Chapter Text
Junhui remembers excitedly thinking that growing up was a very cool thing.
He was a naive child who whole-heartedly believed in the existence of Santa Claus until his father accidentally told him the truth when he was six, utterly crushing all his hopes and dreams. His mother had given his father a nasty look the moment he started bawling when he couldn't accept Santa wasn't real.
It's a terribly embarrassing memory. His mother still likes to bring it up at family dinners and share some of the most humiliating moments of his life to their relatives even though it'd happened more than a decade ago, helpfully adding onto the growing list of potential blackmail material he's sure his cousins own of him.
But the incident of him realizing Santa Claus doesn't exist isn't important. Six year old him came to terms with that a few weeks later anyway. It was a fleeting memory, a small part of his childhood his parents said he'd look back at ages later and laugh.
Junhui was eight when he learned something new about himself. It was also when he made his first friend.
On a particularly nice morning, like the energetic child he is, he ran out to the backyard after receiving permission in the form of a lazy nod by his half-asleep father. He recalled spotting flowers blooming somewhere in the garden yesterday and had made a mental note to check it out the next day.
Making sure none of the dirt on the ground got onto his pants, Junhui bent his knees, doe eyes curiously observing the patch of daisies gardened by his mother. He must've spent at least five minutes simply watching in wonder as the flowers do completely nothing but sway slightly in the light breeze.
He thought the daisies looked pretty. Even said so out loud, as if flowers could listen and respond to compliments.
His jaw nearly dropped to the ground when he heard a high-pitched, unfamiliar voice reply enthusiastically in his head, even sounding quite smug.
"Why, thank you!"
Junhui had immediately got onto his feet, spun on his heel, and bolted back into the house, crying and screaming for his mother that there was a stranger talking to him in his head.
He didn't go into the garden for the next few days, in fear that the weird stranger would return.
One day while heading home from school, Junhui encountered someone new in his neighborhood while walking past one of the houses.
"Hey."
Junhui froze, shoulders visibly tensing. He must've been hearing things again, considering there was no way anyone else besides him was in the garden that morning. And he may have believed in Santa Claus, but even he knows flowers can't just talk.
But this voice obviously wasn't the stranger from his mother's garden. The voice sounded like it belonged to a human boy like him.
"Up here," the same voice said again. Junhui found himself reluctantly obeying, lifting his head to lock gazes with not a strange creature, but a pair of big brown eyes that held just as much as childish curiosity as his own do.
A boy who looked around his age was standing to his right, the two of them separated by a wooden fence about five feet tall. The unfamiliar-looking boy only had his head popped out from the other side, head tilted slightly downwards to look at Junhui properly. He must be tip-toeing on a stool, given that he looked like he was struggling to stand still.
Junhui blinked. "Who are you?"
The boy flashed him a wide smile, displaying his missing tooth on the front row of his teeth, "My name's Mingyu. What about you?"
Despite having no idea who this Mingyu was, Junhui saw no harm in telling this boy his name. His mother always told him it was important to be polite to others. "Junhui."
Mingyu looked fascinated, "Where are you from?"
"I moved here from China a while ago," Junhui explained. He gestured to the house not too far away from them. "I live here now."
"I live next door to your house. We're neighbors then!" Mingyu clapped happily, his actions almost causing him to lose his grip on the top of the fence and topple off the stool he was standing on. He managed not to, lest he fell and lost another tooth. "Wanna be friends?" he suggested abruptly.
Junhui didn't see why not. Besides, Mingyu was certainly interesting. He'd never met anyone who'd simply boldly ask to make friends with a total stranger.
He shrugged, "Sure."
"By the way, I saw you in your garden a few days ago," Mingyu said out of the blue, tilting his head to the side. "Why were you screaming?"
Slightly taken aback by Mingyu's question and feeling quite flushed that he had been seen, Junhui attempted hiding his embarrassment by eyeing Mingyu warily. "Why were you watching me?" he shot back.
"I was in my backyard too and saw you, that's all."
"Why were you in your backyard so early in the morning?"
"I saw a pretty butterfly and tried to chase it," Mingyu stated. He pouted, "It ended up flying away though."
"Who chases butterflies at ten in the morning?"
"Who looks at flowers at ten in the morning and starts crying and screaming?" Mingyu retorted. Junhui huffed, sulking. "So, why were you?" he asked again.
"Heard someone talking to me," Junhui mumbled. "It was really weird. The voice didn't sound human too. I got scared and ran back into the house."
"Is it that you have an ability then?"
"A what?" Junhui's head snapped up to send Mingyu an odd look.
"An ability," Mingyu repeated. "Y'know, kinda like superpowers in a superhero comic book. My mom said almost everyone has one. You must be an early bloomer."
Junhui's expression soured. "To hear voices in your head? What kind of weird ability is that?"
"Maybe it's something else," Mingyu said. "You could go to the garden and try talking again."
Despite how much he disliked the thought of entering the garden again, curiosity overtook him. He took Mingyu's suggestion and on the very next day, slowly stepped back into the backyard.
He glanced down at the daisies, chewing on his lip nervously, before stopping when he's reminded his mother said it was a bad habit. Looking up, he scanned his surroundings, swallowing hard before speaking up, "Hello?"
"Hello!"
Junhui jumped. The hand he put over his own mouth muffled the surprised scream that threatened to escape his throat. He willed himself not to freak out, because like last time, no one was there.
"Down here!"
He followed the instructions, but all he could see were the unmoving daisies. Are the daisies the ones talking?
The daisies seemed to giggle at his bewilderment. "You're a cute human child."
And just like that, all sort of fear he felt vanished when it was replaced by his awe, because oh my god, it really was the daisies speaking to him.
"I can talk to daisies," he whispered in astonishment into his silent backyard.
The daisies giggled again, and it seemed as if he was the only one who could hear them as if they were conversing in his head. "Not just us, child. You have the ability to communicate with all sort of plant life."
Junhui's eyes blew wide, realization slowly dawning on his eight year old self. "So you're saying I can talk to plants?"
And that was how Wen Junhui discovered his ability, and his friendship with Mingyu continued to strengthen over the years they've spent growing up together.
Mingyu didn't seem to mind his unique ability to be able to talk to plants. In fact, he'd been very fascinated by it, a look of awe always gracing his features when Junhui told him that he could listen to the trees in their neighborhood's thoughts.
As he grew older, Junhui met more and more people manifesting all sorts of interesting abilities, possibly some weirder than his communication with plant life. Mingyu's ability to control electricity was amongst the coolest he's ever seen, although the first time he found out he accidentally switched off all the electricity in his house.
And the happiness lasted until he graduated high school and started attending college, training to become a functional adult to society.
College is a fucking mess. Junhui hates it.
"I desire death," Junhui says out loud, glaring at his half-written assignment. He's certain the last few paragraphs of this essay are going nowhere and the conclusion would make absolutely no sense if he continues typing.
He's most likely been staring at the computer screen for hours, which explains how much his eyeballs are burning. Even the coffee on his desk has gone cold, one Junhui had wished to savor when it was still hot.
Across the room, his dormmate and best friend doesn't even bat an eyelash at his sudden declaration to want to pass away. Mingyu, being the sloth he is, has been laying on his bed for the entire time Junhui has been working on his assignment.
"It's just an essay," Mingyu attempts lifting his mood, something he fails to do each time. Junhui's mood worsens, and he cranes his neck to send Mingyu a glare so deadly to show how much of a terrible predicament he's stuck in, justifying his wish to die.
A few more seconds go by, nothing comes up in Junhui's mind as he blankly stares at his word document, trying very hard to suppress the urge to hurl the laptop out the window, only because laptops aren't cheap.
The tree conveniently positioned outside the window seems to enjoy watching his misery, for Junhui hears it giggling in amusement as he lets out his third frustrated groan that hour.
Just as Junhui is about to try throwing himself out the window to end it all, college be damned, Mingyu's phone pings, the screen lighting up for several seconds to display the new notifications he's received. Junhui thinks whoever texted him has saved his life, snapping him back to reality and the fact that no, he cannot afford to jump out the window.
At least not right now.
Because their dorm isn't that high up from the ground, not guaranteeing him his sweet-desired death. If he breaks his bones then the medical bills and fees to repair the broken window would merely make matters even worst. Attending college and trying to buy food at the same time is difficult enough.
Now clearly isn't the right time. Junhui should plan for it more thoroughly sometime later.
"Holy shit," Mingyu says. From the corner of Junhui's eye, he can see Mingyu is now sitting up on his bed, staring at his phone as his fingers frantically type something on the screen. "Jun, there's a party tomorrow night at Jungkook's frat house."
At the mention of one of Mingyu's best friends, Junhui suspects he's likely texting in that '97 liner group chat they have right now. Jungkook throws awesome parties and the guy is practically friends with everyone who goes to their college, so he's definitely going to see more than one familiar face there.
But that depends if he's actually going to the party. And looking back at his pitiful assignment, it's quite obvious what the answer is. Junhui sighs, choosing to ignore Mingyu and proceed to rack his skull to find a way to extend his essay's word count.
Mingyu seems to have already read his mind, courtesy of knowing each other for so long. Although it's become a bit of a pain on Junhui's part, especially when it comes to times like this. "Jun," Mingyu starts whining, "C'mon."
"No."
"We should go," Mingyu insists. "It'll be fun."
"I have an essay to finish. I can't go."
"The party's tomorrow. Surely you could finish the essay before then."
Junhui gives a dry laugh. "Surely you know me well enough that in—" he pauses to squint at the clock hung on the wall, which he now notices is about to fall off, they should adjust that soon before it does— "approximately two hours, I'll start procrastinating and won't finish this essay until the last minute before the due date."
Since he isn't allowed to jump out the window, the only other solution he has is to procrastinate and leave Future Junhui to deal with the mess he created instead of Present Junhui. He should really stop having his future self handle his mistakes and have him be the one to wallow in self-regret, but at least that explains why he hates himself.
"And when is the due date?"
"The day after tomorrow. If I go to the party, I'll have too much of a hangover to do the assignment."
"Who's to say this party has alcohol? Just don't get drunk and you'll be fine." Mingyu huffs.
Junhui turns around in his IKEA swivel chair to stare at Mingyu. "It's Jungkook," he deadpans. "It's not a party hosted by him if there's no alcohol and booze."
Mingyu doesn't have anything to say to that, because the idea of an alcoholic-free Jeon Jungkook party does indeed sound out of character. Instead, he decides to change the topic by steering the subject towards a route that would have Junhui coming for his head, but he's willing to take his chances.
"A lot of people would be there, like Wonwoo, Soonyoung, Seungkwan," Mingyu lists out. The edge of his lip quirks upwards into a teasing smirk, "Even Minghao."
He's barely able to dodge the Moby Dick flying towards him, the literature book smacking him square on the face. "Oof," Mingyu lets out, then falls back onto his bed.
The tree outside their window snickers, and Junhui allows himself to shamelessly cackle at his best friend's pathetic state.
Mingyu shoots up, frowning at him. Junhui remains unfazed even as a ball of electricity forms in Mingyu's palm, despite knowing that Mingyu could very well hurl it at him and it'd hurt a hundred times more than flying literature books.
But Mingyu's way too nice, always has been too much of a softie. If he was like Junhui instead, every irritating professor he's encountered throughout his school career would've turned into barbeque, while all Junhui could do was bitch about their stupid teachers to random plants and not have anyone understand what he's talking about.
His best friend may be tall as fuck and most people would be intimidated by his height, but Mingyu's got a bit of a reputation for being a clumsy klutz. For example, whenever he sneezes too hard other people within a one-meter radius would unintentionally get zapped by electricity. So anyone who knows him isn't scared of him, but would stay alert and run for it whenever Mingyu looks as if he's about to sneeze.
The two of them engage in a staring contest for a few more seconds, before Mingyu accidentally blinks. He sighs, the ball of electricity disappearing as he lowers his hand to rest on the bed.
"How long have you been crushing on him anyway? Since last year?" Mingyu asks, continuing to text on his phone.
A year and three months, Junhui wants to say, but he holds back his tongue and simply decides to answer by shrugging his shoulders.
Mingyu scoffs, "You should really just talk to him, y'know. He probably doesn't even know you exist."
Junhui glares at him. "Easier said than done, asshole."
He's never thought he'd be able to like someone that much, but ever since he saw Xu Minghao step into one of his lectures in all his handsome glory, and Junhui was proven wrong. He still vividly remembers the way his heart had stopped when he first laid his eyes on him.
Never did he think someone could pull off a mullet hairstyle, but Minghao certainly did, with his black-hair mullet and messy bangs that sometimes covered his eyes, and he looked incredibly good in it, more than Junhui and his heart would've been able to take.
"So what?" Mingyu's annoying voice forcefully drags Junhui back to his miserable reality— one where Minghao isn't even aware of his existence. "You're just going to continue having wet dreams about him until we graduate college and not speak even a single word to him?"
Junhui's just about to respond with a witty and snarky remark, but his shoulders sag because Mingyu is sadly, correct. He turns around in his swivel chair to face away from Mingyu, preparing to get back to work. "Yes, you're absolutely right." he looks over his shoulder to narrow his eyes at him, "Also, I do not have wet dreams about Minghao!"
Behind him, he hears Mingyu sigh again, somehow in sync with the tree outside, who emits the exact same exhausted sigh in Junhui's head. Junhui glares at it, and the tree giggles quietly, which prompts him to roll his eyes.
"At least consider coming to the party," Mingyu speaks up a while later. "It's not about Minghao. Exams finished last week and it's been a stressful month for both of us, so I thought attending the party would let you have some fun."
Mingyu, as clueless as he is sometimes, always has a way with his words. Junhui releases a long sigh, and nods. "I'll think about it."
He hears Mingyu cheer in celebration and can already picture the excited smile on his best friend's face without even looking back at him, which inevitably results in him smiling a bit as well, tuning out the teasing noises the tree outside is purposely making.
Junhui frowns at it. They really should do something about that nosy tree outside their dorm's window.
✾✾⚘⚘ꕥ⚘⚘✾✾
Junhui has a very bad habit. It's that he really can't say no to Mingyu, especially when his best friend flashes that attractive, blinding smile at him— one that would make girls instantly fall head over heels for him, and one that Junhui had hoped he had grown immune to over the years.
Alas, Kim Mingyu's smile is still too powerful.
Which is how he finds himself saving his half-written essay document when a rare wave of productivity hit him about half an hour ago. He's already written a few more paragraphs and the conclusion, so after once more of proofreading he would be able to submit it.
An hour left to when Jungkook's party starts. One Junhui had eventually agreed on attending. Mingyu had been ecstatic about it.
In the evening, him and Mingyu walk to Jungkook's frat house, one he shares with some of his friends, and the location where the party is being held. The trees planted around campus make light chatter, one Junhui has inevitably grown used to hearing.
Along the way, they meet Seungkwan and Soonyoung, who barge into the house once arrived without so much as a polite knock.
"Hey ghouls," Soonyoung calls out dramatically after basically having kicked down the front door. "The boys are here!"
"Oof." Jungkook says, standing in the middle of the hallway wearing nothing but a white t-shirt and boxers. "Y'all are early." he eyes the plastic bag in Seungkwan's grasp, "And you brought liquor. Sweet."
Seungkwan shuffles into the house, nonchalantly shoving past a random dude— Jungkook's fratmate, who lets out an offended noise— and sets the liquor on the kitchen table.
"Hey, Kook." Mingyu greets, and the two do some kind of handshake. He stares. "Why aren't you wearing any pants?"
"It was Namjoon's turn to do the laundry today," Jungkook explains. "He didn't know how to work the laundry machine."
"And... you don't have any other available pants?"
"All my jeans got ruined," Jungkook shrugs. "I'll borrow a pair from one of the guys later."
Mingyu doesn't even bat an eyelash at his friend's antics. "Okay," he pats his shoulder. "When are the other guests arriving?"
"Soon," Jungkook answers. He glances over Mingyu's shoulder, offering Junhui a smile. "Hey, Junhui!"
"Yo," Junhui plops down on the green colored, atrocious-looking couch, and immediately pulls out his phone. "What's the WiFi password?"
"Um, you'll have to ask Jin about that later." Jungkook rubs his nape sheepishly. "Yoongi and Jin got into an argument and Jin changed the password out of spite."
Junhui can't help rolling his eyes. "I see." he turns off his phone, passing the time by watching everyone else chat and occasionally laughing at some joke Soonyoung makes. After the other guests arrive, Junhui is thinking of stealing some food and maybe get drunk.
Not too drunk, because like Jeonghan once told him, stupid actions can lead to terrible consequences. Junhui would prefer not to deal with a head-splitting hangover tomorrow morning.
Half an hour later, the house is already flooded with people from campus. A few familiar faces, like Junhui had expected. Wonwoo is now sitting beside him on the couch, and like Junhui, had been dragged into coming by their friends.
"This couch is very uncomfortable," Wonwoo murmurs, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. Somewhere in the kitchen Soonyoung is yelling at the top of his lungs, which causes Wonwoo's expression to twist into one of distaste.
Junhui feels bad for him. The bespectacled boy has always disliked parties. Vibrant and loud environments make Wonwoo feel drained, but for some reason, he attended this party knowing how chaotic it would turn out to be.
"Why did you come anyway?" he decides to ask. "It's unlike you to attend parties no matter how much they try to convince you."
Wonwoo tenses, looking caught off guard by the question. His eyes flicker somewhere, and Junhui's gaze follows him, eventually landing on Mingyu standing across the room, watching Soonyoung breakdance on the kitchen floor and cheering him on.
Junhui turns back to Wonwoo, and the boy is blushing. Realization dawns on him. "Oh."
The boy doesn't answer, shoulders hunched as he tries shrinking on himself to make his frame seem smaller, though it's proven to be a difficulty considering he's six feet tall.
Then Wonwoo starts floating, body slowly lifting up from where he was seated on the couch.
Instead of freaking out, Junhui sees how the blush hasn't disappeared from Wonwoo's cheeks and sighs. "I'll go get Mingyu."
Most of the time Wonwoo prefers not using his gravity-manipulating ability, but he tends to start floating out of nowhere whenever he gets nervous. It's made life for him hard, given that he's also introverted and despises class presentations, which means he may randomly float into the air right in front of the classroom.
"Woah," some dude says, staring at Wonwoo's floating figure in wonder. "That guy's fucking floating."
Junhui rises from the couch, making a beeline towards the kitchen to help his poor friend by finding Mingyu at once.
"Hey, Gyu— Wonwoo's floating again, can you go calm him down—"
The kitchen is crowded, and Junhui yelps when someone accidentally elbows him in the rib. Surrounding the countertop is a bunch of people yelling and whistling energetically as Jungkook chugs down as many drinks as he can, crumpling up each plastic cup he drinks once it's empty.
Mingyu is standing behind Jungkook, cheering his friend on while he himself is holding a cup. Jun pushes past screaming college students to make his way towards Mingyu, tapping his shoulder.
"Oh, it's you, Jun." Mingyu says, sipping his drink. "Jungkook's on this fourth cup now."
Junhui grimaces, "Okay," he casts the boy aggressively chugging drinks a quick glance, before turning back to Mingyu. "Look, Wonwoo's in the living room. Go talk to him. He's floating and being surrounded by out of their mind drunkards will only make him even more anxious."
His voice can barely be heard when Seungkwan starts blaring music, and everybody in the room starts shouting even louder. Junhui wishes to strangle Seungkwan right now, but luckily, Mingyu seems to get the message.
"You got it," Mingyu hums, putting his cup aside. "I'll make sure Wonwoo doesn't accidentally float out the window again."
"Thanks," Junhui whispers, and the tall boy disappears out the door. Now that Wonwoo's predicament is settled— anything regarding Wonwoo could easily be solved with just Mingyu's presence, really— he decides to approach the crowd, where he sees Jeonghan has an arm slung around Soonyoung's shoulders as the boy challenges a drunk Jungkook to a dance-off.
"Hey man," Joshua greets in English upon seeing him. Junhui has no idea what he's saying, though he isn't complaining when Joshua hands him a drink.
"I don't think the house will survive after this party is over," the older boy comments as Junhui takes a sip of his drink. In nearly every corner of the room at least one couple are making out even in the large racket some of the boys are making, as Jeonghan is currently beatboxing and Soonyoung is spinning like a fidget spinner on the floor.
On the other side of the room, Seungcheol is bickering about something with Jihoon, cheeks flushed, and obviously on the verge of getting totally drunk.
From the corner of his left eye, he thinks he sees Seungkwan aggressively pressing the buttons of a microwave before it bursts into flames. The boy screeches, then grabs the microwave and throws it into the wet sink.
There's also discarded clothes on the ground, leading to the staircase up to the second floor.
Junhui downs his drink all at once, and mentally pays Seokjin his respects. No, he should be paying his respects to Jungkook instead, because everyone and their mom knows that boy is getting his ass beaten after Seokjin returns from his trip to visit his family and sees the mess.
"Oh?" Joshua lets out a sound. "Hey, isn't that Minghao?"
An unmanly, soft squeak escapes Junhui's lips, and he nearly drops his cup. Following Joshua's gaze, he stops where they're settled on a tall, slender boy with black hair leaning against the wall across the room, chatting with someone.
That's definitely Xu Minghao. And he looks gorgeous.
Junhui's grip on his plastic cup tightens. He hopes Joshua doesn't notice, for he's certainly screaming his lungs out internally.
Minghao looks away from whoever he's talking to, and they accidentally make eye contact with each other. Junhui's eyes go wide like saucers, quickly looking away before it gets awkward.
Thing is, Xu Minghao doesn't have a reputation for being really friendly or nice. He's quiet, aloof, likes keeping to himself most of the time, creating this mysterious aura Junhui is so in love with that whenever he confesses that to Mingyu the tall boy can't help but gag.
"Hey!" Seungkwan interrupts his thoughts by emerging between him and Joshua, wrapping his arms around their shoulders. He's sweating, and his smile looks strained after having just wrecked this house's microwave by unintentionally setting it on fire. "Nice party, right?"
"Sure," Joshua shrugs. He looks at Seungkwan weirdly, "Bro, why are you sweating so badly—"
"Anyway!" Seungkwan cuts him off loudly. "You guys should get drunk. Here, have some more drinks." he proceeds to shove said drinks towards Junhui, urging him to drink them all. "C'mon guys, Jun's gonna chug!"
Joshua, despite being the oldest among them and supposedly the most responsible, condones Seungkwan's actions and too, joins in on urging him to drink.
Junhui smiles a bit, then brings the cup to his lips. He might as well indulge himself and his friends, and maybe getting drunk will help him take his mind off how captivating Minghao looks today.
Then he recalls nothing else that night, allowing himself to sink into the blissful abyss of alcohol and irresponsible drinking.
✾✾⚘⚘ꕥ⚘⚘✾✾
When Junhui regains consciousness, everything that happened last night at the party hits him like several bullets to his head. This sensation is no doubt one of a terrible hangover.
So he did get shit-faced drunk yesterday.
But that doesn't explain why he's sitting on a bed in an unfamiliar room.
And there's a human figure lying in bed beside him.
If it weren't for the pounding headache, Junhui would've definitely screamed upon seeing someone else in bed with him. Instead, he stares unblinking at the sleeping form for a while, waiting for reality to slap him in the face and ultimately wake him up.
That slap never comes.
Immediately, Junhui's mind starts thinking all sorts of scenarios that could've happened last night, and he may not remember what he did, but the reason is definitely because he had too many drinks. So, it's his fault why he's now in bed with a stranger.
Willing for his heart rate to calm down, Junhui looks down, relaxes when he sees all his clothes are still on, and that no, whatever happened last night with this stranger isn't what he thinks it'd be.
He reaches for his phone on the bedside table, ensuring the person next to him doesn't wake up, turns his device off on and checks his notifications. There's a few messages from his friends, and a missed call from Mingyu.
seungkwan
always knew u liked him
good luck n have fun lol
jeonghan
joshua told me what happened
didn't know you were so bold ;') im proud
mingyu
jun where r u
jun
wen junhui
if u don't respond in 5 secs ill throw out ur manga collection
nvm seungkwan called me have fun getting laid with ur crush lmao u better thank me for making u come to this party
Junhui stares at his messages blankly for what seems like hours.
Mingyu's message stands out the most, and Junhui feels dread creep up in his chest as he slowly turns to his side to glance at the person sleeping next to him. His back is facing him, and Junhui may not be able to see his face, but he sees this person's clothes are still on, so that's a relief.
Fluffy black hair spread on the pillow as this stranger continues to doze off makes Junhui pause, the gears in his head turning, albeit slower than usual due to the effect of his hangover.
That mop of black hair looks familiar, because Junhui remembers daydreaming about running his fingers through those soft locks once. He swallows a lump in his throat, heart nearly jumping out of his chest as the person beside him shifts.
The stranger turns around, mumbling something inaudible in his sleep, which lets Junhui get a clear look of his face.
A handsome face that no doubt belongs to Xu Minghao, Junhui's crush.
Minghao continues to sleep with a peaceful expression, blissfully unaware of the fact that Junhui chokes on his spit and almost falls off the fucking bed.
Panic quickly settles within him, the aftermath of the hangover quickly being overlapped by it. Junhui clutches on his phone, silently eyeing Minghao carefully to make sure he doesn't wake him up.
Then he begins screaming at Mingyu through texts.
WHAT THE FUCK
KIM MINGYU
WHY THE FUCK IS MINGHAO SLEEPING BESIDE ME
AND WHERE THE FUCK AM I
HOW FUCKING DRUNK WAS I LAST NIGHT FUCJXKKKKKK IM FUCKING DONE FOR
Minghao stirs in his sleep, and Junhui's heart nearly stops.
When the other boy doesn't seem to be waking up anytime soon, Junhui turns around and spots the potted plant by the window.
"What the fuck happened?" he hisses to it in a hushed tone, as quietly as he can.
The potted plant giggles, but otherwise refuses to answer his question. Junhui glares at it menacingly, already growing a justified hatred for this potted plant. He should ask Jungkook to throw it away.
"You hugged him a lot." the potted plant responds, its voice barely above a whisper. It continues to giggle loudly, "Couldn't stop calling out his name."
Junhui's face turns a dark shade of red.
So basically, what the potted plant is saying is that he got wasted last night, and utterly lost his mind.
He turns away from the potted plant, pocketing his phone as he hesitantly approaches the bed again. Minghao remains unmoving, and Junhui gets a clear view of his pretty features, how soft and pliant he looks while asleep, so unlike the resting bitch face he always puts on when awake.
Junhui gets closer, hand reaching out, tempted by the sudden desire to pat Minghao's head.
Before he can even touch him, Minghao stirs again. Junhui instantly recoils and moves backwards several steps away from the bed.
Then he sees Minghao's eyelids slowly fluttering open.
Just like that, panic overtakes his system. Before anything else can happen, Junhui is turning towards the door, nearly ripping it off its hinges and fucking books it out of there.
He's grateful he doesn't stumble or trip over his own feet on his way out.
"Good morning," Jungkook tells him when Junhui dashes down the stairs. The house is a mess, but that's no surprise. "You're the fifth hangover who woke up today. Want some scrambled eggs? There's probably bits of egg shells in them though, be careful."
"I made a mistake!" Junhui shrieks in Jungkook's face, then proceeds to run out the front door, his phone in hand to dial Mingyu's number and cry to him instead.
"So you didn't have sex with him?" is what Mingyu says after hearing Junhui's story, "A shame. That was your one chance, man."
Junhui paces back and forth in their dorm, holding his head in his hands. "Oh my god," he says weakly under his breath, dropping to his knees. "I slept with Xu Minghao last night."
Outside the window, the tree scoffs at his dramatics. Junhui sends it a death glare, to which it responds by blowing raspberries.
"Stop arguing with the tree outside," Mingyu sighs, standing up to close the window and shut the curtains.
"That tree's a bitch," Junhui mutters. He groans into his palms, "God, please forgive me for my sins."
"Quit being so dramatic. You didn't even have sex with him." Mingyu shakes his head, unimpressed. "Do you remember what happened before you fell into bed with Minghao?"
Junhui gives Mingyu the stink eye for that last statement, to which his best friend ignores it. "No." he sighs.
"Why don't you just ask Minghao himself what happened?"
"Mingyu," Junhui pinches the bridge of his nose, for fuck's sake, he still hasn't fully recovered from his hangover yet. "I'm not sure you know this, but not everyone has zero sense of shame like you."
"Rude," Mingyu plops down on his bed, whipping out his phone. Junhui bets money that he's about to text Wonwoo, judging by the smile immediately forming on his lips.
"Do you think I left a bad impression?" Junhui groans again, "You know how I get when I'm wasted."
"Yeah, but isn't it better than him not knowing you at all?" Mingyu asks. "Now he knows you exist."
Junhui stares ahead, regretting every choice and decision he's made in his life.
"Look, if it bothers you that much, just go ask Seungkwan then. He was there, and last I recalled, wasn't as wasted to not remember anything at all." Mingyu suggests.
"Seungkwan?" Junhui wrinkles his nose. Seungkwan tends to take super long explaining stories. "Are you serious?"
Mingyu snorts. "You do want to know what happened, don't you?"
Junhui exhales a defeated sigh at that. "Fine."
Even with the curtains covering the window, he feels as if the stupid tree outside is mocking him, tittering in amusement.
With the impact of his hangover worsening due to his headache, the root of it being his current problem— Xu Minghao, Wen Junhui knows he's screwed.