i'm here to collect your hearts (part i of ii); '90 line centric
i'm here to collect your hearts
'90 line centric; college au
various pairings, ships + groups
part one of two; pg-13; 2,418 words
a/n: i was having a hard time trying to figure out whether or not i should just explain what i'm trying to do on twitter (which would work if i wasn't planning on "sharing" the fic around on whatever livejournals i stumble on that fit), but you know. the idea for something focusing on idols born in 1990 popped up on twitter about... two months ago, now? and i jumped at the opportunity to be the one who tried to make something work for it. at first, i was going to just do a big one shot set at a college party or something but when i realized just how many idols were born in that year (so many quality ones that it'd kind of pain me to pass up on the chance to write a little bit of something for all of them), i came up with... whatever is going on under the cut here. it's basically little sections of writing, that are more or less drabbles in their own right, focusing on relationships, budding relationships, "potential" relationships, infatuation and friendships that connect back together in one way or another. not all of them are directly linked, but the one thing that all of them do have in common is the setting: university. by the time i got to the fifth or sixth "part", i realized that it'd just make more sense to post the thing in chunks, rather than a conglomerate? i've been feeling kind of antsy about getting it out, anyway. so, this way, something will be there - ready to go, but i'll still have the time to finish up the last half whenever i feel it. (which, honestly, if my muse comes back in full swing sometime this week, it'll probably be by the weekend or sometime next week). anyway, these are the first six, hopefully you enjoy it!
also: the pairings are somewhat out there, in full. i may have picked some of them from a hat (with the exception of some more popular crackships/group ships), but everything worked out nicely in the end, imo? maybe. possibly. you all tell me.
----
Kim Jonghyun had never had a problem finding love. You could find it anywhere, if you were looking hard enough: in the chorus of a good song, in an extra ingredient thrown into your favorite dessert, or a look someone gave you (if you were lucky enough to catch it at the right time).
… But this didn’t mean that “love” saw you back. “Love” could decide to turn the tables on you without any warning; kick dirt at you, kicked you over the curb or laugh right in your face.
Love was a bitch and, as optimistic as he tried to keep himself, it was proving to be more and more difficult by the day.
“You’ll get her attention eventually,” Jieun had reassured him as she smoothed “comforting” circles between the blades of his shoulders.
“Yeah, you’re a total babe, she’ll be trying to stick a hand down your pants in no time,” Dongwoo had struggled to make out to him through a mouthful of blueberry muffin.
Jonghyun scowled. “Thanks.”
It was hopeless.
----
“Doubl-…, no, can you make that a triple shot?” Reaching downward to unzip the top of her purse, Heo Gayoon pulled out a crumpled wad of won, dropping it carelessly in front of the cash register. Ignoring the look the cashier gave to her, she craned her neck to the side - just in time to catch a set of eyes ripping away from her general area.
Eyebrows furrowing together in curiosity, she absentmindedly started to zip her purse back up, mumbling for the cashier to “keep the change” before beginning to feel around for her cup. Managing to find it after a good twenty seconds of trying, Gayoon started in the direction of an empty table - just two or three away from the person who had caught her attention.
She’d always been good at observation, a lot better that this guy was. She could practically trace the trail of drool he’d left on the table in front of him. It was fun watching people though..
He seemed like the type she could get some good amusement out of watching for awhile - and he didn’t fail her there. Whether he knew it or not, the guy was top grade entertainment for someone with nothing to until their first class of the day (which she had about half an hour left to get to after she’d turning over into fifteen minutes of watching him). He twitched a lot, and scowled just as much.
She resisted the urge to laugh every time he frowned at the cashier - which she’d eventually realized was what he was so fixated on - smiled brightly at one of the customers. Some people were so touchy.
Looking down at the screen of her phone, Gayoon let out a small sigh when realized how close she was cutting it to being late for class. She could’ve just skipped but doing that solely to watch this guy was crossing into a territory that she didn’t really feel like entering (ie: stalking).
Slinging the strap of her purse around her shoulder, she gripped onto the bottom of her (now) empty cup before starting in the direction of the exit. Hesitating for a moment as she closed in on the table of the the guy, she gave a small shrug, stopping at his side.
He didn’t seem to register her presence until she bent herself down, aligning her lips a few inches from his ear.
“Why don’t you save yourself the angst and just ask her out? You’re doing a terrible job hiding that hard on of yours.”
Gayoon heard a small crash and groan as she moved away from him - finally allowing herself to laugh.
----
“People are hilarious,” Gayoon let out as she dropped down into a seat at the back of her Mass Communications class.
The girl at her side gave a small shake of her head, half smiling as she uncapped a pen and rolled it in Gayoon’s direction. “What this time?”
Gayoon shrugged. “Nothing really - just some love sick puppy at that coffee shop down the block. He was slobbering all over this cashier and I needed to kill some time before class, so I figured why not “observe” for a bit, you know?”
“Observe.”
“Yeah, observe. Don’t act like you haven’t done it before, either, you’re guiltier than I even am, Im Yoona.”
Yoona gave a small roll of her eyes as she flicked a thick strand of hair behind her shoulder, batting her eyelashes playfully at her friend. “But, when I do it, it’s for a good cause.”
“No, you only did it because you had a dream about blowing that guy in your Physics class of.”
A small grumble, followed by an even smaller cough, came from Yoona’s other side before Yoona let out a laugh - that ricocheted around them and caused a few people in the row of seats in front of them to look back in curiosity (and annoyance).
“Excuse me?”
Gayoon leaned forward to attach a face to the grumble, cough and two words thrown in her direction, beginning to laugh along with Yoona when realizing who it was.
“Oh…, yeah, sorry to burst your bubble there, Jonghyun.” She shrugged before falling back against the back of her seat.
“You had dreams about blowing me?” She heard her friend’s “friend”, Lee Jonghyun, one of the fifty Jonghyun’s she’d heard about being in their year alone, question Yoona as she attempted to focus on whatever their professor was trying to drill into their skulls.
It just proved kind of difficult when Yoona was being so obvious about the hand she was sliding up Jonghyun’s thigh - and her mind was stuck on whether or not that guy had taken her advice at the coffee shop.
----
“So, you have an ulterior motive the entire time?” Jonghyun mumbled against Yoona’s earlobe.
A grin crossed her lips as she turned the handle of the door to his dorm, giving a small shrug when stepping into the dimly lit room. “I guess you could say that.”
Turning her back to him, Yoona observed the room that she’d been in two or three times before - all of the other times, it’d been filled to the brim with friends of Jonghyun and his roommate, some guy from Canada that she’d never been able to remember the name of. Kris? Kraig? Kevin…?
“You could’ve just… said something to me about it from the get go.” Yoona felt the space behind her become closed in as his chest pressed flush against her back, arms wrapping loosely around her waist.
“Where’s the fun in that, though?”
He chuckled. ‘Ah, I get it. You wanted to string me along.”
“Maybe.” Yoona suppressed a full blown giggle as Jonghyun locked his grip more firmly around her, spinning her in his direction again. Squinting at him as he did so, she craned her neck to the side, averting eye contact.
“Yoona…”
Pursing her lips together, “Yes?”
Raising his index finger toward the center of her lips, Jonghyun turned her back toward the bed, readying himself to give her a gentle push toward the center of the mattress when Yoona opted to turn them once more. “I’m the one in control here,” she shook her head as she gave him a small shove, Jonghyun falling back onto his comforter.
Shooting her a small grin from down on the bed, Jonghyun gave a firm nod of his head - in response, agreeance - a mixture of the two. “No one said you weren’t.”
“Good,” Yoona returned his smile as she climbed onto the empty space on the mattress next to him, hooking one of her legs around his own. “Now...,” she trailed off. “... stop talking.”
----
“Well, what exactly do you have planned for today, then?”
Kevin gave a shrug to Chansung as they turned down the hallway leading toward the dorm he shared with Lee Jonghyun. It wasn’t a terrible situation, he was a nice enough guy. He got a little loud at times, what, with his acoustics and the blaring of his iPod but that wasn’t really something Kevin couldn’t handle.
“I figured I could grab my textbook and… see where everything goes after that.”
He could practically feel the eye roll Chansung was giving him.
“We could be out having a good time right now, and you want to study? You’re such a cliché.”
Kevin shrugged a second time as they honed in closer to his dorm. “Yeah, I guess I am.”
Taking the final few steps toward the room at the end of the hall, his paced begun to slow down as he noticed a bright red… hair tie tied around the knob. Turning back to look at Chansung, he raised his eyebrow before pointing toward the hair tie. “Is that a hair tie?”
Moving forward past Kevin, Chansung reached out to graze the hair accessory. “Looks that way,” he started before letting out a small chuckle. “You know what that means, traditionally speaking, right?”
“… No?”
“You’re such a square,” his friend mumbled before leaning up against the wall next to the door frame and pointing toward the door. “Listen for a second.”
“Listen for what….?” Kevin trailed off before taking the suggestion and leaning toward the door, his ear lightly grazing the wood. “I don’t hear an-...., oh.”
The sound of wood smacking against the wall was impossible not to spot out. Either the earth was shifting or his roommate was in the middle of a… tryst.
Pulling back to his previous spot, Kevin let out an exasperated sigh. “Damn it, I had to grab my charger too, my phones on it’s last leg right now.”
Stepping closer to Kevin again, Chansung draped an arm around his shoulder before continuing forward, pulling him down the hallway along with him. “Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered, man.”
----
“A charger...,” Chansung pulled a hand out of his backpack, tossing the small black object toward Kevin as he trailed off, eyes squinting in an attempt to further search the dark (and cluttered) pouch. “... and a quarter!”
Kevin furrowed his eyebrows together as his friend, with an open palm, shoved his hand in his direction - a gleaming quarter staring back up at him, almost tauntingly. “I don’t want your quarter.”
“Well then,” scoffing lightly, “penny for your thoughts, then?”
“Who said I had any of those?”
“Thoughts?” Chansung shrugged. “I just assumed.”
“You do that too much - assuming. It’s getting kind of irritating.”
Chansung gave a small roll of his eyes as he dropped his backpack onto the ground near his feet, pulling his phone out of the front pocket of his hoodie to check for new messages. It was nearing on noon - and his girlfriend, Jihyun, had failed to get back to him after their last round of Snapchatting. “I miss her face,” thoughts were spoken aloud and Kevin couldn’t help but groan.
“You’re disgusting - both of you,” his groan continued (and amplified) as he leaned back into the cushioning of the couch Chansung had picked for them in the student lounge a few minutes prior. If he’d had any say in... anything (which he rarely did when Chansung was involved in the situation), he would’ve been hiding under his duvet back at his dorm, but...
“Disgustingly cute,” Chansung retorted back lamely as he balanced his phone onto the arm rest of the couch. “Speaking of -...”
Kevin readied himself to bite back at his friend again - teeth clenched and eyes narrowed - before his features softened back up at what Chansung was referencing.
Choi Sooyoung, in all her glory; legs that went on for miles, a smile that could light up the room, and a laugh that he remembered for hours after it ricocheted off the walls of whatever room they had been in together. He was in love, and she was... walking in their direction, and she was waving. She was waving at them.
“Wave back,” Chansung whispered harshly, slapping at Kevin’s shoulder.
Straightening himself up into a more “poised” (or what he thought may have been poised) position, Kevin waved lazily toward Sooyoung - who’s smiled brightened at the motion.
“Hey!” She greeted, dropping down onto the free cushion at Kevin side. “How’s it hanging?”
“It’s hang-..., it’s going good,” Kevin smiled back, nodding his head vigorously as Chansung looked on - almost groaning as he felt the awkward radiate off of his friend. “Are you here alone?”
Kevin’s question was instantaneously answered as a girl, who looked about their age, came running in their direction - arms stretched wide as she dropped down into the small excess of space between Sooyoung and himself. Leaning forward to get a better look at the girl, Kevin examined the two as they linked arms, the second girl resting her chin against the Sooyoung’s shoulder blade.
“No! No,” Sooyoung shook her head in response, smile widening as she touched her forehead to the other girl’s. “This,” she paused, detaching herself from her (what Kevin was guessing) friend to motion toward her - like she was more of a spectacle, something to focus all your attention on than any normal person. “... is my girlfriend. Kyungri.”
From the side, Kevin could hear Chansung choke a bit on his drink - as a side effect of the roaring laugh he let out. Mouth hanging open somewhat, Kevin wasn’t entirely sure how to answer back, or keep Chansung from embarrassing him, before he opted out for giving Sooyoung another smile.
“She’s really pretty,” he answered back. “You’re really pretty.”
Turning to the side to glare at Chansung, who was still in the middle of his little laughter fit, just as Kyungri gave him an eye smile that he was sure could make anyone weak in the knees.
“How long have you two been together?” Chansung piped up, taking another sip of his drink to calm himself as Kevin leaned back further into the couch again.
“I don’t know, maybe... a yea-...” Sooyoung started before being cut off by a voice emerging from the rolling chair at the side of their couch.
“For as long as we’ve been?” Kevin waved up as the chair rolled in front of the couch, revealing the face behind the voice. “Unless I have my months off.”
“No, you’re right!” Kyungri nodded her head enthusiastically. “Where have you been this week, Minseok, I’ve missed seeing you around cla-...”
Kyungri paused the taller boyfriend of the other, a foreign exchange student that she’d shared a film class with at the start of the year, emerged from the opposite end of the couch, reaching forward to grab Minseok’s hand.
“I’m thisty, let’s go to the vending machine,” Luhan pouted down at Minseok as the other sighed - sending an apologetic shrug to everyone on the couch before standing up from the couch.
“Duty calls.”
'90 line centric; college au
various pairings, ships + groups
part one of two; pg-13; 2,418 words
a/n: i was having a hard time trying to figure out whether or not i should just explain what i'm trying to do on twitter (which would work if i wasn't planning on "sharing" the fic around on whatever livejournals i stumble on that fit), but you know. the idea for something focusing on idols born in 1990 popped up on twitter about... two months ago, now? and i jumped at the opportunity to be the one who tried to make something work for it. at first, i was going to just do a big one shot set at a college party or something but when i realized just how many idols were born in that year (so many quality ones that it'd kind of pain me to pass up on the chance to write a little bit of something for all of them), i came up with... whatever is going on under the cut here. it's basically little sections of writing, that are more or less drabbles in their own right, focusing on relationships, budding relationships, "potential" relationships, infatuation and friendships that connect back together in one way or another. not all of them are directly linked, but the one thing that all of them do have in common is the setting: university. by the time i got to the fifth or sixth "part", i realized that it'd just make more sense to post the thing in chunks, rather than a conglomerate? i've been feeling kind of antsy about getting it out, anyway. so, this way, something will be there - ready to go, but i'll still have the time to finish up the last half whenever i feel it. (which, honestly, if my muse comes back in full swing sometime this week, it'll probably be by the weekend or sometime next week). anyway, these are the first six, hopefully you enjoy it!
also: the pairings are somewhat out there, in full. i may have picked some of them from a hat (with the exception of some more popular crackships/group ships), but everything worked out nicely in the end, imo? maybe. possibly. you all tell me.
----
Kim Jonghyun had never had a problem finding love. You could find it anywhere, if you were looking hard enough: in the chorus of a good song, in an extra ingredient thrown into your favorite dessert, or a look someone gave you (if you were lucky enough to catch it at the right time).
… But this didn’t mean that “love” saw you back. “Love” could decide to turn the tables on you without any warning; kick dirt at you, kicked you over the curb or laugh right in your face.
Love was a bitch and, as optimistic as he tried to keep himself, it was proving to be more and more difficult by the day.
“You’ll get her attention eventually,” Jieun had reassured him as she smoothed “comforting” circles between the blades of his shoulders.
“Yeah, you’re a total babe, she’ll be trying to stick a hand down your pants in no time,” Dongwoo had struggled to make out to him through a mouthful of blueberry muffin.
Jonghyun scowled. “Thanks.”
It was hopeless.
----
“Doubl-…, no, can you make that a triple shot?” Reaching downward to unzip the top of her purse, Heo Gayoon pulled out a crumpled wad of won, dropping it carelessly in front of the cash register. Ignoring the look the cashier gave to her, she craned her neck to the side - just in time to catch a set of eyes ripping away from her general area.
Eyebrows furrowing together in curiosity, she absentmindedly started to zip her purse back up, mumbling for the cashier to “keep the change” before beginning to feel around for her cup. Managing to find it after a good twenty seconds of trying, Gayoon started in the direction of an empty table - just two or three away from the person who had caught her attention.
She’d always been good at observation, a lot better that this guy was. She could practically trace the trail of drool he’d left on the table in front of him. It was fun watching people though..
He seemed like the type she could get some good amusement out of watching for awhile - and he didn’t fail her there. Whether he knew it or not, the guy was top grade entertainment for someone with nothing to until their first class of the day (which she had about half an hour left to get to after she’d turning over into fifteen minutes of watching him). He twitched a lot, and scowled just as much.
She resisted the urge to laugh every time he frowned at the cashier - which she’d eventually realized was what he was so fixated on - smiled brightly at one of the customers. Some people were so touchy.
Looking down at the screen of her phone, Gayoon let out a small sigh when realized how close she was cutting it to being late for class. She could’ve just skipped but doing that solely to watch this guy was crossing into a territory that she didn’t really feel like entering (ie: stalking).
Slinging the strap of her purse around her shoulder, she gripped onto the bottom of her (now) empty cup before starting in the direction of the exit. Hesitating for a moment as she closed in on the table of the the guy, she gave a small shrug, stopping at his side.
He didn’t seem to register her presence until she bent herself down, aligning her lips a few inches from his ear.
“Why don’t you save yourself the angst and just ask her out? You’re doing a terrible job hiding that hard on of yours.”
Gayoon heard a small crash and groan as she moved away from him - finally allowing herself to laugh.
----
“People are hilarious,” Gayoon let out as she dropped down into a seat at the back of her Mass Communications class.
The girl at her side gave a small shake of her head, half smiling as she uncapped a pen and rolled it in Gayoon’s direction. “What this time?”
Gayoon shrugged. “Nothing really - just some love sick puppy at that coffee shop down the block. He was slobbering all over this cashier and I needed to kill some time before class, so I figured why not “observe” for a bit, you know?”
“Observe.”
“Yeah, observe. Don’t act like you haven’t done it before, either, you’re guiltier than I even am, Im Yoona.”
Yoona gave a small roll of her eyes as she flicked a thick strand of hair behind her shoulder, batting her eyelashes playfully at her friend. “But, when I do it, it’s for a good cause.”
“No, you only did it because you had a dream about blowing that guy in your Physics class of.”
A small grumble, followed by an even smaller cough, came from Yoona’s other side before Yoona let out a laugh - that ricocheted around them and caused a few people in the row of seats in front of them to look back in curiosity (and annoyance).
“Excuse me?”
Gayoon leaned forward to attach a face to the grumble, cough and two words thrown in her direction, beginning to laugh along with Yoona when realizing who it was.
“Oh…, yeah, sorry to burst your bubble there, Jonghyun.” She shrugged before falling back against the back of her seat.
“You had dreams about blowing me?” She heard her friend’s “friend”, Lee Jonghyun, one of the fifty Jonghyun’s she’d heard about being in their year alone, question Yoona as she attempted to focus on whatever their professor was trying to drill into their skulls.
It just proved kind of difficult when Yoona was being so obvious about the hand she was sliding up Jonghyun’s thigh - and her mind was stuck on whether or not that guy had taken her advice at the coffee shop.
----
“So, you have an ulterior motive the entire time?” Jonghyun mumbled against Yoona’s earlobe.
A grin crossed her lips as she turned the handle of the door to his dorm, giving a small shrug when stepping into the dimly lit room. “I guess you could say that.”
Turning her back to him, Yoona observed the room that she’d been in two or three times before - all of the other times, it’d been filled to the brim with friends of Jonghyun and his roommate, some guy from Canada that she’d never been able to remember the name of. Kris? Kraig? Kevin…?
“You could’ve just… said something to me about it from the get go.” Yoona felt the space behind her become closed in as his chest pressed flush against her back, arms wrapping loosely around her waist.
“Where’s the fun in that, though?”
He chuckled. ‘Ah, I get it. You wanted to string me along.”
“Maybe.” Yoona suppressed a full blown giggle as Jonghyun locked his grip more firmly around her, spinning her in his direction again. Squinting at him as he did so, she craned her neck to the side, averting eye contact.
“Yoona…”
Pursing her lips together, “Yes?”
Raising his index finger toward the center of her lips, Jonghyun turned her back toward the bed, readying himself to give her a gentle push toward the center of the mattress when Yoona opted to turn them once more. “I’m the one in control here,” she shook her head as she gave him a small shove, Jonghyun falling back onto his comforter.
Shooting her a small grin from down on the bed, Jonghyun gave a firm nod of his head - in response, agreeance - a mixture of the two. “No one said you weren’t.”
“Good,” Yoona returned his smile as she climbed onto the empty space on the mattress next to him, hooking one of her legs around his own. “Now...,” she trailed off. “... stop talking.”
----
“Well, what exactly do you have planned for today, then?”
Kevin gave a shrug to Chansung as they turned down the hallway leading toward the dorm he shared with Lee Jonghyun. It wasn’t a terrible situation, he was a nice enough guy. He got a little loud at times, what, with his acoustics and the blaring of his iPod but that wasn’t really something Kevin couldn’t handle.
“I figured I could grab my textbook and… see where everything goes after that.”
He could practically feel the eye roll Chansung was giving him.
“We could be out having a good time right now, and you want to study? You’re such a cliché.”
Kevin shrugged a second time as they honed in closer to his dorm. “Yeah, I guess I am.”
Taking the final few steps toward the room at the end of the hall, his paced begun to slow down as he noticed a bright red… hair tie tied around the knob. Turning back to look at Chansung, he raised his eyebrow before pointing toward the hair tie. “Is that a hair tie?”
Moving forward past Kevin, Chansung reached out to graze the hair accessory. “Looks that way,” he started before letting out a small chuckle. “You know what that means, traditionally speaking, right?”
“… No?”
“You’re such a square,” his friend mumbled before leaning up against the wall next to the door frame and pointing toward the door. “Listen for a second.”
“Listen for what….?” Kevin trailed off before taking the suggestion and leaning toward the door, his ear lightly grazing the wood. “I don’t hear an-...., oh.”
The sound of wood smacking against the wall was impossible not to spot out. Either the earth was shifting or his roommate was in the middle of a… tryst.
Pulling back to his previous spot, Kevin let out an exasperated sigh. “Damn it, I had to grab my charger too, my phones on it’s last leg right now.”
Stepping closer to Kevin again, Chansung draped an arm around his shoulder before continuing forward, pulling him down the hallway along with him. “Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered, man.”
----
“A charger...,” Chansung pulled a hand out of his backpack, tossing the small black object toward Kevin as he trailed off, eyes squinting in an attempt to further search the dark (and cluttered) pouch. “... and a quarter!”
Kevin furrowed his eyebrows together as his friend, with an open palm, shoved his hand in his direction - a gleaming quarter staring back up at him, almost tauntingly. “I don’t want your quarter.”
“Well then,” scoffing lightly, “penny for your thoughts, then?”
“Who said I had any of those?”
“Thoughts?” Chansung shrugged. “I just assumed.”
“You do that too much - assuming. It’s getting kind of irritating.”
Chansung gave a small roll of his eyes as he dropped his backpack onto the ground near his feet, pulling his phone out of the front pocket of his hoodie to check for new messages. It was nearing on noon - and his girlfriend, Jihyun, had failed to get back to him after their last round of Snapchatting. “I miss her face,” thoughts were spoken aloud and Kevin couldn’t help but groan.
“You’re disgusting - both of you,” his groan continued (and amplified) as he leaned back into the cushioning of the couch Chansung had picked for them in the student lounge a few minutes prior. If he’d had any say in... anything (which he rarely did when Chansung was involved in the situation), he would’ve been hiding under his duvet back at his dorm, but...
“Disgustingly cute,” Chansung retorted back lamely as he balanced his phone onto the arm rest of the couch. “Speaking of -...”
Kevin readied himself to bite back at his friend again - teeth clenched and eyes narrowed - before his features softened back up at what Chansung was referencing.
Choi Sooyoung, in all her glory; legs that went on for miles, a smile that could light up the room, and a laugh that he remembered for hours after it ricocheted off the walls of whatever room they had been in together. He was in love, and she was... walking in their direction, and she was waving. She was waving at them.
“Wave back,” Chansung whispered harshly, slapping at Kevin’s shoulder.
Straightening himself up into a more “poised” (or what he thought may have been poised) position, Kevin waved lazily toward Sooyoung - who’s smiled brightened at the motion.
“Hey!” She greeted, dropping down onto the free cushion at Kevin side. “How’s it hanging?”
“It’s hang-..., it’s going good,” Kevin smiled back, nodding his head vigorously as Chansung looked on - almost groaning as he felt the awkward radiate off of his friend. “Are you here alone?”
Kevin’s question was instantaneously answered as a girl, who looked about their age, came running in their direction - arms stretched wide as she dropped down into the small excess of space between Sooyoung and himself. Leaning forward to get a better look at the girl, Kevin examined the two as they linked arms, the second girl resting her chin against the Sooyoung’s shoulder blade.
“No! No,” Sooyoung shook her head in response, smile widening as she touched her forehead to the other girl’s. “This,” she paused, detaching herself from her (what Kevin was guessing) friend to motion toward her - like she was more of a spectacle, something to focus all your attention on than any normal person. “... is my girlfriend. Kyungri.”
From the side, Kevin could hear Chansung choke a bit on his drink - as a side effect of the roaring laugh he let out. Mouth hanging open somewhat, Kevin wasn’t entirely sure how to answer back, or keep Chansung from embarrassing him, before he opted out for giving Sooyoung another smile.
“She’s really pretty,” he answered back. “You’re really pretty.”
Turning to the side to glare at Chansung, who was still in the middle of his little laughter fit, just as Kyungri gave him an eye smile that he was sure could make anyone weak in the knees.
“How long have you two been together?” Chansung piped up, taking another sip of his drink to calm himself as Kevin leaned back further into the couch again.
“I don’t know, maybe... a yea-...” Sooyoung started before being cut off by a voice emerging from the rolling chair at the side of their couch.
“For as long as we’ve been?” Kevin waved up as the chair rolled in front of the couch, revealing the face behind the voice. “Unless I have my months off.”
“No, you’re right!” Kyungri nodded her head enthusiastically. “Where have you been this week, Minseok, I’ve missed seeing you around cla-...”
Kyungri paused the taller boyfriend of the other, a foreign exchange student that she’d shared a film class with at the start of the year, emerged from the opposite end of the couch, reaching forward to grab Minseok’s hand.
“I’m thisty, let’s go to the vending machine,” Luhan pouted down at Minseok as the other sighed - sending an apologetic shrug to everyone on the couch before standing up from the couch.
“Duty calls.”