Chapter Text
"What's wrong?"
Donghyuk looks up over his laptop to witness a rather displeasing sight: Chanwoo sitting across him with bright orange Dorito crumbs collected in the corners of his mouth that fall as he chews, spotting his black t-shirt. Donghyuk doesn't remember buying Doritos during his last grocery trip, but he's also pretty sure Chanwoo didn't bring over anything other than his Surface Pro. Which means what the Computer Science major is currently snacking on, quite care-freely, most likely belongs to Donghyuk's petty flatmate. Which is another can of worms in itself. Donghyuk will worry about that later.
"What?"
"I'm eating obnoxiously loudly and you haven't said shit about it. You're twirling your pen furiously and," Chanwoo stands up and stretches his neck to glance at Donghyuk's laptop screen, getting all giraffe-like, and then smirks as if hardly surprised, "that blank document might attest to your pondering of a deep academic question. But that's boring. And I know it's a lie if you say it. So tell me. What's wrong?"
Donghyuk stares back at Chanwoo, annoyed that his friend can read him, as if he isn't the type to spell his feelings out in bold marker and gold glitter across his face. He glances at the ballpoint pen in his hand, gripping at it mid-swirl and placing it on the table loudly. Chanwoo's eyes are as wide as bowling balls. He does that to appear encouraging and innocent, though it frequently crosses the line to being just plain creepy. Donghyuk takes a deep sigh, knowing there's no point in hiding anything from Chanwoo. And, in all honesty, he's been dying to get it off his chest.
"He's got a kid."
It takes a moment, but, as completely predicted, Chanwoo bursts into laughter. Donghyuk stares on, his face heating up. He closes his eyes tightly, hoping he could somehow turn this into a dream. It's really a nightmare. He opens his eyes and Chanwoo is still guffawing.
"You mean the Modern History tutor you've got the hots for? That… What's his name… Junhwe?"
Donghyuk's shoulders sag a little lower. He wishes he could disappear under the table. It doesn't really help that Chanwoo is laughing so hard that his face has turned almost purple.
Goo Junhwe, PhD student and the History department's newest addition. Verified eye candy (criteria: tall, broad shoulders, great smile). Very well-read. Wears those hipster wire-rimmed glasses. Makes helpful PowerPoints. Remembers his reusable coffee cup nine out of ten times (not that Donghyuk is counting). Smart, but isn't patronising. Young, but like, mature. In summary: totally Donghyuk's type.
"I went to his house."
"You went to his house?" Chanwoo echoes, high-pitched.
Donghyuk really wants to reach out and strangle the boy, but murder is only the second thing on his mind right now. He huffs, scrunching his eyebrows at his own anguished reflection on his laptop screen. "I wanted to ask him a few questions about the research essay. Like, over coffee or something. But he said he's quite busy outside of tutorial hours."
"And?"
"And he said if I didn't mind I could come to his house. Because it's a lot easier for him."
"Boy. You took it, and you ran with it."
"Well, it's true that I never see him around campus outside tutorials," Donghyuk defends, bristling. Not even in the Arts library, not that Donghyuk has fantasised about bumping into Junhwe in the tight aisles with classical Korean poetry anthologies left and right, and starting a conversation about their favourite ones before they realised they were talking too loud, so, embarrassed and giggling, would continue their conversation outside. Or in a café. Or on a bed somewhere. Donghyuk's never thought about it. "And he seemed willing enough to help me."
"You wore cologne."
"What- Well, yes. It's called not smelling like shit. It's a duty we owe to everyone in society. You gamers won't understand."
Chanwoo rolls his eyes to that one, but he's unfazed. He is really, really amused. "You lathered up. Shea butter or whatever."
"Basic self-care, my friend."
"You waxed your ass. I bet you did."
"What?!"
Chanwoo holds his gaze.
Donghyuk stares back silently, before his eyes shake and falter. Fuck!
"Oh, my sweet Donghyuk," Chanwoo cries, and Donghyuk winces. He feels his stomach shrivel. "My sweet, sweet Donghyuk. You thought you were getting those private contact hours!" If Chanwoo's face could be replaced by an emoji, it would be the one laughing with tears in its eyes. Very soon, it could be the skull one.
Donghyuk's glare is sharp. "I think we - you - are missing the point here."
"You clearly missed the point too-"
"The point is!" Donghyuk clarifies loudly, pressing his fist on the table. Chanwoo raises his eyebrow. "I went to his house. It's an apartment in Yeonnam-dong. The moment he pulls back the door, he apologises and asks if I could be really quiet because there's a kid sleeping. And I- I don't know. I just assume it's his younger brother or something. I mean. Yeah. There's photos in the apartment of them two, and the kid has his features so I didn't really question it. He prepares tea and stuff and we sit in his lounge casually discussing the essay and then we move to the topic of movies, and then…"
Chanwoo eagerly looks on despite Donghyuk's hesitance, absolutely certain that there is something he'd love to hear about. He's not really wrong about that. He usually isn't, when it comes to Donghyuk's thirst ventures. "And then what."
Donghyuk can't even handle what he's about to say next. He exhales. "I spill my cup of tea."
"You did not!"
"I did."
"No."
"No what!" Donghyuk snaps, annoyed. "I did it! I spilled my cup of tea over my jeans."
Chanwoo gasps. "Seriously! There was a kid in the other room!"
Donghyuk bows his head in defeat. He's really indefensible. In retrospect, it was kind of distasteful of him.
"It's like some bad porn scenario. I literally can't believe you." After a pause, Chanwoo shoves a large Dorito in his mouth. "But do continue."
Donghyuk sighs. "It's not my proudest moment either okay." Donghyuk can think of a dozen other ways he would have - had - done it in the past. Though, let's just say Donghyuk wasn't usually the one who had to initiate a lot of these things. There was a reason he was known as the best fuck around campus (read: the gym showers frequented equally by the school rugby, basketball, and football teams). Though, the reason apparently escapes the minds of people like Junhwe, because he sat on the other end of the couch and did little to close the distance between them. It felt a little strange, because Donghyuk dressed dressed up, and Junhwe was only in a plain white t-shirt and loose black slacks, a casual sight compared to his tutorial looks. Junhwe made no comment on Donghyuk's efforts - Donghyuk wouldn't have known how to answer anyway - but Donghyuk certainly did not miss how Junhwe's eyes trailed the slice of chest through the opening of his button-up, more than once. Signs. Funny how Donghyuk would take anything, but ignore the blatant red flags. The conclusion of this is that someone had to make the first move, and Donghyuk welcomed that burden on himself.
[...]