#skz surfer au | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

fantastic-bby · 3 years

Text

Han Jisung's Crappy Guide: Surfing Into Hearts

Pairing: (F)Reader x Jisung

Word count: 22.4k

Summary: Jisung has a very questionable guide in trying to win hearts, one of the issues with it is that it only consists of really bad flirting and telling people he's a hot surfer. The other issue with it is that he's never actually put it into play because he's always waiting until he feels that special spark with someone...

Warnings: Brief physical fighting | Mentions of getting high | Jisung has what I think is the equivalent of an obsessed fan

Masterlist | AO3 Link

Han Jisung: aged 21 and a third year Computer Science student in Beachside University. As the name literally implies, the campus is right next to a beach in the same town that Jisung grew up in. It’s a small town mostly filled with surfers, swimmers and divers that take advantage of the easy ocean access.

Han Jisung: one of the hottest and the most popular guys on campus. He became popular because of his surfing. Known as one of the best surfers in the town, Jisung doesn’t pay any attention to the flock of girls that crowd the beach whenever he’s there in the evening.

In fact, he avoids the crowds by going early in the morning with his best friends Lee Minho, a Veterinary student, and Lee Yongbok, a Culinary student.

Minho: also known as Lee Know, is one of the friendliest yet mysterious guys on campus. No one’s brave enough to get close to him because no one actually knows what he’s like. He’s the kind of person who’s friends with everyone but also no one. Everyone knows who he is—President of the Helping Paws society and one of friendliest guys on campus—but no one actually knows who Lee Minho really is.

Yongbok: better known as Felix, is one of the sweetest yet dangerous guys. While he’s known as sweet due to his sunshine smile and generous personality, Felix is the president of the university’s MMA club; a position that isn’t that easy to acquire unless you’re really good at fighting. No one’s brave enough to physically challenge Felix. The last person who tried ended up getting a bloody nose and a trip to the campus nurse—and in Felix’s defense, the guy hit him first.

The three grew up together in the same town. Felix moved in while Jisung and Minho were still in middle school, the pair having already known each other since they were in diapers, simply adopted Felix as if they were parents waiting for the perfect child to take in. Felix considers himself lucky, mainly because he was too shy to actually make friends back then, until Jisung sat next to him in Science and broke off half of his chocolate muffin to share with Felix.

Han Jisung: also known as just ‘Han’ whenever he’s on the beach, a nickname that other surfers call him by. It’s either ‘Han’ or they call him ‘HanJi’ like Hwang Hyunjin, Kim Seungmin and Seo Changbin do.

Hyunjin: a fashion designer, is well-known within the university as one of the prettiest and most handsome guys on campus. He started his own fashion line a few months into his second year and he’s seen a handful of students wearing his brand of hoodies. He’s also the group’s gossip bird. Whatever gossip goes around will always reach Hyunjin which will then reach his friends.

Seungmin: a film student, is known as the guy with the most beautiful voice. He posts covers of himself singing on YouTube and on his Instagram—both gathered hundreds of thousands of followers—and has even met a few students who moved to the campus to see him. Seungmin has admitted that it freaks him out a bit, but they don’t exactly bother him in his day-to-day life. Seungmin’s more low-key as compared to the rest of his friends. He doesn’t mingle that much with anyone else on campus unless he needs to.

Changbin was already in his second year when Jisung got into the university. He’s a fine arts student and he’s also buff as hell. He’s at the gym 24/7 with his best friend-slash-gym buddy, Bang Chan. Changbin’s arms are littered with tattoos mainly made up of black and white designs that he came up with on his own. Some of his tattoos—like the quaver note on his left shoulder—were done by himself at age sixteen with only a needle, tattoo ink and a pair of blue latex gloves. If tattooing himself isn’t enough to scare the other students, then it’s the size of his biceps.

Chan: also known as Chris—or Campus Daddy—is the eldest of them all. He’s in his final year at 24. Chan took a gap year before he went into university and went back to Australia for a while to try and figure out what he wanted to do, only to come back to South Korea to take engineering at Beachside. In the end, he switched to game development, so he’s finally in his final year at 24.

The entire campus fawns over how gentle and sweet he is. Every time he smiles, his dimples show and it has girls and guys swooning over him. He’s also known as Campus Daddy because he’s the tour guy. Every first year follows Chan around campus when they first arrive and so far, he’s adopted one into his friend group: Yang Jeongin.

Jeongin: a pediatrics student, is also a surfer, but he doesn’t surf as often as Jisung does. Jeongin’s only in his first year and the group had adopted him because Chan thought he was so cute that he just had to introduce the kid to his friends. Given the nickname ‘I.N’ by Minho, Jeongin’s gotten used to being called ‘Yeni’ whenever he’s on the beach and he’s surfing. Known across campus as the group’s little brother, no one dares to touch him.

All eight of them are the most well-known guys on campus, all for different things. They’re just known for being extremely hot, extremely smart, and extremely active one way or another.

Minho and Hyunjin are both in the dance club—Minho, an active member but Hyunjin, the president alongside Hwang Yeji as his vice president. Minho doesn’t want to be a part of the dance club committee because he’s already President of Helping Paws; the campus's animal volunteer club.

Felix, already known as president of the martial arts club. Seungmin is president of the photography club as well as an active member of the music club. Chan is captain of their swim team with Changbin as one of his best teammates, while Jeongin is working his way up the committee of the Red Crescent society.

Han Jisung: working his way up the committee ladder, he’s the vice president for the robotics club. Their current president, Kang Yeosang, tells Jisung that he’ll most likely be their president in the next academic year.

Han Jisung: sought out by the entire campus, has a very questionable guide in stealing and breaking hearts. It honestly consists of being really bad at flirting and telling people he's a hot surfer. With the entire campus essentially wrapped around his pinky, Jisung could have anyone he wanted. The only problem is that he also has the only person on campus he refuses to sleep with again coming after him.

“Uh oh, Hyemi incoming.” Hyunjin mimics the whistle of a bomb falling from the sky before making a ‘pwoosh’ sound with his mouth just as the dreaded person approaches their table. Jisung can feel his entire being wanting to shrivel up into a ball and disappear just as she opens her mouth.

“Hey Jisung,” Hyemi greets with her ever so sickeningly sweet voice. She pushes her long brown hair over her shoulder, the other resting on her hip as she completely ignores the other two that are at the same table as Jisung. “It’s already Autumn.”

“Is it?” Minho gasps, fauxing surprise, “and here I thought it was still Spring. Thank you so much for reminding me, Hyemi.” If sarcasm had a physical form, it would be pouring out of his mouth and pooling on the white wooden table, but Hyemi completely ignores him.

“It means that the Autumn Night Fair is back. How about you and I go and check it out? Have something to eat, play some games, ride the ferris wheel,” she hums.

“Not interested,” Jisung says simply. “I’m already going with my friends and we’ve already invited Yeji and her friends to come along, so… that’s already a whole group.”

“Oh come on, you can make room for one more,” Hyemi persists.

Jisung lets out a small sigh as he stands up, adjusting the strap of his bag onto his shoulder with one hand and picking up the food tray with the other. “I’m not interested,” he repeats. “I’ve already told you, it’s not going to work out. Stop trying.” Jisung walks past her, leaving Minho and Hyunjin to pick up their stuff as well.

“Sorry, Hyemi,” Minho chuckles as the two leave the table to follow Jisung. Hyunjin and Minho catch up to him only after he’s pushed through the glass door of the cafeteria and is already making his way to the entrance of the Student Union building.

“HanJi, wait up!” Hyunjin calls, making Jisung stop to turn around. His face is straight and honestly, he looks bored. Jisung’s had his fill of having students fawn over him to the point where he doesn’t even care anymore—Hyemi is no exception. She’s been trying for three years and Jisung’s gotten so tired of her that he’s blocked all of her contacts to stop her from trying to message him.

“Christ, she really won’t take no for an answer huh?” Minho chuckles as they start walking together.

“I thought that sleeping with her and ghosting her would work because there really wasn’t any other way, but I guess even that doesn’t work,” Jisung sighs. As shitty as it sounds, Jisung only sleeps and ghosts people as a last resort. He's actually only done it once… with Hyemi. “I don’t understand why she still tries. It’s like everywhere I go, she’s there and she’s trying to crawl through the damn zipper of my pants.”

Hyunjin and Minho exchange a sympathetic look. They know just how hard he’s tried to get her off of him and they also know that it’s gotten to the point where Jisung doesn’t even care anymore. Every time she approaches him, he either ignores her or just walks away.

“When was the last time you even dated someone?” Hyunjin asks, looking at Jisung curiously.

“High school,” Minho answers for him and Jisung nods as clarification. “Ji hasn’t had a proper relationship since high school.”

“I haven’t had a connection with anyone yet,” Jisung says while shrugging. The funny thing about Jisung is that he’s totally willing to sleep with anyone, but he hasn’t actually found someone he’s properly had ‘The Connection’ with yet, and Jisung sticks by only getting into a proper, committed, and serious relationship only if he feels ‘The Connection’ with.

“He basically has commitment issues and no one’s been able to push through them.” Jisung smacks Minho on the arm and it makes the older man laugh.

“I do not have commitment issues,” Jisung argues.

“Sure, okay,” Minho rolls his eyes. “So, that time you freaked out because a girl confessed that she had a crush on you isn’t enough to prove that you’re not ready for a committed relationship?”

“Doesn’t mean I have issues!”

“Mhm, whatever you say, Hannie,” Minho chuckles. They both turn to Hyunjin when he becomes strangely quiet only to see him on his phone.

"Uhm, turn back around,” Hyunjin blurts out right before he turns around and runs straight back into the cafeteria, leaving Minho and Jisung watching in confusion. They follow the designer and when they’re inside of the cafeteria, there’s a crowd gathered around Yeji and Hyemi.

“You’re fucking crazy!” Yeji hisses as she pulls her wet white shirt away from her torso to stop it from sticking. “I didn’t even do anything to you!”

“What the fuck?!” Hyunjin exclaims as he grabs onto Hyemi’s hand that still has the plastic cup grasped.

“Oh my god,” Minho groans.

“I’ll handle it,” Jisung mutters as he hands his backpack to Minho before taking his jacket off. He pushes through the crowd until he reaches Yeji and lays the jacket over her shoulders, “come on.”

They’re both certain that if looks could kill, Yeji would have daggers sticking out of her torso from Hyemi’s glare. Jisung decides against saying anything to Hyemi and, instead, guides Yeji towards the cafeteria doors with Minho and Hyunjin following.

“Are you alright?” Hyunjin asks once they’ve pushed past the doors.

“I’m fine,” she huffs. “Good thing Lia texted you. I’m pretty sure she would’ve hit me for just being friends with you.”

“I’m sorry about that,” Jisung sighs while taking his bag back from Minho.

“Nothing to apologise for,” Yeji shakes her head with a reassuring look on her face, “it’s not your fault. You’ve already turned her down about… I don’t know, a billion times? She’s the one who chooses her actions, not you.”

“I still feel kinda guilty since, you know…”

“Ji, it’s nothing to worry about—I promise,” Yeji flashes him a small smile. “If anything, have you seen Ryujin angry? She isn’t the MMA vice president for nothing, you know.”

The sound of the cafeteria doors being pushed open followed by Lia’s, “wait up!” Makes the four of them stop and turn around to see Lia and Chaeryeong chasing after them.

“Gosh, I can’t believe she did that just because you’re friends with Jisung,” Chaeryeong huffs when they start walking once again.

“I’m not even dating you—it’s getting tiring,” Yeji mutters, hands wrapping the front of Jisung’s jacket around herself tighter. “I shouldn’t have worn white today, huh?”

“It’s okay, we’ll accompany you to your dorm,” Lia reassures her while linking her arm around Yeji’s elbow. “It’s not like we have any classes after this.”

“Mhm!” Chaeryeong hums as she links onto Yeji’s other elbow.

“Where is Ryujin anyway?” Hyunjin asks when he notices the lack of the group’s most prominent presence. Shin Ryujin, vice president of the MMA club is also one of the better known students on campus. She’s more known for just being outright chaotic as well as her habit of standing up for her friends.

"Committee meeting with Felix," Lia answer.

“Thanks for the jacket,” Yeji turns around once they’re out of the Student Union building. “I’ll pass it to Hyunjin later.”

“It’s fine,” Jisung smiles. “Just take care. If anything happens, text Hyunjin and we’ll send Felix to beat her up or something.”

“We’ll be fine,” she shakes her head with laughter before bidding the guys goodbye and leaving in the direction of her dorm building. Jisung feels a bitter feeling in his chest as he watches Yeji walk.

As much as his friends tell him that he’s not responsible for anything that Hyemi does to them, he can’t help but always feel guilty whenever something happens. It’s been this constant cycle where he goes from thinking of dating her for the sake of protecting his friends or just ignoring her until he graduates.

There’s a few things that actually stops Jisung from dating her. 1. She’s crazy. 2. He’s been turning her down since their first year. 3. She splashed water on Yeji for being friends with him. Jisung has a feeling that if he ever did date her, then he wouldn’t have been able to actually hang out with his friends anymore.

“Are you surfing today?” Hyunjin turns to Minho.

“Most likely,” he nods. “Jisung?”

“Hmm?”

“Surfing today?” Minho asks.

“Yeah, but I’m stopping by Felix’s place later. He has one of my sunglasses,” Jisung says.

“I need to check on Kkami, so I’ll see you guys at the beach,” Hyunjin waves at them before heading in the same direction that Yeji, Lia and Chaeryeong went—making Minho and Jisung wonder why he didn’t just follow them before since he and Yeji live in the same building. Everyone wonders how Hyunjin manages to house a dog in his on-campus dorm, but he’s always just said not to worry and that Kkami isn’t that loud.

Minho and Jisung bid their goodbyes before Minho walks in the opposite direction of Hyunjin to head to his dorm and Jisung heads to the campus gates. His house is only a few minutes walk from campus which bodes well for him since he doesn’t need to move away from his family. He keeps himself preoccupied with trying to detangle his white earphones while he walks, hands pulling and tugging at the white wire until he accidentally bumps into someone.

“Oh shit, I’m so sorry,” he apologises. Jisung’s slightly surprised when he’s faced with a student he’s never seen before.

“It’s fine, I think we were both a bit busy,” you chuckle as you lift your own tangled earphones.

“O-Oh yeah,” Jisung laughs awkwardly. Before he can even ask who you are, you’ve already started walking past him. He watches as you do. You’re definitely new.

The campus isn’t too big that you wouldn't know anyone outside of your circle, but it’s small enough that you can recognise all of the students at least by face or voice. However, Jisung’s never seen you before, nor has he ever heard your voice before; which leaves him wondering as he turns back around and continues his walk to the gates.

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ♫ ⋅.} ───── ⊰

By the time Jisung’s reached the beach, he’s already forgotten about your accidental meeting. The beach is crowded, but not crowded enough that it would be suffocating or too much of a hassle to find an open area for him to surf.

Galaxy painted surfboard in hand and his dark blue full body swimsuit unzipped down to the middle of his torso, Jisung stands beside Chan as Felix sits on the sand. He’s supposedly building a sandcastle, but without any tools, Felix is only able to pack the sand into mounds connected with a really crappily built wall that looks like it’s about to fall over at the slightest brush of wind.

There’s always something about the ocean that seems special to Jisung. He doesn’t exactly know what it is other than a gut feeling he gets every time he thinks or sees the water. Every time he lets himself ride the ocean waves, he feels free. Submerging himself underwater makes him feel like he’s being wrapped in a cold embrace that he always welcomes. It never matters how cold the water gets.

Jisung only cares for the water.

“Hyung, could I borrow your phone?” Felix looks up from the sandcastle and to Chan who nods without hesitation, pulling the phone out of his hydro bag and passing it to him. Felix brushes the sand off of his hand and takes the phone before snapping pictures of his sandcastle.

“Really?” Chan lets out a laugh as he watches.

“What? It’s pretty impressive since I built it without using any tools or beach toys,” he huffs while handing the phone back. Chan only smiles and ruffles Felix’s light brown hair.

“Are you surfing today?” Jisung tears his attention away from the water to look at Chan, but the older man shakes his head.

“I’m babysitting Felix today.”

Felix scoffs, “no, you are most definitely not!”

“I’m just messing with you,” Chan laughs. “But in all seriousness, I’m not surfing today. My board cracked because it crashed into some coral the other day when I got wiped out.”

“How shallow was the water?” Jisung’s only slightly confused because the water isn’t that shallow. It’s actually pretty deep a few kilometers away from shore.

“I was trying belly boarding. I didn’t want to try it around deep water, so I went towards where the coral reef was. I tried avoiding it, but… the waves carried me right above the coral,” Chan explains, guilt painting his expressions. He hates surfing above coral because he doesn’t want to accidentally ruin the reef.

Jisung’s always thought that the coral reef in their area was a charm. It’s often overlooked because no one really realised there was such a vibrant and live coral reef towards the cove on the left side of the beach.

That side of the beach was always more secluded. It turned into makeout zones for college and high school students but it was also one of the best places to be in the middle of the night when the tide was low and the moon was high.

“The cove is more dangerous to swim at, hyung,” Jisung states and Chan nods knowingly.

“The waves are a bit smaller there. That was the only reason why.” Jisung purses his lips, eyebrows furrowing. He knows that Chan is more aware of his surroundings, but sometimes he would choose to do riskier things for the sake of convenience. “I probably won’t try surfing that area anytime soon,” he reassures Jisung. “I promise.”

“That’s good to… hear…” Jisung trails off when he turns back to the water and notices one of the surfers riding along one of the bigger waves. He squints his eyes and takes a step closer, his hand moving his sunglasses to the top of his head as he tries to make out the figure. “That… is that person new?”

“Where?” Felix asks while standing up.

“The one surfing?” Chan turns to Jisung who nods, eyes completely glued to the person’s form. “Hold on, I think I’ve seen her before.” He turns away to pick up his phone. Jisung’s too entranced to actually see who he’s calling.

Despite the sound of the beach—the people and children running on the sand, and the seagulls squawking in the air as they fly by—Jisung hears nothing but the water crashing along the shoreline. Everything moves in slow motion as he watches the surfer effortlessly flip in the air.

The sunlight shines on the surfer’s face and Jisung’s struck with recognition. The image of your face and the sound of your voice crashing into him like a revelation.

It’s you.

His lips part in realisation as he watches the way you glide back towards the beach and towards a handful of other people. Jisung’s able to make out Ryujin—the only one out of Yeji’s friend group who surfs—and the president of his robotics club: Yeosang.

“Jisung.” Chan’s voice slowly becomes clearer as he repeatedly calls Jisung’s name. “Han Jisung!” he yells and it’s loud enough to snap Jisung out of his trance to look at Chan. “Her name’s (Y/n). She’s in the same course as Ryujin, so they share a few classes together. Hyunjin said that he’s met her before because she’s friends with the dance team.”

The dance team. Minho, Ryujin, Yeji, Wooyoung and Hyunjin. They’re the university’s dance team and these five are the ones that usually go to competitions. Does that mean you’re probably a dancer too? Or do you just happen to be friends with them?

“She moved here last week. Something to do with her registration process, so she came in now instead of when the semester started a few weeks ago,” Chan continues despite the fact that Jisung’s already thinking of other things. “Do you know her?”

“I bumped into her just now,” Jisung says. “Didn’t know who she was at all. I think I’m just curious because I'm pretty sure I've seen all of the new students already.”

“Hyunjin said she did a credit transfer. She’s finishing her years here.”

“Does he know anything else? Is she in any of the clubs?” Jisung finally turns to his friends, both of them staring at him bewilderedly. “What?”

Felix opens his mouth and closes it a few times before he’s able to get actual words out, “a-you… are you taking interest in someone?”

“What?” Jisung’s eyes widen.

“You’ve never actually looked at anyone else like that before…” Felix claims.

“You can try asking Hyunjin,” Chan says. It’s obvious he’s trying to pull Felix away from a strange discussion that might end up with Jisung getting flustered. Flustered Jisung means he closes himself off completely and no one’s able to actually talk to him. “I think he said he’s hung out with her a couple times.”

“Where is Hyunjin?”

“Here!” Hyunjin’s voice announces as he jogs towards them, large surfboard in hand and his swimsuit zipped all the way up to his neck. Hyunjin’s surfboard is simple. It's painted a light beige with wispy lines running along its entirety. “What’s happening? Why’s HanJi so interested in (Y/n)?”

“We don’t know either,” Felix answers with a shrug, all three of them turning to see Jisung is back to staring at you as you splash around the water with Ryujin and Yeosang.

“What do you want to know about her? I don’t know much, since I’ve only known her for a few days, but I could probably tell you something.” Jisung turns to look at Hyunjin, at a loss of where to start.

Hell, even Jisung doesn’t know why he wants to know more about you. He only knows that it isn’t the same feeling he gets whenever he’s curious about a new friend, no—

It’s the kind of feeling you get when you meet someone new and suddenly a whole new door of questions open up. Where did you grow up? What’s your favourite colour? Are you an early bird? Are you a night owl? Do you dance? Do you prefer the ocean over the mountain—wait, of course you do!

Every person who willingly moves to Beachside has moved here because of the beach. The campus is a five minute walk away from the ocean; they even have clubs dedicated to spending time at the beach.

Hyunjin turns to Chan and Felix when Jisung fails to answer, and once again, they shrug. “I don’t know what’s happening,” Felix admits. “I’ve never seen him like this before.”

“Jisung.” Hyunjin places his hand on Jisung’s shoulder as gently as possible to not startle him, but the contact still makes Jisung jump slightly. “If you want to get to know her, I can tell you what I know.”

“I, uh…” Jisung turns back to look at you for about the sixth time in the span of fifteen minutes before shaking his head. “It’s okay. I think it would come off as a bit creepy if I showed up just knowing things about her. I think I’ll just find a way to get to know her myself.”

“If it helps, she’s usually at the dance studio with Yeji, Ryujin and I at night,” Hyunjin says. Jisung lets his mind process the information, but he doesn’t look away. He’s simply staring at you with the same question that was on his mind when he bumped into you earlier:

Who are you?

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ♫ ⋅.} ───── ⊰

“...So I told him that he needs to get the stick out of his ass before I shove it up his oesophagus,” Minho shrugs.

“Hyung, what the actual fu—”

“Look out!” Minho’s warning is too late. Jisung lets out a yelp when he crashes into someone, both of them falling to the ground from the impact. The entire cafeteria goes quiet to see what the commotion is and, more importantly to them, whether Han Jisung, campus surfer, is alright. Jisung rubs his ass as he stands up, looking at the culprit only to see you scrambling to your feet.

“God, I’m so sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going and I was… It’s you,” you cut your rambling when you see Jisung. Man, he really needs to start looking at where he is going. “I’m so sorry. This is the second time we’ve bumped into each other this week.”

“Admittedly, we were distracted both times,” Jisung chuckles calmly. His insides are currently screaming at the sight of you. There’s something about you that just seems to make his entire heart light up. “It’s okay. I feel like we need to actually have a proper introduction since we’ve already bumped into each other twice.”

“I’ll bump into you a third time and then we can move on to formal introductions,” you quip. It makes Jisung laugh slightly, his eyes crinkling with joy. “As much as I would love to get on to the introductions, I actually have a class to get to—which is the whole reason why I was running in the first place. But I’ll see you around. Bye, Minho.” You leave before Jisung has a chance to say anything else and he turns to watch you run past him and straight out of the cafeteria.

“Don’t mind her, she’s preoccupied a lot,” Minho chuckles as he brings Jisung’s attention back to what they were talking about. His voice tunes out, similarly to how Chan’s voice did at the beach, and Jisung starts thinking about you again.

They walk alongside each other, Minho talking about how Changbin fell directly on one of the cheerleaders on accident and it looked like something straight out of an anime where he happened to upskirt her and embarrassed himself, the cheerleader, and her boyfriend.

Luckily for the girl, she was wearing pretty long safety shorts, but that didn’t stop her from screaming at Changbin for being a pervert when the poor man just tripped on one of the steps of the bleachers and practically rolled all the way down.

They part ways when they stop in the middle of campus where they both had to head to their own buildings. Minho waved at Jisung as he disappeared into the red medical building while Jisung made his way into the blue technology building. He quietly makes his way to class, thoughts too busy thinking about way too many things at once. Yet, with the thoughts that raced his mind, all he could think about was you.

Jisung was barely even able to pay attention in class. It caught the attention of the student sitting next to him—Song Mingi. Mingi’s usually one of the more quiet students in class who towers over Jisung because of their massive height difference. The taller man risks a glance towards Jisung, but he barely even notices that Mingi’s staring at him.

“Hey,” Mingi finally speaks up quietly while nudging him with his elbow.

“Huh, yeah?” Jisung shakes his head slightly from the sudden intrusion and turns to look at him.

“You alright? You’re more zoned out than usual.” Jisung looks away for a moment. Is it that obvious?

“It’s nothing,” he reassures Mingi. “Just some… homework stuff, you know?”

“Ah,” Mingi hums.

He’s not convinced, but he’s also not the kind to pry so he leaves the conversation at that. Class ends another hour later and Mingi, while he usually walks out with Jisung, watches as he only packs his things and walks out as if in a trance.

Jisung goes on about his day until he’s done with classes. He stays in the park where he usually waits for any one of his friends to meet up with him, staring at the lake and watching the ducks waddle around the place. Jisung catches sight of one of the few geese that live on campus grounds and he feels fear rushing through him.

Fuck it.

He’s too scared of geese to stay in the park, so Jisung packs his things and turns around to leave only to see Hyemi approaching. “Fucking hell,” he groans inwardly before just walking straight past her.

“Hey, Jisung!”

“Not interested!” Jisung declares for the billionth time in the past three years and makes a beeline towards the lime green ‘General’ building where he texts Felix and waits for him. It seemed like the university didn’t know exactly which building to put Culinary under, so they just plopped all of the classes and equipment in the general building.

Lixie: I'm coming out late today, dude Test prep

Damn it.

“HanJi!” Hyunjin’s voice makes Jisung turn around to see Hyunjin walking towards him with Yeji by his side.

“Ah, the Hwang twins,” Jisung chuckles. “Are you guys sure you’re not related?”

“If he was my brother, I would’ve chopped his head off by now,” Yeji jokes, causing Hyunjin to gasp.

“Likewise,” he clicks his tongue in fake annoyance. “Are you heading to the beach?”

“Later today?” When Hyunjin nods, Jisung shakes his head, “I have some work I need to catch up on. I don’t think I learned anything in programming.”

“What’s up?” Yeji tilts her head with concern written on her face. “I got a text from Mingi saying you were a bit distracted during class. He asked me to check up on you.”

“I’m fine,” Jisung reassures her. “I promise it’s nothing. I’ve just been thinking about some things. It’s fine. I’ll see you guys tomorrow. I think I’ve just been a bit tired lately.” Jisung waves as he walks away from them, both Yeji and Hyunjin sharing the same look of concern.

He’s honestly scared of how alike they look. Both of them swear they’re not related despite how they look like carbon copies of each other and share the same name. It makes it even stranger because Yeji and Hyunjin are like a 2-in-1 package with how they're practically always together.

Jisung walks along the brick path that leads towards the campus gates, earphones in hand as he detangles them. His footsteps halt when he’s suddenly hit with a sense of déjà vu. Jisung looks up from his earphones when he feels someone walking past him only to see you walking towards the gates as well.

You dig your hand into the pocket of your black hoodie and when you pull your hand out, your keys go falling to the ground with a jingle that you don’t hear because your ears are plugged.

Jisung rushes to pick up the keys and chases after you. “(Y/n)!” he calls out, but you don’t seem to be able to hear him. Jisung picks up his pace until he’s jogging and taps you on the shoulder, making you turn around to look at him questioningly while pulling one of your earphones out. “You dropped your keys,” he says as he raises the set of keys.

You stare at the keychain in confusion before you stick your hand in your pocket and gasp, “shit. Thank you.” You take the keys from him. “So, the third time we meet and it’s not us crashing into each other, huh?”

“I guess not,” Jisung smiles. “I’m Jisung… by the way. I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned that.”

“You haven’t,” you hum. “I’m (Y/n). I just moved here.”

“I figured. I realised that I didn’t recognise you even though the campus is quite small, so I was wondering whether you moved here recently,” Jisung explains. “Not a lot of students move here in the middle of their courses. The ones that do, move here because of the beach.”

“Quite exactly my reason,” you point out. “I moved here because I heard it was right next to the beach and I heard that the marine biology program is quite good.” Marine biology? Since when was Ryujin taking marine biology if you two share the same course?

“Do you live on campus grounds?” Jisung asks, pushing the thought away.

“I live in the apartment across the street. It was cheaper and there isn’t a curfew.” You jerk your thumb in the direction of the large apartment building that sits opposite of the university. “That way, I can go to the beach even at night.”

“Smart choice,” he claims with a chuckle.

“I think so myself,” you smile. “Anyway, I have some things I need to catch up on for class, so I gotta run. I’ll see you some other time though—oh—and thank you for returning my keys.” You wave the keys in the air before turning around and walking towards the gates, hand plugging your ear as you do.

Jisung only watches as you do. This was the first time he’s ever had a proper conversation with you that wasn’t filled with apologies. He kinda likes talking to you.

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ♫ ⋅.} ───── ⊰

“Shut up!” Ryujin gasps as she throws her shoe in Hyunjin’s direction. The man giggles hysterically as he barely dodges the white sneaker.

“It’s not my fault! I’m right and you know it! Right, hyung?!” Hyunjin turns to Minho who’s trying his best to avoid the conflict.

“What are we talking about?” Minho questions from his spot against the wall, pretending to be oblivious because he’d much rather not have a shoe thrown at him by Ryujin.

“Hyunjin, cut her some slack,” Yeji says in between laughter, “Ryujin’s had enough teasing from the girls because of this.” Ryujin scowls when she turns to look at Yeji, another shoe in hand and ready to be tossed.

“Ah, don’t worry about it, Jin,” Wooyoung chuckles as he ruffles her purple dyed hair. “Not everyone can be cool, hot and confident all at the same time.” Ryujin turns around and whacks him in the leg which only makes him stumble backwards and fall to the ground.

“If I teased you for embarrassing yourself in front of San oppa, then you would be upset too!” Ryujin yells as she starts hitting him with her shoe repeatedly.

Wooyoung flails his arms around the ivory hardwood floors, frantically trying to get away from her, “ah! I was just—I was just joking! Jesus—why are you so bloody strong?! Minho hyung!” Minho looks up from his phone once again and laughs. He doesn’t make an effort to move from his spot and instead opens up the camera app on his phone to start recording.

“Yeah! Let’s go Ryujin!” Minho cheers. She turns to look at him slowly and narrows her eyes at the sight of his phone, making his smile falter for a moment. Ryujin opens her mouth to speak, but she’s interrupted when the glass doors to the dance studio push open and you walk in.

You stare at Wooyoung and Ryujin’s position with wide eyes, “what did I miss?”

“Nothing much,” Minho answers. Your eyes widen even more when a white sneaker flies across the room and hits him right in the head.

“(Y/n), they’re teasing me for tripping in front of a senior!” Ryujin cries.

“Oh, that’s what we’re talking about?” you laugh as you set your bag next to the other pile of bags in the corner of the studio. “I don’t think that’s a bad thing. If anything, she noticed you!”

“That’s not the point!” she groans while falling backwards and laying on the ground. “I embarrassed myself in front of her. Now she knows me as the ‘biology kid who tripped down the stairs’,” Ryujin whines.

“Jin, you do know that you’re known as ‘MMA’s Golden Girl’, right?” Hyunjin chuckles.

“If anything, I’m pretty sure noona knows you as the MMA vice president,” Minho agrees as he rubs his forehead, tossing the sneaker back in Ryujin’s direction.

“Everyone on campus knows Shin Ryujin as the vice president of the MMA club,” you say as you sit cross-legged beside Yeji. “Even I knew. Chris told me when I first got here.”

“Chris?” Hyunjin turns to you with curious eyes. “Like, Christopher Bang Chan?”

“I think so, yeah,” you nod. “He showed me around campus. Someone said everyone calls him ‘campus daddy’...?” You thought it was really weird when the guy beside you mentioned that in front of Chan because he ended up blushing like crazy.

“Oh! Channie hyung!” Minho exclaims. “He’s one of our friends,” he tells you.

“Really?”

“Yeah!” Hyunjin nods frantically. “He’s a surfer too, but he doesn’t surf as often as Han does.”

“Oh, Han is such a good surfer!” Yeji gushes. “(Y/n), have you ever seen him surfing before?”

“I don’t think I’ve been to the beach while he was surfing,” you mutter.

“He was there last week while we were there,” she claims.

“Huh? Then I must’ve been too busy trying to run away from Ryujin and her sand balls.” You throw a playful scowl in Ryujin’s direction and all she does is giggle.

“Have you spoken to him before?” Wooyoung asks as everyone scooches closer into a small circle.

“I’ve bumped into him twice,” you nod.

“Oh! I remember that,” Minho pipes in. “You bumped into him while we were in the cafeteria on Monday! He was really confused.”

“I actually bumped into him before that, too,” you admit sheepishly. “I really need to start looking at where I’m going. The last time, we bumped into each other near the campus gates because we were both playing with our earphones.”

“Ahh, Jisung’s easily distracted,” Hyunjin says.

“Very,” Minho nods in agreement. “You should try having a proper talk with him one day. He’s really nice.” The door to the studio opens once more and everyone turns to see who the new arrival is. Jisung’s head pokes into the studio and his eyes scan the entire group.

“Uhh, Yeji said that she wants to give my jacket back,” he announces.

“Oh, right!” Yeji immediately stands from the ground and rushes to her bag, where a black jacket is bundled up beside it. “Don’t just stand there, HanJi. Come in,” she beckons him over.

“Yeah, we’re not doing anything right now.” Wooyoung’s encouragement has Jisung fully stepping into the studio, but all he does is awkwardly stand at the door while everyone stares at him.

“Jisung, come sit here,” Minho pats the spot beside him and it finally gets Jisung walking towards the group and sitting on the floor beside him. You turn to look at him and offer a wave his way. Jisung’s brain short circuits for a moment because he realises that you’re here.

He waves back, hand raising in the air and his lips pulling into a pursed lip smile. You get distracted when Ryujin starts talking to you and Jisung stays quiet as the group slowly begins their conversation.

Yeji taps Jisung’s shoulder gently and places the jacket in his lap, leaning down to give him a quiet, “thank you,” before she returns to her previous spot beside you.

Jisung quietly listens in on the conversation. He lost track of it a while ago when they started talking about Choi San and his ‘Whore-Ventures’.

As far as Jisung knows, San isn’t exactly what you’d call a ‘man-whore’, but he’s somehow managed to make his way through most of the students on campus—and from what Jisung’s heard, San never disappoints. Which is the whole reason why Wooyoung never seems to have blue balls. After San’s 22nd birthday, he settled down with Wooyoung… well… kind of, but Wooyoung never fails to talk about their wild adventures.

Especially the time they climbed the campus’s clock tower at two a.m. and got high together.

“I really think everyone needs to try it,” Wooyoung says.

“Hyung, I’m not about to get high in public and risk getting expelled,” Hyunjin snorts.

“How did you guys not get caught?” Ryujin stares at him in disbelief. Even Ryujin, who once punched three students in the face in the span of ten minutes, thinks getting high in public and on campus is a terrible idea.

“The guard actually found us, but we gave him money so he’d leave us alone,” Wooyoung confesses with a shrug. “Never bothered us again.”

“Holy shit,” Yeji laughs as she stands up. “Okay, sorry for the interruption, but we need to practice.”

“Oh, right, the Christmas Showcase!” Hyunjin gasps as he scrambles to his feet.

“Christmas Showcase?” you mutter softly, more of a question to yourself.

“Every year, our university does big events that have performances. The Christmas Showcase is usually the biggest, because a lot of the clubs do special performances,” Jisung explains. You turn to him in surprise, not expecting anyone to actually hear you.

“Oh, that’s cool,” you hum.

“Move against the wall, non-dancers,” Minho says as he stands up. “We need all the space we can get, so go and sit by the wall and just look pretty.” You and Jisung oblige, sliding your butts until you’re both sitting beside each other and leaning against the red padded wall of the dance studio.

“Are you not a dancer?” Jisung asks. It’s obvious you’re not part of the dance team, but he’s still curious to know whether or not you’re part of the club in general.

“Me? Oh no,” you shake your head. “I can’t dance that well. I’ve always been better at swimming.” Yeji starts playing the music from her phone that’s connected to the built-in speakers of the room, the bass reverberating throughout Jisung’s entire body.

You both sit quietly and watch as they dance. It’s too loud for any of you to actually talk to each other unless you yell or get really close, and Jisung doesn’t think that his heart is stable enough to get any closer to you just yet.

“What course are you in?” you ask loudly so that Jisung can hear. He hears the question, but for some reason, it doesn’t register in his brain that you’re actually talking to him. “Jisung!”

“Huh, yeah?” He whips his head towards you.

“I asked what course you’re in.”

“Oh, I’m in Computer Science,” Jisung answers. “You’re taking marine biology, right?”

You nod. “Keeps me close to the ocean.” He lets out a hum at that, but Jisung doubts that you actually heard him.

“I saw you surfing the other day,” he claims. “You’re pretty good.”

“Yeji mentioned that you were there. I don’t think I noticed,” you say. “I would love to see you surf one day, though!” The music ends halfway through your sentence, and unfortunately, you didn’t realise you were yelling.

The dancers turn around to look at you and your eyes widen, flustered. Ryujin stifles a laugh, winking at you through the mirror before they start discussing what needs to be improved.

Left to your own company once again, Jisung turns to you. “I’ll be at the beach tomorrow evening.”

“Alright.” He stands up, giving you a small smile before he leaves the dance studio. Once outside, Jisung feels every muscle in his body finally relaxing. He lets out a breath he didn’t even realise he was holding and starts walking down the steps of the gym.

The Sun went down quite a while ago, but the sky’s still shifting from orange to dark blue, which only makes the sky look like a giant blend of colours. Jisung likes this time of the day the most because of how nice the sky looks. Usually, he’d be at the beach while the colours shift, but today, it’s too late for him to go and none of his friends are there.

Jisung walks through the dimly lit pathway of the campus, students occasionally appearing and walking past him. He plugs his earphones into his ears and lets his music play on shuffle as he continues walking.

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ♫ ⋅.} ───── ⊰

"Earth to Han?" Changbin waves his hand in front of Jisung's face when he realises that the younger man is definitely distracted. Jisung blinks a few times before looking at Changbin questioningly. "I said Channie hyung and I are planning on going to the Autumn Fair on Friday night."

"Oh, cool," Jisung simply says.

"Do you… want to join…?" Chan asks.

“Sure. I don’t think I have anything to do on Friday night, but I might need to help my dad with some stuff,” he answers while stuffing his mouth with a chocolate chip muffin. “Aw te ober guys cobing?” Jisung’s voice comes out muffled because of his muffin filled mouth, but Changbin and Chan are still able to understand him.

“I think Hyunjin said he’s free. If he’s free, then that means Yeji and Ryujin might be free, too,” Changbin nods.

“Felix is always free, so even if didn’t ask, I’m pretty sure he’d somehow find out and be there,” Chan jokes.

“Ah, that kid needs to get some sleep, I swear.” Changbin clicks his tongue in annoyance, the familiar nagging tone that usually comes out when he’s talking specifically about Jisung, Felix and Jeongin, and how they need to get their shit together.

“If Hyunjin comes, does that mean he’ll invite the new chick?”

“What was her name again?”

“(Y/n),” Jisung says without even thinking. Both Chan and Changbin pause, heads turning to look at him. Jisung’s frozen as well. He’s usually pretty quiet whenever they talk about any new students and with the way he’s been acting recently, it makes Chan wonder what exactly is floating around Jisung’s seemingly clouded mind.

“Ahh! That girl!” Changbin gasps with a smile on his face. “Dude, she’s honestly pretty cool.”

“Really?” Chan turns to look at him instead.

Changbin nods ecstatically, “you should see her when she’s sparring with Ryujin. (Y/n) isn’t part of any clubs yet, but Ryujin pretty much adopted her into every club she’s in for the time being.”

“Sparring?” Jisung’s interest is piqued as he swallows the last bit of his muffin.

“(Y/n) knows how to kick some ass. She managed to tackle Ryujin without even moving from her spot,” Changbin gushes. “She had the cockiest smile on her face knowing that she managed to get Ryujin down. I bet she’s gonna try and spar with Felix next.”

“Ryujin’s not an easy person to tackle,” Chan chuckles. Ryujin’s determination, stamina and technique are a few of the reasons why she’s one of the most feared students on campus. The last time someone pissed her off on purpose, she stomped on their foot so hard that they cried in the park for a whole hour.

“If we invite Hyunjin, he’ll bring Yeji who will then bring her friends, which means that Ryujin might bring (Y/n),” Changbin rambles. “Apparently, Ryujin is now (Y/n)’s campus mum.” Jisung lets the thought settle in his mind for a moment before a light bulb illuminates his mind; this is his chance to get to know you!

“Let’s invite (Y/n),” Jisung declares.

“Seriously?” Chan looks at him in surprise. “You’re okay with that?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You get all nervous and fidgety around new people.” Chan’s claim makes Jisung blink as he stares at him.

“Hyung has a point,” Changbin nods in agreement and it makes Jisung turn to him. “You don’t like new people, HanJi. You said it yourself: new people make you nervous.” He pauses as he gives Jisung a look.

“When did I say that?” Jisung wonders, bemused.

“Last year at Wooyoung’s Summer party.” Changbin purses his lips before continuing, “you said that you were too nervous to meet Kim Hongjoong because you were scared that he would pick up on your fidgeting.”

“Jisung, what Changbin is so desperately trying to say is, we’re just worried that you might get a little anxious spending the night with someone you don’t know that well,” Chan speaks up. He glances at Changbin, silently telling him to let him handle it. “But, if you say that you’ll be fine with it, then we can invite (Y/n). It’ll be good for her since she’s new.”

“I wouldn’t mind.” Changbin and Chan end the conversation just as Hyunjin approaches the table with Yeji by his side.

“Hey, Yeji’s spending lunch with us today,” he says as they sit down.

“Ryujin’s too busy trying to figure out how to kick Felix in the face without him dodging, Lia’s having a vocal workshop, and Chaeryeong’s having volleyball practice,” Yeji explains.

“Jisung wants to invite (Y/n) to the Night Fair with us this Friday,” Chan tells the two. Hyunjin’s head whips to look at Jisung in shock.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, it’ll be fun,” Jisung nods.

“But, you don’t like new people—” Hyunjin cuts himself off when he sees Chan shaking his head.

He glances at Yeji who lets out a small laugh, “it’s fine. I think it’ll be nice. Ryujin and I have been meaning to take (Y/n) to the Night Fair anyway.” She pulls her phone out of her pocket, unlocking the screen while she talks, “I’ll give her a text. I’m pretty sure her class just ended.”

“Invite her here,” Hyunjin says as he glances at Yeji’s screen.

“Aaaaand done,” she hums contently while putting her phone face down on the table. “(Y/n) said she’ll be here in a bit. She just finished Physics.”

“Physics?” Changbin winces. “I can’t imagine having to take physics all over again. That class physically hurt me.”

“Oh come on, physics isn’t all that bad,” Chan rolls his eyes with a laugh.

“Yeah, it’s pretty fun once you get the hang of it,” Jisung laughs.

“Easy for you guys to say—you’re both taking courses that need physics!” Changbin whines.

“Good for the brain, Binnie,” Chan hums, poking at the tattoo of a rabbit on his bicep.

Changbin swats his hand away, whining, “I have enough brain movement from trying to do perspective drawings.” The table erupts into giggles and laughter when Chan and Jisung continue to tease Changbin on his lack of maths skills despite everyone knowing that he’s the best at Mathematics out of all of them. Changbin just likes to dumb himself down when he’s with his friends.

“Oh, there’s (Y/n)!” Yeji raises her arm into the air and waves at you from where you’re standing at the food line. You perk up at the sight of her waving and immediately make your way over to the table, taking a seat opposite from Yeji and right next to Chan.

“Hey, (Y/n),” Chan greets you with a warm smile when you sit down. “Have you met Changbin? He’s in fine arts.”

“I don’t think I have,” you shake your head. Changbin waves at you and you return the wave. “I doubt we would have any classes together if he’s taking arts.”

“Mhm, wouldn’t expect a fine arts and a marine biology student to cross paths in terms of our classes,” he hums.

“We’re going to the Night Fair on Friday,” Hyunjin tells you. Jisung mentally notes the way your eyes widen for a second at the mention of a night fair. “You wanna come with? It’ll be along the beach sometime after seven.”

“Oh, I fucking love fairs!” you exclaim excitedly. “I was planning on staying home and finishing up one of my geography assignments, but I’ll just finish that on Saturday instead.”

“You sure?” he laughs.

“I’m not going to skip going to a fair. Fairs are so fun,” you beam. Jisung keeps his eyes trained on you as subtle as he possibly can, his stomach erupting with butterflies every time you laugh or smile.

If Jisung is being honest, he feels confused. He doesn’t know why he feels such a strong attraction towards your entire being. Hell, he’s only had one proper conversation with you and that only lasted barely ten minutes because neither of you could hear each other properly. Is Jisung finally feeling ‘The Connection’?

“HanJi, are you going to the beach later?” Hyunjin asks.

“Most likely,” he nods. “I don't feel like surfing, though. I feel like just sitting on my board in the water.”

“We can chill at the cove. I don’t really feel like surfing either,” Chan says. He gives Jisung a small smile before he starts gathering everything into his tray. “Alright, I have to go. My class is starting soon, so I’ll see you guys later today.”

“Yeah, me, too,” Changbin says as he stands up. “Bye guys.” Chan and Changbin wave at the table as they leave, leaving Jisung, Yeji, Hyunjin and you sitting together.

“(Y/n), are you coming to the beach with us?” Hyunjin questions while stuffing his mouth full of ramen.

“I’ll have to see whether or not I’m busy, but I’ll let Ryujin know if I am,” you answer. You turn to Jisung when you feel his eyes trained on you, but he immediately turns away and stands up.

“I have to go,” he announces.

“Class or are you trying to avoid… her?” Yeji asks. Jisung’s entire body stiffens. Why did she have to bring Hyemi up now and in front of you?!

“Yeji, I really don’t want to think about having to bump into—”

“Han Jisung!”

“Speak of the fucking devil.” Jisung hangs his head. “I actually might start running—just break into a sprint and fuck off.”

“Too late.” Hyunjin’s face twists into a grimace when Hyemi slings her arm over Jisung’s shoulder.

“Are you busy later this evening, Jisung?” she asks.

“Uhh, yes, I’m going out with my friends,” Jisung states as he shrugs her arm off. “I’m also late for class, so... bye.” He starts walking towards the metal shelf where used food trays are stacked.

“See you another time, Hyemi,” Yeji waves at her with a smug smile on her face knowing that Jisung lending her his jacket is enough of a warning to Hyemi.

“You stay away from him, Hwang,” Hyemi spits.

“Which Hwang are you talking to?” Your comment makes Hyunjin choke on his water while Yeji tries to contain her laughter by covering her mouth with her hands.

Hyemi’s eyes narrow and she leans against the table, “and who exactly are you?”

“I don’t think my name would really matter to you,” you sigh with disinterest dripping from your words. “I mean, I’ve heard about how you keep trying to win over Han Jisung, but if you’re able to constantly forget how he turns you down, you might forget my name a second after I tell you.” You turn to Hyemi and smile at her with the sweetest smile you can muster. “I’m just saving you the trouble, sweetie. Makes it easier for that pretty head of yours.”

“(Y/n),” Hyunjin shoots you a warning look but you shake your head.

“And what are you to Jisung that you would tell me to stop? Do you like him?” Hyemi asks while crossing her arms over her chest.

“What if I do?” You turn back to look at her and stand up. “I don’t see how that’s your business.” You take a step closer to Hyemi and look her straight in the eye. A quick glance at her hand and you can see her reaching for the cup of juice on the table that Changbin had accidentally left, so you grab it instead and chuck it over her top.

Yeji and Hyunjin gasp while Hyemi shrieks out at the top of her lungs. “Y-You! You! This top was expensive!” she whines.

“Well, should’ve worn something else today,” you shrug with a smile. You pick up both your food tray and your backpack, turning to the Hwang twins who are staring at you in complete shock and amusement. “My appetite’s a bit ruined. Must be a bug,” you say while glancing at Hyemi.

You leave the table, Hyemi frozen in her spot with purple liquid dripping down her bubblegum pink blouse while Yeji and Hyunjin can only stare at her while she fumbles around.

“Gotta run quick before the grape juice stains, Hyemi!” Yeji sings when Hyemi turns to her. She lets out a loud sound of frustration before storming out of the cafeteria.

“Is (Y/n) always that bold?” Hyunjin asks once Hyemi’s gone.

"As far as I know, she's just not scared of biting back."

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ♫ ⋅.} ───── ⊰

Jisung’s legs dangle in the water while he stares at the horizon. For the first time in his life, he was too lazy to put on his full body swimsuit and opted for just wearing a pair of his swimming shorts.

“HanJi! We’re going to play volleyball!” Seungmin announces loudly from the shoreline and it makes Jisung turn around to look at him. “Wanna come?” Jisung shakes his head and raises an ‘okay’ symbol into the air which then makes Seungmin nod and give him a thumbs up before turning around to jog back to where Chan, Changbin and Jeongin are.

The waves around the cove are more gentle as compared to the rest of the coast, which makes it more of a chill hangout spot. Jisung and his friends usually only hang out by the cove whenever they don’t feel like surfing or having to deal with the crowd.

The sound of water splashing catches Jisung’s attention and he turns around to see you paddling towards him on your own surfboard.

“Mind if I join you?” you question once you’re close enough.

“Not at all,” Jisung grins, watching as you lift yourself up to straddle your board and sit beside him. The waves gently sway your surfboards as you stare out at the darkening, purple sky.

“I haven’t had the chance to see the sky like this,” you mutter. “It’s beautiful.” Jisung turns to you and lets out a soft exhale as he leans back on his board. You’re beautiful, he wants to say, but he doesn't.

“I’ve always liked watching the sunset from the cove,” he says. “It’s less chaotic than trying to find a place to sit when you’re at the coast.”

A comfortable silence settles between the two of you. There's no need to actually talk and Jisung feels it. There's not even a lick of anxiety that would usually bubble in his chest when he's left alone with someone he doesn't know. Jisung feels comfortable.

You make him feel comfortable.

But there's something that's been bugging Jisung's mind since he left the cafeteria.

Hwang 1: The girl you're practically drooling over just dumped water on Hyemi I think she's the one for you LMAO

Hyunjin's text has been a lingering thought in Jisung's already clouded mind. Did Hyemi do something to you to piss you off? Most likely, right? He wants to ask you about it, but Jisung worries if you might react a certain way.

"Tell me about Lee Hyemi." Your words come out almost like a statement rather than a demand and Jisung sighs.

"She wanted to make me love her in our first year," Jisung starts, "I couldn't shake her off, so now I just ignore her." There's a huge warning in his mind that screams "DO NOT TELL HER ABOUT THE GHOSTING" and Jisung listens to it. He doesn't want you to think he's that kind of a guy, so he just doesn't mention it at all.

Thankfully, you respond with a hum and leave the conversation at that. Jisung wants to ask more. What did she do to you? Did she hurt you? Hyemi definitely started the issue first—no one in their right mind would fight her.

Beachside University students have learned that leaving Hyemi alone means to live your college life in peace. Jisung, however, doesn't get that privilege because of how fucking persistent she is.

Unfortunately, whoever makes their interest in Jisung known immediately earns a red X mark in Hyemi's bitch book. Jisung wonders whether you know that. He also wonders whether you know that now you've bit back at her, Hyemi might try biting back even harder than before.

"You look like you have something on your mind," you point out when you notice that Jisung is lost in his own mind. He turns to look at you and you give him a small smile, "penny for your thoughts?"

“Oh, it’s nothing,” he shakes his head. Jisung appreciates the way you don't pry, and instead, slide off your board to dip into the water. Your arms sling over the width of it, legs dangling with minimal effort to keep you afloat. "You mentioned that you were a swimmer." His words come out as more of a statement and you turn to look at him in confusion because it also sounds like Jisung wanted to follow up on it.

"Yeah," you nod your head when Jisung doesn't add to it. "I thought about joining the swimming club, but I feel like I'd have more fun in the MMA club with Ryujin."

"You don't look like a fighter." Jisung's face immediately fills with panic after he speaks. Stupid! What is that supposed to mean?! His face reddens impossibly when you look at him with your jaw dropped. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way."

"What’s that supposed to mean?" You scoff as you climb back onto your board. Fuck, good job, Jisung.

"I-I…" He stumbles over his words because nothing sounds good enough to defend himself. Jisung only watches as you purse your lips and look at the water. Good job, dumbass, his mutters in his head. He practically said you look weak. How does Jisung save himself from that?!

"I'm going to go check up on Ryujin," you announce as you turn around. "I'll see you around, Jisung."

"Y-Yeah, uhh… later." Jisung feels close to tears. How could he say that to you?! He mentally screams at himself for being so careless with his words—of course you'd be offended! He just said you don't look like a fighter! What's a fighter even supposed to look like?!

"HanJi," Changbin's voice tears Jisung out of his frantic self-punishment and he turns around to see the older man paddling towards him. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah. Yeahyeahyeahyeah," Jisung nods. He gulps as he turns away from Changbin.

"(Y/n) and Ryujin said they were leaving… just wanted to ask if you wanted to say goodbye," he says.

"I told (Y/n) that she doesn't look like a fighter," he blurts out. Changbin's face drops and his eyes widen. "I-I'm pretty sure she's offended now, a-and that's why she's leaving so soon. It just came out! I was just trying to make conversation, but out of everything I could say, my dumbass went ahead and said 'you don't look like a fighter'—gee, Jisung what does a fighter even look like?! What am I—"

Changbin cuts him off by dipping his hand into the water and flicking it at Jisung's face, the sudden contact making him squeeze his eyes and mouth shut.

"First of all, you're bad at conversations," Changbin claims and it makes Jisung roll his eyes only to earn another flick of water to his face. "Second of all, I'm pretty sure you can just… I don't know… apologise?"

"I tried to!" Jisung exclaims, arms flailing about the place in panic. "She just said she was going to look for Ryujin and left!"

"Well, you practically called her weak-looking."

"Hyung," Jisung groans, dragging out the 'u' as he covers his face with his hands.

"If you explain it to her when she's less offended, she'll probably listen to you." Changbin knows that Jisung struggles with flirting. He's really bad at it. Everyone kinda knows that he is. But, Changbin also knows that Jisung tries really hard when he's talking to new people. "Just give her some time. Try again later tonight. I'm pretty sure she'll be wherever Ryujin or Yeosang are."

"Yeosang?" Jisung repeats while pulling his hands away from his face.

"I heard they're pretty good friends," he nods. "Just ask around until you find her, maybe your determination to apologise will win over her heart."

“I don’t want to win over her heart,” Jisung huffs. Changbin crosses his arms over his chest and gives him a look. “I don’t!”

“Let’s backtrack,” Changbin clears his throat and mimics opening up a book, his hand sliding down his palm like he’s reading from a list, “event one: Chan hyung and Felix said HanJi was staring at the water while (Y/n) was surfing—wants to know who she is. Event two: Mingi and Minho hyung both claimed that HanJi was really distracted after bumping into (Y/n) in the cafeteria. Event three—”

“Why do you just happen to know these things off of the top of your head?!” Jisung is honestly quite mortified that all of his friends know how stumbly he gets around you and how distracted he gets after interacting with you.

“Because you’re always with one of us,” Changbin says as if it’s so obvious. “You do anything funky in front of any one of us, everyone of us is going to find out eventually. Why else do you think Hyunjin and Yeji invited her over to have lunch with us?”

“They planned that?” He looks at Changbin with furrowed eyebrows and the arts student nods.

“They also planned on asking you to pick up your jacket at the dance studio while she was there—Minho hyung told me that,” he continues while Jisung can only stare at him in shock and horror. “Yeji held on to your jacket for as long as she did because they had a feeling you were, ya’know, crushing for (Y/n).”

“Is it that obvious?” Jisung is about to cringe when he’s suddenly filled with even more panic. “Does (Y/n) know?!”

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that,” Changbin reassures him. “Yeji said she’s actually pretty oblivious.”

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

“I guess it depends on the context,” he shrugs. “Might be bad if you only hint at it, but if you just straight up ask her out, then I don’t think it’ll be such a bad thing. Don’t worry, HanJi, you’ll be fine.” Jisung lets out a small huff before he turns away from Changbin to look at the dark blue water. He may be bad at flirting, but Jisung has a few tricks up his sleeve that’ll get anyone to fall for him.

He just needs to catch you at a time where you're in a decent mood; which shouldn't be too hard considering the fact that Minho says you're usually pretty chill.

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ♫ ⋅.} ───── ⊰

Hwang 2: I wouldn't recommend talking to (Y/n) today I think someone pissed in her morning coffee

Jisung whines as he throws himself onto his bed. He hadn't been able to get a chance to speak with you at all today because your schedules just weren't lining up. Ryujin and Yeji both had also warned him against trying to reach out to you because, according to Ryujin, you were unusually pissed off during your general biology class.

He lets his whines get muffled by his dark blue covers, burying his face further into the covers until he hears his bedroom door creaking open. “What in the world are you doing?” His father’s laugh echoes throughout Jisung’s room and it makes him pull his face out of his bed to stare at him.

“Dad, what were you like when you were in university?” Jisung’s question is simple, but it makes his father’s face twist in panic.

“Oh, jeez, you’re not asking for any homework help, are you? I’m not good at computer things like you are.”

“No, it’s not work,” he clarifies as he sits up. “I mean… What was your social life like? Did you have any girlfriends? Before you met mum?”

His father’s face visibly relaxes as he fully steps into Jisung’s room, closing the door with a small laugh, “is that what this is about?” Jisung sits upright and watches as his father sits beside him on the bed. “What happened? Is it Minho again? Your mother and I have told you so many times that you can date whoever you want!”

“No! It’s not Minho hyung!” He shakes his head feverishly. “Minho hyung and I aren’t like that.”

“Then, I’m going to assume that your 16th birthday was just you and him having a fun wrestling game.” His statement makes Jisung’s entire face flush red.

“I don’t want to talk to you about relationships anymore,” Jisung hurriedly says as he stands up and quickly walks towards his door, but his father grabs onto his arm while laughing.

“I’m just teasing you, Sung.” He pulls Jisung back towards his bed. “Now, tell me what’s wrong. Maybe I can give you some love advice. I was quite the player myself when I was your age.”

“Does mum know that?”

His father pauses, blinking a few times before clearing his throat, “maybe it’s better if we don’t mention that in front of her.”

“I think I might have a crush on someone.” Hearing the confession out loud reminds Jisung of the time he had harboured a crush on the new kid in his class when he was in high school. He hadn’t acted on it, but Jisung remembers going through the same exact emotions he did then as he does now.

“I thought you’ve always handled your crushes on people quite well?” his father claims.

“I’ve only had like two crushes in my entire life. Felix when we first met and Ari. I just know that this feeling I get, right now, feels the same as when I had a crush on Ari,” Jisung explains.

“You had a crush on Felix?”

He completely ignores the question and continues. “I don’t know how to really act. Around her. I just know that I like her because she’s cool, and she’s a surfer, and she’s also pretty funny, but I also don’t know her that well at all!”

“Have you had a proper conversation with her yet?” his father asks.

“Not really,” Jisung shakes his head. “We bumped into each other twice, literally, and after that it was a lot of small talk in between classes.”

“So, you’re unsure of your feelings because you don’t know her that well?”

“That’s the thing; I don’t know.” Jisung lets out a sigh as he pauses and gathers his thoughts. “I know that I get… the feeling… around her, but I don’t know her well enough and I think it’s scaring me.” A knock comes from his door and it tears both Jisung and his father away from the conversation momentarily to see his mother peeking her head in.

“Oh, am I interrupting a father-son thing?” she gasps.

“No, Jisung’s just having some confusing feelings,” his father clarifies.

“Confusing feelings?” She fully steps into the room and approaches the two. “Is this a love thing?”

“Jisung has a crush on someone, but he doesn’t know her that well.”

“You don’t necessarily have to know someone that well to have a crush on them,” she says as she sits on the other side of Jisung. “Did you think I knew your father that well when I realised that I liked him? I just saw him once in a cafe and I thought he was handsome!”

“I think it really depends on how far you’re willing to go to try and confirm your feelings,” his father adds. “Your mother gave me her number and it just kicked off. Maybe, you just need to wait for the right time to talk to her.”

“I may have offended her, though,” Jisung admits softly.

“You? Offending someone?” His mother lets out a hearty laugh, the idea of it seeming to be so incredulous to her. “Jisung, from what I’ve heard from Felix and Minho, you’re the sweetest boy on campus. How could you have offended her?”

“I told her she didn’t look like a fighter…”

“Is she a fighter?” his father questions. When Jisung nods, both of his parents exchange a look. “Okay… uhm… it couldn’t have been that bad.”

“We were at the beach and (Y/n) and I were sitting on our boards in the water,” Jisung starts. He feels his face heating up at the idea of getting relationship advice from his parents, but he’s always been relatively quite close to them. “We were talking about a bunch of campus stuff and I asked about her wanting to join clubs. She said she might join the MMA club because she’s friends with Ryujin and my dumbass went ahead and said ‘you don’t look like a fighter’ and (Y/n) left!”

“That’s not so bad,” his mother claims. “It could’ve gone worse.”

“That is true,” his father nods in agreement. “You could’ve told her she’s a bad fighter—now, that would’ve been bad.”

“That’s not helping!” Jisung groans loudly, a whine following as he buries his face in his hands.

“Sweetie, just apologise to her. You never know, if she likes you as much as you do, then she’ll definitely push it aside,” his mother says.

“Everyone has some awkward moments here and there, Jisung. This is just a small divot in your relationship. Find some time to talk to her and just see how it goes from there. If anything bad happens, then you’ll know that she’s not the one.” Jisung’s father pats his back reassuringly, and when Jisung pulls his face out of his hands, both of his parents are softly smiling at him.

“You’ve got this, Jisungie. Just talk to her. If anything goes wrong, your father and I will go out and buy you a whole cheesecake from the bakery across the street,” his mother chuckles. When Jisung shows no sign of relief, she lets out a sigh, “oh, Jisung. Love isn’t easy, dear. It’s a lot of trial and error and a lot of learning, but that’s okay! You learn to love and you learn with the person you love. I’m sure (Y/n) will understand if you explain anything to her.”

“You think so?” He turns to look at her, his teeth chewing on the inside of his cheek.

“Definitely,” she smiles.

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ♫ ⋅.} ───── ⊰

“So, all we need to do for this assignment is… what are we supposed to do?” Jisung turns to Chan. They’re sitting in the library together, finishing an assignment for the only class they share: Coding.

“‘Create an algorithm/pseudocode that will lead to the given outcome’,” Chan reads the assignment out loud.

“That sounds way too simple,” he mutters as he reads the document.

“Ah, here’s the catch: ‘the code will then be used to create a game scene (for game development students) and must resemble the given example’.”

“What the fuck?” Jisung groans.

“I get why they made sure everyone was paired with a game development student,” Chan hums. “Don’t worry. We can work on the code together and keep referring to the example until we have it completed.”

“Wouldn’t that be a lot of work for you, too? I mean, you’re already going to be doing the whole game programming thing…” Jisung trails off.

“I really don’t mind, Sung,” Chan reassures him with one of his bright smiles. “We can work on the entire code together. It can’t really be that hard since there’s two of us.”

“Yes, but the whole point of this being a ‘paired assignment’ is so that we’re forced to understand each other's code,” JIsung points out. “Hyung, we all have different ways of coding, remember?”

“Jisung, stay fucking positive. I’m losing my mind over here,” Chan groans. “I just want to graduate—please, god, let me graduate.” He lowers his head onto the table and starts repeatedly banging his forehead against the wood while Jisung stares. He doesn’t know what to do. Should he pat Chan on the back…?

“All that head banging’s making a ruckus!” The librarian, Park Seonghwa, hisses from the counter at the front of the library. “If you want to go banging your head, go do it outside where it won’t bother everyone else.”

Chan lifts his head and glares at Seonghwa. “If you weren’t so uptight, then maybe you’d have a girlfriend,” he huffs under his breath.

“I’m gay, dipshit!” He’s about to throw his book, but his boyfriend, Hongjoong—who’s been sitting beside him the entire time—holds onto his wrist and shakes his head.

“At least one of us is getting laid!” Hongjoong giggles. The remark only makes Chan even more frustrated because he knows he’s just being an asshole from all of the stress.

“We can always just do this assignment in the park,” Jisung suggests.

“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea,” Chan sighs while nodding. He packs his laptop into his messenger bag, Jisung doing the same, before the two of them head out. “Sorry, Hwa. I’ll buy you and Joong lunch tomorrow to make up for this.”

“Aww, it’s alright, hyung,” Seonghwa chuckles. “I just like messing with you. Good luck on your assignment!” Seonghwa’s immediate switch in his personality has always been something people admire him for. His bright tone lifts the weight that’s on Chan’s chest lightly and he manages a smile.

“I’m still buying you lunch.”

Seonghwa opens his mouth to refuse, but Hongjoong slaps his hand over his mouth, “lunch sounds great, hyung. Hwa and I really like the butter chicken at the restaurant right outside of campus. We’re both free at twelve.”

“Ah, I have class at twelve. I’ll pack some from the restaurant and I’ll meet you in the cafeteria at five?”

“I love that idea,” Hongjoong nods. “See you then!” Hongjoong waves as Jisung and Chan leave, his hand only coming off of Seonghwa’s mouth when they’re at the door.

“Why’d you do that? Now I’m going to feel bad!” Seonghwa’s whining is only vaguely heard by them and it makes them laugh.

The campus park is right outside the library building, which made it a very short trip for the pair. Jisung and Chan choose a spot underneath the massive cherry blossom tree that has been on campus since it was built.

The branches are bare, but it still makes a nice spot to sit under for some peace of mind. The park is usually not that loud either. It’s only more lively in the evening when all the students are walking around or playing frisbee after their classes.

Comfortable underneath the branches of the cherry blossom tree, Chan and Jisung pull their laptops out and start working on the assignment. They’re both pretty good at coding on their own, which makes it easier for them to just work on it together in mostly silence.

“Hyung, are you going to the beach later?” Jisung questions.

“Uhh, maybe not today,” Chan answers. “I’m going to the gym after this with Binnie, so I don’t think either of us are going to the beach.” His fingers tap away at his keyboard while he speaks quite absentmindedly, his thoughts too busy with the assignment in front of him.

They return to their previous quiet state of concentration, the two of them working quickly. The only thing heard from Chan and Jisung are their keyboards clacking—quite aggressively on Chan’s side—until a ball comes flying straight towards them.

“Look out!” Felix warns. Chan and Jisung look up just in time to avoid the ball, watching as it ricochets off of the tree trunk and into the lake. “Ah, damn it,” he grumbles.

“Lix, watch where you’re kicking that thing,” Chan scolds.

“Sorry! That was my fault!” you apologise as you jog towards the two. "I'm not good at football."

"You're shit at it," Yeosang deadpans from beside you.

"It's not like you're any better," Felix snorts while looking at him.

"How do we get the ball back?" Yeosang wonders as he stares at the football that's floating quite far into the lake.

"Pray?"

"I'm an Atheist, Lix." Felix raises his arms in defense, a small smile on his face as he laughs softly.

"I mean, we could always send (Y/n) to swim and get it back," Felix suggests.

"In that murky water? Fuck no," your face twists with disgust as you scoff. "I feel like I'd be contracting 5 different diseases just from dipping my hand into it."

"Stick," Jisung says simply while holding up one of the fallen branches. "Poke at it until it comes back."

"Stick!" Felix gasps excitedly as he grabs the branch from Jisung's hand and starts running towards the water with Yeosang following.

"Not following them?" Chan chuckles when you stay in your spot and watch the two men trying to poke at the football.

"No, because I have a feeling Yeosang would kick me into the lake," you quip. Chan keeps his eyes on the two for a moment longer before standing up to join them, leaving you with Jisung.

He feels the air becoming thick when the two of you are alone together. Jisung isn’t entirely sure whether the air changed because he thinks it did or if it’s because you’re not that comfortable around him anymore. Nonetheless, he clears his throat to break the silence.

“Y-You’re not going to help?” he asks.

“They’ll figure it out,” you hum, eyes still focused on the way Chan and Yeosang hold onto the edge of Felix’s sweater to keep him from falling into the water.

Jisung thinks that now should be the best time to talk to you and try to apologise for saying you don’t look like a fighter, but he also doesn’t want to make the current vibe even more awkward than it already is.

“Hey, (Y/n),” he calls after a moment. You let out a hum of acknowledgement while turning to look at him. “I… uhh… I’m sorry about the other day… you know. I didn’t mean to imply that you looked weak or anything—it came out wrong, you know? I wanted to say that I thought you were probably going to join the dance club and learn how to dance since Hyunjin mentioned that you’re at the dance studio with them a lot, so maybe you wanted to learn? I don’t know, I didn’t mean for it to come out… like that, but I—”

“Jisung, you’re rambling,” you state, effectively cutting him off and making his face turn red before you let out a small chuckle. “I’m sorry I reacted the way that I did. I was, admittedly, having quite a shit day, so I felt bad afterwards which was why I left the beach. To answer your question, no, I’m not going to try and learn how to dance because I’ll end up looking like a baby deer trying to learn how to walk.

I wanted to apologise earlier today, but I didn’t have any time to go out and look for you.” Jisung feels a huge weight lifting off of his chest despite the small doubt that creeps up in the back of his head. “I’m not saying it just to make you feel better,” you reassure him when you see the smallest bit of doubt breaking through the relief painted on his face.

“So, we’re cool?” he asks, for extra reassurance. It makes you laugh slightly as you nod.

“Yeah, we’re cool.” You take a step closer to him so that you’re able to sit on one of the giant roots that stick out from the ground, your attention drifting back to Yeosang, Felix, and Chan who are still trying to poke at the ball that’s only getting further away from them. “How do they expect to get it back now?” you wonder out loud.

“If they really are willing, they’ll push Channie hyung into the water against his will,” Jisung quips. You let out a laugh at that, glancing around to see him smiling. “You’re joining us at the fair tomorrow night, right?”

“Seriously, I wouldn't miss it for the world, Ji,” you say while nodding. “It’s been getting busier with assignments and all, so it would be nice to take a night off and just hang out with friends.”

"Stop it!" Chan starts whining when Yeosang and Felix both start playfully pushing him towards the water and it makes Jisung turn away from you. "I'm not swimming in the piss lake!"

You let out a laugh, "piss lake?"

"There's a joke that some of the students piss in the lake whenever they're in the park because the nearest toilet is haunted," Jisung explains with a chuckle. "No one's actually ever seen anyone taking a piss in the water, but no one really wants to touch it either."

"Guys!" Chan flails his arms around helplessly when Yeosang and Felix manage to hold him by the waist and pull him closer to the water, making you and Jisung laugh as you watch.

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ♫ ⋅.} ───── ⊰

HanJi: Where are you guys? We’re already here

Hwang 1: Yeni and I are heading there now Don’t worry Blame Minho hyung for leaving this kid all on his own -_-

Minho hyung: How in the world is that my fault??? He told me he knew how to get to the fair on his own

Hwang 1: I— Yeah whatever We’ll be there in five

Hwang 2: Give us fifteen Lia can’t find Chae

Binnie hyung: “Can’t find”?

Hwang 2: I don’t know the details All I know is that we’re missing one person She’s just Gone~

Jisung lowers his phone with a small laugh. “How in the world do you lose a person?”

“Knowing Chae and her tendencies in sneaking around the place, I’m not really surprised that Lia lost her,” Minho laughs. Chan lets out an audible shiver when the wind picks up and blows past them, making him cling onto Changbin’s arm, hands shoving themselves into the pocket of Changbin's black bomber jacket.

“Wha—Hey!” Changbin exclaims at the sudden intrusion of his beloved personal space.

The six of them are gathered right outside the fair as they wait, the small path leading into the fair bustling with people. Streetlights and multicoloured lanterns lighten up the busy street with a soft glow.

“Why is it so cold tonight?” Chan huffs.

“It’s starting to get colder at night,” Felix says, eyes glued to his phone before he lifts it to show his friends his weather app. “The weather’s been all over the place lately, so I wouldn’t be too surprised if it suddenly started getting colder sooner than expected.”

“Channie hyung’s also just cold a lot,” Minho claims, grinning when Chan shoots him a glare. “You sleep with socks on.”

“Sleeping with socks on doesn’t mean anything,” Chan grumbles.

“It means you’re weird,” Seungmin claims as he pulls his camera away from his face to look at his friends. He was too busy taking pictures of the fair than to actually partake in his friends’ conversation.

“No, it doesn’t,” Felix shakes his head. “I think it just means that Channie hyung has cold feet that need to be protected while he sleeps.”

“Either that, or we’ll have a sneezing Bang Chan waltzing all over the place,” Minho snickers. He flinches when Chan raises his hand, but he immediately lowers it when he starts to feel cold and stuffs it back into Changbin’s pocket.

“There’s Yeni and Hyunjin.” Felix points in the direction of the campus where Jeongin and Hyunjin are walking towards them with their hands dug into the pockets of their jackets and beanies covering their hair. Admittedly, it’s 13 degrees celsius when the past few days have been 20, which would explain why everyone’s not as bundled up as they should be.

Jisung keeps his hands busy by tossing a hot pack back-and-forth. Even he wasn’t that prepared for the cold weather, which led him into stopping by the CU on campus to buy a hot pack. The breeze that blows from the ocean’s direction doesn’t exactly help their cold situation either. Every time a breeze brushes by, Jisung feels his ears pricking from the low temperature.

“I thought you said that you knew how to get here,” Minho huffs when Jeongin and Hyunjin stand in their small circle.

“I thought I did,” Jeongin mutters, “turns out I didn’t.”

“He’s lucky I was still on-campus or else he would’ve had to tag along Yeji and help look for Chaeryeong,” Hyunjin chuckles.

“Again, how do you lose an entire person?” Jisung laughs.

“Chae’s easily distracted and, usually, they’re able to find her in the same building, but Chae somehow managed to disappear from Lia’s dorm building and no one knows where she is,” he explains casually as though it’s something that happens every other day. Hyunjin pulls his phone out of his pocket and glances at the screen before turning around, “there they are.”

Everyone follows Hyunjin’s gaze to see Yeji and her friends approaching the group with you linked to Ryujin’s elbow. Lia has her arm linked around Chaeryeong’s arm—seemingly to stop her from straying away—while Yeji has her hands in the front pocket of her red hoodie.

“It hasn't even been ten minutes,” Felix points out.

“Yeah, it turns out that Chae was in the park staring at the geese,” Ryujin sighs.

“They’re not scary when they’re not chasing you,” Chaeryeong claims while lifting her shoulders in a shrug.

“That is very true,” Chan says with a laugh.

“Wait, so are we going to stand here and talk, or are we going to actually go into the fair and have some fun?” Changbin asks, clearly getting impatient after having to wait longer than he thought he would have to.

“God, you’re like a giant baby.” Minho eyes him up and down with a fake sneer on his face.

“At least I’m cute,” Changbin argues, which only makes Minho scowl. Before he’s able to bite back, Chan pulls Changbin away.

“Okaaay! Let’s go into the fair before the cats start fighting,” Chan announces as he starts tugging Changbin towards the entrance to the fair.

“Are we splitting into groups?” Jeongin questions as everyone starts following after the two.

“I think that would be best,” Hyunjin nods. “There’s… thirteen of us, though,” he points out after counting everyone.

“Here’s an idea—Channie hyung can stay with Changbin, I’ll take Jeongin, Hyunjin and Yeji are in a pair, Felix and Seungmin stay in a pair, Lia, Chaeryeong and Ryujin stick together while Ji and (Y/n) pair together!” Jisung’s face falls and he turns to look at Minho who all but shrugs when he sees the younger male’s reaction.

“I’m good with that,” Changbin nods before tugging Chan towards the entrance, the two of them disappearing into the bustling crowd before anyone else can object.

“I’m alright with sticking with Seungmin,” Felix hums in agreement, “he takes nice pictures.”

“Lix makes the perfect model in places like these,” Seungmin grins while turning to look at him. He waves his DSLR camera slightly, earning a nod from Felix before they rush into the crowd. With their group smaller now, Hyunjin turns to Yeji and extends his arm out towards her.

“Milady.”

“I can’t believe Minho oppa left me with you,” she huffs jokingly, taking his arm nonetheless while Hyunjin giggles.

“Are you going to be alright with Jisung?” Ryujin asks while turning to look at you.

“I’ll be fine,” you nod, glancing at your temporary partner who gives you a pursed lip smile.

“We’ll see you guys later then.” Lia, Chaeryeong and Ryujin wave at you as they walk towards the entrance, leaving you with Jisung, Minho and Jeongin.

“If you guys need anything,” Minho raises his phone, “you both have my number.” He smiles at the both of you before heading into the fair with Jeongin, who excitedly waves at the two of you.

“Shall we?” Jisung turns to you, leading the walk towards the entrance.

“When was the last time you came to the fair?” you ask as you step into the fair.

He lets out a hum, looking around for a moment before glancing at you, “probably last year. Minho hyung, Felix and I try coming every year as some kind of a tradition.”

“Minho and Felix?”

“Yeah,” he nods. “I’ve known them for quite a while. Minho hyung and I live on the same street. Our parents are pretty good friends, too, so we've known each other practically forever. Felix moved into our middle school and we've been friends since then."

"Must be nice to have your best friends in the same uni, huh?" you hum. You let out a small sigh at the thought of growing up with your friends.

"Do you not have any childhood friends?" Jisung asks.

"I have one, but they moved to Japan for studies," you say while nodding. "I haven't seen them in two years, so I'm planning on visiting them this Christmas."

"Christmas with friends is nice," he claims. "If you're on campus the week before Christmas, we can watch the Christmas Showcase together." Jisung looks to his left and stops walking which makes you stop as well. “How good is your aim?” You turn around and see one of the game stalls. The stall is decorated with various dart boards and fake darts, small balloons stuck to the back wall.

“Pretty okay,” you grin while glancing at Jisung. You approach the stall and your attention immediately glues to the line of plush toys that hang from the back of the stall. “Ooh, Ji, check out that octopus,” you tug on the sleeze of his red denim jacket and point to the round orange octopus plushie. “How many points do we need to get the plushy?” you ask the vendor.

“If you pop five balloons, you can win the plushy,” the vendor tells you.

“Let me,” Jisung says while extending his arm out in front of you, a cocky smile on his face as he hands one of the fair coupons to the vendor. “I’ll get you the octopus.”

“Whatever you say, hotshot,” you laugh. Your arms cross over your chest as you watch the vendor hand Jisung five red darts. He tosses the first one and misses. He actually misses all of them except for one and turns around to look at you with a big smile on his face when he’s out of darts. “It’s the effort that counts,” you reassure him while laughing, your hand patting his shoulder.

“You give it a try,” Jisung urges as he pulls you closer while handing the vendor one more of his coupons.

“Ji, you don’t have to use your coupons for me, I have a few of my own,” you tell him, but he shrugs in response. The vendor hands you five darts and Jisung takes a step back as he watches you intently. You manage to pop all five balloons and the vendor pulls the octopus plushie off of it’s hanging display to hand to you. “I guess we know which one of us has better aim,” you joke.

“Show off,” Jisung huffs.

“You’re just jealous that I’m good at darts,” you tease while waving the octopus in front of him. “Which means that I won Octo for myself.”

He pushes the plushie aside to look at you and laughs, “you’ve already given it a name?”

“Well, I can’t just leave it nameless, now can I?” You bring Octo closer to yourself and smile at it, your hands squishing it repeatedly to the point where you’re definitely distracted while Jisung watches with a butterfly colony in his gut. He doesn’t tear your attention away from the squishy octopus and, instead, just patiently waits until you look back up. “Okay, I think that’s enough squishing for now.”

“You sure? You don’t want to squish it for extra measure?” Jisung crosses his arms over his chest and raises an eyebrow. You look between him and Octo before squishing it one last time and nodding. “Alright, let’s go. We can check out more of the games.”

You’re quick to follow beside Jisung, the two of you making your way through the fair and stopping every once in a while to play some of the games. “Is that ukulele?” He points at one of the game stalls with a dark blue ukulele hanging from the prize display.

“They’re giving one away as a prize?” you wonder as you turn to look at it.

“It’s worth a shot,” he shrugs. Jisung takes a step closer and he lets out a sigh when he sees what kind of a game it is. “It’s a shooting game,” he mutters. There’s a BB gun sitting on the front counter and a few plastic cups lined up on the shelf at the back.

“I can try winning it for you,” you offer.

“Really?” Jisung turns to you with wide, sparkling eyes. You nod and hand Octo to him before handing one of your coupons to the vendor.

“Knock down five for the plush toys and knock down fifteen for the ukulele,” the vendor tells you as you pick up the BB gun.

“Have you ever fired a gun before?” Jisung asks as he watches you.

“Not a real one,” you shake your head, “but I used to play paintball with my high school friends.” You raise the BB gun and start firing the cups down one-by-one.

“I’m going to assume that paintball is the reason why your aim’s really good,” Jisung mutters as he watches you shoot the red plastic cups.

“Uhh, something like that,” you say absentmindedly, trying to keep your focus on your aim. “I haven’t played in a while, though—haven’t really had the time.” You shoot down the fifteenth cup and the vendor pulls the ukulele down from the display to put it in a small black bag as you place the BB gun back down onto the counter. Jisung hands Octo back to you as he takes the ukulele case. “You’re welcome,” you hum when you see the way Jisung peeks into the case to eye the ukulele lovingly.

“Thank you, (Y/n).” He turns to you with a big smile on his face as he slings the bag over his shoulder. Jisung’s toothy smile is contagious and you can’t help but return the smile, staring at him for a moment before you take a step closer and lean up. Jisung’s entire body freezes when he feels you press a kiss to his cheek.

You take a step away and let out a small chuckle when you see how red his face has gotten, “you’re cute.”

“I-I—Uhm… you’re… uhm… pretty cute yourself.” Jisung clears his throat as his eyes look around the place nervously, desperately trying to avoid eye contact with you.

“Is there anything else you want to play?” you ask once he’s in a less flustered state.

“We’ve pretty much tried all of them,” Jisung claims as he looks around. “I think all that’s left are the mirror maze and the haunted house.”

“Do you get scared easily?” You turn to him.

“Uhh, I usually try avoiding the haunted house if I’m here alone, but we can go in if you’d like,” he shrugs.

“It’s alright, we can go into the mirror maze instead.” Jisung nods and the two of you walk towards the small building with a large glowing ‘MIRROR MAZE’ sign right above the entrance. A few people go in and come out through the other door, but there isn’t a line or anything that would force you to have to wait.

The moment you step into the mirror maze, you already feel lost. The area’s barely even lit up save for the black light and the mirrors just reflect everything.

“Was this a bad idea?” you mutter as the two of you walk around mindlessly.

“Probably,” Jisung chuckles. He looks around as he walks away from you, unknowingly straying away from you and into a different path until he bumps into a mirror. “Shit,” he sighs when he’s faced with his own reflection. “I think I reached a dead end.” When you don’t respond, Jisung turns around and that’s when he realises that you’re gone. “(Y/n)?” he calls out as he tries to follow back where he came from.

Jisung wanders around for a bit longer, bumping into mirrors half of the time before he finds himself at another dead end without any sight of you. “(Y/n)? Can you hear me?” he calls out once again while letting his right hand glide along the mirrors to try and find a way out.

“Jisung? I lost you and I have no idea where to go next,” you say loud enough for him to hear. Concern fills Jisung when he hears the way your voice shakes slightly.

“(Y/n), just keep talking, I’ll try looking for you.”

“Okay, but I don’t even know which direction your voice is coming from—how are we supposed to find each other?” you question. Jisung purses his lips as he thinks about it.

“Don’t worry, I’ll figure it out,” he hums just as he takes a left turn.

“I might be freaking out a bit,” you confess with a shaky laugh. “Maybe this mirror maze really was a bad idea.”

“You’ll be fine, (Y/n),” Jisung reassures you when he stops at two turns. You’re not talking anymore, which only makes it harder for him to figure out where exactly you are. “Where did you say you were going for Christmas?”

“This Christmas?”

“Yeah.”

“Japan. I said I was going to meet up with my friend,” you say. Jisung looks around while you speak before deciding to go right.

“What’s their name?” he questions to keep you talking.

“They call themselves Mip now. I’ve known them since we were in pre-school. They used to have a dog—it was this giant… doberman…? I think that’s what it was, but it was fucking massive.” Jisung wanders around, following whichever direction makes you sound the clearest while you talk about Mip’s dog until you stop talking again.

“Are you ever going to get your own dog?” he asks when he’s lost again.

“Probably, but not a doberman. Those things are too big for an apartment. Maybe I could get one the size of Kkami,” you wonder just as Jisung turns right to see you sitting on the ground with Octo in your lap. “Jisung!” you gasp when you see him, scrambling to your feet to run towards him.

Your arms wrap around him and Jisung freezes while you hug him. “I told you I’d find you,” he chuckles as he hugs you back. “I’m pretty sure I saw the exit on the way here.” Jisung pulls away, but you keep your arm linked around his as he walks you to the exit. “Do you still want to go into the haunted house?” He asks once you’re outside.

“Uhh, I’d better not,” you shake your head sheepishly. “I’m sorry I made you go around just to find me.”

“It’s fine,” Jisung reassures you while ruffling your hair, “I’ve had to look for Hyunjin in the mirror maze a few times before.” You keep yourself attached to Jisung’s side, your other hand wrapped around Octo, as you walk around the fair until you bump into Hyunjin and Yeji.

“Hey, guys!” Yeji greets with a cotton candy stick in her hand and a dark purple cat ear headband stuck into her hair.

“We saw you going into the mirror maze,” Hyunjin claims. There’s a dark blue cat ear headband in his hair as well, which Jisung can only assume came from the same game stall. “How was it?”

“It’s the same as every year,” Jisung shrugs. “We just got lost for a bit.”

“Is that why you’re holding hands now?” Yeji snickers when she sees the way you’re still holding onto Jisung’s hand. You’re about to pull away, but Jisung keeps his grip on your hand tight.

“Yeah, she had to come find me in the maze,” Jisung laughs.

“Really? Usually HanJi’s the one that has to come find me,” Hyunjin says. “Fun to see that he’s finally the one getting lost instead.”

“Yeah,” you chuckle while glancing at Jisung. He squeezes your hand reassuringly and flashes you a small smile.

“Have you guys bumped into the others yet?” He quickly changes the topic to stop you from getting any kind of teasing from the dramatic pair.

“We saw Seungmin taking pictures of Felix in front of the ferris wheel and the girls went into the haunted house a while ago, but we don’t know where the others are,” Hyunjin says.

“I feel like heading back now, though. I think the Dance Dance Revolution machine took a lot out of me.” Yeji lets out a tired sigh and turns to Hyunjin.

“There’s a Dance Dance Revolution machine?” Your eyes widen.

“Yeah, it’s in the same area as the ferris wheel,” Hyunjin nods, his thumb jerking in the direction of the large ferris wheel on the other end of the fair. “I’m gonna walk Yeji back. We’ll see you guys tomorrow.” The pair wave at you two as they walk away and once they’re gone, you turn to Jisung.

“You wanna ride the ferris wheel then head back?” Jisung’s about to nod when all of his thoughts pause. The ferris wheel? The ferris wheel is the romantic zone; the place where everyone confesses or shares their first kiss one their car reaches the top.

Jisung’s never been on it before because he’s never actually had the urge to go on it, but with you here… Jisung can’t help but wonder whether this is some kind of a sign or a golden opportunity.

“I don’t mind,” he finally says. Your eyes light up and you immediately start pulling him through the crowd and towards the ferris wheel.

Jisung hands his last coupons to the vendor and the two of you climb into one of the cars, both of you sitting down on the metal bench inside once the door closes. Jisung’s suddenly highly aware of how quiet it is on the inside of the cart as compared to the outside where the crowd is bustling.

You’re too busy looking out of the glass window to notice the way Jisung watches you adoringly. He really hasn’t felt this way since he was in high school, and even then, he’s pretty sure you make him feel more than Ari ever did. Jisung lets out a content sigh as he looks out the window as well, admiring the view as the car slowly gets higher and higher as the ferris wheel turns.

“Wow,” you breathe out in awe once you’re at the top. You stand up from the seat, leaving Octo out of your hands as you look outside. “You can see the entire fair from up here—Jisung, check it out.” You beckon him over with your hand and he obliges, standing beside you as he looks out as well.

The entire layout of the fair is visible from your car and you gasp when you see Jeongin and Minho in the distance. “There’s Yeni!” Jisung follows your gaze to see Jeongin excitedly running towards the older man with a cat doll in his hand. He waves the toy excitedly and the two of you assume that he’s just won it at one of the game stalls.

Jisung’s attention slowly drifts back to you and his heart absolutely adores how radiant you seem without anything bothering your mind. There’s not a single thought of your assignments, your classes or your exams in your mind; only Jisung.

You turn to look at him, cheeks flushing at the way he stares at you. Kiss her! Kiss her, you fool! Jisung’s brain screams at him, but he can’t seem to bring himself to do it even though you’re definitely inviting him with your eyes. What are you waiting for?! A formal invitation?! Kiss (Y/n)!

You clear your throat when Jisung stares at you silently for a bit longer and you turn away. Disappointment creeps into the back of your head when the realisation hits you:

He’s not going to kiss you.

Jisung mentally slaps himself in the face for missing such a perfect opportunity once the ferris wheel cars start moving again. He feels embarrassed. Why didn’t he just do it?! The two of you silently step out of the car once it reaches the bottom and you make your way back to your apartment quietly.

Jisung was kind enough to offer to walk you home, but he doesn’t say anything because he’s too busy yelling at himself. You stay quiet because it’s starting to feel awkward. Jisung’s mental battle is making it too difficult for him to make any proper conversations with you and he’s too worried about saying something stupid.

“Thank you for walking me back,” you thank softly once you’re outside your building. “I had a really fun time tonight.”

“Y-Yeah, I had a good time, too,” Jisung clears his throat, his hand subconsciously raising to rub the back of his neck in an attempt to calm his nerves. “You’re really nice, (Y/n). Y-Your aim’s really good, too.”

You let out a small chuckle, “thanks. You’re not so bad at beer pong.”

“Yeah,” he nods. Awkward. It’s awkward. Do something! Jisung’s head starts screaming again. He so badly wants it to shut the fuck up. As oblivious as your friends think you are, you aren’t oblivious at all. It’s just easier to pretend you don’t know when someone’s hitting on you. You stand in front of him, quietly wondering whether or not he’ll make the first move, before you decide ‘fuck it’.

“Hey, Ji?”

“Yeah!” Jisung squeaks out, cheeks flaring at how quickly he responded. You take a step closer to him and kiss him. His brain malfunctions. Every sense in his body suddenly ignites and his hands raise to hold onto your biceps as he kisses you back. It’s soft and sweet as your lips mold together.

You pull away after a moment but Jisung chases after you and keeps his lips on yours, deepening the kiss. When he finally pulls away, you’re staring at him breathlessly.

“You have no idea how badly I’ve been wanting to do that,” he chuckles, out of breath before he leans back in.

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ♫ ⋅.} ───── ⊰

Han Jisung: Are you coming to the cafeteria?

(Y/n): No, I’m at the library I brought an onigiri from the Family Mart next to my building, so I’m finishing work while I’m eating

Jisung looks up from his phone and to Felix who’s watching him curiously. “I’m going to the library,” he announces as he pulls his backpack over his shoulder. Jisung’s pretty sure he has a packet of cookies somewhere in his backpack for days when he doesn’t feel like eating in the cafeteria.

“Alright, I’ll see you after classes then.” Felix waves at him before stepping through the doors of the cafeteria, Jisung leaving the Student Union to make his way to the library building right beside it.

Once there, Seonghwa greets him as he walks in, Jisung flashing him a small smile before scanning the library to look for you. “(Y/n)’s at the back. She usually sits at the seats next to the window,” the librarian says. Jisung turns to look at him and the older man only winks in response just as he turns around to arrange some books on the counter.

“Thanks, hyung,” Jisung mutters. He makes his way past all of the tables and shelves until he reaches the end of the library. You’re sitting at the table right against the window, back turned to Jisung and your head bobbing along to music as your pencil runs across the notebook in front of you. The sight makes him smile slightly as he approaches you, tapping your shoulder before he takes the empty seat beside you.

You whip your head in his direction and pull your earphone out, “oh! Hey, Ji. You’re not getting lunch?”

“No, I have cookies,” Jisung says while reaching his hand into his bag to search for the cookies. He pulls out the small packet and waves it in the air before ripping the plastic open and setting it down on the table. “What are you working on?” he asks while leaning his arms on the table to lean closer to your notebook.

“It’s just some math stuff, " you say while waving your hand at it slightly. “There’s some physics involved with the ocean floor and stuff.” Jisung reaches for it slowly and only takes it when you nod, his eyes reading over the page before his face contorts in confusion.

“I don’t understand a single thing on this page,” he mutters jokingly as he sets your book down.

“A lot to do with rocks,” you chuckle as you slide the book back in front of yourself.

“Is it fun?”

“Geology?” You turn to Jisung and he nods in clarification. “Eh, it’s pretty alright. It gets a bit boring sometimes, but it’s kinda cool when you think about how the rocks change if they’re pressurized or heated. It’s a compulsory subject for this year, so I can’t really get out of it anyway. Might as well be happy with it rather than resenting it.”

Jisung lets out a hum at that and you turn to him questioningly. “I just think that’s pretty cool. Most students just vent about how much they hate certain classes because they’re compulsory.”

“I mean, if you spend your entire year hating a specific class, you’re not going to enjoy it at all,” you shrug as you turn back to your book, your hand letting your pencil drag along the corner of the page. “What about you? Do you have any classes you dislike more than the others?”

“Not really, I just don’t like maths,” he shakes his head.

“Aren’t you taking a course that’s completely based around maths?” When Jisung shrugs, you let out a hearty laugh, throwing your head back.

“I just do it without thinking much, honestly,” Jisung chuckles. “It sounds strange, but I don’t think I even know half of the things I’m typing until after I’ve typed it all out.”

“I’m sorry, what’s your grade average, again?” You laugh in disbelief when he cheekily smiles. “No way…”

“My average GPA is probably about 3.8.”

“No fucking way, Han Jisung.” You let out an impressive whistle when Jisung winks at you. “You really are something.”

“In love with me yet?” he jokes.

“Not quite yet, but there definitely is a small something happening in my heart,” you quip. Jisung lets out a loud, exaggerated gasp. His hand flies to clutch his chest and mocks hurt.

“You’re not in love with me?!” he gasps loudly. “And after all that I’ve done for you?”

“Mhm and what might that be?” You cross your arms over his chest as Jisung’s eyes narrow.

“Let’s see, I bumped into you twice—not once! But twice! I stared at you while we were in the park and I saved you from the mirror maze. I’d like to think that deserves some kind of love,” he huffs jokingly.

“Aww, you’re right,” you coo as you reach up to pinch his plush cheeks. “How can I make up for my ever so ungrateful mind?”

“I want a kiss,” Jisung states. Your eyes widen immensely and you feel your entire face heating up.

“Now?” you question and he nods. “Like, in public right now?” Jisung nods even harder. You take a look around the library to make sure there aren’t any curious eyes before leaning in to give Jisung a chaste kiss. “Happy?”

“You don’t seem to want to kiss me,” he says while pouting. Before you can say anything, Jisung holds onto your hand and pulls you closer, his lips pressing to yours. His right hand holds the nape of your neck to stop you from moving away and his left hand loosens its grip on yours when the kiss deepens.

Unknowingly to you, Seonghwa actually walked to the back to rearrange some books that the students had just returned and his jaw drops when he sees you.

“Hey, hey!” he yaps while hitting the tops of your heads lightly with a book, forcing the both of you apart. “No PDA in the library or else I’ll have to start cleaning questionable stains from the floor.” He walks away and you turn to Jisung who’s watching the librarian for a moment longer before turning back to you.

"Buzzkill," Jisung snorts, breaking into a laugh when Seonghwa whips his head around to glare at him. "Ah, I'm joking, hyung. Go back to doing your thing." Seonghwa eyes him for a moment before turning around while mumbling something under his breath.

"Seonghwa's quite the character," you chuckle. "I'm not surprised that Wooyoung says he's more terrified of him than he lets on."

"Seonghwa hyung's not that scary," Jisung claims as he turns back to you, "he's just funny like that. He's actually really nice once you get to know him."

Your conversation dissolves as you turn your attention back to your notes. Jisung busies himself by leaving his picking up a random book from one of the shelves, but since you’re sitting in the geology area, all of the books are about rocks. So, he reads a book about rocks.

“Quartz is a rock?” Jisung asks while looking at you.

“It’s a crystal,” you correct, turning to look at him. He sets the book down onto the table and you scooch closer to him, bringing your notebook with you. You flip over to an empty page and set it down in front of him. “Quartz is a mineral, so it naturally comes from Earth. It’s made out of silicone dioxide crystals that usually form in igneous rocks or in geo-thermal water.”

“What does that mean?”

“Lava rocks and naturally hot Earth water.”

“Ohh.”

“In lava rocks, when it naturally cools down, the silicon dioxide crystallizes and forms quartz.” Jisung watches as you write it down on the book, drawing a small rock with ‘lava rock’ written underneath it and then pointy rocks inside of it for the crystals. “In water,” you pause to draw a small river on the page, “silicon dioxide dissolves in water if it’s hot enough and if there’s enough pressure, but forms crystals if the temperature or the pressure drops.” You fill the river with small rocks and random shapes, dotting the river with ink before turning to look at Jisung. “Funky Earth rocks.”

“Funky Earth rocks,” he repeats in slight awe. “That’s kinda cool.”

“Yeah, it is.” Jisung stares at you for a moment longer before leaning in to kiss your forehead. You beam when he pulls away and it makes him smile as well.

“Do you have any classes after this?”

“I’m going to the gym after this because Felix wants to see if I can beat him up,” you say while closing your notebook. “You wanna come with? You can watch me try to kick him in the face. I don’t have to be there now, so we can just walk around campus before going to the gym.”

“Sure. I don’t have any classes for the rest of the day.” You gather your things and leave the library, waving at Seonghwa and Yeosang when you see them at the front.

“Hey, (Y/n).”

“Yeah?”

“What’s your favourite colour?”

“Why so suddenly?” you ask while turning to look at him. Jisung shrugs and reaches for your hand, his fingers locking with yours.

“I feel like we missed a certain talking stage, so I’m asking now.” You give him a weird look, but you can’t help but feel slightly endeared. So, you tell him, and after that, he asks about your favourite food. You tell him that, too.

Jisung asks all the kinds of questions he feels like he should’ve known the answer to before he kissed you at the fair and you answer them, patiently waiting for whatever question comes next until you’re violently disrupted when someone grabs your shoulder and whips you around.

“Hyemi!” You barely even register the smack to your face because you’re honestly so confused.

“What the fuck just happened?” you ask when you look at her.

“(Y/n).” Jisung looks at you with warning eyes but you shake your head.

“I'll only hit her if I have to.” You take a step closer to her only for her to hit you again. “Jesus Christ, Hyemi stop it,” you groan. “You’re not even that strong, it doesn’t hurt.”

“What in the world are you doing with him?!” she screeches.

“Dating him…?” She reaches her and back to hit you again, the back of her palm hitting you on the cheek. That one stung. “Okay, now you’re getting it right,” you state while rubbing your face.

“You can’t be dating him! He’s supposed to be with me!”

“Hyemi, stop it!” Jisung exclaims.

“How could you do this to me, Jisung?!”

“I’ve said no to you so many times!” he yells. “You’re the one who doesn’t know how to take a hint!” Hyemi takes a step closer and pouts.

“B-But Sungie, I’ve loved you since our first year. You just suddenly stopped talking to me after we slept together.” You feel a switch go off in your head and your hand curls into a fist as she places her hand on Jisung’s shoulder.

“Stop it—this is getting ridiculous!” Jisung swats her hand away in disgust and takes a step away from her. Panic fills him even more because now you know that he’s ghosted Hyemi before.

“Hey, Hyemi?” She turns to look at you and your fist makes contact with her face. Hyemi stumbles backwards and falls to the ground in shock, her hand flying to her nose as she looks up at you. “That’s for touching my boyfriend.” You lean over her and smile, “leave him alone from now on, yeah?”

You stand up and turn to Jisung while readjusting the strap of your bag on your shoulder. “Holy shit,” he chuckles as he stares at you.

“That was a nice warm up,” you laugh while taking his hand. “Let’s get to the gym before Felix and Ryujin start wondering.” The two of you quickly walk away from the scene, pushing past the small crowd that’s formed to see why Hyemi’s crying.

“What Hyemi said—it doesn't bother you?” Jisung asks once you’re quite far away from the scene.

“Hmm, I mean, if you did it to get her to stop, then I don’t see what the problem is,” you shrug. He glances at you worriedly and you smile as you stop walking to cup his face. “Ji, I’ve asked Hyunjin about your relationship with Hyemi before. He said that she’s the only person you’ve ever ghosted and that you only did it because you were trying to make her leave you alone. Even Minho said that you don’t ghost people, so I’m not too worried about you ghosting me.”

“Really?”

“Really,” you nod. “I promise this isn’t going to scare me off. Even if you did decide to ghost me, I can just kick you in the balls and call it even.”

“Jesus,” Jisung laughs, “alright. That’s more than enough to stop me from doing anything to hurt you.”

“I trust you, Ji. I really do,” you admit with a small smile. You can see the way his eyes soften before he leans close to press a chaste kiss to your lips.

“Thank you.”

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ♫ ⋅.} ───── ⊰

“You can always just back out at any time, you know,” Jisung tells you when he senses how nervous you are.

“But, you already told them that I’m coming,” you mutter while staring at the front door to his house. According to Jisung, his parents really wanted to meet you before you had left for Japan. He gave you the time to think about it and while you were still there, you decided you would just meet them after you came back. The only problem is that you’re way more nervous than you thought you’d be.

“They’re really nice, (Y/n). I’m pretty sure they’d embarrass me more than they’d scare you,” he jokes while cupping your face with both of your hands. “If you’re too nervous, I can just ask them to reschedule.”

“Thanks, but I don’t think we should prolong this,” you sigh. “I’ll just be nervous about meeting them forever if I don’t meet them now.” You hold onto Jisung’s hand and give it a small squeeze. “I promise I’ll be fine.” He gives you one last look before pushing through his front door.

“(Y/n)’s here!” he announces while you both kick your shoes off and place them on the shoe rack by the door.

“(Y/n)?” Jisung’s father pokes his head out from the living room and gasps. “Honey, (Y/n) is here!” His mother pokes her head out of the kitchen now and she gasps as well.

“You’re just on time!” She smiles while stepping out of the kitchen with a plate of grilled beef in her hands. “Come sit.” Jisung’s mother beckons the two of you over to the set dinner table and you both oblige, sitting down beside each other while his parents sit across from you. There’s a simple spread of food on the table and your mouth waters at the idea of finally having home cooked food after a few months of living away from your family.

“Ah, it’s so nice to finally meet you,” his father smiles. “Jisung talks about you all the time, so we’ve always been curious to know who exactly has won his heart.”

“Dad,” Jisung groans.

“It’s true!” his mother argues as she sits down. “We’ve always wanted to know who it was that had him in such a twist. He was so worried that he had scared you off.”

“Mum, stop,” he whines, but she doesn’t pay him any mind.

“I didn’t think that you would be so cute! Oh, look at you! I can see now why Minho and Felix always said that Jisung would get nervous around you,” she rambles while placing meat into your bowl of rice along with some of the vegetables. “I knew to trust that Jisung has good taste and standards, but we really weren’t expecting you to be so beautiful.”

Jisung’s father smiles fondly as he places his hand on her arm, “honey, I think you’re overwhelming her.”

“Oh, it’s fine,” you chuckle. “I just find it interesting that Jisung’s already talked about me this much.”

“He talks about you so much. We were so thrilled to hear that he had finally asked you out.”

"We hear that you're quite the fighter, (Y/n)," Jisung's father says.

"Ah, yeah, I'm in the MMA club with Felix and Ryujin."

"(Y/n) might be the vice president next year because she's really good," Jisung claims with a mouthful of food. "Felix is considering letting Ryujin take over his position next year because he’s planning on transferring.”

“Ah, right! Felix is transferring next year,” his father gasps. “We’re going to miss that kid.”

“He’s such a sweet boy,” his mother nods in agreement, slowly getting lost in their own conversation while you and Jisung eat and watch.

“Are you okay?” Jisung asks while nudging you lightly with his elbow.

“I’m fine,” you reassure him.

“Are you kids planning on watching the fireworks tonight?” Jisung’s father asks.

You both turn to look at him and nod. “I’m going to take her to the beach, then we’re going to head back to her apartment,” Jisung says.

“Alright, you kids stay safe and have fun,” his mother smiles. “You can leave right after dinner. Jisung’s father and I can handle the clean up.”

“Are you sure? Ji and I can always stay for a few extra minutes,” you offer but both of them shake their heads.

“We wouldn’t want you to be late for the fireworks.”

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ♫ ⋅.} ───── ⊰

“Come on, Ji!” you call. Jisung jogs over to catch up to you, wheezing for air as he hunches over beside you. “Where’d your stamina go, Mr “I’m a cool ass surfer”?” you tease, poking his shoulder.

“I never said I was a runner,” he pants as he stands straight. To be fair, it’s extremely cold since it’s the middle of Winter and you’re right next to the beach, but you’re still going to tease him. The breakwater that leads far into the water is way more secluded as compared to the beach. You assume it’s because the walk to the end is quite far and the extremely low temperature makes it less appealing to walk that far, but you and Jisung took the effort.

“You’ll be fine,” you chuckle while patting his back before turning to the sky and gasping. “Holy shit,” you breathe out. The sky is so clear that all you see are stars. The moon is high up in the sky, full and clear. You hug your puffy winter jacket tiger around yourself as you stare at the sky.

Jisung slings his arm around your shoulder as he looks up as well. “It’s really nice at night,” he says softly. “Have I really not brought you to the beach at night?” Jisung turns to you and you shake your head.

“We’re always hanging out on campus or at my place,” you state with a shrug. You turn back to look at the beach and gasp, “it’s starting!”

“The countdown should start soon.” Jisung pulls you closer until your back is pressed up against his front, his arms wrapped around your waist and his chin leaning against your shoulder. “I like this,” he sighs in contentment.

“Do you like… the stars, the ocean, or me?” You turn your face so that you can look at him.

“I like holding you under the stars next to the ocean.” Jisung leans his head back slightly to look at you properly. “You smell nice.”

“That is such a strange thing to point out,” you laugh.

“No, it’s not!” he gasps as he pulls away from you completely. “I’m saying you smell nice! It’s a nice thing to say,” Jisung mutters.

“I’m just joking.” You turn around and hold onto his hands, “you smell nice, too.” Just as you’re about to kiss him, there’s the faint sound of counting coming from the beach.

“The countdown’s started,” Jisung says as you turn around to face the beach. “Just another five seconds.” His arms return to your waist just as the seconds reach one.

You watch as a small red light shoots into the sky with a whistle following before it explodes with bright colours. The sound from the fireworks make you flinch out of reflex, but Jisung’s hands are quick to cover your ears as more fireworks burst, filling the sky with colourful lights.

Pure warmth and joy fills Jisung’s chest as you look completely in awe, the colours reflecting off of your face as you watch the sky. You move his hands off of his ears and smile reassuringly when Jisung gives you a concerned look. His arm moves to sling over your shoulder and he turns back to the fireworks.

Jisung stares for a moment longer before he realises that you really do make his heart feel like it’s letting off fireworks every few minutes; he finally feels 'The Connection'. He leans closer to you and presses a kiss to your temple, “(Y/n), I think I love you.” You turn to him in surprise, eyes wide at the confession. You take a moment simply staring at him before you smile.

“I think I love you, too, Jisung.” You turn around as Jisung’s hands rest on your waist, leaning close to kiss him. When you pull away, he presses his forehead against yours, smiling lovingly.

“Happy New Years, baby.”

Tagging: @http-hyxnjxn

173 notes · View notes