Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Jisung always went to the same cafe.

It was just a small place just four blocks away from campus and even closer to his dorm building. But it wasn’t only the convenience of it being so close (Jisung wasn’t a fan of moving around too much) that made him like the place so much.

Jisung always went to the same cafe because it was quiet and peaceful, since not many people knew about it. He liked studying there, writing or just relaxing while having his favorite combo: iced americano and cheesecake.

Jisung always went to the same cafe because the owner of the place was a nice old lady that always pinched his cheeks and called him cute not only in korean but also in her native japanese, and because one of the reasons it was quiet was because most of the place’s customers were her friends, old nice people just like her.

Jisung always went to the same cafe because he really liked the owner’s granddaughter, a loud but sweet and funny girl with long bright orange hair, that despite being a few years older than him, treated him like a close friend. She always saved him the best cinnamon rolls and donuts and constantly asked about his day which he appreciated a lot, even if she always smacked his arms a little too hard everytime he tried to crack a joke.

Jisung always went to the same cafe, also, because in his opinion, the pastries and desserts were some of the best he’d ever tried in his life. Forget all the big and famous places, no one made cheesecakes as creamier and cinnamon rolls as soft as they did here. It was like nothing he’d ever had before and he constantly wondered how it was that the place wasn’t more widely known (the owner seemed happy with her usual customers though, and the place did quite well).

So yes, Jisung always went to the same cafe, and he went constantly. On monday mornings to grab a coffee before his 8 a.m anatomy class (that he so much hated and a coffee was much needed, otherwise he would probably fall asleep in the middle of drawing someone’s humerus), on tuesdays nights after his shift at the school library ended, on wednesdays at 11 a.m because he always woke up late after staying up the night before and was much too lazy to make himself lunch and was too late to have breakfast so he had brunch there instead, on thursday afternoons after his art history and psychoanalysis classes that he actually very much enjoyed but always left him drained after trying to keep all the information he just learned from immediately disappearing from his memory, on friday mornings because it was his free day and also Sana’s (the caffe owner’s granddaughter) but she always went to the shop anyway and they would usually talk for hours catching up from the week’s events, on saturdays after volunteering at the animal shelter, and sometimes, even on sundays.

Jisung went to that place so much that he actually knew the workers well (Sana and her best friend Momo) and every regular customer there.
Which is why he was so surprised when he saw a guy he had never seen before.

He just arrived at the caffe on a Friday morning, and was about to push one of the glass doors when the door opened by itself, or rather, someone opened it. Coming out of the cafe was the most good looking guy he had ever seen. He was dressed in a blue button up long sleeved shirt, and dark gray dress pants. He wore a long coat over his shoulders and had rimmed glasses on. Jisung would have surely remembered him if he had ever seen him before, much more even if he had seen him here, which he clearly hasn’t.

The guy was startled after finding Jisung standing there, one hand raised from when he was about to push the door, but after the initial surprise he just smiled at him and bowed politely. Jisung couldn't help but stare a bit. He had short brown hair parted in the middle, his bangs were a bit overgrown and they covered his eyes a bit, but those were still the most beautiful eyes Jisung had ever seen. Ever. And his nose… There was no way to describe it except perfect. It took every ounce of willpower from Jiisung to snap out of his daze but he managed to smile back and not stare like a creep, though he was sure his smile didn’t look too genuine.

“Jisungie, tell Momo I’m right!” Sana screamed from behind the counter once he managed to get inside. Acknowledging Jisung’s arrival without saying hi. Typical Sana.

“No! I’m not doing your stupid plan don’t insist!” Momo furrowed her brow and stuck out her tongue playfully.

Jisung decided to ignore the conversation as Sana’s bickering came back louder than ever. Sometimes he wondered how everyone could put up with her loudness, but he guessed that he was sort of the same so he was not one to judge, the difference was he was only loud with the people he was close with and when he felt comfortable, Sana was loud anywhere and everywhere. It was kind of her charm once you got used to it.

He looked out of the window, remembering the good looking stranger he had just encountered a minute ago. Was that him walking on the other side of the street? He wasn’t sure. He was about to ask the girls about him but had half a mind not to. Sana would surely ask why he was interested and be loud about it with her many questions and incessant teasing. He wasn’t interested enough to go through that.

“Well it worked for me! If I hadn’t done that then Jeongyeon and I wouldn't be together now.” Sana snapped back.

“If not that I’m sure you would have done another dumb thing. Anyway, it only worked because Jeongyeon is too whipped for you, but I’m not embarrassing myself in front of my crush. No, thank you.” Momo almost huffed. Jisung couldn’t help but chuckle, they might be older than him but sometimes they didn’t act like it. Maybe that’s why they got along so well.

“I have to admit, Momo noona has a point.”

“SEEEEE!!” Momo pointed her finger at Sana, while she just went around the counter and hooked her arm with Jisung’s.

“And why are you siding with her now?!” She cried. “Anyway, I have much to tell you.” She was almost dragging Jisung to their favorite spot at the corner of the place. It was Friday today, meaning catching up time. “Momo, bring two americanos please!” Momo rolled her eyes but she couldn’t hide the corners of her mouth going up a bit. She placed her hands on her hips and huffed one more time before going back to work.

Sana didn’t wait and started rambling about her last date with her girlfriend even before they arrived at the table, and Jisung suddenly forgot about the handsome stranger, too involved in Sana’s animated story and in the cold americano that arrived a few minutes later, to remember a pretty face.

----------------------

The next time he saw the stranger guy again was on tuesday after his library shift. He didn’t see much of him since he was still a bit far from the shop and the guy was walking out of it. Jisung wondered if he was about to become a regular customer too, and if so, how had he learned about the place.

When he arrived at the cafe the guy was already too far away to see, which Jisung had to admit, he was kind of disappointed about. Hey, why would he say no to seeing a pretty face again? Much less one as pretty as his.

When he entered the shop he instantly realized two things. One, someone had used a little bit too much cinnamon judging by the smell, and two, Momo was in much need of help.

“Um...is everything o-” A loud sigh came out from behind the counter and he leaned in to see a very flustered Momo sitting on the floor holding a wet napkin which she was rubbing all over the floor.

“So that’s where the smell is coming from…” He muttered and Momo sighed again.

“She’s here.” She looked up, her face almost terrified.

“Who’s here?” He frowned. Momo almost slumped on the floor. “Her!!” She scream-whispered and stood up, pushing her framed glasses back up and pointing at the table area while hiding behind Jisung.

He looked to the other side of the cafe and suddenly Momo’s panic seemed understandable. He wasn’t able to hide a small laugh that earned him a smack on the arm.

“Ouch! You are almost as strong as Sana noona.” He whined while rubbing his arm.

“Shut up, you are weak.” She mustered with no real bite behind it and hid back looking up from his shoulder.

The “her” in question was a small brunette girl sitting at one of the tables closer to the window. She was holding her phone with one hand and her drink with the other, sipping while she scrolled her feed possibly. Her legs were jumping up and down and she looked kind of jittery for some reason. Jisung was almost sure he knew why.

“I’m so glad Sana isn’t here right now. This would have been much more embarrassing." Jisung laughed again. He was sure it would have been. Sana had been trying to pair the girls up for so long but hadn’t found an opportunity to have the two together at the same time. And he was certain that she would have done something that would have left Momo in an even more flustered state than she was now. So yes, she was lucky that her crush came to the shop in one of her shifts and not when both her and Sana shared one.

Momo shifted uncomfortably behind him. “I’m supposed to bring her a cinnamon roll but I was sprinkling extra cinnamon because I know she loves it, but I was too distracted and...” She looked down at the floor nervously twirling one strand of her hair in her fingers. She shook her head and her pigtails moved almost comically. “What do I do now?” She sighted.

“It’s alright.” He smiled warmly at her. “I’ll take it to her.”

She looked at him with big eyes, almost hopeful but almost worried too. “But she knows you don’t work here, she’ll be weirded out.”

“But she’s been here a few times already. She has seen me here and she knows we are friends. I’ll just tell her an accident has happened in the kitchen and you asked me to take her order to her while you were fixing it, ok?” Momo twirled her hair between her fingers some more before finally nodding and handing him the little plate with the cinnamon roll.

Momo almost threw herself at the floor and started whipping again, and Jisung started walking away from the counter, but not before grabbing a pen and a napkin and scribbling something on it.

Momo was a senior at the same college as him, just as were Sana and the girl Momo was crushing on. Momo and her had one class together last semester, and ever since then she hadn’t been able to stop talking about her. It wasn’t that they’ve never talked before, in fact, they sat beside each other for the whole semester and got along quite well, Momo absolutely loved her fun and playful personality, which after every week after getting to know her more, it was not only her cute cheeks and adorable bunny teeth that Jisung kept hearing about, but also how cute her laugh sounded and how she thought she was so smart.

Both of them got along really well which was why it was really surprising that they hadn't become close yet. However, the girl had come here about four times already, all of them on tuesday nights, the days where it was only Momo working in front. Coincidence?

His friend was way too flustered to pay much attention, but Jisung was. He noticed the almost pleading looks the girl threw at Momo every once in a while, while the Momo was pretending she didn’t exist, which made Jisung believe the feelings weren’t one sided.

“Umm, excuse me.” He muttered when he arrived at her table. The girl seemed a bit confused at the sudden arrival and looked up with questioning eyes. “Nayeon-ssi, right?” She nodded and gave him a small smile.

"Hi, umm...this is yours." Despite him being so sure about himself in front of his noona, he was always a bit nervous to talk to people he didn't know. "There was some trouble at the kitchen and noona was preoccupied with that so I volunteered to bring your order." He placed the plate in front of her and rubbed his hands nervously against his pants. "I'm Momo's friend by the way. Jisung." He added with a smile.

Nayeon smiled back politely but he caught the disappointment in her face. She was clearly waiting for someone else.

"I know, it’s nice to meet you. Momo talks about you a lot. Thank you so much, anyway." He acknowledged her with a nod and went back to the front.

She seemed really sweet and nice, and from what she knew about her she actually was. Both her and Momo seemed to be crushing hard on eachother, both either too stubborn or too shy to admit their feelings to the other. Which was why Jisung didn't feel bad about what he did.

As he stepped beside Momo again, who was now tending to one of the customers, he allowed himself to look at Nayeon from the corner of his eye, he didn't want to make it too obvious but he was very curious - and he had to admit, a bit nervous- about her reaction. As she was about to clean her mouth with one of the napkins Jisung had previously provided alongside her order, she seemed to spot something on it that made her brows furrow.

"Have a nice day, sir." Momo greeted her customer before turning back to look at Jisung. "What did she say? Was she weirded out? Is she still here? Did she leave? I don't want to look." She tried to hide her eyes behind her hands but crushed her glasses instead, hitting her nose on the process.

Jisung smiled fondly at his friend. Momo was usually so composed and playful. He had seen her a few times with other girls she was seeing and she was even flirty. It was such and unusual behavior from her, which could attest to how much she liked the other girl.

"It's fine don't worry, she just thanked me and that's all." Momo deflated with relief. "She also mentioned you talk a lot about me. Only good things I hope." He raised an eyebrow jokingly.

Her eyes snapped at him. "What? Why would she say that? What did you tell her?" Jisung shrugged and this time he looked directly at Nayeon. A pleased smile spread through his face and he pointed his chin at her. Momo whipped her face to look at the other girl, only to find her looking back at her.

She whipped her head back and looked straight at the floor. "She's looking at me, why is she looking at me?" Jisung shrugged his shoulders again.

"She's not anymore tho." That caused Momo to turn her attention back to her crush. And in fact, Nayeon was not looking in their direction anymore, she had picked up her phone, having left it on the table before to eat her cinnamon bun, but now she was just slowly typing on it. Her legs were still jumping and she was biting her lip furiously.

Before either Jisung or Momo could say anything else, the lattest's phone ran in her pocket. She pulled it out and looked at it half heartedly, almost putting it back in her pocket before she did a double take. Her eyes went twice as wide and her cheeks burned the pinkest shade Jisung had ever seen cheeks to have.

"What? What is it?" He tried to play dumb but was having much trouble hiding his laugh.

"Han Jisung." She murmured between gritted teeth.

"Hmm. My name, what about it?"

"What. Did you.Tell her?” He wasn’t going to lie, he feared for his life for a second there, but he had come so far now with this plan, and from what he could tell, it was already working. He wasn’t one to back down. Plus, it was definitely way better than Sana’s.

“No more words than needed. I really didn’t!” He raised his hands in defence when she threw daggers at him with her eyes. “Anyway, aren’t you gonna answer.” She looked back at Nayeon who was now smiling at her shyly, and went away murmuring something under her breath about bringing more cinnamon from the back which Jisung knew was just an excuse to have privacy while having a mini breakdown over her crush sending her a message.

He just sighed, grabbed a portion of strawberry cheesecake, left a good luck note hidden for Momo alongside the money of course (he wasn't a thief), and left the cafe, delicious dessert in hand and lowkey proud at accomplishing having helped Momo at least a bit. They might fight and joke a lot, but both Sana and Momo were like sisters to him, and he would do just about anything for them. But he wasn't about to let them know that.

-------------

The third time Jisung saw Pretty Guy was by far the most shocking out of the three.

He found himself yet again, at the cafe. It was a Saturday and he had just finished his shift at the animal shelter. The day was quite hot and he craved nothing more than a refreshing iced americano.

But as he stepped inside, he found himself rooted at the spot, words stuck on his tongue. Because the one who was wearing the cafe's apron wasn't Sana, but instead a brown haired guy, with the most perfect side profile he had ever seen. Exactly the same guy he had seen twice at the cafe before.

He was behind the counter, he was wearing the apron, which could only mean…

The guy turned around as he heard a new customer coming in and gave Jisung a smile powerful enough to make any word he had still lingering in his mind completely disappear.

“Hi, welcome! What would you like to order?"

Chapter Text

It took him more than he would have liked to admit to compose himself. Not only that, but after closing his mouth shut and opening it again a few times, he said the most stupid shit he could’ve.

“You’re new.” Y es Han Jisung, of course he was new. You knew that, he knew that. Way to state the obvious.

The guy blinked a few times, probably not expecting the dumb question, but then gave him the cutest small smile and Jisung’s heart unexpectedly did a mini flip in his chest. “I am. I suppose you are a regular here. I think I’ve seen you before. I-” A loud sound interrupted him, which he was actually thankful for. He probably had been staring too much.

Minho turned around and took a small meat pie from the mini-oven they had to heat the pastries a bit, which was where the sound had originated from. “Excuse me, I’ll be right back.” 

New Pretty Guy came back after giving the order to one of the few people at the cafe right now. He took Jisung’s order which was only an iced americano and a portion of cheesecake as usual, and Jisung went to his favorite spot at the corner of the cafe to wait while it was ready.

He pulled out his phone and typed a quick message.

kawaii sungie: so…

noona really looks different today… :/

jeongyeon luvr: what?

oh

OHHHH

yeah we got him :)

cute right ;)

kawaii sungie: …………..

would've been nice to get a heads up u know

but,,you finally got a new barista that’s good :))

jeongyeon luvr: hehe forgot sorry

but yessss

he had experience and he moved close plus,,

he’s cute

or at least i think so…

idk i’m not into guys

kawaii sungie: :ooo

couldn’t tell :o

jeongyeon luvr : ………

Jisung actually had no idea why it had taken him so much by surprise. He actually knew that they had been looking for another barista since their last one (Sana’s girlfriend, Jeongyeon) had quitted because they graduated and got a full time job. Sana’s grandmother had even offered him the job since he already spent so much time at the cafe, but he had respectfully declined since he already had a job and also he loved to come to relax; he didn't want to think about work here. 

Was it more because of how good looking he was?

“Here’s your order.” As if summoned by his thoughts Pretty Barista appeared again. He placed his coffee and dessert on the table and started to turn back before changing his mind. He smiled his cute smile again and Jisung’s heart was now making acrobatics. “I didn't get to introduce myself before. My name is Minho, Lee Minho.”

Minho. It suited him. He thought.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Jisung.” 

“I actually knew that.” He chuckled. 

“You knew that?” Jisung furrowed his brow confused.

“Yeah, Sana noona mentioned a Jisung that comes here often. She said you were about my age, not many young people come here so...I just guessed.” He added with a shrug. 

“Oh.” Very eloquent as always. “Well...It’s nice to meet you. I guess we are going to be seeing each other a lot then.” 

Minho smiled once more. “I guess so.” 

Another customer came in, which saved Jisung from saying something mildly embarrassing again. Minho just bowed politely and left.

I guess we are going to see each other more often. Jisung wouldn't admit it, but a small part of him was more happy by that than it should.

------

After a full week he had already figured out the new schedules at the cafe. With the addition of Minho, who went to work on monday and friday nights, tuesday and saturday mornings, the whole day on thursday, and had wednesdays and sundays free.

Basically the same schedule that Jeongyeon used to have with only a few changes. 

It was Sunday today, he didn't go to the cafe very often on Sundays. Usually, today was his day to do whatever he wanted –or had to, since he often used it to finish his assignments for the next week. But most of the time, he used Sundays to stay at his dorm, since he had to go outside the other days of the week. Sundays were his quiet days. 

"HAN JISUNG!!!" 

Or as close as quiet as possible, he guessed. 

A pink head popped on his doorway. It looked really funny from his perspective laying with his head hanging from his bed, the whole world upside down. 

The pink head owner, his roommate and one of his best friends Chanhee, got closer until he was right above him. He looked at him with stern eyes and hands on his hips. Jisung knew he was trying to be intimidating, but Chanhee was the farthest from that, so he only managed to look cute. 

“It’s your turn.” He said as he threw himself beside Jisung on the bed.

“My what? For what?” He whined.

“Your turn! It’s your turn to speak to the neighbors. There’s a new guy who moved into the dorm next door just last week, remember? We got to give him a welcoming gift, so I told Felix and he made cookies.” Chanhee adjusted himself in a position similar to Jisung's, so that both their heads were hanging from the bed and their legs were high against the wall beside each other.

“But I don't want toooooo!!” Jisung protested loudly. “Besides, why me? Who says it’s my turn?”

“It is your turn!” He countered.

“No it isn’t!”

“Yes it is”

“It.Is.Not”

Chanhee paused to look at him for a second before-

“HWANG HYUNJIN!!!” Jisung’s ears cried in pain at being so close to his roommate’s scream.

A minute later Hyunjin’s head popped from the doorway too.

“What now? What did I do?” He asked nervously.

“Nothing?” Chanhee asked with suspicion on his voice, but before he pressed him further, he seemed to remember why he called the other boy in the first place. “Tell Jisung it’s his turn to go to the other dorm.” He pointed his finger at him and then let his arm flop beside his head.

“Oh” His mild nervousness from before disappeared before he chuckled. “Yeah it’s your turn Jisung.”

He seated upright at once. “What? No it isn’t!”

“Yeah, no, it actually is. Lixie went last time to ask for sugar when we ran out. And before that Chanhee hyung when the heater got messed up and before that it was me to ask for something that I can’t remember but I’m sure it was me. So it’s your turn.”

Jisung groaned and hid his head between his arms. Yeah he was right. When they first moved in they had established a series of rules, they had an order and way of doing things. One of those was that they would take turns asking for help to the neighbors if needed. 

They actually really liked the guys living in the dorm next door. They were around their age and had always been really nice to them. Still, none of them really liked asking for favors and bothering the other boys, and as things started coming up, they decided it was more fair to take turns.

The worst part this time though, was that he had to talk to the new guy, someone he clearly didn’t know. Why does it have to be my turn just now?

So that was how he found himself, in his supposedly peaceful day, with his knuckles almost punching the cute barista’s pretty nose instead of the door he was about to knock before it abruptly opened.

He wasn’t really sure who was more surprised out of the two, but Minho was the first to react.

“Hmm...Hi?”

Jisung lowered his hand and clamped his mouth shut. “What are you doing here?” What the hell Han Jisung?

“Nice to see you again too.” He chuckled. “What are you doing here? This is my dorm.” A thought seemed to cross his mind just then. “Wait do you…?”

Jisung got what he was trying to say. “Yeah, next door.” He confirmed.

Minho’s mouth made an ‘O’ shape in understanding, but he didn’t add anything else. Only a few seconds later did Jisung realize he was waiting for him to speak. What a great impression he was making…

“My roommates wanted to send you this. As a welcoming gift.” He extended his hand where he was holding a small bag filled with cookies and tied with an orange ribbon at the top. Minho did the ‘O’ face again before taking the bag in his hands. “One of my roommates made them, his name is Felix. He’s the one who cooks the most in our dorm and he’s pretty good.”

Minho smiled. “Thank you. And they do look pretty good.” He pulled the bag close to his face while eyeing the cookies. 

They stayed in silence for a few more seconds before Jisung spoke again. “Well...I just wanted to introduce myself and give you that. I did the first one already at the cafe so...I guess we are going to see each other a lot though.” He laughed awkwardly whire rocking nervously back and forth on his feet. 

Minho didn’t say anything else so he turned around to leave back to his room.

“Wait!” Jisung turned back a bit surprised. “Actually I was leaving because I had to ask you for something. Well, not you you precisely.” He corrected himself at Jisung’s confused expression. “ I was just going to ask for something from the guys next door. I guess you qualify as one.” Another smile spread around his lips.

“Oh.” He blinked a few times. “So, what do you need?”

The other boy let out a small chuckle again. “Well this might seem really dumb but…” He scratched his head almost embarrassed. “My bumbass roommate broke the heater in my room two days ago. I made the mistake to not care much about it and sleep normally last night. I didn’t bring that much stuff when I moved in and I only have one normal blanket, which seems it’s not really enough when you can’t rely on your room’s heater. Chan seems to think the same since he only has one too.” He scratched his head again, still looking a bit embarrassed, which seemed to be not an usual look on him from what Jisung could tell. He seemed to be a mostly relaxed and confident guy. “So I planned to wait till Monday so Changbin would come back from visiting his family for the weekend, since he is the only one who can fix it anyway, but I fear I might not last that long.”

Jisung laughed at that. Sadly, the heaters in the rooms seemed to be pretty bad quality, and Jisung had actually experienced a similar near death moment not once, but twice, since he moved to the dorm. All of the boys had gone through the same thing too at least one time.

“You can borrow some blankets, sure.” Jisung smiled and gestured for Minho to follow him. “We actually have a bunch of extra ones since all our heaters have died more times than I would ever think possible. Changbin hyung actually helped my roommate Chanhee fix his a few weeks ago.”

“So, what you are saying is this is something I should get used to?” He asked in disbelief. 

Jisung laughed and then gave a dramatic sigh. “As heartbreaking as it sounds, yeah. Freezing your ass off is an usual activity in this building.” Minho groaned and Jisung laughed. Yeah he knew the feeling.

Jisung pushed the door to his dorm and motioned for the other one to come in. 

“Jisung did you-” 

Chanhee came from the rooms area to the small living room/kitchen area where they were standing. 

“Oh hello.” Just like Jisung, Chanhee was usually loud and very talkative, but only with people he knew well, he turned quite shy around strangers. It actually had taken them almost a month to be friends when they just met despite living literally one room away from each other, and he was sure it would’ve been more if it wasn’t for Felix -social butterfly he is bless him-, that brought all of them together. 

“Before you ask, no I did not run away and eat the cookies by myself, yes I did give them to our new neighbor and I have proof since he is now standing here with said cookies.” Jisung pointed to the boy behind him who shook the bag of cookies in front of him and giggled.

“Thank you very much for the cookies.” 

Chanhee pulled the hem of his sweater nervously and smiled. “Sure, you’re welcome.”

Jisung thought he should probably introduce the two before it turned awkward. “Chanhee hyung, this is Lee Minho. Lee Minho, this is my roommate Choi Chanhee.” 

Minho smiled his small cute smile again that made him resemble some kind of emoji. “Nice to meet you.” Chanhee nodded and muttered a soft you too. Minho turned to Jisung. “You are a few years younger than me right? You can refer to me as hyung, it’s ok, no need to be so formal.”

Jisung nodded. “Oh, okay hyung.”

At that moment Hyunjin appeared besides Chanhee. 

“Oh hello there. I thought I heard another voice I didn’t recognize. Are you Chan and Changbin hyung's new roommate?” Hyunjin tended to be quite bold when he was curious about something, and he was never afraid to ask questions. It was the communication major in him, Jisung guessed.

Jisung proceeded to present Minho again to his other roommate and then explained why he was at their dorm now. 

“Sure, hyung. No problem. Though I do advise you to get some new and nice thick blankets before the winter starts. You don’t want to experience this in winter, believe me.” His whole body shuddered.

Last winter, Hyunjin’s heater stopped working on one of the coldest weeks of the year. Even with good blankets, without the heater it got so cold that he had to take turns sleeping in Jisung’s and Felix’s rooms for a week until he finally got it fixed. 

“Yeah Jisung already warned me about that.” 

“Alright I’ll bring you some blankets I’ll be right back.” Hyunjin went back to the rooms and Chanhee murmured an ‘I’ll help him’ and then left too.

Minho broke the silence a few seconds later. “So who’s the cookie maker?”

“Felix. But he’s not here right now. I think he went to the library to finish off some assignments. I’ll tell him you said thanks for the cookies, if you want me too.” Minho gave a small nod. 

They stayed silent for a while but it wasn’t uncomfortable or awkward. Jisung had seen the other boy at the cafe a few times in the past week, and even though they didn’t really talk much, Minho was always nice and polite to him. He made small talk and even had complimented him on the pieces he was working on three times. The initial nervousness at meeting him had mostly evaporated by now, he felt more comfortable. He just had been surprised earlier today since he wasn’t expecting to see him here.

Hyunjin came back with two of their extra blankets and handed them to Minho, who thanked them thoroughly and was saying his goodbyes, when the door to their dorm opened behind him.

Felix immediately saw Minho and smiled. ”A guest! Hi!” He tried to close the door after coming in but his hands were full with tote bags filled with groceries. Chanhee came forward and took some from him before heading to the kitchen. 

“Felix, this is Minho hyung, he’s the new guy at the hyung’s dorm. Hyung this is your cookie fairy.” Jisung introduced him one more time.

“Oh hello! It’s so nice to meet you! I hope you enjoy the cookies.” Felix was always very enthusiastic when meeting new people. He couldn't relate. The other boy suddenly seemed to notice the blankets Minho was holding and laughed cutetly, his eyes turning into little crescents. “Heater problems I guess? Glad you came to us for blankets. Not nice having hypothermia really, believe me.”

“I know. Wished my roommates would have warned me about it before though. Maybe I should move in with you guys instead.” He joked and Felix laughed again. “Anyway I was just leaving, but thank you very much for the cookies. And it was nice meeting all of you.”

“Oh but we just met! Why don’t you stay for a while? I just bought some stuff, I’ll make pasta!” He swinged the tote bag still in his hand quite enthusiastically. 

“I don’t want to bother more. You already gave me cookies and blankets.” He shook his head. 

“Don’t worry about it really. You are going to be living beside us for the rest of the year at least, we should get to know each other! If you want ofcourse.” He added, but his eyes looked so honest and hopeful. Which was probably why Minho ended up agreeing. You really couldn’t deny anything to angel Lee Felix.

Chapter Text

“You do know that we sell other things here, right?” Minho told Jisung with a smirk.

“Hey hyung! I know, I just really like this.” He stuck his tongue at the barista and sipped his ice americano. 

Minho rolled his eyes at him but he couldn’t hide his little smile. He pulled back the chair right in front of Jisung and sat down. It was early on Saturday and not many people came at this hour, so Minho sometimes would sit down for a while to chat with him. 

That had been most of their interactions in the last two months since Minho had come to their dorm for the first time. After that, all of his roommates, and Jisung himself, warmed up to the older boy pretty quickly. He had also come over a few more times with either Changbin or Chan when Felix cooked something new, since he always said there was no fun in cooking if no one but him was going to eat the food. He liked sharing a lot.

“I can’t blame you though, it’s my favorite drink too.” He grabbed Jisung’s coffee and gave a long sip.

“Hyung!!” Jisung protested taking his coffee back. “I have to admit, I thought you were more of a latte guy.”

“Nah, lattes are pretty good but it doesn’t compare to iced americanos. They are so refreshing. Nothing else offers you that.”

“Exactly! Felix always says it’s too bitter, I just say he has no taste.”

Minho let out a loud laugh and Jisung smiled. He liked when Minho laughed, he looked almost cute.

“Talking about Felix.” He crouched down and pulled a small glass jar from his backpack. “He asked me to give you this.” Minho’s eyes lit up and he almost hit Jisung in his rush to grab it. It was just a small glass jar with a red ribbon and a big 'Minho hyung ^_^' written in pink on top of the lid. But what was important about it was that it was filled with Felix's chocolate chip cookies. 

A week after the first time Felix gave Minho cookies, he received a text message from his hyung (having all exchanged numbers before Minho left their dorm). 

coffee hyung: hey! :) 

i have to ask u smtn

kawaii sungie: hey hyung!! 

sure what is it?

coffee hyung : could u ask felix

for cookies?? :3

I'll pay

but they are….. 

I'm…

kawaii sungie: amazing?? 

in love?? 

yeah that's the effect of the cookies

coffee hyung: i swear i’ll pay

i just

need mooooore

kawaii sungie: no need

i mean i’ll tell him

but he won’t sell them

he’s an angel he’ll give them for free 

coffee hyung: well just tell him i’m willing to

really 

kawaii sungie: okie :)

but

why didn’t you text him?

coffee hyung: dunno

just get me my cookies >:(

kawaii sungie: ok ok

no need to attack

The next time Minho asked Felix directly for the cookies, but most of the time it was Jisung who handed those to him. Jisung always told him to give them to Minho himself, since they live next to each other anyway, but Felix always insisted that he didn’t want to bother him and plus Jisung always saw him at the cafe.

Minho was looking at the cookies with adoration.

“That used to be me.” Jisung released a sigh.

“What do you mean?” Minho asked.

“I used to love Lixie’s cookies like you.”

“Wait, you mean you don’t?” Minho looked so insulted, a laugh escaped Jisung’s mouth.

“I kind of grew sick of them. Remember when you met Chanhee hyung and I told him I hadn’t eaten all the cookies by myself?” The barista nodded, his expression suspicious. He seemed to know where this was heading. “Well...It’s because I did that once. Was horribly sick the next day. Now I just can’t look at them the same way.”

“That’s sad for you. But I have a stronger stomach.” Minho announced proudly.

Jisung smirked. “We’ll see..”

-----------

Jisung liked working at the school library. He really did. It was usually calm and silent and he only needed to look for books for the attending students and then put them back in their place. It didn’t involve much thinking or moving, and he even had time to study or finish off assignments while working. It was perfect.

He placed the last books he had gotten back on his little cart, and started rolling it around.

“Section 4, row C.” He murmured to himself while he walked over to the right section. It was almost at the other side of the place so he walked for a few minutes, picking stray books that some students left behind instead of putting them back themselves or leaving them on the front desk so the librarian or the current assistant could put them back easily. He shook his head and sighed. He was lazy but even he wasn't that lazy.

Section 4 was always one of the more quiet places in the whole library, it was kind of hidden on a corner and not many people came here. Jisung often wandered this part of the library because of that. It was his favorite place to work because he often needed a lot of space for his dozens of sheets to be spread on the table, and since most tables here were unoccupied, he had all the space he needed.

He walked over to row C and started organizing the books on this section. He picked them up and placed them back where they belonged one by one. This area was mostly books about art and culture, which explained why this section wasn’t as crowded as section A and B– which were mostly for med sciences and law respectively–, where tons of students were always consulting and revising the textbooks.

He picked up a chunker of a book from the pile. The Inner City of Babylon: A Guide Through The Gates, read on the cover. It was a hardcover blue book with the Ishtar Gate shown on the front. Jisung’s vaguely remembered reading something about it on his history class, which reminded him that he should probably start studying for his exam pretty soon. He was about to put the book back on the shelf but he calculated the space wrong which caused him to hit the corner of the book on the corner of the self, which sent the book flying from his hand right onto his foot. 

“Inner city of fucking hell!!!” He scream-whispered. He almost straight up screamed it, but even with a broken foot he still had some decency not to scream in a library. 

“I’m pretty sure that’s not what the book is about.” A guy was crouching right where he had just been standing, having moved to the other side of the aisle while he was jumping on one foot and trying not to scream his lungs out. 

Jisung was about to apologize for his foul mouth when the other guy stood up. Minho was looking as if he was holding his laughter with all his might. They looked at each other for a few seconds before Jisung said, “Alright hyung, you can laugh.” Which made Minho release a loud laugh, earning a disapproving shush from some distracted student.

“Be quiet, hyung. Not even I made that much noise and I just had my freaking fingers crushed to dust.” Jisung winced, trying out putting his weight on the hurt foot.

Minho laughed, it was soft this time, almost like a giggle. “Don’t be so dramatic Sung, you are fine.” Jisung looked at him, mouth agape.

“Are you kidding me? Did you look at that book? It’s almost 900 pages! And hardcover!!” 

Minho looked at the book in question, currently in his hands, and eyed it before putting it back on the shelf right where it belonged. “I guess you have a point.” 

Minho must have seen Jisung still make faces when trying to support his weight normally, because he walked over to the table closest to them and pulled back a chair. “Here, sit down with me for a bit. At least until you can walk without looking like a lost penguin.” 

Jisung pouted but sat down. The other sitting in front of him after. “Hyung! It really hurt.” That earned a small endearing smile from the other boy.

“Alright, alright. Just stay here for a moment while the pain goes away.” He organized a bit the books and papers spread all over the table. “So,” he started, “you work here?”

“Right, I guess I never told you about it. Yeah I work part time at the library. Tuesday and Wednesday nights.” He took his shoe off and massaged his foot. That was definitely going to leave a big bruise. 

Minho made an “O” shape with his mouth and nodded. Jisung was curious though. “Are you part of the arts faculty too?” Jisung knew he had transferred here this semester from another school, he also knew this was his junior year of college. But for some reason he can’t explain, they never got around to talk about majors. “I mean, this is the art books section.”

His hyung nodded again while he finished to arrange his stuff on the table. He sat back and looked at Jisung while speaking. “Actually yes. I’m a dance major.” That was something Jisung wasn’t expecting. He guessed it kind of made sense now that he thought about it. Minho was always tapping his feet and hands at the beat of the music played at the cafe, and he was lean and muscular, possibly from dancing a lot. Still, it came quite as a surprise to him.

“Why that look? Did I look more like a law student?” Minho joked. 

Jisung shook his head. “Not really. You do look like a dance major now that I know about it. But I don’t think I would have guessed.” He shook his head. But then an idea came to his mind. “Can you guess my major? You already know the faculty but-”

“Illustration.” Jisung hadn’t even been able to finish his sentence when Minho guessed his major -and correctly at that- with such certainty. He looked straight at Minho, Minho looked at him. He blinked, Jisung frowned. “How did you know?”, he asked suspiciously, “Did Felix tell you?”

“No.” He smiled proudly. “It was a guess. But I always see you drawing stuff at the cafe so that’s the first thing that came to my mind.” 

“It could have been graphic design. Or literally almost any other manual arts major. How in hell did you guess that exactly?”

Shrugging he said, “I told you. Lucky guess.”

Jisung was still frowning at him though. “Anyway, bit of a weird place to study your dance moves, huh?” 

Minho chuckled and shook his head. “I’m not practicing that right now, dumbass.” He stretched his leg and kicked Jisung beneath the table, hitting right at his shin. 

Jisung swallowed his screech and looked at Minho accusingly. “Are you trying to get my leg broken too?” Minho laughed loudly again, earning another insistent shush from the now possibly annoyed student. 

“I didn’t even hit you that hard, you are so dramatic.” He rolled his eyes and tried to sound serious but he was still smiling. “Anyway I’m not studying my dance moves, clearly. I’m taking an elective for one of the seminars. I chose psychoanalysis but I brought my stuff here because I like this part of the library better.”

“Oh same.” Jisung muttered, but then he noticed something. “Wait! Same! I’m also taking psychoanalysis!” 

Minho perked up. “Oh really, with who?”

“Professor Bae. On thursdays.” 

Minho’s face lit up and he sat forward at that. “I’m taking it with him too, but mine is on Monday mornings.”

“But it still means it’s the same course and same study plan. So we can study together!”

“Oh, thank god.” Minho layed back on his chair again and slumped on it a little, his whole body relaxed. “I was wondering who to ask to study with me. I’m not very good at taking notes and that man talks so fast I’m sure I keep missing stuff. But I don’t really know anyone that much from that class.”

“I like that class so my notes are pretty neat!” Scratching his head and then sighing he said, “I must admit though, I’m not very good at studying. I get distracted easily.” 

He waved his hand dismissing Jisung’s concern. “That’s fine. We’ll worry about that when we need to. I’m just happy that I don’t have to ask a random stranger to study with me.”

Minho smiled, and so did Jisung. Truth is, Jisung is pretty bad at studying. He had noticed though, that studying with someone did help. Usually when there’s something to memorize he would ask Chanhee –who was a Classic Literature major and had an amazing memory– for help. But he couldn’t always do that since Chanhee already had too much on his own and he didn’t want to bother his hyung too much. He had always been too awkward to ask his classmates for help. If they invited him to study sessions then fine, he would go. But him asking? No, he didn’t like that. So it was quite a relief to be able to study with a friend, which he had never been able to do since all of his friends were studying very different majors from him. In fact, Minho was the first friend he had that was also a liberal arts student.

Crushed foot forgotten, Jisung remained with Minho for quite a while. Even when he got up and announced that he was still, technically, working, and had to resume his book organization, Minho stood up after him and tagged along while Jisung visited row by row of bookshelves and placed the books back at their respective slots. At some point, the older boy even started helping. Picking up the books from the cart or books left behind at tables or on the floor, (that really made Jisung want to scream, why the floor? What was so hard about putting them back on the shelf?!) and under Jisung’s guidance leaving them back on their correct spots. 

Guess it was quite fitting, since Jisung constantly went and bothered him at his job, that Minho kept nagging and bickering with him at his own job too. But if Jisung was to be honest (which he wasn’t), it was not a bother. At all.

--------

“GIVE IT BACK!” 

“NO!” 

“OH MY GOD SHUT UP!” Chanhee screamed from his spot laying on top of the picnic blanket. 

It was a nice day today. Despite being in the middle of autumn it was quite warm. The sky was blue and there were not many clouds looming around. There was a chill breeze that made the leaves up on the trees ruffle.

So Felix, being the thoughtful sweet angel he is, made a bunch of sandwiches and cut some fruit and practically dragged them to the campus grounds to, as he put it, "have some friendly time with friends". Jisung had to admit, he kind of liked the idea. It's been a while since they all spent some time together just talking and passing the time. Also it's been a while since he even saw Seungmin and Jeongin, who actually lived in the same building as them but both were studying medicine, so their schedules were packed and didn’t aling at all with the rest. He missed hanging out with all of his friends a lot. 

Hyunjin hit him on the head and Jisung screamed. Jisung reached away from Hyunjin, which was quite hard when you took into account that Hyunjin was more than ten centimeters taller than him. 

“IT'S MINE!” 

“I GRABBED IT FIRST, FUCK OFF!”

Jisung was able to pull free from Hyunjin’s grasp and got up after rolling around on the ground. Felix giggled while looking at them running around the trees, people nearby looked at them weirdly but Jisung didn’t care, there was a lot at stake. 

“Guys, you do know there’s more at home, right?”

Both of them stopped at the same time. Hyunjin had managed to tackle him again and he had been squirming like a worm to get away. They both looked at Felix astonished. “What?” They said in unison. Seungmin rolled his eyes, Chanhee just looked like he had passed away out of embarrassment, and Jeongin was giggling alongside Felix.

“Yeah.” Felix laughed again. “I made an extra batch cuz I wanted to save some for the hyungs but I ended up making too much.”

Chanhee came back from the dead and raised his head just to say: “He actually told us that on the way here, which you would have heard if you would have stopped bickering for a second during the whole walk.” He layed back down and covered his eyes with his arm. “Or ever really.”

Hyunjin removed himself from Jisung and went back to sit beside Felix, who brushed the grass off his head and clothes and smiled at him fondly. “I’ll save some for you.” Hyunjin beamed at the smaller boy.

Jisung looked at the carrot cake cupcake wrapped in tinfoil paper resting on his hands for a second. Then he unwrapped it and engulfed it in one bite. Better now before someone changed his mind and tried to take it from him again. He wasn’t that big of a fan of carrot cake as he was of cheesecake, but just like the cookies, Felix’s carrot cake was heavenly.

Not too long after, he started choking, and for a second he thought that maybe the cake was more heavenly than he believed it to be before. But then Seungmin handed him a water bottle and after taking a big gulp he was able to breathe again.

“Sometimes I wonder how you haven’t died yet.” Seungmin looked at him with annoyed but worried eyes.

“I think he’s made of rubber or something, he’s kind of immortal.” Chanhee was still lying down under the sun, his cheeks were now almost the color of his hair, and were very close to surpassing that soon if he stayed for longer out in the sun. 

Jeongin agreed and laughed, but then he seemed to remember something. “I almost forgot, Seungmin and I meant to ask you guys if you are volunteering for the college fair.”

Jisung and Chanhee immediately groaned. “Don’t even remind me about it.” Chanhee finally sat up, his face no longer in the sun. “Why do they call it volunteering but make it a requisite for the courses?”

Seungmin and Jeongin laughed and agreed. “Jeongin and I were just talking about that. It’s a requisite for two of our courses too. Almost 30 percent of our grade.” He straightened up his shoulders and made a serious face. “ The annual fair is one of the prides of our university. It is an honor not only to be able to experience it, but more to contribute to it. You are volunteering to the legacy of your alma mater.” 

Chanhee immediately exploded in loud laughter. “No way! I know who that is, Professor Choi! Oh my god I do not miss that man, what a sour human.” He wiped the tears from his eyes from laughing too much. “You are taking a latin class I suppose. My condolences, I had the displeasure of meeting that guy in my first semester. Almost scared me away.” Jisung could never forget that professor either, since Chanhee never stopped complaining about him and the man even made Chanhee cry once or twice.

Seungmin rolled his eyes again. “He’s almost as bad as our Bioethics teacher from last semester.” 

That comment made Jeongin shudder. “Please don’t even talk about him, we don’t know him.” 

Seungmin murmured something that sounded a lot like “freezing bass tart” but it was too low for Jisung to understand. The first then turned to him. “Sung, do you have to attend too?

Jisung made a long dramatic sigh. “Yeah, it’s a requisite for my seminar and my design class. Makes sense with the design one since we are helping with the stand banners but I still don’t know what psychoanalysis has to do with it.”

“Well, I guess at least we might see each other there.” Jeongin’s voice sounded not very motivated. “I mean, if I try to find something good about it.”

The boys went silent and stared directly at the ground, already dreading all the work and the long day that awaited them at the fair. Meanwhile, Hyunjin and Felix were cuddled up on the floor laughing at the ugly selfies they were taking. Jisung looked at them and let out a long sight again. Oh how he wished he was them. 

Then Jeongin joined the two and the mood instantly changed. Jeongin laughed along and everyone else commented how cute he was.But Jisung couldn’t shake the strange feeling that so suddenly came. He shuddered and shook his head. He was just being dramatic again , he thought, and immediately dismissed the thought.