Tired Lines; Soonhoon

18

☽

10:52 am.

Jihoon's barely three inches past the door when Mingyu's voice, demanding and inquisitive, sounds from across the room.

"Okay, spill," he says, and Jihoon rolls his eyes.

"You're about to be sorely disappointed - we didn't sleep together."

"What the fuck? Why not?"

"Because that's not what I went there for," he grumbles, kicking off his shoes and shoving past his roommate. Mingyu's mouth has formed a nearly perfect O, eyes wide and eyebrows bunched together in a look that's almost comical. Jihoon would laugh, really, if he wasn't already tired of the antics.

"What did you go there for, then?"

"Well, after we finished at the studio he - he invited me over to watch movies. That's all."

"You just ... watched movies? Like, on his couch? With snacks?"

"Yes? Mingyu, I don't - "

"God, that's adorable."

Jihoon straightens, managing one last glare before turning and slamming the bathroom door behind him. He'll shower and pretend he can't hear Mingyu's incessant nagging beyond the wall - it wouldn't be the first time he's had to do so.

But maybe - just maybe - he feels like cotton, because yeah, it was adorable.

3:01 pm.

"No, I am not going to another party with you."

"Jihoon, please? You had so much fun last time - "

"You had so much fun last time, probably eating Wonwoo's face. Do you really think I - "

"Are you telling me you didn't enjoy spending time with Soonyoung?" Mingyu prompts, arms crossed over his chest. When Jihoon doesn't respond, he sighs.

"I just like to see you have fun every now and then. This bitch insomnia is leaching all the life out of you - and it's not like you're particularly vivacious without it." Jihoon prepares himself to argue, but Mingyu doesn't let him. "No, shut the fuck up and let me talk. Maybe I haven't seen yours and Soonyoung's dynamics in action, but I know for a fact that the kid makes you happy. You'll never admit it, but he does."

Jihoon opens and closes his mouth like a goldfish; a stupid, silly goldfish, who's wrong but doesn't want to admit it.

" ... You think I'll go to this party because of that?" he finally asks, and Mingyu gapes, exasperated.

"Yes! That's my entire point, you dense goblin. Soonyoung's going to the party, and now that you know that I'm willing to bet everything in my wallet that you'll go, too, whether you tell me or not. Because that's what you do, now - stuff that regular old Jihoonie would never dream of getting involved with, simply because it means you'll be close to some boy."

"It's not - " Jihoon clamps his mouth shut, knowing better than to say it out loud.

It's not some boy.

It's Soonyoung, and Mingyu's right.

9:14 pm.

So he finds himself, yet again, at some strange house that's God knows how far from campus, solo cup in hand and standing idly next to a group that consists of Mingyu and his friends. One of them had introduced himself as Seungkwan, the apparent host, with his arm wrapped around the waist of someone else. Vernon, Jihoon thinks.