ISS 2014: for irethsingello

[comebackmods]

Title: The Case of the Mysterious Purple Cats
Rating: PG
Pairing: Sungjong/Sungyeol
Length: ~10,000 words
Summary: Sungjong’s assigned a novice to coach but Hoya’s magic doesn’t go quite the way it’s supposed to. Meanwhile next door, Sungyeol keeps finding purple cats in his printer and he’s blaming it on Myungsoo.
Notes: I was SO EXCITED when I found out I was writing for you! I hope I didn’t disappoint-to be perfectly honest, exams crept up on me and it’s not super polished. I’m sorry! Happy Christmas and I hope you like it anyway!

To: irethsingollo
From: Your Secret Santa



“MYUNGSOO. STOP PRINTING PURPLE CATS WITH MY PRINTER.”

“Whaaa--?” Myungsoo, still towelling his hair dry, looked thoroughly confused as he hobbled into Sungyeol’s room. He was greeted with a picture of the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland brandished so close to his nose it almost took it off.

“This is the seventh one you’ve printed today. How many do you want?” demanded his roommate, Sungyeol.

Myungsoo just looked puzzled.

Frustrated, Sungyeol waved frantically at the pile of papers sitting next to his printer. When Myungsoo still didn’t react, Sungyeol harrumphs and reached over to grab the stack.

“Look! This one’s just a ghostly purple cat. Did you Photoshop this one? There’s no way a cat actually has fur that shade. And this one! It’s definitely from that one cartoon. Also - what in the world is this? If you hadn’t been printing pictures of cats all the time, I would’ve thought it was deformed dog!” Each description was joined with a full-page colour (and he’d just replaced the ink dammit!) photograph shoved into Myungsoo’s face.

Absolutely bewildered, Myungsoo stammered, “But none of those are mine.”

“…What?”

“I didn’t print them.”

Sungyeol’s expression resembled a constipated racoon; he couldn’t decide if he should be angry, annoyed, or confused.

Waking up to the sheer ridiculousness of the situation and suddenly finding everything quite hilarious, Myungsoo began to giggle.

Settling on annoyed, Sungyeol spat, “Are you kidding me?”

“No!” Myungsoo, quite inconsolable at this point, clutched his sides as he choked with laughter, “why would I print pictures of purple cats? I don’t even like purple. Plus, I was just in the shower. It’s got to be a neighbour. I told you not to get a wireless printer, serves you right.”

Sungyeol scowled, threw the stack of papers onto his desk, and reached over sullenly to turn the printer off.

∞

The pile of purple cat pictures kept increasing. Sungyeol tried turning the printer off, unplugging it entirely, changing the printer settings to non-wireless, and even removing the paper and ink.

Nothing worked. Somehow, the cats were still being printed. Some were angry, some were cute, some were sleeping, some were staring, and there was even one particularly brave cat skydiving. The only thing they all had in common was they were all purple. Myungsoo started a collage in the living room, and found the entire thing far too amusing.

Sungyeol was just annoyed. When he bought a printer, all he wanted to do was print his university papers. And moving off-campus only to decorate the walls with purple cat portraits he didn’t even like was not ideal.

“I hate this building,” Sungyeol grumbled to Myungsoo, who was putting up yet another purple cat. The phantom printer user was just one of the many people Sungyeol hadn’t met but couldn’t stand. There was also that guy who kept playing hip-hop dub step at ungodly hours in the morning that had shocked Sungyeol awake at 4 am the previous night.

∞

Said neighbour who liked to blast dub step at four in the morning was currently hearing a, quite frankly, disinterested roommate turn the pages in a magazine while he himself struggled with foreign incantations and angrily brandished what looked like a deformed wooden chopstick around.

Muttering angrily, he whipped around and threw his wand at Sungjong, who dodged it deftly and let out a long-suffering sigh.

“Hyung, it is not that hard. You’ve been trying for weeks. The only way you wouldn’t have managed summon at least a piece of fur or a claw would be if you’re just dumb.”

Hoya didn’t look back at Sungjong, who had no doubt shot Hoya a pointed look and then gone back to flipping through his magazine, and instead shuffled to retrieve the wand.

“I’ve definitely done something… I can feel something happening.”

Sungjong had to try really hard not to roll his eyes. “Hyung, if you had, we’d see a cat wouldn’t we?”

“Whatever. I give up. Can you make us dinner? I’m starved after apparently failing to summon cats.”

Sungjong conceded that the day was probably futile, grabbed his own wand, and headed for the kitchen.

∞

Their collage of purple cats just kept growing in random spurts, as though the person printing lost interest for a while and then went on a printing spree.

“I found another one-this makes no sense, Myungsoo. Who prints things and doesn’t wonder what happens to them? For that matter, I get if you print the same thing again and again because you think it didn’t work but none of these cats are the same?”

Myungsoo just shrugged and put up the picture next to all the others. The wall was almost entirely covered in a paper collage of cats and Myungsoo loved it. Once it was satisfactorily taped up and arranged, he went towards the kitchen calling over his shoulder, “What do you want for dinner? We still have the leftover kimchi my mom sent us?”

Just then, the doorbell rang.

“I got it. And that sounds fine. I think we still have rice, too.”

The person standing on the other side of the door was absolutely gorgeous. There was no other word for him. He was lean and ethereal looking with flawless skin and an expression that Sungyeol would probably feel fine about worshipping.

“Excuse me, sorry, but do you guys have gas? We were trying to make dinner just now and we can’t seem to get the stove to work.”

His voice was just as beautiful as he was and it took Sungyeol a moment to reply.

“Oh, um, I’m not sure.” Did he sound casual enough? Shoot. He probably sounded like an idiot. “My roommate is in the kitchen now; I’ll go ask him. Come on, it’s right through here.”

Sungyeol closed the door behind Sungjong and led him through the apartment towards the kitchen and when the wall of cats came into view, Sungyeol wanted to die. He had totally forgotten it was there and Myungsoo’s obsessions had never seemed stranger. This perfect man was going to think they were crazy (and rightly so!).

Sungjong, understandably, looked rather shell-shocked at the wall of cats. Normally, good manners would prevent him from commenting but he had a small itching feeling on the back of his mind that… no. It couldn’t be. “…Do you and your roommate like cats a lot?”

A high-pitched giggle escaped from Sungyeol. “No! I mean. Yes! But not that much. And not purple. Someone in the building keeps using my wireless printer to print cats and we haven’t figured out how to stop them so Myungsoo - that’s my roommate - thought it’d be funny to tack them all up but really, a new one just turns up every now and then. I’ve tried everything-somehow they just keep printing.” Giggling nervously again, Sungyeol tried to brush the cats aside as quickly as possible, “Anyway, MYUNGSOO! DO WE HAVE GAS?”

Sungjong had collected himself at this point and merely nodded politely but made a mental note to murder Hoya later.

“Yeah, we do. Why? Are we not supposed to?” Myungsoo came out of the kitchen and looked at Sungjong with polite confusion.

“Sorry, my name is Lee Sungjong. I live in the apartment across the hall and my roommate and I aren’t getting gas so we were wondering if maybe it was building-wide problem. It seems not.”

“Oh!” Sungyeol quickly jumped in, mentally blaming his lack of manners on how distracting Sungjong’s beauty was, “Sorry, I’m Lee Sungyeol and this is my roommate Kim Myungsoo. If you guys don’t have gas, you’re welcome to join us for dinner? We were just going to heat up some leftovers and make rice to go with it.”

∞

“Hyung!! You idiot! You’ve been conjuring cats this whole time. They just aren’t real and you’ve been conjuring them to the apartment next door!”

“What are you on about? Aren’t we done with the cats for today? I thought you just went to figure out why our kitchen doesn’t work? Speaking of-why can’t you just magic the gas on again?”

Scowling, Sungjong replied, “I told you. Magic is specific. My powers are only for food; I can’t make appliances work. And I thought you said yours was animals! But you failed to inform me that yours was actually making drastic mistakes and potentially revealing magic to the normal masses! Thankfully, the people next door were more befuddled than actually concerned enough to install security cameras or call the police.” Sungjong was practically fuming at this point. How did he land with such an idiot?

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. But tell me later and first tell me what we’re going to do for dinner because I’m still starved.”

At this point, Hoya finally exited the kitchen and looked at Sungjong with slight annoyance (but not really because could he ever really be annoyed at Sungjong?) and a whole lot of confusion.

Sungjong, on the other hand, had settled onto the couch with icy disdain. “Our neighbours have a wall of printed purple cats,” he told Hoya very calmly. “They also invited us to dinner but I declined because I thought it might be a tad disconcerting to sit in a room of your cats when they’re just blaming it on a wireless printer. But I don’t know-maybe you wouldn’t find it so disturbing.”

Hoya was scared. Not exactly scared of the wall of printed purple cats (quite honestly, that sounded pretty hilarious and it was a pity Sungjong didn’t see that), but of Sungjong being mad at him.

“Are you saying I’ve been conjuring purple cats next door?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

“That seems like a problem.” (Actually, Hoya didn’t really see the problem but it seemed like Sungjong did and Hoya was not about to disagree.)

“Very astute, Hyung.”

“What are we going to do?”

“We? What are you going to do?”

There was a long pause as Hoya tried to figure out what Sungjong wanted. Finally he gave up and went with what he wanted.

“…I’m going to go buy us takeout for dinner from the noodle restaurant down the street.”

∞

Sungyeol had decided to cut his morning class the next day and was nursing his ever-present cup of coffee when he heard a thud from inside his room.

He was halfway through rolling is eyes and was preparing to yell out a mock-indignant question of what Myungsoo had broken now when he suddenly froze and clutched his mug tighter. Myungsoo was definitely at photography class. He had those every Thursday morning and while he might skip some other classes, this was not one he would ever skip. What’s more, Sungyeol distinctly remembered waving a groggy goodbye to at his roommate leaving when he rolled out of bed.

Setting down his coffee as gently as possibly, he tiptoed cautiously towards his bedroom and stopped outside of the closed door, wondering what to do.

Ohmygod. What if they printed a real cat.

That was his first thought and he immediately had to shake his head at the absurdity of it. Printing a real cat? It probably spoke to how much the printed cats had become a part of their lives that it was the phantom printer he considered first rather than any number of logical conclusions.

Taking a deep breath, Sungyeol pushed the door open...

...only to come face to face with the handsome guy from last night.

Sungjong let out a high-pitched screech and Sungyeol reacted with one of his own.

“I thought you were at class!”

“What?! What are you doing here? In my apartment? In my room? How did you get in? Why? Also, how do you know my class schedule? We met yesterday!”

Sungjong was still breathing heavily and after the whole slew of questions, could not make eye contact, but Sungyeol (of course) did not stop talking.

“Are you holding another cat picture? Ohmygod. Have you been printing the cats?”

Suddenly, Sungyeol felt a lot calmer about the whole situation. That would make a lot of sense-Sungjong was printing all the cats and he didn’t know where they were printing so he kept doing it but then last night, he figured out where they were going so he came to get his printed picture! Everything suddenly seemed a lot funnier.

(Sungjong still hadn’t said anything.)

“You know, next time you can just ask to print. I mean, we’re neighbours and we know each other now. I don’t mind if you want to use my printer, there’s no need to sneak around. It was just kind of creepy before because we had no idea who it was, ya know? And, like, they seemed to get around all the stuff I did without even knowing I did it? Hey! How did you manage to print without paper?”

“Um…” (Very coherent. Good job, Sungjong. It was a sad day indeed when Lee Sungjong could not hold his composure. Maybe Sungyeol just had that effect on people? Or maybe Sungyeol just had that effect on him.)

“Oh! Do you want the other ones too or do they not matter anymore? You can take our whole collage down-I mean, it’s hardly our collage if they were your cats. Some of them were really creepy though… some of them were real cute, too! Myungsoo’s favourite was the one holding the umbrella. Say, where did you find so many pictures of purple cats? I didn’t even know there were this many pictures of cats, let alone purple ones.”

“Um. No! It’s okay, you can keep them.” Sungjong had found his voice and the more he talked, the more he calmed down and his mind was now racing to find a way to rectify this. “I’m so sorry about using your printer-I had no idea they were coming to you until yesterday and when I saw the wall, I thought it was a very strange coincidence until you mentioned the mysterious printing.”

Holding himself up more confidently, he continued, “My roommate rather likes cats so I was trying to put something together for his birthday. I was trying to test my printer one more time when I realised I’d selected yours again so came here to retrieve it. So sorry for bothering you this morning.”

“Oh no! That’s totally cool! Here, you have your picture now but I’m pretty good with electronics. Let’s go back to your place and I can hook up your printer for you? I mean, you’re welcome to keep using mine, but if you have one, it’d be nice to make it work, right?”

Sungyeol was already halfway out the door when Sungjong realised what was happening and had to dash after him.

“No! No! It’s fine! No! Absolutely don’t worry about it! I’m sure I’ll figure it out on my own!”

Laughing, Sungyeol shook his head and kept walking, “It’s really no problem. And I mean, you haven’t figured it out for a good six months now so another person on it couldn’t hurt. And don’t worry,” he added kindly, “printers are hard. Mine befuddled me for the longest time, Myungsoo spent days telling me how I shouldn’t have gotten a wireless one but I wanted to because- ”

Sungyeol had made it to Sungjong’s apartment and was standing in the doorway, gobsmacked.

Hoya, still in his (purple) pyjamas, was waving his wand towards a live purple cat that was running all over the place. Hoya’s attempts at controlling it seemed pretty futile and he was alternatively pointing his wand to the cat and diving to protect the food on the table from it.

Speaking of food on the table, it looked like some sort of flour mixing was going on except there was no one mixing it? And was the milk adding itself to the flour?

When the doorway had opened and Sungyeol stood frozen in the frame, Hoya had called out, “Sungjong! Look! I conjured the cat! But he seems like a mighty devil, he keeps trying to eat your blueberry muffins… I didn’t even know cats liked blueberry muffins. For that matter, does anyone even like cats? Like-the only thing this one’s done is ruin all the furniture and try to eat my breakfast-oh. Hi Sungyeol.”

Everything seemed to stop. Even the cat settled down next to the batter (which continued to churn on its own) and began licking the spoon. Sungyeol looked open-mouthed at Hoya, Hoya looked nervously at Sungjong, and Sungjong just looked really distressed.

Slowly, Sungyeol turned to look at Sungjong and said the only thing he could think of to say was, “I thought you said your roommate liked cats.”

“Um. He does.” Well. Might as well try to salvage something, right?”

“I do?”

“You do.”

“I do.” Hoya had finally picked up on some of the gravity of the matter and was now just meekly playing along (not very convincingly) to whatever Sungjong said. It wasn’t that he was a bad actor! Sungjong just hadn’t given a script or prepared him at all beforehand. He had no idea who he was supposed to be-a gay lover? An uninvolved roommate? (Well, it was probably too late for that.) A classmate over for breakfast?

Sungjong let out a deep sign and stepped fully into the apartment, closing the door behind him. The damage was done and it was time to do damage control and with the muffins still mixing right in front of Sungyeol and the sugar now adding itself, there really was no way to damage control other than some sincere truth and maybe a dash of luck and charisma. “Look, I’m really sorry. I know this looks crazy. But we’ll explain everything, compensate you well for your troubles, and we hope you’ll be willing to put everything behind you and not tell a soul of any of this.”

Hoya took that as his cue to make himself sparse and went to go clean up everything the cat had knocked over - it actually wasn’t too bad. Sungyeol had just caught them in a moment of crazy and there were only a couple chairs knocked over, some scratches on the admittedly already old couch, and a whole lot of spilled milk.

(Somehow, he found himself sitting at the kitchen table, eating batter with one finger, and using his other hand to pet the cat as he eavesdropped on the conversation.)

∞

Myungsoo was seriously concerned. Sungyeol had been acting strange all day and while Myungsoo could be oblivious to a lot of things, his best friend was not one of those things. He didn’t bring it up though and just chatted aimlessly about the new techniques he learned in photography class and wouldn’t it be nice to have a new model?

At this point, Sungyeol’s mind flashed to Sungjong (could you blame him? He looked made for photo-shoots.) and couldn’t stop himself from piping up, “Our next door neighbour, the one that came to ask for gas yesterday? You could probably ask him.”

Understandably, Myungsoo looked confused. “Well, yeah, I probably could. He does look like a model. But why? We’ve met him for maybe all of five minutes.”

“Actually, I found him in my room today.” Sungyeol said this as nonchalantly as possible, mostly because he still wasn’t really sure what to make of the whole situation.

“You… I’m sorry. Your room? Found him?”

“Yeah. You know, I didn’t actually ask him how he got in. Maybe he just waved his wand. Oh, wait, did I mention? His roommate has actually been the one printing our cat collage but he hasn’t been printing them, he’s been magic-ing -- excuse me, I mean, the word he used was conjuring -- cats but I guess he’s not very good at it yet? Sungjong called him that nicer word for noob.”

To his credit, Myungsoo had not immediately freaked out and instead asked very calmly, “You mean novice?”

“Yes. That sounds right.”

There was a long pause. Then the rest of the story spilled out of Sungyeol and the controlled, measured sort of talking he had maintained up to that point was completely lost.

“Ohmygod, Myungsoo, it was so cool. I didn’t mean to walk in without him having invited me in - but like also he’s kind of got a bit of magnetism about him hasn’t he? So I’m not even sure how I managed to do that - and I saw his roommate’s, his name is Hoya by the way, actual wand and there were blueberry muffins making themselves and they even baked themselves and they were actually delicious. Maybe magic is a secret ingredient? And he told me not to tell anyone because they’re not really supposed to let anyone know but I mean, he won’t know that I told you right? Plus, I kind of added on at the end ‘except Myungsoo’ really quietly when he said that so it’s fine I’m sure. But can you imagine? They’ve been printing through the wall except not with ink or paper or even electricity! It’s just been coming through. To think we’ve had magic cats on our wall all this time… Oh! And he did it! There was a real cat - still purple, not really sure about that yet - at their apartment that Hoya was yelling about succeeding. Sure took him long enough, didn’t it? We saw the first cat ages ago. He must be really bad compared to Sungjong because those muffins were amazing and he made us coffee afterwards and honestly, I don’t think our coffee maker will ever compare.”

Myungsoo was looking rather slack-jawed at this point. Sungyeol couldn’t blame him. He hadn’t known what to say for a good three hours afterwards and had aimlessly wandered around the apartment sipping the (truly, truly, exquisite) coffee until it had run dry and then he had continued to carry the mug around and sip on air because he wasn’t functional enough to go make another cup.

It didn’t Myungsoo quite as long as Sungyeol to recover.

(Sungyeol would later claim it was because he hadn’t been there to have the magic overwhelm him in person. Myungsoo would later claim it was because he wasn’t spinning from Sungjong’s beauty the way Sungyeol most definitely was. “Was not!”)

“You’re so right.”

“Whaa? Of course I am! You weren’t there.”

“No I meant, about getting Sungjong to model for my class. He’d be such a great subject; I bet he really pops on print. And he’d probably do it because he’d be scared we’d tell more people right? So he definitely owes us! And what about all that printer anguish he caused us? Plus, wouldn’t it be so cool if we had friends who were… um. Magic people? Magicians? Witches? Wizards?”

“I have no idea. But yeah, it would be! Although, owing us? What anguish has he caused you? Please, you found the whole thing hilarious; I’ve never seen you put more care into anything than that wall. And the number of times you told me that I shouldn’t have gotten a wireless-hey! So now who was right!?”

Myungsoo rolled his eyes. “Please. That was six months trouble you could have saved. You definitely shouldn’t have gotten a wireless printer.”

∞

Sungjong had no idea what he was doing but he couldn’t honestly say that he minded. A small part of him definitely enjoyed being lathered with attention and praise. Having someone he barely knew asking him to model was pretty flattering and he had never minded pictures anyway so he had agreed pretty easily.

Now, flipping through the album that Myungsoo had gifted him, he was actually quite impressed.

Hoya came through the front door and dropped him gym bag on the floor before plopping next to Sungjong on the couch and taking a long swig of water. “Whatcha looking at?”

Sungjong wrinkled his nose and shifted away slightly. “Pictures of me. Go shower, Hyung, you’re disgusting.”

Hoya grinned and shrugged, “This happens every time I come back from dance practice. I’ll shower after I eat, like always. Speaking of…” he nudged Sungjong a couple times and laughed when Sungjong visibly recoiled from his sweaty arms.

“It’s in the fridge. Like always,” Sungjong added pointedly and gave an obnoxious and absolutely louder than necessary sigh of relief when Hoya got off the couch and returned with a Tupperware of dinner leftovers. Thankfully, this time he took the armchair rather than squeezing himself next to Sungjong.

“Anyway, what pictures?”

“The ones Myungsoo took of me for his photography class.”

“Oh, that’s right. I forgot you were doing that.” Quite amused, he added, “So are you still mad at him?”

Affronted, Sungjong replied, “I was never mad. I was just annoyed at Sungyeol for telling him after I specifically told him several times not to tell anyone.”

Hoya shrugged and said casually, “They’re best friends. It makes sense. I’d tell you if something that bizarre happened to me, too. I’m sure Myungsoo won’t tell anyone.”

“I know that now. He’s an actual kitten; I don’t think he’d be capable of doing anything someone didn’t want him to do. But it would still have been nice if he’d told us he was going to tell Myungsoo or at least waited more than 4 hours.”

Sungjong was less certain about the best friends thing, mostly because he wasn’t sure it had ever applied to him. He had so many friends that he kept in great touch with and considered close but was there anyone he could tell absolutely everything and anything to? Even Amber didn’t know about magic and he told Amber a whole lot about his life.

It must be nice for Sungyeol and Myungsoo, to have someone always there, from childhood up never changing and just knowing everything from before to now. Even Hoya had taken some time to get used to, as they were kind of thrown together as roommates by Sungjong’s old magical advisor.

(Plus, Hoya was surprisingly easy to grow close to, maybe because 99% of the time, Hoya did whatever Sungjong wanted him to. Not messing with the neighbour’s printer fell in that rare one percentile. Although, Sungjong did feel rather touched that Hoya had more or less said that they were best friends.)

“You look good there. Maybe we should make a collage, too, but instead of cats they can just be of you and your face. And the rest of you.”

“Don’t you already have one in your room?”

Completely unabashed, Hoya nodded, “But I mean who other than us sees my room?”

“Who other than us sees our apartment? We never have guests.”

Slyly grinning, Hoya replied, “I dunno, pretty sure I saw two coffee mugs in the sink just now. Do you even like coffee? And Myungsoo’s been over enough to take pictures of you so that makes two regular visitors-both of whom would greatly appreciate that collage, I’m sure, perhaps even more than me. Especially our coffee inhaler next door.”

Sungjong turned away pointedly and went back to flipping the album. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Hoya just flashed his shit-eating grin at Sungjong before going back to eating his dinner.

∞

Myungsoo came back from his photography class only to find Sungyeol typing away at his laptop on the couch. “What are you doing home? Don’t you have that 18th century lit lecture to go to?”

“I skipped it.”

Myungsoo raised an eyebrow, amused, “You’ve been skipping that one a lot lately.”

“It’s my only morning class and the professor posts all the slides. Of course I skip it a lot.”

“No, more so than usual.” Setting his camera down carefully on the kitchen table, he joined Sungyeol on the couch and asked, “Did you go to Sungjong’s again? Don’t you go three times a week already, now you’re invading his place Tuesdays and Thursdays, too?”

“He invites me!”

“You’re right. I’m sure he doesn’t mind. Doesn’t Hoya?”

“Hoya always has his classes in the mornings since he has practice in the afternoon so no, it doesn’t bother him.”

“So you admit any normal person would be annoyed at how often you go over there?”

Sungyeol finally cottoned onto what Myungsoo was saying and groaned, “Stop. He doesn’t like me. He’s just nice and brilliant and enjoys my company. I’m sure if Hoya were there, he wouldn’t mind either.”

Myungsoo made a noncommittal noise. “Speaking of, Hoya texted me about all four of us going to do something fun sometime this weekend. Said all we do is have each other over for dinner and it’s starting to sound like boring, sophisticated married couples.” Sniggering, he added, “I’m sure you wouldn’t mind if that’s how it was. But anyway, I agreed. Could be fun to go to noraebang or an amusement park or something.”

Ignoring the obvious jab, Sungyeol nodded, “Sure. Sounds good. I can’t do Friday night, though, got an audition during the day and a paper due at midnight.” Why he ever thought doubling in theatre and English would be a good idea was a perpetual mystery, “But maybe Saturday?”

“Works for me. I’ll text Hoya.”

∞

Sungjong was always surprised at how normal their friendships had become. It didn’t feel weird at all to go borrow Myungsoo and Sungyeol’s sugar now when just a couple months ago, he had been sneaking around in Sungyeol’s room trying to steal cat pictures.

Myungsoo had become a regular fixture in his life between photography sessions and just general hanging out. Sungyeol was present at least (usually more) every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning.

Hoya had not relented on talking about Sungyeol like he was a lovesick coffee addict, which honestly, was probably more than a little true. At this point, Sungjong was almost positive that Sungyeol wanted to date him. He wasn’t stupid, after all - Sungjong was probably the furthest from stupid you could get and Sungyeol was not what most people would describe as subtle. What he couldn’t figure out was if he wanted to date Sungyeol.

Sure he was tall and gorgeous and reasonably smart, he was also a silly, loud, and a completely endearing dork. Luna had told him under no uncertain terms that he could do a lot better but Amber had shrugged and said that she liked Sungyeol (and if there was ever judgement to trust, it’d be Amber’s) and it hardly mattered what people might think.

Rashness was not part of Sungjong’s nature, though, and he tended to think through everything he did and everything he said. He liked to think that’s why people trusted him because they knew everything he advised and everything he decided to do was carefully weighed and considered. It was unlikely for him to make a decision he regretted.

So while he was well aware Sungyeol wanted to date him, Sungjong was content to continue they way they were for a little longer as he figured things out for himself.

(Luna said he’d regret that.)

∞

The music was pounding through Hoya’s body as he contorted it into angles and fluid shapes, hitting every beat hard and fast.

Myungsoo, seated on the bleachers of the gym with his camera at his side, could almost feel the vibrations from the music and Hoya’s movements line up to create a perfect harmony in the large, empty, gym. He was so lucky that Sungjong modelling for him had turned into such a good friendship with both him and Hoya and how Hoya now let him tag along to not just performances but even his own jamming sessions.

He watched Hoya mop the sweaty hair out of his face with a towel and then lope over towards him. Myungsoo could almost hear Sungjong telling Hoya to go shower but Myungsoo didn’t mind that much. It didn’t smell nice, sure, but the gym was big, the air conditioning was blowing, and after working that hard, it’d honestly be quite strange if Hoya hadn’t drenched himself in sweat.

“So what’d you think?”

“I liked it.”

That’s the only thing Myungsoo ever says but Hoya grins every time and nods his thanks.

They sit in silence for a while until Hoya asks, “Did you take any pictures?”

Myungsoo blushes and shakes his head, “I’m not so good when the subject is moving as fast as you are when you dance.”

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out someday. Are there any new ones of Sungjong?”

Sungjong was always a fun topic. Myungsoo admires (obsesses) over beauty unlike anyone Hoya had ever known and had been the first person Hoya’s met that shared his almost godlike worship of Sungjong without finding it creepy, strange, or read romantic implications into it. Perhaps because Myungsoo seemed to admire Sungjong the same way Hoya did; saw him as ethereal, beautiful, stunning, smart, mature, and absolutely perfect.

“Yeah! We had a really good shoot a couple days ago and I finally went to develop them yesterday. I thought they came out really well but I showed Sungyeol some yesterday and he didn’t seem to want to keep looking. Maybe they aren’t as good as I thought they were? You can let me know.”

Hoya snorted, “That’s probably because he wanted to go hide his boner. Sungjong was telling me the other day that Sungyeol probably has a thing for him and honestly, I would not be surprised.”

Myungsoo froze, his hand still in his bag where it had been rifling for the folder of new pictures he’d brought along.

Hoya kept going, “Anyway, we don’t have that problem so let’s take a look. I’m sure they’re fantastic-you’re great at taking them and we all know Sungjong is a fantastic model. I keep telling him he should just send in an album of your pictures and he’d be sure to get a job at any company.”

Nodding, Myungsoo pulled out the folder but couldn’t stop his heart from pounding. Any other day, Hoya’s comment would’ve made him swell with pride but he had a grinding feeling in his stomach and he wasn’t really sure what it was from.

Trying his best to push it aside, he brought out the folder and tried to focus on the (admittedly, quite gorgeous) pictures in front of him.

∞

The afternoon with Hoya was actually pretty fantastic despite the uneasy feeling Myungsoo had been carrying around. When he had gotten back home, he had spent two hours lying on his bed, flipping through the pictures and pondering Hoya’s words about Sungyeol.

Something about them just didn’t sit right with Myungsoo but Hoya had said it so casually and they were sitting so close and he had just danced and they were about to go through Myungsoo’s photos and Myungsoo just couldn’t figure out what it was.

A part of him desperately wanted to tell Sungyeol but another part told him that it also might upset Sungyeol? But then, what about it would upset Sungyeol? Truthfully, Myungsoo hadn’t thought that Sungyeol not wanting to look at pictures was because he didn’t want to think about Sungjong.

They’d been best friends for so long, and Myungsoo was used to Sungyeol telling him to leave him alone when he needed to be alone-Myungsoo got that not everyone could stand being so near to people all the time the way he liked to be. And even if it wasn’t because Sungyeol didn’t want to see pictures of Sungjong, there was nothing wrong with that and Sungyeol knew him well enough that he knew Myungsoo wouldn’t have begrudged him that so there’d be no reason to get upset at that.

Plus, Sungyeol did have a thing for Sungjong. Unreciprocated, in Sungyeol’s opinion. Myungsoo was less sure. And it definitely wouldn’t be wrong if Sungyeol did - Sungjong was gorgeous, after all.

Myungsoo finally rolled off his bed and shook his head. Sungyeol would be home from rehearsal at this point and even if it would upset Sungyeol (Myungsoo wasn’t sure how yet, he just had a feeling), Myungsoo was helpless without his best friend and they talked about everything so it would’ve come out eventually. Now was as good of a time as ever.

∞

“Sungjong knows that I like him?”

Ohhh, so that was it. Myungsoo felt pretty thick and then he felt pretty awful looking at Sungyeol’s white-as-a-sheet face. (Honestly, Myungsoo was about 99% sure the whole world knew but he wasn’t about to tell Sungyeol that.)

“I mean,” Myungsoo tried to recover, “he thinks you do? And like, I’m sure he doesn’t mean it maliciously. Besides, you do. Right?”

“That’s not the point!” Sungyeol’s voice had gotten shrill. “He told Hoya that I probably had a thing for him?! Ohmygod, he hasn’t said anything to me. What if he thinks I’m a creeper? What if he thinks hilarious? I bet Hoya and him spend hours laughing over me.”

“He doesn’t think you’re a creeper! Don’t you guys hang out all the time? And it doesn’t seem like Hoya--”

“Yeah! We do! What if he’s just collected fodder to laugh about me later and tell stories? I’m totally just a joke to him. He’s never shown the remotest amount of romantic interest in me and I thought it was because he thought we were just friends! But you just said he knows I’m interested!”

“He definitely doesn’t go home to laugh about you with Hoya,” Myungsoo said patiently. Myungsoo was always patient was Sungyeol. “Hoya didn’t say it like he was mocking you at all. He said it really matter-of-factly, actually. It was all very casual and nonchalant.”

Sungyeol wasn’t listening at this point and was getting quite hysterical, “Well then why wouldn’t he just talk to me about it? Why talk behind my back? He’s such a jerk, ugh. Myungsoo, tell me why I always fall for the jerks.”

At that Myungsoo had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. Sungjong was the furthest thing from a jerk and the only reason Sungyeol’s last relationship had been with a “jerk” wasn’t even because Woohyun was a jerk. It had just ended bitterly and with Woohyun getting back together with his ex, some random dude with a super weird name like Lock or Key or something, two months after they had broken up.

“He is not a jerk. Maybe he just didn’t want to make you feel uncomfortable.”

“But he’s talking about me behind my back! He definitely finds it super hilarious. He definitely finds me super hilarious and dumb.”

At that, Myungsoo settled comfortably into the couch. They were going to be here for a while hashing over the same points until Sungyeol was too upset and frustrated and would go to bed and let it fester in him until he exploded at Sungjong. Myungsoo knew Sungyeol and as much as he knew what was going to happen, he also knew Sungyeol needed a friend to be unconditionally on his side and well. That was Myungsoo’s job as his resident best friend and roommate and he did it unquestioningly, happily, and without any reservations. Even if that did mean sitting there and listening and saying the same things for another two hours.

∞

Myungsoo was right. They got no where that night and Sungyeol went to bed upset and that did nothing for Myungsoo’s mood because it was never easy watching your best friend upset. But Sungyeol had forbidden Myungsoo from talking to Hoya or Sungjong about any of this.

By the next morning, Sungyeol was maintaining that he was fine, just fine, and it didn’t matter and they were going to carry on like normal: good friends but nothing more, and plus he was over Sungjong anyway.

Zipping up his bag, Myungsoo just hummed in agreement before grabbing his coat, calling out a goodbye, and heading out for his classes.

Sungyeol was then left alone to ponder if he wanted to go to Sungjong’s for coffee like normal or not. On one hand, he had just spent the last ten minutes telling Myungsoo that everything was completely normal between them and he was going to go on being Sungjong’s friend and that involved having their normal meeting times, right?

On the other hand, coffee was pretty date-y right? Like, people definitely went on coffee dates. And seeing someone so often, did that come across as desperate? What if Sungjong took Sungyeol hanging out with him so often as a sign that Sungyeol did like him and had found it super funny and pathetic?

Groaning, Sungyeol let his head fall onto his arms.

No. This was ridiculous.

Determined, he marched back to his room, got dressed, packed his bag, and left the apartment. Instead of going across the hall to Sungjong’s like he normally would every Wednesday morning, he walked past the Hojong apartment and headed to the library to get some of his paper on the Holy Sonnets written.

∞

Sungjong had the coffee beans grounding themselves but he hadn’t heated the water yet because there had been no sign of Sungyeol and he wouldn’t want to give him cold coffee. Hoya had left earlier in the morning, like always, but Sungyeol was a good 20 minutes later than he usually was.

Simply assuming that Sungyeol had slept in, Sungjong hadn’t really questioned it and went about with his usual morning routine. He was preparing a report for his superiors on Hoya’s magic level and training status and was trying really hard to refrain any mention of the neighbours in the accounts of Hoya’s fiascos.

Once the clock reached 11:30, however, Sungjong was mildly alarmed. Sungyeol had religiously ringed the doorbell for months without missing a single day and the sudden change made Sungjong worried. There was no text, no commotion from next door, no nothing and Sungjong had been checking his phone continuously for the past half hour now unsure what he should be doing. Finally, he sent off a quick text to Sungyeol.

∞

Sungyeol’s phone buzzed as he was slowing his way through a volume of John Donne’s poetry and when the name flashed Sungjong, he scowled, flipped the phone upside down, and went back to his reading.

Unfortunately, Donne was long, difficult, and archaic and finally, Sungyeol, tired of his head hurting and still steadfastly ignoring his phone, went to go buy a cup of a coffee just by habit. One sip, though, and he was back to thinking of Sungjong and longing for the perfectly brewed cup that he always seemed to manage to magic out. These days, any other store-bought cup didn’t seem to ever measure up favourably.

Finally, Sungyeol groaned and opened the text.

Hey, are you coming today?

He almost threw the phone across the (crowded, silent) library. This was so frustrating; he wasn’t even sure what he was supposed to say to something like that, especially when the obvious answer at this point would be no. Sungyeol was confused, lost, and kind of hurt and he wasn’t even sure why. Angrily, he shoved his phone to the bottom of his backpack and flipped open his laptop to furiously to start pounding out his paper.

∞

Sungjong had no idea what was happening. It was like Sungyeol had suddenly disappeared. He was never where he used to be. Even when Sungjong tried to creepily work near his window to catch when Sungyeol went to class, it was like Sungyeol’s schedule had completely changed. Sungjong never saw him ever and when he tried to knock on their apartment next door (he was getting desperate), either Myungsoo would answer and say Sungyeol wasn’t around or no one was home at all.

(Sungjong was not ashamed to admit that he had even repeated his breaking-in stint to affirm that Sungyeol wasn’t hiding from him. He wasn’t. Their apartment was well and truly empty most of the day and Sungyeol seemed to have timed his schedule perfectly to avoid Sungjong at every turn.)

Even Myungsoo didn’t seem really willing to hang out with him-the last photography session they had was three weeks ago and every time they did have a chance to talk, Myungsoo sounded dodgy and avoided talking about Sungyeol as though he were the plague and deflected questions about photography with a nervous laugh and a casual, “Oh, I don’t really have any projects that are due lately. We’re focusing on the history of photography right now.”

Hoya seemed just as bewildered. “Myungsoo hasn’t said anything when we hang out and I never really saw Sungyeol anyway so it’s not that strange that I haven’t talked to him in weeks.”

“Well, Hyung, why can’t you just ask him when you do?” Sungjong was exasperated and needed answers.

“Okay, okay, I will.” Hoya was half tempted to add a sassy comment about how ridiculously obsessive Sungjong was being (something Sungjong never was) but he could tell that Sungjong probably didn’t need that right now and as much of a sharp tongue Hoya could have, being there for Sungjong was definitely more important.

∞

Myungsoo and Hoya were back in their familiar place in the gym, this time, sharing it with some other students playing basketball. There was a girl who looked like she was killing it even as a guy with a screwed up face yelled, “Yah! Sung Shiwon! That’s not how you’re supposed to play!”

They were chatting about Hoya’s day and his professor from that morning who had apparently compared the economics of the human kidney market to the supply and demand economics of prostitution.

“What? That’s hilarious. I can’t believe he said that!” Myungsoo was in stitches of giggles. But then, he always did find things funnier than most people did, particularly when someone he loved said the supposedly funny things. (People had been telling him for years that Sungyeol wasn’t that funny but Myungsoo didn’t believe them.)

“I know, right? Like the poor kid is just asking for the Professor’s opinion and he tells him that he thinks it should be legal because he wants kids like him to be happier,” Hoya laughed, looking supremely pleased with himself for reducing Myungsoo to a pile of laughter.

Myungsoo giggled some more and then slowed down to thoughtfully ponder, “That’s so awful, though. Like even your professor thinks you can’t get someone without paying for it…”

This was the perfect transition. There was literally no better way to bring this up but Hoya was struggling. He didn’t even really know what Sungjong wanted him to ask but he cleared his throat and carefully brought up, “Speaking of getting someone… why did Sungyeol stop trying to get Sungjong?”

Myungsoo choked on his laughter.

“What?”

“I just mean… they’ve like completely stopped hanging out. And maybe Sungjong’s just exaggerating,” (he wasn’t) “but he says that Sungyeol’s been avoiding him for the last three weeks.”

Myungsoo shifted uncomfortably but Hoya pressed on.

“Sungyeol liked him, didn’t he? What happened? Sungjong says he has no idea what he did and to be perfectly honest, he seems rather devastated by the lack of Sungyeol in his life as much as he pretends to be only concerned about Sungyeol.” That wasn’t entirely true. Sungjong wasn’t devastated per say, but he had definitely admitted to Hoya that it bothered him not having Sungyeol around more-Sungjong was never one to hide what his thoughts were but Hoya figured a slight tweaking of the truth wouldn’t hurt, especially when he knew Myungsoo was such a sucker for emotionally tragic figures.

Sure enough, Myungsoo looked rather stricken and confessed quietly, “I’m pretty sure it was my fault. Sungyeol overthinks everything and I told him what you said that time and now he’s hurt that Sungjong talked to you instead of him and I think he’s half convinced that you two both hate him or find him a funny joke but not seriously. I think he’s just upset because he wasn’t as subtle as he thought he was and Sungjong never bothered to talk to him about it.”

“Wait, what? What did I say that time?” Hoya was completely lost.

“You know. That time we were here.”

“We’re always here, Myungsoo, it’s kind of our spot; you’re going to need to be a little more specific than that.”

Myungsoo flushed quietly with pleasure at the thought of them having a spot. “When you were dancing and I was watching and I told you that I couldn’t take photographs of fast-moving athletic people-I can now, by the way-and then I showed you pictures of Sungjong and you said Sungyeol probably didn’t want to look at them because Sungjong said he thinks Sungyeol has a thing for him.” Myungsoo could always remember everything when it came to people he loved.

Hoya’s head was spinning. He barely remembered that afternoon and he didn’t remember himself saying that at all but it sounded like something he would say so he didn’t doubt it. By now, he had figured out Myungsoo had an uncanny memory and it was in his best interest to just accept he was right.

“Wait, so Sungyeol is hurt because Sungjong told me that he thought Sungyeol had a thing for him? I’m so confused.”

“Um. Basically? It sounds dumb when you put it like that. But he was really freaking out that night about being made a joke of and looking desperate and thinking that Sungjong was making fun of him behind his back at how he wants to be more than friends. I think he was just worried that if Sungjong was talking to you about him, he’d be talking to other people about him, and he just felt hurt that the topic was never broached with him and like, I guess he never got closure? Because from that point, he was pretty convinced Sungjong didn’t want anything more because if he knew that Sungyeol did, why didn’t he do anything, you know?” At this, Myungsoo looked questioningly at Hoya and voiced something that had been bothering him for a while, “Actually, why didn’t he do anything? If he wasn’t interested he should have at least told Sungyeol so he wouldn’t have felt strung along. And if he was, well, he should’ve made a move.”

Hoya shrugged, “Sungjong’s the kind of person who thinks things through before ever doing anything. He definitely didn’t mean any harm.”

Myungsoo was nodding, “Yeah, I told him that, too. Sungjong’s not malicious.”

“Yup. But I dunno. Maybe he’ll have figured it out by now. It’s probably between them to figure out.”

Myungsoo hummed in agreement and then turned to watch Screwed-Up-Face yell more at the girl who was now yelling back, “Yah! What do you mean that’s against the rules? You should have told me before we started playing! Now that has to count!”

∞

Hoya came back with a giant grin on his face and Sungjong looked at him suspiciously. “Why do you look so happy? I thought you were going to find out for me why Sungyeol is avoiding me.”

“I did.” He kept grinning. “I also kissed Myungsoo.”

Sungjong immediately went from looking exasperated to looking amused and pleased, “About time. Good for you.”

Hoya snorted. “About time? What’s that supposed to mean, coming from you? You’re one to talk; you messed things up with Sungyeol so bad he’s not even talking to you.”

Sungjong flushed slightly. “That’s different!”

“Sure it is. Because your feelings toward him are completely platonic,” Hoya deadpanned, as he went into the kitchen.

Deciding to not dignify that with a response, Sungjong followed and asked, “So other than learning what the inside of Myungsoo’s mouth tastes like, what else did you find out?”

Hoya was spooning ice cream right out of the carton into his mouth. Leaning into the fridge casually, he teased Sungjong, “Well, I’m not sure I really remember. He said something about Sungyeol feeling hurt…”

“Yes, I gathered as much,” Sungjong replied drily, “Any idea why?”

Here, Hoya started to feel slightly guilty and so put down the ice cream, “Um. So I really don’t remember, I’m sure Myungsoo and I were just casually talking and I made a quip, like the way I always do, about how we were talking about how Sungyeol probably had a thing for you and Myungsoo went home and told Sungyeol - of course, they tell each other everything. Remember the damn cats?”

“Hoya-hyung!” Sungjong was frustrated. Sure it wasn’t ideal that Sungyeol had to hear that he’d been talking about him with Hoya but it was hardly surprising. There had to be more. “What else?”

“I don’t know, I think he just felt like you were gossiping and maybe leading him on since you weren’t making a move and you weren’t talking to him even though you knew he wanted you.”

That gave Sungjong reason to take pause as he considered. He had never thought about it that way. Hoya was as close of a best friend that Sungjong had at the moment and it was just perfectly natural to talk to him about things on his mind, and of course Sungyeol had been. With Sungyeol having Myungsoo, he would’ve assumed that Sungyeol would’ve gotten that. But the whole leading him on thing did have merit, especially, Sungjong thought with a sinking feeling, considering how insecure and emotionally vulnerable Sungyeol could be.

Turning the leave the kitchen, Sungjong said quietly, “I have to think about this. Thanks, Hyung.”

“Hey,” Hoya called out softly, “It’s all going to work out don’t worry. But you’d better figure out if you want him the way he wants you or not. And you need to talk to him soon.”

∞

Despite lessons that probably should’ve taught him the contrary, Sungjong spent a long time considering Hoya’s words and how he wanted to approach Sungyeol. He felt bad that he had hurt him, however unintentionally, and he also found it rather endearing that Sungyeol could have liked him so much to be hurt by them spending time together.

The largest part of him just missed Sungyeol. The familiarity of their mornings spent talking and enjoying each other’s company over coffee. Sungjong actually felt that other than Hoya, he might actually have found another best friend (boyfriend?) now and having him gone was disconcerting. Especially since Hoya had become such a permanent fixture in his life and Sungyeol’s absence felt that much more stark.

Maybe that was his problem? He didn’t know how to appreciate things when he had them? When he had Sungyeol and was just enjoying their time together, he never thought about needing to hold onto it. It was easy not to decide if he wanted more when Sungyeol was always there, so available, but now faced with a distinct lack of Sungyeol in his life, Sungjong wasn’t sure if he had made the right choice.

Actually, he knew he hadn’t.

“Hoya-hyung! I need your help!”

∞

Myungsoo was laughing. Sungyeol was holding up a printed sheet with a (purple, of course) owl on it and looking at in confusion.

“I thought after he conjured that dumb cat we’d be done with this,” Sungyeol said moodily. Myungsoo clearly found this funnier than ever but then he still talked to Hoya. Sungyeol just saw it as a painful reminder of good friendships gone sour.

Myungsoo shrugged. “Maybe he’s practicing with other animals? At least it’s not a cat this time. Should we start a new collage?”

“Absolutely not. Our cat wall already freaks the guests out. When Neil was here, I could definitely tell he was losing respect for me.”

“There is no way Neil is ever going to lose respect for you… the kid worships you.”

“If we had a wall of owls in addition to the cats, it’d be highly likely. Anyway. What should we do with this then? I don’t want them to keep printing with our printer…”

“It’s not even our ink,” Myungsoo replied mildly, clearly not as bothered as Sungyeol was, “I’d say you just leave it be. It’s not a big deal.”

“It’s annoying!”

“Then go talk to them and tell them! I’m sure Hoya-hyung would stop if you asked him to.”

“You tell him! He’s your boyfriend.”

Immediately, Myungsoo turned pink, “No he’s not! He’s just…”

“Someone who you make out with a lot?”

Myungsoo turned pinker. “Stop it. Just go talk to Hoya if you want him to stop printing things. I’m going to my room.”

Sungyeol immediately felt bad. Myungsoo was still feeling pretty insecure about where the two of them stood in their relationship and just because he felt awful didn’t mean Myungsoo needed to feel bad too. Making a mental note to go buy kimchi jjigae takeout for his roommate, Sungyeol sighed and decided he probably should talk to Hoya (but not Sungjong!) about the owl.

∞

Hoya groggily opened the door in his boxers, ready to give whoever it was a piece of mind for knocking at 11:00am on a Sunday morning and also to yell at Sungjong for picking today of all days to take a shower just as the doorbell rang instead of being the morning person in their apartment.

“What do you want? Oh. Hi Sungyeol. Do you want to come in?”

Sungyeol stepped in with a confused look, “Did you just get up? It’s almost noon!”

Grumbling, Hoya replied, “Yes? Got a problem with that?”

“No,” Sungyeol replied, suppressing the urge to roll his eyes, “Just feeling like you wasted your day.” He was surprised at how easy it was to fall back into easy conversation with Hoya. The man was easy-going, friendly, and fun to sass at. But it was likely time to get to the point. Settling on the couch, he ventured forth, “Speaking of wasting things… Myungsoo and I couldn’t help but notice you decided to go back to wasting our ink, paper, and wall space?”

Hoya, waking up now, remembered the owl and grinned, “Did you like it? You want me to go get him?”

“What? You succeeded already? But there was only one!” There was no way Hoya was that good; the cat took him over half a year.

Hoya frowned. That didn’t make sense. “I’m talking about the owl. What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about the owl, too! Why are you trying to conjure owls? And how come the owl was so much easier than the cat? And for the love of gods, can you stop using our printer as fodder?”

Suddenly feeling very uneasy, Hoya asked cautiously, “Wait… did the owl not say anything?”

“No!” Sungyeol looked at Hoya, frustrated and confused, “How could it? It was printed?! Are you saying the real owl can talk?”

“There is no real owl!”

Both of them had stood up and were glaring at each other fiercely, Sungyeol annoyed and confused, and Hoya, panicked and angry at himself for messing up the easiest thing Sungjong had ever asked him to do.

“What’s going on? I heard raised voices-oh. Hi Sungyeol.” Sungjong had walked out, rubbing a towel through his hair, looking mildly annoyed at the noise but that had melted off his face to a soft smile at the sight of their tall neighbour.

Hoya felt even more uncomfortable, “Nothing. Go back. Sungyeol and I were just talking.”

Sungjong shot him a look as if to say ‘What?!’ but Hoya ignored it.

Sungyeol also shot Hoya an annoyed look, which Hoya also ignored, “No we weren’t. We were definitely arguing. Hoya’s trying to conjure again, this time owls, and one printed through our printer again, and Myungsoo and I would appreciate it if he would stop.”

“What?” Sungjong’s glare got about twenty degrees more intense, “You messed up? It was so easy!”

Hoya continued to ignore all the glares directed at him.

“Messed up?” Sungyeol threw his hands in the air, exasperated, “What is going on?”

“Wait here,” Sungjong snapped to both of them and disappeared to his room.

Hoya and Sungyeol looked at each other and in one fluid motion, both sat down on the couch (because when Sungjong says jump, everyone jumps and if Sungjong says wait, well they’d better make themselves comfortable and wait) and looked slightly dazed at what just happened.

“Hey, I’m sorry about that,” Hoya said uncomfortably, “It was my fault. It wasn’t supposed to print like that. I’m sure Sungjong will explain but it’s definitely all on me.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Sungyeol replied, tired, “But I’m sorry, too. You guys are welcome to our printer, of course, just don’t let it be pointless.”

At that moment, Sungjong returned with a printed sheet and sat down across the two of them, the paper facing towards him so they couldn’t see it. Sungyeol couldn’t help but notice he looked slightly pink, but from exertion or embarrassment, he wasn’t sure.

“So,” Sungjong started with a deep breath, “I told Hoya to conjure up a printed animal, which I knew he could do since he’s done it so many with your printer, but I wanted an owl and I wanted words overlaid, like one of those memes, you know? Like, those internet things that seem to be so big with students these days. And I didn’t want it to be purple.”

Sungyeol had no idea where this was going but he couldn’t help but point out, “It was purple. Also, there were no words. Also, you have a printer. You just printed that. Print it yourself next time.”

Sungjong turned pinker and Hoya had the decency to look slightly ashamed. “That was because he messed up and it was supposed to look like this.” And then he turned the sheet over and it was a (brown) owl with the words, DATE? I’LL BUY THE COFFEE overlaid on the picture.

Sungyeol immediately fell silent and stared at it.

“Sorry,” Hoya interjected, and Sungjong shot him a look before going back to looking anxiously at Sungyeol, desperately reading his face for any sign of reaction.

Taking another deep breath, Sungjong explained, “Look, I messed up, ok? I mean, Hoya did too with this picture but before that, it was definitely me messing up. I’m just not very good at figuring out what I want, and I take too long to think things through and I promise I wasn’t leading you on, I was just trying to figure out what I wanted while enjoying your company. But I figured it out and I miss you and I’m sorry it took me so long but let’s do this? If you’re anything like me, you can’t stand the two lovebirds that are our roommates anymore so we should really just try to get out more.”

Sungyeol slowly nodded and Sungjong managed to grin.

Reaching down to pick up the owl, Sungyeol said slowly, “Ok. But you’re making me coffee. I don’t want any of the disgusting store-bought stuff.”

“Done.”

∞