin’s managed to break through some of your walls with just the way he smiles when he wakes up, eyes seemingly glowing at the sight of you in the morning. The way that he treats you in public with his arm protectively wrapped around your shoulders was enough to prove to you, that for a moment, he could possibly be different from the others.
Are you really willing to give that up?
You curl up against the comfort of Seungmin’s body and feel yourself starting to lose yourself in your thoughts. You could always just call off the casual sex and stay friends with him rather than leaving him altogether.
That’s it! That’s what you could do!
Eventually, you’ll be able to forget about your attachment since you won’t even be intimate with Seungmin at all. Which means that you’ll be able to keep him in your life even without anything other than a platonic relationship.
You feel your heart ease when you realise that you’ve come to a solution. You close your eyes, the previous problem no longer bothering you anymore as you slowly fall asleep to the sound of Seungmin’s heart beating in your ear.
。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆ 。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆
When Seungmin wakes the next morning, he reaches over for your frame, but he’s only faced with the cold and crumpled sheets instead. His eyes snap open and he sits upright.
There’s a different sort of dread that fills him when he turns to look at his bedside table. There’s a blue sticky note pasted onto the top of it, right beside his phone.
I’m not into the idea of casual sex anymore.
Let’s just stay friends
Seungmin stares at the note before he lets out a sigh and throws himself back onto his bed with his hands on his face. Why did you leave so suddenly? Did he do something wrong?
He tries to think of what could’ve possibly chased you away… until Seungmin realises just what it could be. His hands slide off of his face and his heart drops.
Did you realise that he was getting attached?
Seungmin knows that you have issues with getting attached—that much he noticed throughout the past few months of sleeping with you—but he hadn’t thought that you would’ve ended up doing the same to him.
Maybe it’s for his own good, he wonders. It knocks him back into reality that he’s not into the idea of getting into anything serious.
So, Seungmin looks on the bright side:
At least you get to stay friends.
。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆ 。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆
x.
Graduation creeps closer and you and Seungmin grow further apart. There’s a sense of longing that lingers between the two of you, but you’ve both gotten pretty damn good at pretending that you’re both fine with the sudden distance.
Only your friends have gotten worried about the way that you’ve just decided, so very suddenly, to stop sleeping together—especially with the way Jeongin, Ryujin, and Hyunjin had already seen just how fond of each other you had gotten.
You watch the baseball team from the bleachers, sighing when you see the way Seungmin emotionlessly tosses his bat aside after a run. He mumbles something to his coach before tossing his cap onto the dirt and leaves the field. You sigh and run your hand over your face.
Cheerleading practice had been put on hold for the time being since exam season is creeping closer. With their captain busy with exams, the team either meet up on their own with one of the younger committee members leading them or without meeting at all.
“Hey.” A hand gently places itself on your shoulder and you glance behind to see Ryujin sitting herself beside you.
“Hey,” you mutter back and turn to face the baseball team once again.
A sympathetic smile makes its way onto her face when she sees the way you seem to yearn for Seungmin’s company.
“Having a hard time?” she questions, nudging you with her shoulder lightly.
“You know how it is,” you sigh.
“Were you getting attached?”
“I didn’t want to risk it,” you claim while shaking your head. You turn to look at Ryujin and smile slightly, “you know how it gets. I don’t want to put myself through it.”
“Yeah, but Seungmin would never do anything to hurt you. You know that, right?” she tries, her hand raising to squeeze your shoulder slightly.
“Yeah.” You turn back to see Seungmin coming back to first base. “But you can’t always be too sure.”
“Everyone’s worried about the both of you. We’re all wondering why you guys ended it so quickly, but Hyunjin and I already have an idea as to why.” You turn to look at Ryujin sharply but she only shakes her head and smiles reassuringly, “don’t worry. We didn’t tell anyone and we don’t have any intentions to. We just want to know that you guys are okay.”
“We’ll be fine. Seungmin and I are used to these kinds of things. We’re the campus whores, remember?” you try to joke, but Ryujin looks at you sadly and nods.
“I have a class to get to,” she says as she stands, still holding onto your shoulder for a moment longer. When you don’t say anything or seem to react, Ryujin turns to walk away, only to stop and turn around, “you know, you two don’t always have to be the campus whores, (Y/n).”
You let Ryujin’s words linger. You turn over your shoulder to see her standing there looking at you before you chuckle softly and nod.
“Thank you, Ryujin.”
。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆ 。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆
Seungmin finds himself at Felix’s end-of-the-year party without much want. He sits on the kitchen counter with a red solo cup in his hand partially filled with the vodka soda concoction that Felix and Changbin had put together—which is definitely going to put a few people into a coma, but Seungmin had chosen to close his eyes to it a few years ago.
He should be happy; he’s finally graduating.
Seungmin and all of you friends had passed everything and all of you were graduating, but he just can’t help but feel sad that he feels like he had lost you along the way. You stopped sitting right beside him after you broke it off and you weren’t coming out as often to hang out with him directly.
Your little arcade dates had gone down the drain and all your beloved mornings went along with it. There wasn’t anything he could do about it in the first place; Seungmin just thinks that it wasn’t meant to be. If it really was, maybe you would’ve been able to convince yourself to stick around and test the waters with him.
Hell, you were already acting like a loving couple. Seungmin knew that from the get-go, but he didn’t want to scare you off because he knew better than to do anything about it if he wanted to keep you around.
All those morning where he had woken up to you smiling at him so fucking fondly, eyes filled with so much emotion that he had just known, from the first time you had stayed the morning, that you were falling in love just as hard as he was. And that thought alone was what scared Seungmin the most because he knew it wouldn’t be too long before you would cut yourself off before you got too deep in.
Which only leaves him wondering whether there was anything he could do in the first place, but all Seungmin is left with is the fact that you definitely wouldn’t have stayed if he had actually told you he loved you that day.
So, he wallows in his own self-pity and thinks about the temptation to give into the alcohol. He’s graduating, what else is he supposed to worry about for the next few weeks?
Seungmin swishes the cup around and sighs before putting it down.
“Fuck,” he groans as he hunches forward and rests his elbows against his knees.
He just wants to leave and cry in his own bed until the world swallows him up into nothingness.
“Seungmin!”
The call of his voice makes Seungmin look up to see Yeji running towards him with a drunken laugh.
“Where have you been? We’re gonna throw Changbin into the lake!”
“You guys go on without me,” he shakes his head, “I think I’m gonna go home.”
“Aww, are you sure?” she pouts and takes his hands in hers. “Come on! We’re graduating, Min! By next month, we’ll no longer be university students! Enjoy yourself.”
“I-I’m just not feeling the vibe, Yeji, but thank you,” Seungmin persists as he slides himself off of the counter. “You guys have fun.”
Yeji purses her lips together in a straight line but doesn’t say anything more. She knows that he’s not in the best mood and she’d rather not have Hyunjin 2.0 in the middle of the kitchen where the entire university can see him.
“I’ll see you around,” he says and waves at her, only to receive a smaller wave back before she disappears through the sliding door that leads into the garden.
Seungmin pushes past the crowd, ignoring whatever happens around him as the music booms loudly and the alcohol and vomit spills all over the place until he’s walked through the front door.
“Kim Seungmin.”
The voice forces him to freeze.
“Are you really going to miss out on your last party as a university student?”
He turns around to see you standing in the doorway of the house with your arms crossed over your chest.
Seungmin swallows thickly at the sight of you seemingly so nonchalant after having left him with nothing but a sticky note and somewhat of a cold shoulder.
“I’m really tired, (Y/n).”
“That’s not the Seungmin I know,” you quickly say. “The Seungmin I know would stick around and bask in the company of his drunk friends because he’d never know when the last hangout would be.”
“Pretty niche for someone who left a vague sticky note on my bedside table,” Seungmin jokes.
“It’s my charm,” you scrunch your nose at him with a smile. “Now, come on. Let’s get your ass partying before we have to start living more responsible lives.” You turn around and walk back into the house as Seungmin watches you.
As he stands on the front porch of his friends’ house, Seungmin thinks that you’re right. Why the hell is he letting this ruin what could be the best night of his life?
Fuck it.
Seungmin lets out a small laugh at the realisation that you’ve, once again, managed to creep your way into his heart, and walks back into the house. If this is his last party as a university student and as the captain of the baseball team here, he might as well make it teh best fucking night he’s ever had.
。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆ 。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆
xii.
“Good hit today, man,” Jeongin chuckles when Seungmin sits down in front of him. “Congrats on the win.”
“Thank you,” Seungmin smiles. It’s nice knowing that Jeongin’s been by his side ever since they had graduated three years ago and he likes the fact that the younger man has never failed to stay in contact despite how busy they had gotten.
Weekend hangouts had gotten so common between the two, that it was almost as if they had never even parted for a few months in between graduation and getting used to their own careers. Seungmin and Jeongin were unlike some of your other friends, who had grown apart after a while due to busy schedules; especially you and Hyunjin who were busy in your own professional sports.
Seungmin had actually managed to get himself onto the national team from how good he was while you and Hyunjin had gotten busy with gymnastics instead. He had known that you had gotten into professional gymnastics from the posts that you were making on your Instagram, but Seungmin hadn’t done more than reacting to your stories every once in a while since you were doing the same to him.
Occasional congratulations and small talk were made on days that you two weren’t so preoccupied, but there was nothing more than that, and you and Seungmin had, ultimately, grown apart.
“Did you get Hyunjin’s invitation?” Jeongin asks as he sips on his iced tea.
“I can’t believe he’s getting engaged,” Seungmin laughs as he runs his thumb over the black band snugly wrapped around the middle finger of his left hand.
It’s the only piece of you that Seungmin had seemed to cling onto like his life depended on it and he honestly doesn’t really seem like he would be letting go of it anytime soon. There were opportunities that he had to pass the ring back to you, but he had honestly forgotten about it after a few months and ended up keeping it for himself.
“I know right! Have you met her before? She’s exactly like Yeji, too! It’s almost as if he made it a mission to find a woman who was like a clone of her.”
“I think the appeal was that Jiwon isn’t Yeji. You know how the two are. They love being friends, but they were never into the idea of actually dating each other.”
“It’s still crazy to me that he’s actually getting engaged,” Jeongin sighs wistfully.
“What about you? I thought you were dating someone?” Seungmin questions just as his own drink arrives.
“It’s getting a bit rocky,” he confesses with a frown. “We’ve been getting really busy and it feels like there’s just no time for each other. We’ve also been getting really antsy over it.”
“Hey.” Seungmin reaches over and grabs onto Jeongin’s wrist to give him a reassuring shake, “if you can give me relationship advice to the point where I actually got myself thinking about romance, then you can get yourself through this. You really like this person, right? Fight for it, then.”
“Shit, you’re right,” he chuckles. “I got you ready for marriage.”
Seungmin laughs and nods.
Jeongin had stayed pretty much the same despite getting himself thrown into something as labouring as film production, but he always had time to spare in between projects that could help him maintain a comfortable social life.
The idea of seeing all of his old friends again at Hyunjin’s engagement party makes Seungmin wonder though. He hadn’t seen Changbin or Ryujin since they had graduated at all. He only ever sees Changbin occasionally whenever they were at sports events that had the rugby and baseball team there at the same time; but Changbin never actually ends up playing in the team. He’s just there to watch since he had started focusing on music instead.
Felix is also quite rare, but only because he had thrown himself into baseball coaching somewhere across the country rather than actually being on the baseball team. He’s also stayed quite the same with the way that he was back then, only now he’s more responsible. According to Jeongin, Felix’s drinking habits really hadn’t had much of a dent in them and he’s still downing shots like an excited nineteen year old.
Ryujin’s whereabouts are mostly unknown to Seungmin considering how they weren’t exactly that close to begin with, but he has an idea that she had started working somewhere in production because Jeongin talks about her now and then.
Hyunjin and Yeji still stick by each others’ side as far as he knows from the way that his meetups with Hyunjin always include Yeji because she wants to see him, too.
And the only person that Seungmin hasn’t seen about almost entirely is you.
Hyunjin never talks about you whenever they meet up and neither does Yeji. They always talk about other things instead. He thinks that it’s because they’d rather not bring up the very person that broke his heart for the first time since he was in high school and Seungmin doesn’t blame them for it.
He’s never really found himself wondering about you that much after he had gotten over you. You’ve just floated around his Instagram without much about your private life going online. Most of what Seungmin sees are about your modelling for sponsorships or your career. And with seemingly no one telling him anything, Seungmin doesn’t actually know much about you.
But he wonders whether you’ll be at Hyunjin’s party since you’re still quite close. And he wonders whether you’ve ever regretted leaving him as much as he has regretted not doing more about your relationship up until Seungmin just learned to live with it.
Which is also what has led him to now:
Twenty-five, single, and able to reassure himself that he can handle the pressure and anxiety of getting into a relationship.
。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆ 。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆
Seungmin stares in shock at the fact that Felix and Hyunjin are splayed out on the living room floor of Hyunjin and Jiwon’s apartment. Jiwon, on the other hand, is muttering scolds about Hyunjin to Yeji while she only laughs and nods along.
Changbin and Ryujin catch up in the corner of the room while slowly drinking their own glasses of alcohol and a few of Hyunjin and Jiwoo’s other friends fill the living room. Jeongin had left a few hours prior because he had started getting a bit anxious and his partner was quick to usher him out of the crowded apartment and back to theirs instead, while Seungmin hadn’t done much socialising other than with Felix up until he had passed out.
“Get off me!” Felix groans when he feels Hyunjin on his back and starts to sluggishly move his arms. Jiwoo is about to pick up her fiancé, but Seungmin quickly puts his glass down and steps forward.
“You can pull Hyunjin off; I’ll get Felix to the guest room,” he quickly offers.
“Thank you, Seungmin,” she sighs with a smile.
Upon being at the party, Seungmin had come to realise that Jiwoo is, oddly enough, quite exactly like Yeji. The only difference being the two is the fact that they’re completely different people. They also ended up becoming closer friends than Yeji was with Hyunjin and Seungmin has a feeling that they just bully him most of the time, but Hyunjin seems to like the attention because he has a version of Yeji that he can actually fall in love with.
He throws Felix’s arm over his shoulder when Jiwoo pulls Hyunjin off and Seungmin lifts him up, earning a whiney groan from Felix.
“I’ve got you, buddy,” he laughs.
Seungmin hauls Felix towards the guest bedroom on the other side of the room and throws the door open, his movements completely freezing when he sees you sitting cross-legged on the neatly made bed with your phone in your hand.
You freeze as well when you see him… and then your attention moves to the blacked out Felix in his arms.
“W-Why do we keep meeting each other like this?” Seungmin laughs when he realises how ridiculous it is that this had happened four years ago.
“I don’t know,” you laugh as well. You move off of the bed and help him move Felix onto the bed. “Maybe it’s fate.”
Seungmin plops Felix onto the bed and smiles.
“You think so?” He takes a step back and takes in the sight of you after so long. You seem to be doing the same as your eyes quickly look him up and down with the smile not fading from your face.
“Maybe,” you shrug.
It’s weird seeing you after so many years, Seungmin thinks. You look exactly the same, but there’s a certain flair to you that just feels so different from back then. The way you smile and seem to present yourself is also different.
But the most important thing;
Seungmin realises that he’s never truly fallen out of love with you. If anything, he’s somehow gotten more and more in love with you over the years apart. Distance makes the heart go fonder or whatever bullshit, he wonders.
“You look good,” Seungmin states, making you smile politely and nod.
“Thank you. You look good, too.” There’s a fondness in your eyes that seems to gleam when you look him in the eyes. “How was the party? I wasn’t feeling like being around so many people, but I just wanted to be here for Hyunjin and Jiwoo,” you say. Your hands fiddle with your bracelet as you speak, something that Seungmin catches onto immediately.
“It was good. Hyunjin’s passed out and Jiwoo’s trying to get him into bed right now actually,” Seungmin jerks his thumb in the direction of the guest room door.
You breathe out a small laugh and look away, something that seems to make his heart flutter.
An idea pops into his head and he hesitates for a moment before deciding that he shouldn’t completely kick the idea out of his head.
Seungmin clears his throat slightly before he takes a step forward towards you.
“Do you… want to get a drink?”
Your smile disappears for a moment before it comes back and you nod, breathing out another laugh.
“I would love that.”
Seungmin pulls the door open and allows you to walk through first as you mutter a thanks before he follows behind you.
。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆ 。・:*:・゚★,。・:*:・゚☆
The sunlight slivers its way through the blinds of Seungmin’s curtains, his eyes squeezing slightly as he stirs in his sleep. He moves around in his bed, stopping slightly when he feels a weight on his chest and a familiar warmth that he hadn’t realised he had missed so much in the past few years.
Opening his eyes, Seungmin looks down to see you gazing up at him lovingly with an adoring smile on your face and your cheek pressed against his bare chest.
“Hi,” he greets, voice raspy and with a smile on his face.
You lean up and kiss him softly, letting your face linger inches apart from his as your lips pull into a smile.
“Hey,” you greet softly.
“What do you want for breakfast?” Seungmin sits upright with you rolling off of him to be able to watch him from your side with your arm propping your head up.
“I’m fine with anything,” you claim as you grab onto his hand when he starts to climb out of bed. Seungmin stops moving and turns to look at you. “But, stay here for a moment. Please.”
Seungmin feels his heart fluttering in his chest at the way you lower yourself to bury your frame into his sheets.
“Okay, baby,” he breathes out a chuckle before laying back down and letting you crawl back onto his chest. His hand raises to rub up and down your back while you hold onto his other hand to play with his fingers.
You slide your hand into his and gently move your fingers in between his repeatedly, basking in the warmth of Seungmin’s body and bed.
But you see the black band sitting on his middle finger and it makes you sit up slightly.
“This… Isn’t this mine?” you ask as you raise his hand and tap your index finger against the ring.
Seungmin looks down at it and he takes a moment before nodding.
“Yeah, I kept forgetting to give it to you a few years ago and I ended up wearing it after we graduated,” he explains nonchalantly. Your eyes move back to the ring and you scoff slightly.
“I’ve been looking for this for years,” you claim as you lower his hand to the bed.
“It… reminded me of you, so I kept it around and wearing it just… started happening, I guess,” Seungmin shrugs.
“Since when did you get so sappy?” you chuckle and roll off of him slightly.
Seungmin’s arm is quick to wrap around your waist to keep you on him, a teasing smile on his face as he traps you above him.
“I have my moments,” he claims, a teasing lilt to his voice as he leans up to press a kiss to your nose.
The action makes you close your eyes and smile. Seungmin’s presence is comforting mainly because of how familiar it is to you. Maybe life hadn’t gone that smoothly after you decided to leave, but you had always hoped that maybe—just maybe—the two of you would cross paths and that Seungmin would still be willing to indulge himself in you once again.
But knowing that he’s here, knowing that he’s opened himself to your company again, fills you with a form of happiness that you didn’t even think was possible.
Seungmin sits upright for a moment and takes the opportunity to just look at you. His eyes fill with love when you look at him questioningly and he only smiles in response. He leans back down and reaches for his phone from the bedside table, scrolling through the delivery options as he does.
The sense of deja vu takes over your entire being as you’re suddenly reminded of the first time you had stayed until morning; only this time, it’s already two in the afternoon. The time doesn’t bother you that much—it’s not like either of you have anything going on for the rest of the day anyway.
You let your hand rest against Seungmin’s bare chest, eyes fluttering close at the sound of his heart beating steadily in his chest filling your ears and warming you chest.
“We can get sandwiches from the cafe nearby,” Seungmin says softly after a moment, his voice mumbling almost.
“Just get me anything witho—”
“Without onions or pickles,” he chuckles, “I know, baby.”
You pause in your movements and raise your head to look at him. Seungmin looks down when he feels your eyes on him and he tilts his head curiously.
He’s pretty sure the feeling of his heart pounding in his chest can be felt from how directly on him you are, but you don’t seem to make any effort to point it out if you do notice it.
Instead, you keep your eyes on him and you smile. Seungmin’s hit with a sense of deja vu that makes him wonder whether or not you feel it, too, and it’s strong enough to send a rush of emotions through him.
Your eyes brim with tears and Seungmin almost shoots upright when he sees a lone tear streaming down your cheek and dropping onto his chest, but you don’t do anything about it. You smile and swallow thickly.
“I love you.”
Seungmin feels his entire body halting at the confession. He would’ve missed it had he looked away with the way your voice had come out as a whisper; barely audible.
But the rush of emotions only gets stronger and stronger within his body and Seungmin can feel his own eyes filling with tears.
Three years apart. That’s what it took. Three fucking years without having as much as a proper conversation and that’s what took the both of you to realise just how in love with each other you are.
He smiles and leans down to press a featherlite kiss to your forehead.
“I love you, too. I always have.”
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