Archive of Our Own

“Oh wow, I didn’t know that. Do you guys travel often?”

“Sometimes! Mostly for competitions, but we’re pretty good, so we get to travel together sometimes.”

“Nice. You’ll have to invite me to one of your dance shows sometime.” 

“You can follow our team’s page on Instagram. We usually post about our showcase and competition dates.” 

“Or, maybe, I was thinking I could get your number?” 

“Oh.” Chan smiles, wide and sweet. “I have a boyfriend.” 

The smile on the boy who’s been talking to him for the past thirty minutes suddenly drops. He’s someone from one of the other campus dance teams. He looks as though he’s about to drop his plastic cup as well. The red on his cheeks flare harder and he stammers, “You do?”

Chan’s smile brightens as he leans his cheek onto his hand. “Yeah,” he sighs dreamily. “I don’t think he’d be too happy if I gave someone else my number.” 

The boy stands up straighter, taking his elbows off the kitchen island they’ve been standing at and scratches at the back of his neck. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to assume you were single. You were hanging out alone, so I just thought—”

“It’s okay, it happens.” Chan laughs at the way he blushes. “He doesn’t go to this school, so he’s not around for these things anyways.”

“Does he go somewhere nearby?”

Chan shakes his head and takes out his phone. “No, he’s a few hours away. We’re trying long distance right now.” 

He opens up his Instagram and starts searching for a familiar account when he hears the boy next to him scoot a bit closer and hum in thought. “That’s a shame,” he says, and Chan can already recognize the drawl in his voice. He knows that this boy is leading to some variation of Well, he isn’t here so what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. 

So before the boy can make any further moves, Chan taps onto the profile he’s looking for with a smile. “This is him!” he says, and turns his screen to show the boy next to him. 

“Oh—” 

Chan knows how this next part goes too. They look at his boyfriend’s Instagram, the name and face of Jeon Wonwoo usually doing the trick to make anyone in their right mind back off. He knows that the first photo of Wonwoo is effortlessly handsome; his smile is glowing under a street lamp at night. The boy’s eyes dim a little bit and Chan doesn’t blame him. Wonwoo is exceptionally gorgeous.

“Wow, he’s, um. He’s really lucky.”

Chan grins—it’s foolproof. 

He takes his phone back and smiles fondly at his favorite picture of Wonwoo. It’s one from New Years Eve and it’s of him laughing on a beat up sofa while wires of fairy lights hang like vines off his body.

“I’m really lucky too,” Chan says warmly. He brightens as he gazes at the photos. “We celebrated our anniversary over the summer before I moved back to campus.” 

“Oh, congratulations.” The boy doesn’t look very happy at all, actually.

They exchange a few more friendly words after, but not many. Chan must admit, he feels pretty good about the way this boy in front of him tries to make an excuse to talk to the next poor single soul that makes their way into the kitchen. As Chan wanders away to a different part of the house to sit next to his friends, a part of him also feels bad for intimidating the guy with Wonwoo’s Instagram. It’s not his fault Wonwoo is so handsome for no reason.

Soonyoung greets him at the couch. He’s captain of their dance team and the only reason Chan is at this kickback weeks before the semester is even in session anyways. With eyebrows raised in curiosity, he asks, “Did he ask for your number?” He snickers. “He was looking at you all night.”

“He tried,” Chan says with a crooked smile.

Soonyoung makes a face as he leans back. “Oh, isn’t that nice,” he whines. “Someone has a boyfriend whose picture will kick other guys away. Meanwhile, someone else has a boyfriend who doesn’t even bat an eye.” 

He looks pointedly at his boyfriend, Jihoon, who sits on the sofa opposite to them while scrolling through his phone. Jihoon doesn’t even look up and says, “I know you can handle them without me. And if you can’t then I’ll say something.” 

Soonyoung throws himself over Chan in protest and starts muttering and whining some more about boyfriends who care.

Chan smiles—it is nice, isn’t it? It’s so lovely to be taken by a man so handsome that his picture alone can intimidate the poor souls that try to shoot their shot. Wonwoo is so kind and lovely and handsome. 

At least, that’s what Chan assumes because he isn’t really dating Wonwoo at all.

And, actually, he hardly knows him. 

In Chan’s defense, he kind of knows Wonwoo—he was an upperclassman in some club Chan frequented in high school. They were acquaintances at most and followed each other like most mutuals did during club activities. They spoke maybe once or twice before Wonwoo graduated and that was it. 

And in Chan’s defense, this ruse only really started up at a party when another guy came up with hands that acted as though they were already familiar with him. Chan had been so flustered, he blurted out I have a boyfriend! and it was just his luck that he was in the middle of liking Wonwoo’s newest post on Instagram anyways.

That’s how Jeon Wonwoo, who Chan probably hasn’t even properly spoken to since he was sixteen, became his long distance, long time, hometown sweetheart boyfriend that he is very in love and very obsessed with. So in love, actually, that every dance team on campus and most of the social circles he runs in knows about Wonwoo.

Chan immediately pulling up Wonwoo’s Instagram page as proof of their involvement has become like a ritual for every time a boy tries to come talk to him. It’s too easy because they’re already following each other and Wonwoo doesn’t post often enough to really prove that they aren’t dating. They have matching hearts in their bio, but Chan’s is originally a silly thing for his old group of high school friends and he has no idea why Wonwoo has hearts in his. But how lucky is it that it works out, Chan thinks.

And it’s not like Chan isn’t interested in other boys ever—he’s just picky. When the timing is right and he meets someone he’s interested in, it’ll be easy to just say he broke up with his long distance boyfriend who he barely sees over little differences they aren’t able to overcome. But in the meantime, Jeon Wonwoo is the perfect kind of distant cover up that Chan can use however he needs. 

He grins to himself again—it’s foolproof. 

It is, in fact, so foolproof that Chan is wholly and completely unprepared for when it all comes crashing down. 

It’s maybe a week or so later, when the semester is almost officially beginning. It’s move-in day, so the campus is bustling as Chan meanders through hordes of new students and their suitcases to find one of the buildings where his best friend, Boo Seungkwan, works. 

“Oh, thank goodness,” Seungkwan gasps when he sees Chan walk in with two iced coffees. 

“Figured you’d need it,” Chan chuckles as he hands Seungkwan the coffee over the counter of the little reception desk.

Seungkwan rolls his eyes as he sits back down on the creaking rolling chair. “You wouldn’t believe it. I had to lead orientation this morning and then one of the other RAs got sick so I’m also doing check-ins last minute.” He pauses to smile at a freshman girl who comes up and asks where her room is. He nods and taps at the fossil of a computer in front of him. “You’re in 306 on the third floor! Welcome in!” 

Chan grins at her and adds, “Make sure you try out for the dance team!” 

Chan snickers through his nose at the way Seungkwan slaps him on the shoulder. But before he can hit him again, more new students are coming up and asking Seungkwan more and more questions. Chan watches patiently while leaning on the counter and sipping cold coffee up his straw. As soon as the floor empties out a little bit, Seungkwan slouches back on his chair and adjusts the desk fan so that it blows at him.

“You would think,” he groans, “an RA would be more responsible about drinking before move-in day.” 

“So I’m guessing Eunbi was supposed to be in charge of check-ins today.”

“Yes.” Seungkwan takes a gulp of his iced coffee like it's water. He sighs in relief and pulls himself together. “God, I wish I had this before the group orientation I led this morning.”

Chan laughs lightly and says, “How was that, by the way? Wasn’t it at seven?”

“Yeah, it was,” he says with a pout. “I keep proposing we push it to ten. But it was good—just freshmen and transfers, like usual. You didn’t tell me your boyfriend was transferring this semester though.”

His what?

Chan’s hand freezes around his coffee cup in a claw as he continues to smile. Surely, he must have misheard something. “My what?” he asks.

Seungkwan gives him a weird look as he straightens a stack of papers on the desk. “Your boyfriend?” he repeats. “He was in the orientation group I led this morning. I knew I recognized him from somewhere, I just didn’t realize until after. You should have told me, I would have said hi to him or something.” 

“Oh, uh.” Chan blinks and his tongue starts to dry out. “Are you sure it was my, uh, boyfriend?” he asks, his throat feeling tight. 

“I’m pretty sure…?” Seungkwan raises an eyebrow. “I mean his name is Wonwoo and everything.”

“Wonwoo.”

“Yeah.”

“Jeon Wonwoo.”

“Yeah?” Seungkwan frowns. “What, did your own boyfriend not tell you he was transferring here?” 

“Um.” He furrows his eyebrows and his sweat runs cold despite the corners of his mouth staying pinned up in a smile. “No?” he tilts his head. 

Chan thinks he might throw up. His foolproof plan doesn’t seem so foolproof anymore.

There’s no way.

It’s not possible.

There’s just no way.

Maybe it’s a different Jeon Wonwoo. Maybe it’s just a similar name. Maybe this is all just a crazy coincidence he thinks as he punches the button for the fifth floor. He gets the room number from Seungkwan then leaps out of his seat and leaves Seungkwan behind so quickly, he knows that he’s going to get an annoyed text from him later. But right now, all he can think about is whether or not the Jeon Wonwoo moving into room 526 on the fifth floor is the same Jeon Wonwoo that most of the student body knows as Chan’s long distance, long time, hometown sweetheart boyfriend. It makes his heart beat extra bubbles straight up his throat.

There is no way. 

Because if it is Wonwoo, life on campus is about to become humiliating. It’s going to come out; he knows it will. Wonwoo is bound to meet someone that will already recognize him as Chan’s long distance, long time, hometown sweetheart boyfriend. He’s lucky that so far it’s only Seungkwan, who has the decency to ask Chan about it before Wonwoo. What if it was Jihoon instead? He doesn’t even want to think about it.

But someone is eventually going to find Wonwoo first and ask Hey, aren’t you Jeon Wonwoo, Lee Chan’s long distance, long time, hometown sweetheart boyfriend? and Wonwoo is probably going to rightfully squint at them and say Who the fuck is Lee Chan? and Chan will be ruined and humiliated and accused of delusion and, oh, the world is going to end.

Oh god, he needs to find Wonwoo before anyone else does. 

The elevator dings open and as he starts weaving through the hallways of students and boxes, he thinks that maybe there’s still a chance that this isn’t the Wonwoo he’s thinking of. Maybe it’s a different man altogether and the world won’t end at all. Maybe Seungkwan is mistaken and Chan can just go about his way again, name dropping Jeon Wonwoo to ward off weird guys. 

But it turns out the world is going to end, because when he finds room 526, it is Wonwoo there in the middle of it, stacking some boxes. It’s the Wonwoo he remembers from when he was sixteen years old and going to school clubs. 

Wonwoo doesn’t seem to notice him step in, uninvited, because he has headphones over his ears. He’s moving some boxes around his bed, the mattress and pillows still without sheets or covers. Warm sunlight filters in through the windows and illuminates all the dust particles that frame Wonwoo as he shuffles around.

At that moment, Chan realizes that Wonwoo hasn’t changed much at all. He’s older now, of course, but his hair is longer. It seems to curl a bit from where it peeks out underneath the edges of his worn beanie. His frame is larger now too, and even he can tell that underneath the loose hoodie that Wonwoo wears, his frame has filled out much more substantially. 

He looks like his pictures.

Fuck.

Wonwoo notices him a half moment later, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise as he goes to pull his headphones off his ears. “Oh hey.” His voice is deeper than Chan remembers. “I didn’t notice you come in.” 

Chan suppresses a bubble in his throat. “Hi,” he replies.

“You must be my floor’s RA. Sorry,” he apologizes with a smile, “it’s still a bit of a mess in here. I’m Wonwoo, by the way! Let me get some of this stuff cleared—”

A small cough escapes Chan’s throat as he says, “I’m, uh, not your RA.” 

Maybe he hasn’t thought this through all the way. Now that he’s staring at Wonwoo, an unspeakable guilt starts to fill his lungs. This poor man is smiling at him and he has no clue that he’s already known by at least half the campus as Chan’s long distance, long time, hometown sweetheart boyfriend. Oh, Chan is in such shit. There’s no real way to explain this lunacy to Wonwoo—the man just transferred to this school, for goodness sake, and he doesn’t deserve to be thrown into Chan’s convoluted plan to keep himself secretly single. 

It doesn’t look like he recognizes his face, so he probably doesn’t remember Chan from high school. That’s probably a good thing. Wonwoo looks a little confused, but he smiles a little wider and asks, “Are you my roommate?” 

“No, um, I’m Chan.” 

“Chan,” Wonwoo repeats, thinking. He looks so innocent, Chan feels sick to his stomach. 

He becomes acutely aware of the amount of students that are filtering through the hallway behind him and he hopes to the high heavens that most of the people here are new and not people who recognize Chan. This can be worse.

“Oh wait a second,” Wonwoo muses for another moment. “Wait, didn’t you go to my high school?” 

“Um—”

“Chan… Chan, oh— Lee Chan!” Wonwoo’s face lights up suddenly and he says, “Oh, I do recognize you, you did an APink dance cover for one of the school festivals, I think!”  

Oh, so it can be worse. This is much worse.

Chan’s memory flashes back momentarily to his high school self and he nearly grimaces. Instead he clears his throat and pulls a smile back on his face. “Wow,” he says, “that was me, yes. Uh, why do you remember that—”

Wonwoo smiles. “I just do,” he says as he places one of his boxes at the end of his bed. When he straightens up, he’s still grinning at Chan and Chan just feels so bad. “It’s nice to see you,” he says. “What have you been up to?” 

Chan opens up his mouth and then closes it. He knows what he’s been up to. He’s been using Wonwoo’s name and face as a stand-in boyfriend. 

His eyes focus on Wonwoo’s shoulder so he doesn’t feel as guilty. “You know,” he finally says, “that’s a great question. Do you want to grab some coffee and catch up, maybe? If you’re done moving your boxes, that is.” 

“Uh.” Wonwoo glances around him and nods. “I mean I’m done moving my boxes in. You sure you want to get coffee though?”

“Y-...es,” Chan replies.

Wonwoo’s smile doesn’t fall, but Chan definitely notices the way he looks at the relatively full coffee cup that Chan forgets he’s been holding. Despite that, Wonwoo still says, “Yeah, sure. Let’s go.” 

Wonwoo still seems like a really nice guy; he deserves to know what Chan has been using his name and face for. 

Chan’s thumbs start nervously making circles into the cup he’s holding as Wonwoo mentions something about grabbing his room key first. Maybe he can just ease him into it. 

Chan chews on his bottom lip. So maybe it’s kind of hard to ease someone into this whole I’ve been telling people you’re my long distance boyfriend thing. But as he sits here, across from Wonwoo now with two cups of coffee, he can only stare at the table or the guilt will eat him alive.

“Um.” He stares at his two cups of coffee in front of him. 

Wonwoo blinks at him blankly. “I’m your boyfriend?” 

“Um.” 

“You’ve been telling people I’m your long term relationship that you’re long distance with?” Wonwoo is taking this quite politely, for someone Chan’s been using for at least two years now. He keeps staring at Chan while holding his own singular cup of coffee. 

Chan feels a warmth start spreading from the base of his neck to the tips of his ears. “Um, yes…” he manages sheepishly. He doesn’t even want his coffee anymore. “I’m really sorry, I didn’t think I’d ever run into you again or anything.” 

He braces himself for however Wonwoo might react. He’s not even really sure what to expect, because it’s not like he’s ever had to react to the news that someone has been lying about him being their boyfriend. Although he’s not quite sure what to expect, he knows that Wonwoo beginning to snicker is something he least expected. 

Wonwoo simply sips at his coffee when Chan shoots him a quizzical look and then laughs a little more under his breath. “Well, that’s kind of silly,” he says. 

Chan frowns. “Hey.”  

“Sorry,” Wonwoo says quickly, “it’s just… Is that why the RA was looking at me all funny earlier?” 

“Oh.” Seungkwan did look at them funny when they left the building together. “Yeah, that was probably why.”

“I see,” Wonwoo murmurs, but he keeps giggling to himself. Chan doesn’t really find this funny but before he can say anything more, Wonwoo laughs again. “That’s quite a predicament you’re in. So everyone you know will see me and just expect me to know you?” 

“Yes,” Chan mutters, feeling more embarrassed than he was before. He flushes when Wonwoo snorts.

“What a funny thing to do.” 

“I—” 

“You’re quite funny, aren’t you?” 

“Anyways,” he insists as he sits on his hands, “I’m really sorry. I really didn’t think I’d ever see you again. I can just tell people we broke up or something, it won’t—”

“You don’t have to.” 

When Chan finally makes eye contact with Wonwoo again, Wonwoo is smiling at him gently. It’s soft and understated and for a moment, Chan doesn’t think he’s heard him correctly at all.

“What?” he says. 

Wonwoo repeats, “You don’t have to. I can help you out with it instead.” 

With rapid blinks, Chan can feel his jaw start to slacken a little bit. He forces his mouth closed before opening it again and asking, “Wait, why?” 

“I don’t know.” Wonwoo gazes out a nearby window and opens his palms and closes them as if it’s equal to a shrug. “I just transferred here and I don’t really know anyone.” He pauses to smile politely at Chan. “Besides you now, of course.” He goes back to looking out the window. “But maybe it’d be a cool way to meet some new people on campus fast. Besides, you said that you mainly did it to keep other guys away and that’s a reason I can get behind.” 

“Oh.” Chan blanks again. “Uh—”

“And,” Wonwoo adds again, “it is a pretty funny situation you’re in.” He giggles. “You’re kind of funny to think of faking a boyfriend instead of just saying no.”

Furrowing his eyebrows, Chan purses his lips and tilts his head as he says, “So… you want to continue this lie I made up… because you think I’m funny…?”   

Wonwoo nods, his close lipped smile bright. The affirmative hum he lets out makes it sound like he thinks this is simple.

Chan thinks there’s nothing simple about it.

He stares a little longer at Wonwoo’s unwavering gaze and slowly starts, “So you’re willing to let people think you’re my long term boyfriend.” He thinks about the boyfriends of his friends that he meets so often. “You know that means I’ll make you come to all my dance team performances, right?”

“Oh, you’re on the dance team?” Wonwoo asks with some real interest. “That’s really cool. Not a lot of APink dance covers, I take?”

Why does he have to keep mentioning that, Chan thinks to himself as his cheeks heat up further. But still, he says, “No, no APink covers.”

“I think those would be fun to see.” Wonwoo hums. “I wouldn’t mind going. But that means you have to come see at least one of my League tournaments too.”

“Your what? ” Chan asks, momentarily shaken out of his thoughts.

“League of Legends? I’m on the eSports team for this school.”

“You are?”

“Yeah, the varsity team recruited me. That’s why I transferred here.”

Chan blinks, half impressed. “Oh, that’s kind of cool. I don’t know how League works though, I don’t know how well I’d be able to cheer you on.”

Wonwoo smiles at him. “I’ll have to teach you about it then.”

Nerd, Chan thinks. But he forces himself back to the topic at hand and continues, “Don’t you think that will be a lot to commit to? Don’t you want time to meet your own friends and go to your own social events and not just mine? Even if you’re on board just because it’s funny?”

That seems to be a good point for Wonwoo, considering the way he stops to think. He blinks to himself a few times, sips at his coffee, and then blinks some more. After a few seconds, he sets down his coffee cup.

“How about this—we can do it for a semester. And then when it ends, we can break up over break for reasons like things not working out after having to actually spend so much time together or something. That’s kind of a common break up reason, isn’t it?”

Chan tilts his head. “Yeah,” he agrees slowly. Wonwoo’s pretty quick, it seems.

“And if you or I meet someone we’re interested in, we can just break up earlier,” he points out. He leans back with a satisfied smile and sips his coffee again.

It’s quiet again between them as Chan simply stares at him over his two untouched cups of coffee in front of him. He wonders if the Wonwoo he knew from high school would have ever imagined that his underclassman who performed an APink dance cover at a school festival would have grown to lie to all his university friends that they were dating. He knows that his high school self would have never imagined Jeon Wonwoo to be the type to agree to be his fake boyfriend just for fun.

Then he thinks about it a little harder. 

Just one semester of having Wonwoo on his arm doesn’t seem like a bad idea. It’ll be easier to fake a break up once people have actually seen them together. No one can point fingers at Chan and accuse him of delusion if Wonwoo is actually there with him. And Wonwoo in real life is even handsomer than his pictures and would do wonders of keeping unwanted guys away. He doesn’t need to be humiliated by an entire campus for lying and Wonwoo will still be free to meet new people once the semester is up.

Just a semester is good. Yeah, maybe just one semester will work.

“Okay,” Chan says finally. “My dance team has a booth for club fair this week. My turn at the booth ends at three.”

Wonwoo grins. “I can be there.” 

After their coffee date (the term date, Chan thinks, is to be used very loosely), they walk back to Wonwoo’s dorm room together. When they enter the lobby, Wonwoo even puts his arm around Chan’s shoulders and he actually has to act like he’s not shocked by the action when they walk together past Seungkwan. 

When Seungkwan messages him later, Chan makes up that his shock and confusion from earlier had been because Wonwo’s move-in date was much later, but he had secretly come to move in today to surprise Chan. Seungkwan seems to believe it and even apologizes for ruining the surprise.

(Seungkwan doesn’t even know that Chan has only gotten Wonwoo’s number for the first time that same very day.) 

Chan half expects Wonwoo not to be at their booth simply from the fact that their conversation from a few days prior still feels like a hazy hallucination.

Jeon Wonwoo, his upperclassman from high school, has agreed to fake date him over collectively three cups of coffee? Even to Chan’s ears, it sounds fake.

And sure, maybe it’s all for the convenience of it, but breaking the news that his long distance, long time, sweetheart hometown boyfriend is actually present now still makes Chan feel like this can be a bad idea.

Telling Seungkwan had been easier because he technically already knows, even though accidentally. Telling his dance team friends, though, is a different kind of nerve wracking because it’s within their university’s dance teams that Chan’s whole lie about his long distance, long time, hometown sweetheart boyfriend Wonwoo runs the most rampant. 

“You look like you’re constipated.” Chan looks up. It’s Jihoon who’s addressing him with one eyebrow raised and two cups of coffee in his hands. He’s here to drop off Soonyoung to take over at the booth.

Chan pouts and rearranges the sign up sheet clipboard for the fifth time in the past hour. “No, I don’t.” 

“We both think you do,” Jihoon says. He hands the second cup of coffee to Soonyoung as he slips behind the booth next to Chan.

Soonyoung has the decency to look shocked at the accusation as he says, “Huh? I never said that. Chan, I didn’t say that.”

Jihoon chuckles as he leans over the booth table for a kiss to which Soonyoung obliges. “Doesn’t he look a little constipated though?” 

Soonyoung doesn’t even look at Chan, his eyes are still glued to Jihoon as he pecks him again. “Maybe?” he says with a giggle. “I have to take over soon then, don’t I?”

“Definitely, so he can use the bathroom.”  

Gross, Chan thinks as he steps out. Disgusting and factually incorrect topic of their conversation aside, he wonders how Jihoon and Soonyoung always manage to look at each other this way over the years. He doesn’t really get it. They look cute together though—they always have.

He tilts his head. He wonders if he and Wonwoo can ever pull off looking that natural.

He almost forgets that Wonwoo had even agreed to show up at the booth to begin with, until he’s sauntering up, sipping on a red bull with a straw. Chan doesn’t even notice him, until Wonwoo’s voice makes him jump in his spot.

“Hi,” he says with a wide grin. He never seems to stop smiling, it seems, but he slides next to Chan and wraps an arm around his waist. “Are you ready to go?”

Chan feels his heart freeze for just a moment. When Wonwoo’s fingers tighten around him, he starts to wonder how he was convinced that this would be a good idea. 

“Hey,” Chan replies, his voice shaky. That wasn’t very smooth of him. He can’t be acting so surprised because he can feel some of his dance teammates start looking at them. “Yeah, I’m ready. Uh, Soonyoung hyung is taking over…?” 

When he turns, Soonyoung is staring at him attentively, as is Jihoon. A good few of his other dance team member friends are staring at them too.

“Oh, you must be Soonyoung,” Wonwoo says, his voice quite natural. “Chan’s told me a lot about you.”

Chan is impressed, because he doesn’t actually think he mentioned Soonyoung to Wonwoo at all. But he smiles instead and says, “Yeah, this is the Soonyoung I told you about. Guys, this is Wonwoo, by the way.”

Soonyoung’s eyes widen and from the side, Chan can see Minghao, who has been quietly organizing the information pamphlets, raise his eyebrows too. Jihoon’s face doesn’t quite change, but he looks blankly at the both of them. “Wonwoo?” Soonyoung repeats. “Like, your boyfriend?” 

“Yeah, that’s me,” Wonwoo replies as he pulls Chan a little closer. “It’s nice to meet you guys, finally.”

“Are you visiting our campus today?” Minghao asks.

“Actually,” Chan says, “he just transferred here.” He makes the corners of his smile pull wider as he leans into Wonwoo’s armpit. Surely, this doesn’t look weird.

He thinks it’s pretty believable, because Soonyoung slaps a hand on his cheek and gasps. “Transfer! You transferred to go to school with Chan?” 

“Yes—”

“No—”

Wonwoo’s arm stiffens behind Chan’s back as he makes eye contact with him. “Um,” Wonwoo chuckles. “He means no in the sense that I was technically recruited here by the Varsity League team. And I mean yes because the fact that Chan goes here made it an obvious decision.” 

Chan doesn’t realize he nearly choked on his breath until his breathing returns to normal. “Right,” he says with a laugh. 

“Aw, that’s so cute,” Soonyoung coos. “Welcome to the school! Are you going to sign up for dance team auditions?” 

Wonwoo laughs good naturedly and Chan thinks he can feel relief radiate from where he’s leaning against him. “No, I’m just here to pick up Chan for lunch. He promised to take me on a campus tour after I finally got settled in.”

“And you took forever to move in,” Chan teases with a poke to his side. 

“Could have been faster if you had helped me,” Wonwoo says, looking straight at him. Chan thinks he’s frozen for a second.

“Was there a lot of stuff to move?” Jihoon asks as he leans on the booth table.

“Just a couple trips,” Wonwoo replies when he tears his gaze away from Chan. “My old school is only about an hour and a half drive from here so it wasn’t too bad.” 

This time, Chan’s breath gets caught in his throat for real and his eyes freeze onto the corner of the team’s booth because fuck, he didn’t know that. He feels Jihoon’s eyes flicker to him for just a second.

“I thought Chan said you were four hours away?”

Chan looks up at Wonwoo, whose smile is frozen onto his face now also. “O-Oh,” he stammers. His eyes shift to the people staring at him as he coughs out a laugh. It’s a bit awkward, Chan thinks, but he lets Wonwoo pull him closer.

“Four hours with traffic,” Chan says quickly as he takes a step back. He laughs weakly. “The traffic to his campus is… pretty bad…”

Wonwoo presses his lips together and nods. “Yes,” he says. “Traffic is so bad. Otherwise, I would have definitely come to see you guys perform sometime.” He lifts his red bull up to his mouth again, but the straw misses his mouth and pokes him in the cheek first before it gets to his lips.

“Oh, did you ever get to see any of our away performances?” Soonyoung asks. “I know we competed at a bunch of schools.” 

Wonwoo’s eyebrows raise as he swallows. “Uh, no, I never got the chance,” he says.

Jihoon raises an eyebrow. “Ever?” 

Clearing his throat, Chan quickly says, “He was also busy with his, um, gaming contests.” He nods and looks at Wonwoo to nod along, which he does with a smile. Maybe it’s a good thing he doesn’t seem to be able to stop smiling. 

“But I’ll be able to come to them now!” he insists. 

Chan feels hyper aware of his friends’ gazes, but especially Jihoon’s. So before he can foresee it getting any worse, he says, “Well, we should head out. I told Wonwoo I’d show him my favorite spot to eat around here.” 

Soonyoung, the only one who seems not bothered by their stiffness, smiles and says, “Oh yeah, go ahead! You’ve finished up your turn for the day.”

With a grateful exhale, Chan grins at him. “Thank you! And I did it in the blazing heat, too,” he jokes.

As he and Wonwoo step away, Wonwoo’s eyes light up suddenly. “Ah, I brought something for you!” he says, as he reaches into his pocket. “I knew it was going to be hot when you were out here today.” 

He pulls another can of red bull out of his pocket and hands it to Chan with a happy smile. Chan blinks at it, but takes it anyway. “Aw, thanks,” he says. He hopes the confusion he slightly feels doesn’t come out in his voice. 

Wonwoo looks rather pleased with himself as they walk away, but Chan is absolutely positive that he can hear Jihoon’s faint voice behind them saying I thought Chan hated red bull. 

“Was it just me, or was that kind of rough?” 

Chan sits down on the edge of Wonwoo’s bed, which is now complete with pillow covers and sheets. They have a Power Ranger pattern on them, Chan notices. It’s the day after club fair and he’s invited himself over to Wonwoo’s room to talk about said club fair day. He feels like he looks exceptionally pitiful. 

Wonwoo laughs breathily as he taps away at his keyboard at his desk and glances sideways at Chan. “It kind of was,” he agrees. “You know, I met my team captain during club fair and even he knew that I was supposed to be your boyfriend?”

Chan knits his eyebrows. “Who’s your captain?” 

“Choi Seungcheol?” 

Shit, he recognizes that name as a friend of Jihoon’s. Word sure gets around fast.

“I think Jihoon games with him sometimes,” Chan says.

Wonwoo nods. “Yeah, something like that. That guy is competitive but he’s an insane jungler.”

“I don’t know what that means.”

“It—”

“Anyways, speaking of Jihoon,” Chan continues, “I feel like he sees right through it. Which is weird, because why would it matter to him if you’re real or not?”

If Wonwoo is bothered at all by Chan interrupting him, it doesn’t show. Instead, he seems to laugh a little bit at it. But he agrees, “Yeah, he seemed like he was staring at us a lot. Did he ever not believe you before he met me?”

“No,” Chan murmurs. “At least, I don’t think so. He always just took my word for it.”

“He must be pretty sharp if Seungcheol games with him.”

“He has to be, dating Soonyoung.” Chan snickers and then says, “You’re pretty sharp too, though.”

Wonwoo smiles at him. “You think so?”

“Yeah, the thing you said about me telling you a lot about Soonyoung? I would have never thought of that,” Chan says. “That was pretty good.”

“Oh, heh.” Wonwoo looks quite pleased with himself, but he keeps his eyes trained on his screen as he types something. “That was good, wasn’t it?” 

Chan snorts a little bit at how happy he looks. “That part was good,” he agrees. “But nothing else was close.”

“Aw, really? Nothing else?” Wonwoo asks with what seems like a fake pout. “How off was I?”

“Well, for one, I told them you went to a university near our hometown.”

“Oh, that explains the four hours away comment.” 

“You’ve never been to a single one of my performances.” 

“I don’t think that one can be helped.”

“And I also hate red bull.”

“Damn, for real?” 

“For real.” 

Wonwoo closes his laptop and spins towards him in his chair. “Okay,” he says, clasping his hands together over his abdomen. “So we need to get the lore straight, is what I’m hearing?”

Chan furrows his eyebrows. “Lore?” 

“Yeah, like in games, when characters have secret past relationships or stuff that you don’t know about until later or if you unlock it. We have to figure out our lore.” 

Nerd, Chan thinks again. But Wonwoo definitely has a point, nerd tendencies aside. 

“For example,” Wonwoo starts, “I really like red bull.” 

“Figures,” Chan says, eyeing the small pile of empty cans that’s already starting to grow in Wonwoo’s garbage can. “And I don’t.”

“Maybe we almost broke up because of it once.” 

Chan scrunches his nose and asks, “You think so? Really?”

“You don’t think so?” Wonwoo responds with a crooked tilt of his lips.

“No way that’s a deal breaker,” Chan says, shaking his head.

“Good to know.” 

“I don’t think it’s something that would bother me. It’d make more sense if we almost broke up because you never came to any of my performances.” 

Wonwoo hums. “You know, that’s true. See, now there’s our first piece of lore—we almost broke up because I never went to your dance shows.”

Chan nods to himself. “Yeah, that seems like a good reason for nearly breaking up.” 

“And also because you never came to any of my competitions,” Wonwoo adds on.

“Right,” Chan snickers. “But I probably never went to a competition because you never came to a performance.” 

“Hey, so this is somehow my fault we nearly broke up?” Wonwoo asks, but he’s grinning.

With a shrug, Chan sighs dramatically. “I’m just saying! I don’t think I’d be very happy, hypothetically, if my long term boyfriend never came to see a single of my performances.” 

“Well, what if it was in retaliation to you never going to my competitions. Or you not supporting my gaming career.” 

He squints and tilts his head. “How can I support you when I don’t even know how League works?” 

Wonwoo makes a knowing face. “See,” he sings as if he’s made a good point. Chan doesn’t think he’s made a good point at all. “That’s why you should learn. I’ll even pull it up for you right now—”

“That’s alright,” Chan declines politely. The way Wonwoo’s body visibly excites was kind of funny to see though. “We should figure out other stuff though—like how did we get together?” 

Wonwoo hums as he leans back in his chair. He only looks slightly disappointed. “What if I say I saw you dancing to No No No and then developed a major crush on you?” 

Chan frowns. “No.”

“No No?” 

“Just no.” 

Wonwoo laughs and leans forward. “You’re funny,” he comments. “But also, what’s so wrong with that!”

Chan feels his cheeks flush as he crosses his arms and says, “Do you not remember how embarrassing that whole ordeal was?”

“No.” Wonwoo shakes his head with his close lipped smile again. “Not necessarily. I remember thinking it was really cute, actually.”

“We cannot have you bringing that up around my friends,” Chan stresses. “Add this to the reason we almost nearly broke up—you’ve never been to any of my dance performances except the one I’ve been trying to block from my memory.” 

“But it was cute,” Wonwoo insists with a fond smile. He looks as though he wants to say more, but Chan purses his lips and he concedes with a playful sigh. “Okay, okay—send me your performance dates for the semester, I’ll go to them if I’m free.” 

Chan huffs, but he doesn’t think he can deny that pleased look on his face. “You better come to all of them,” he says, “or I’ll break up with you.” 

Wonwoo snorts as he turns back to his laptop and starts tapping away again. “Well, that’s the plan, isn’t it? But you better come to at least one of my tournaments or I’m going to break up with you.”  

“Very rich, coming from a guy with Power Ranger sheets.”

“Now what does that have to do with anything—?” 

Chan laughs again. Nerd. 

There’s always parties at the beginning of the semester. A few of the other dance teams always try to throw some to mark the beginning of the school year and to get all the dance teams on campus to mingle.

The first few are a good opportunity to get everyone acquainted with Wonwoo.

Being on the same page about their “lore” (as Wonwoo continues to deem it) proves to be useful. He’s actually quite good at keeping up appearances. 

Chan has to admit that he does enjoy the attention of it. After all, most of the people here are the ones who he’s told he has a partner already. Word seems to have spread a bit amongst the campus dance teams that Chan’s long distance, long time, hometown sweetheart boyfriend has transferred to their school. 

When Chan sees the boy he rejected from not long ago by showing Wonwoo’s pictures, he can’t help the smug feeling that blooms in his chest, even if the way Wonwoo’s fingers are interlocked with his is purely for convenience. Everyone looks at them when Chan floats from group to group with him in tow and he can’t deny that he feels especially nice about it.

His friends warm up to Wonwoo pretty quickly. Even Jihoon, despite the fact that he still looks skeptical for some reason. But he gets along with everyone else very well. Mingyu, Minghao’s boyfriend, seems to especially click with Wonwoo once Wonwoo offers him another beer after noticing that Mingyu’s is nearly empty. 

He’s quite attentive. Which is good, because Chan is pretty sure that’s one of the traits he used to boast about Wonwoo to his friends. He just hopes that no one can notice that Wonwoo isn’t quite the way Chan had described him before sometimes. 

His handsomeness matches up, but Chan thinks that Wonwoo is sometimes more cute than handsome. It comes out a lot in the way he lights up as he asks people ‘Did you know that Chan and I met in high school?’ 

His physique matches up, but Chan is surprised to learn that he actually can’t hold his liquor very well at all. He doesn’t even really like hard liquor at all compared to lighter drinks. 

His deep voice matches up, but Chan learns that he doesn’t really lead or become the center of conversation at all. Actually, Wonwoo is rather quiet and soft spoken.

He’s sure most people don’t notice that the way he does. 

Because despite the tiny details, Wonwoo is quite natural at playing a boyfriend. 

It almost makes up for their little hiccup at the club fair booth, except for when Wonwoo goes to get Chan a drink and comes back with a seltzer only to find out in real shock that Chan doesn’t like seltzers and prefers something harder. 

It’s not that big of a deal, if it wasn’t for the fact that Jihoon is the one who’s standing by them when it happens and he gives them that same look again. It makes Chan wonder why it's Jihoon, of all people, that has to be around.

“All I’m saying is, you should at least know who I main in League if I’m going to be your fake boyfriend.” 

Chan makes a face as he sets their takeout order of fries on the little nightstand by Wonwoo’s bed. “I’m good,” he replies. “Really.”

It’s after one of his late morning classes and Wonwoo had offered to take him out to lunch again (only for research purposes, of course). They go out sometimes after classes and grab take out to bring back to Wonwoo’s room to eat (for research purposes). It’s kind of routine, if anything besides classes can be considered routine only a few weeks into the semester. 

Wonwoo is kind of fun to hang out with. Chan finds himself agreeing to see him more often than he ever anticipated. 

He continues, “I feel like you’re just trying to get me into League.” 

“While I’m not opposed to that outcome,” Wonwoo says with a grin, “I just think we should know this about each other.”

“For the lore?”

“For the lore,” Wonwoo confirms. 

Chan wonders if Wonwoo keeps notes or something. He’s surprisingly good at remembering all of these little details that they come up with. They have some things sorted already, like how they met (in their after school club and definitely not after Chan danced to Apink), how they spent their last anniversary (a somewhat nice looking restaurant that they can afford), and how they nearly broke up because neither of them could go to each other’s activities post high school (that one is kind of true). 

“I don’t think our lore requires me to know your League mains if I don’t know any of the characters to begin with.” 

Wonwoo makes a face and lets out an exasperated sigh. “You’re missing out!” he sings. “I got into this school for League, I think my hypothetical boyfriend would at least know who I like to play.” 

“Can’t I ask you something else?” Chan pleads. “Like what your favorite color is?”

“Purple.”

“Okay, and your favorite food?” 

“Mm, noodles?”

“Favorite season?” 

“Probably fall?” He grins. “Alright, your turn. Now ask me who my League main is.” 

Chan shoves a fry into his mouth. “No.”

“Okay, then let me ask you who your League main is.”

“Ask me something else, please.” 

Wonwoo laughs around his straw. “Alright, alright. How about you tell me something you secretly hate?” 

Chan scoffs. “Easy. I hate when Minghao invites us to his slam poetry nights.”

“Damn, you hate it?” 

“You try politely snapping after having to watch Minghao rhyme daddy issues with snotty tissues.” 

“You’re so funny,” Wonwoo comments with a wide smile. Seriously, he’s always smiling. 

“My turn again,” Chan says. He pauses as he looks around Wonwoo’s room. “How come… your roommate is never here? I’ve never seen him once.”

Wonwoo chuckles as he bites his straw. “He’s busy rushing frats,” he replies. “And he usually stays over at his boyfriend’s place. He’s cool though—let’s me use his Netflix account.” 

Chan nods as he sits down on the Power Ranger bed sheets. He likes sitting on the Red Ranger—that’s where the warmest rays of sunlight filter in from Wonwoo’s window. “Oh, that’s cool of him. Have you met his boyfriend?” 

“Nope. You think maybe he’s lying about having one?” Wonwoo snickers as he eyes Chan. 

“Hey.”

Wonwoo grins at him. “Kidding. I hear his boyfriend is cool though.” 

Chan’s hum fills the silence for half of a moment. He looks over at Wonwoo after a moment. “Have you had a boyfriend before?” 

Wonwoo studies him for a moment, a quizzical look in his eyes as he sits down in front of his laptop. “Yeah,” he replies. “Yeah, when I was younger.”

“What was it like?”

“Hm. It was nice. It was easy, comfortable.” He hums and tilts his head at Chan. “Kind of like this, actually?”

Chan snorts and rolls his eyes. “Shut up.” 

“I’m serious!” Wonwoo laughs. “What about you?”

“Never been in a relationship, actually.” He pauses and eyes Wonwoo with a crooked smile. “Well, a real one at least.” 

Wonwoo smiles back and raises his eyebrows at him. “Really? For some reason, I didn’t expect that.” 

“Well, it’s not really like I want a boyfriend.” Chan lays down on the sheets and stares up at the ceiling. “Maybe when the time is right. But right now I’m so busy—sometimes I see Soonyoung and Jihoon and wonder how they’re holding it all together.”

“That’s fair,” Wonwoo replies as he starts clicking at his keyboard. “Relationships can be a lot of work.” 

“That’s what I’m saying! That’s why I’m just trying to ride it out now instead of burning myself out with one.”

“By having me as a fake boyfriend.”

“Exactly! See, you get it—that’s why you're the perfect choice as a fake boyfriend.” He grins smugly. “Do I know how to pick ‘em or what? Okay, it’s your turn to ask a question again.”

Wonwoo laughs again at him. “You’re so cute.” He gives him a sideways smile and asks, “What are you going to do if the semester ends and I like you for real?” 

Chan scoffs at him with a grin on his face. “You’re such a liar,” he says, throwing a pillow at him. “Pick a different question.”

“Okay, then will you please ask me who I main in League?”

“No.” 

“Are you going to Wonwoo’s prelim match?” 

Chan blinks at Jihoon from across the library desk they’re at with Soonyoung. “How did you know that was tonight?” he asks. 

Jihoon smiles crookedly at him. “Seungcheol invited me to come. He mentioned you were going to be there for Wonwoo.”

“Oh, yeah—I am.” Chan thinks about how Wonwoo had texted him a few days prior, telling him to come because he saved him a ticket. “Are you coming?”

“I wish,” Jihoon chuckles.

Soonyoung brightly adds from his seat, “But he’s going out with me! So he can’t go tonight.” 

Jihoon sighs at the way Soonyoung sticks his tongue out at him for a second before going back to his notes. He shakes his head when he turns back to Chan. “Yeah, so I can’t go tonight. But I do wish I could. Seungcheol told me that he’s going to test Sejuani as his main for this season and I really want to see it in games.” 

Chan still doesn’t really know what that means. 

“Who does Wonwoo usually main, by the way? I haven’t seen him play.”

“Uh.” Chan’s cheeks definitely color as he breaks eye contact with Jihoon. “Well, um.” 

“Well… what?” Jihoon’s eyebrows furrow at him. “You don’t know?” 

“...No?” Chan replies, drawing scribbles on his notes instead of words. 

“How do you not know who he mains?” 

“Give him a break,” Soonyoung says. “I barely know whatever your Lick of Legos is, let alone your main.”  

“Babe, please, it’s League of Legends—” 

Chan is grateful for Soonyoung, even if he’ll never know it. At the very least, it gets Jihoon off the subject long enough for Chan to send a message to Wonwoo.

hey sooooo
who’s your league main

??? lol?
i main caitlyn
want to try playing her sometime?

no 

:( 

The only reason Chan agrees to come over to Wonwoo’s room and let him talk about League things is because after he does watch his game live, he realizes he can’t follow along at all. When Wonwoo asks him after their win if he saw him get that pentakill, Chan only scrunches his nose and asks how he was even supposed to know who Wonwoo was playing as. 

(Wonwoo laughs into his fist and says that his username will always be floating above the characters he chooses.)

(Chan asks him again how he’s supposed to follow along after finding out that this whole time, Wonwoo’s username is 1yoo and then why the hell his username is 1yoo when his name is Wonwoo.) 

But still, Chan allows himself to be convinced to come over on a Friday night to maybe learn some things about League. (It is definitely not to escape having to third wheel Jun and Jisoo at the arcade.) To his pleasant surprise, Wonwoo starts him out with some fun videos and he’s about to pull up an animated show to have Chan watch. He says his main is in it.

Wonwoo’s roommate is never around, but Chan guesses that it's much easier if they’re alone. They don’t have to pretend so much and the silence without any eyes watching them is comfortable. 

But maybe it’s because Wonwoo makes it easy.

It’s kind of easy hanging out with Wonwoo. He’s chill, he’s comfortable, he always laughs at a joke Chan makes. He also always makes sure Chan has a pillow for himself when he’s over. 

Easy is nice, Chan figures. Even though Wonwoo has wanted to show him this show for a while, he never pushes. He’s always patient and just lets Chan decide. It’s easy. Easy is…easy.

When Chan comes back on his own a few days later to finish the show, he insists that it’s not because he’s enjoying spending time with Wonwoo and all of his League related content, but because he needs any and every excuse to skip out on Minghao’s slam poetry night. What better reason is there than being obligated to spend time with his previously long distance, still long time, sweetheart hometown boyfriend? 

Wonwoo puts his arm around his shoulders and calls him a liar as he hits play on the third to last episode. 

Jihoon clings onto Soonyoung’s waist. Jisoo tells Jun exactly what he loves about the way Jun dances while looking into his eyes. Mingyu lifts Minghao up and spins him around in joy. 

Chan’s used to the way his friends’ partners greet them after a successful dance performance. Today is no different, as they exit with their team after the show is finished. 

He supposes this is also secretly one of the original reasons he made up this whole thing about Wonwoo being his long distance, long time, hometown sweetheart boyfriend—so that his friends and their boyfriends would stop looking at him after their performances with eyes that hid the pity they felt for him. 

It’s never mattered that much to Chan. He always feels good after dancing, anyways. But tonight, Wonwoo was there in the seats to cheer him on from a distance. Chan always feels good after dancing, but seeing Wonwoo watching him tonight makes him feel extra good. 

He even texted him once Chan’s group was done performing. 

you did so amazing!!!
you’re the best dancer ever!!!

lol thank u hyung <3

chan is the best! 

> u 0

“Wonwoo didn’t want to come?” Jihoon asks once they start filing out of the building.

Chan raises his eyebrows when he looks up from his phone. “Oh? Yeah, he came to see us but he usually leaves after he sees me dance.” 

Mingyu, who rests his chin in the crevice of Minghao’s neck as they walk, says, “Aw, man, he should come hang out after shows with us sometime. He’s cool.” 

Chan smiles. “You think so?” 

“Mingyu loves him,” Minghao says with a teasing roll of his eyes. But he smiles and pats his boyfriend’s head. 

“Doesn’t he want to hang out?” Mingyu proceeds to ask. “I feel like we’re all friends now.” 

Jihoon adds and jokes, “Yeah, how come he just lets you hang out with all these couples by yourself?”

Chan’s never really considered that before. It’s never really been something he’s minded. 

But he laughs and says, “He gets busy sometimes with his League team. But I’ll ask him about it.” 

Everyone seems generally acceptable to that answer. But as Chan trails behind his friends and their boyfriends for just a moment, he wonders why he feels slightly jealous that Wonwoo isn’t here holding him too (for pretenses, of course). 

He’s been around his friends and all of their couple antics since he can remember, but he’s never felt jealous about it until Wonwoo physically came into the picture. 

How funny, he thinks. He tries not to let it bother him. 

Secretly, it definitely bothers him.

“How come you never say hi after our performances?” 

Wonwoo looks up from his notes and fixes his glasses. “Hm?” 

Chan glances around the library and makes sure that their snooty librarian isn’t around to shush him the second he speaks. He hasn’t liked her ever since the one time he made Wonwoo laugh out loud and she nearly kicked them out. 

“How come,” he asks again, “you don’t come and say hi to me and my friends after our performances? My dance ones.” 

“I wave to you. Plus, I go with you to most of your parties. They see me there, don’t they?” 

Chan pouts. “Not the same. I come say hi to you after your tournaments when I go! I even say hi to your captain.” 

Wonwoo chuckles as he scribbles something down. “True. Seungcheol says hi, by the way. 

“Oh, how come? Hi, though.” 

“It’s because when we were playing together last night, I said Nunu reminded me of you. So he told me to say hi to you.”

“Who’s Nunu— Wait, let me guess, a League character, right?” 

Wonwoo grins and nods. “He’s cute. And he rides on a big yeti.” 

“I don’t ride on a big yeti.”

“No, but you’re cute.” 

Chan snorts at the way Wonwoo rests his cheek in his palm and stares at him. He’s good at this fake boyfriend thing. Too good, maybe. Sometimes, Chan thinks when they’re together in a social setting, Wonwoo looks like he enjoys himself for real. 

He thinks back to when they went out to grab smoothies after one of Wonwoo’s exams. There was no one in particular around, but Chan had reached down to intertwine his hands with Wonwoo’s (just in case friends were around secretly) and Wonwoo looked peculiarly pleased about it. 

“Okay, anyways.” Chan makes a face and Wonwoo hides a laugh. “But see, even your teammates know me. You should say hi to my team too.” 

“I meet them at your guys’ parties though, don’t I?” 

“Yeah, I guess so,” Chan muses. The last kickback they went to, Jihoon had given them a funny look again because Chan looked shocked when Wonwoo gave him a peck on the cheek. “Still, you should sit with everyone else’s partners when you come, instead of sitting by yourself.” 

“I wasn’t by myself last time,” Wonwoo defends with a crooked smile. “I brought Changkyun from my team to your guys’ showcase. We watched it together.”

“But Changkyun’s not your fake boyfriend, I am.” 

“Chan, why does this bother you so much?” 

Chan blinks, feeling slightly taken aback. He looks around for the librarian because with the way it’s so silent now, Wonwoo should be getting in trouble for how loud his words sounded. But Wonwoo is still looking at him expectantly, like he’s waiting for Chan to admit to something he’s not guilty of. 

“Well.” Chan pouts and pushes his pen around on top of his notebook. “I think for appearance purposes, you should say hi to me and my friends after we perform. Their boyfriends do that, you know, so maybe you should too. That’s all.” 

Wonwoo lets out what sounds like a snicker and writes something in his notes again. “That’s all?” he repeats. 

“And because Mingyu really likes you and wants to hang out with you more.” 

“Oh, yeah, I remember talking with him at some of your parties. He’s cool. He says he wants to hang out sometime.” 

Chan laughs to himself as he thinks back to a recent group chat text where Minghao sent them videos of a drunk Mingyu gushing about how cool Chan’s boyfriend is. 

“He loves you,” Chan snickers. “I think he’ll be the most devastated when we break up.”

He misses it, but Wonwoo’s smile falters for just a moment before pulling back up. “Right. When we break up,” he repeats. But if something lingers in his eyes, Chan doesn’t see it because he continues, “So you want me to meet you after you dance then? Because other boyfriends do it?”

“Yes.” He looks down again. “And you’re supposed to be my boyfriend, so I’d like it if you did.” 

“Okay,” Wonwoo replies, his voice light and casual. He looks back up and smiles at Chan warmly. “I can do that, if that’s what you want.”

“Oh. I mean—good.” Chan gives a firm nod. He tries not to let it show how pleased it makes him. “If you’re going to be my fake boyfriend, you have to outdo everyone else’s.” 

“I didn’t know you were so competitive,” Wonwoo laughs. “What do the other boyfriends do?”

Chan looks up in thought while he taps his pen to his paper rhythmically. “Mingyu always picks Minghao up and spins him around after he does a good job. He always does a good job, though.” 

Wonwoo crinkles his nose and chuckles. “That doesn’t really sound like something I’d do. But,” he continues, “I can bring you flowers?” 

“Flowers?” Chan repeats with a snort.

The inevitable sharp shush! comes then, from somewhere around a nearby bookcase and it makes both Chan and Wonwoo shrink into their notes. He hates that librarian. How come she wasn’t around earlier to hush Wonwoo? 

But despite his frown, Chan still peeks at Wonwoo over his notes. Wonwoo is holding back a laugh as Chan nudges him with his toe. When he meets his gaze over the rim of his glasses, Chan feels himself smiling back automatically.

“What’s wrong with flowers?” Wonwoo hisses.

“Nothing,” Chan giggles. After a moment, he says, “I like flowers.” 

A grin spreads across Wonwoo’s face. “Noted.” 

Wonwoo does bring him flowers for one of his performances.

And it turns out, it’s the same night that they kiss for the first time. 

Chan doesn’t usually get distracted by the audience, but tonight in the bright lights and the music and the resounding sound of their feet jumping on the hollow stage, he spies Wonwoo’s face. Well, to be fair, Wonwoo is seated next to Minghao’s boyfriend, Mingyu, so of course Chan isi able to spot him—the two of them tower over anyone else around them.

But still, every so often, he steals a glance and sees Wonwoo cheering for him loudly with the widest smile on his face and he thinks he jumps a bit higher than he’s used to during rehearsal. When they finish, Soonyoung even compliments him on how well he danced that night. It makes Chan beam. 

He doesn’t quite realize it, but nothing makes him beam brighter than seeing Wonwoo when they exit into the waiting hall to find all of their friends and partners waiting for them. He watches as all of his friends get greeted again in the ways they normally do. Jihoon always clings around Soonyoung’s waist, Jisoo always tells Jun exactly what he loves about the way Jun dances while looking into his eyes, and Mingyu always lifts Minghao up and spins him around in joy. 

And this time Wonwoo is here too, with flowers. It’s a small bouquet—probably from one of the grocery stores near their campus—and some water droplets that linger on the petals of the blue and white arrangement.

He thinks it’s probably the after performance excitement he’s still feeling that makes him beam brighter than ever when he sees Wonwoo with the little bouquet. Or maybe it’s just how happy he feels knowing that, for once, he’s got someone here waiting for him too. 

Chan’s eyes sparkle when Wonwoo comes up to him. “For me?” he asks, a teasing lilt in his voice.

“Surprise, right?” Wonwoo jokes with a fond smile. “You were amazing up there tonight.” 

“I was, wasn’t I?” Chan giggles as he takes the flowers. He can’t take his eyes off of them. 

When he looks back up at Wonwoo, he thinks maybe stage lights are still reflecting in his eyes. For a second, he forgets that his friends are around. He forgets that he’s the one who asked Wonwoo to come see him after his performance in the first place. He thinks for a moment that the ache of his smile is real. 

“I couldn’t even take my eyes off you,” Wonwoo says, his voice soft and hardly above a whisper. Chan wonders how close they must be if he can hear him so clearly. 

Chan smiles wider. “Good,” he says. 

He thinks maybe Wonwoo is feeling a rush of adrenaline still too, because what he does next is place his hand over the hand that Chan is holding his bouquet with and lean in and kiss him. 

Chan thinks it’s shock that colors his cheek when Wonwoo pulls away and grins at him. 

For a second, he thinks that the sparkles that mirror in their eyes are real and not just lights. For a second, it really does feel like it’s just him and Wonwoo right now—here, where Wonwoo has shown up to bring him flowers after he danced his heart out. 

For just a split second, Chan lives in it. 

It’s broken once Mingyu calls out to them and tells them they’re all going to head out to eat somewhere. It’s so casual, he wonders if any of them even saw them kiss at all. 

It’s only later, after they all eat and laugh together, and Wonwoo and Chan are walking around alone in the fresh air, that Chan asks:

“How come you kissed me?”

Wonwoo hums. “Mm, because you’re cute?” 

“Liar,” Chan snorts, but his smile doesn’t falter at all.

“Then… because I like you?”

“Hyung,” Chan whines. 

With a laugh, Wonwoo amends, “Okay, okay—then it just felt like the right thing to do. All the other boyfriends did it, right?”

“So you also did it,” Chan replies with an amused note in his voice.

“Of course.” Wonwoo smiles down at him and Chan is reminded of one of the pictures that he’d show people from Wonwoo’s Instagram. The one where he smiles under the lamplight at night. “Anything to outdo all the other boyfriends,” he chuckles.

Chan smiles back up at him. He’s not sure why he feels as happy as he does—maybe he really does like flowers after all. Or maybe it’s the fact that Jihoon didn’t even look at them funny when they shared their brief, chaste kiss. 

Chan doesn’t think he’ll ever admit it, but he’s so pleased about it, he loops his arm around Wonwoo’s as they walk all the way back to his apartment. 

“Chan, do you want to add anything?”

Chan scans the mobile menu that Jun shows him on his phone. They’re ordering some drinks to be delivered after their practice. “Um, you can get me number eleven. Oh, can I add something for Wonwoo?” 

Minghao snickers as he scrolls on his phone. “Wonwoo isn’t part of our dance team, though?”

“Hey,” Chan says, feeling his cheeks flush. “Wonwoo is picking me up later, I should get him something too before we go to his tournament. I can totally pay for his if—”

“Chan, it’s fine, he’s just teasing,” Soonyoung says with a little laugh of his own. 

Minghao smiles and nudges Chan’s shoulder playfully. “I’m totally teasing. We can order one for Wonwoo.” 

“Same thing as you?” Jun asks. 

“Uhhh, no, I don’t think he’d like the one I’m getting. Can you add number four for him, please?” 

“Sure thing.”

“I should have asked Mingyu to come meet here after practice then,” Minghao jokes. “So he can see Wonwoo.” 

Chan snorts. “Didn’t they just hang out recently?”

“They did,” Minghao confirms with a smirk. “Mingyu thinks he’s got a new best friend.” 

“Why does your boyfriend have a crush on my boyfriend?” 

“Yeah,” Soonyoung chimes, “and how come he doesn’t have a huge crush on my boyfriend? Jihoon needs to get dragged out of his dorm more by people who aren’t me.”

“Believe me, Mingyu and I have tried.”

“Inviting him to your slam poetry nights does not count.”

Jun adds, “I think only my boyfriend has a crush on yours.” 

Minghao says with a giggle, “I just texted Mingyu and he’s so mad that Wonwoo is coming by when he isn’t. I swear, he wants to kiss him so bad.” 

With a hum, Chan sings, “Well, that sucks, because he’s my boyfriend! Only I get to kiss him!” 

As far as fake kisses go, Chan thinks Wonwoo’s are pretty nice. 

It’s just for show, of course—for all fake boyfriend intents and purposes. 

Wonwoo is easy to kiss. After the night Wonwoo kisses him for the first time, they do it more often. 

But Chan is sure that’s just because he makes it easy. He always does, considering how good he is at playing fake boyfriend. He’s always sweet and gentle and chaste, never asks for more than Chan gives and never says no if Chan wants to give him an extra kiss in front of his friends. 

He always smiles at him afterwards, his eyes gleaming with what Chan sometimes mistakes as real affection. It always throws him for a bit of a loop, when Wonwoo looks at him like that—when he looks at him the same way he looks at a red bull after a long day. 

He’s just very committed, Chan tells himself. He’s really good at this. He’ll probably make a good real boyfriend too. He wonders what it’d be like if he and Wonwoo kissed for real.

It almost feels like a waste that he’s Chan’s for a whole semester, giving him fake kisses. It makes Chan nearly feel bad about this whole thing he’s made up. 

Later, after the drinks arrive and practice is ended, Wonwoo shows up as promised to pick Chan up from practice, and he’s happy that Chan got him a drink that he kisses him right then and there.

Not bad, Chan thinks again. It’s never bad. 

Except when they pull away, Wonwoo teases that Chan’s lip balm is too minty and Chan frowns. In his head, he takes that last thought back. 

The only time Chan and Wonwoo may have kissed for real is during a night he doesn’t even remember.

What he does remember is that he’s currently laying down on someone’s sofa on a Friday night at a little party that Seungkwan drags him to. They’re all here to celebrate the end of their midterms which definitely means drinking until none of them can drink anymore. 

There’s more alcohol and karaoke and Chan accepts every shot from his friend Yerim because he hasn’t seen her since she got a girlfriend over the summer. Traitor, he thinks briefly. Yerim used to hang out with him all the time. But he sings sad love songs into the busted microphone with her anyways because he’s missed her. 

Although maybe accepting every shot she gives him isn’t the best idea, because an hour or two after midnight, Chan can’t even sit up straight with Seungkwan propping him up.

“Chan, oh my god, you’re absolutely wasted.” 

“I am not,” he whines in return, but the spinning room definitely gives him away. He puffs his cheeks and wonders how the hell can Seungkwan see that the room is spinning from his eyes anyways. 

“Yes, you definitely are,” Seungkwan yells at him over the music. “You just told me you’d win a fight against Freddy Fazbear if you met him in the ring.”

“Because I would!” Chan exclaims. “I totally would!” 

“Which also totally means it’s time for you to go home.” Seungkwan sighs but then smiles as he unlocks Chan’s phone and opens up his contacts page.

“Wait, don’t call an uber! They charged me so fucking much last time—”

“I won’t call an uber,” he reassures. 

“Seriously, don’t,” Chan insists. “I know you’re calling me an uber, hyung. I’m serious, I’ll walk by myself, watch—”

“Hey?” 

Chan pauses from trying to break away from Seungkwan’s grip when a voice comes through on his phone. His vision may be swimming and he may not be able to read the name on the screen, but he definitely recognizes the voice.

“Wonwoo hyung!” he exclaims, a flush smile smoothing over his face. 

“Chan?” Wonwoo’s laugh crackles through. “Hey, what’s up?” 

“Hyung, I’m so happy to hear your voice! I haven’t heard it since before midterms because we got busy.”

“I’m glad to hear yours too,” Wonwoo chuckles. “Where are you right now, it’s so loud—”

“Hyung, don’t you think I could beat Freddy Fazbear in a fight? You play games, don’t you know?” 

“Uh, what? I mean maybe, if it’s the normal Freddy. I don’t know about Golden—”

“See!” Chan exclaims in triumph towards Seungkwan. “What did I say!” 

“Chan, are you drunk?” Wonwoo laughs again. 

“Um.” Chan thinks. “No. Maybe? I’m not sure—”

“Yes,” Seungkwan supplies from next to him. “He’s super drunk.”

“Ah, okay. Does he need me to come get him?”

“No, I’m going to walk—!” 

“Yes, he does.” 

“Chan, don’t walk. Seungkwan, can you text me the address please? And get him a bag. I’ll come get him.” 

Chan doesn’t really hear the rest of the conversation as he tries to focus on the empty shot glass that sits on the small table in front of him. He just feels Seungkwan shove his phone back into his pocket. 

“You hear that, Chan? Your boyfriend is going to come pick you up.” 

“That’s so great,” Chan heaves. He furrows his eyebrows. “How do you know my boyfriend? He doesn’t even go to school here.” 

“Oh, good lord, you are so beyond help right now.” 

“He’s cool though, isn’t he? He’s so handsome. Did you know his team just won, um, I don’t know what round they’re on. But he’s super good at League of Legends!” 

“Yes, Chan, you told us earlier tonight.” 

Time passes fast and slow. Chan definitely throws up in a bag that Yewon brings him. It feels like five minutes and three hours all at once, and he probably falls asleep for a few seconds, but before he knows it, the warmest, most familiar voice is approaching him. 

“Hey.” 

It’s just like the voice on the phone. Chan feels a grin break out on his face when he looks up and sees Wonwoo smiling down at him.

“Hyung!” 

Wonwoo’s eyes are soft. Sparkling, even. “Hey,” he says again, taking a seat next to Chan.

Chan thinks he can hear his friends chattering around them about how Wonwoo is even more handsome in person. His chest swells at that.

“How did you get here so fast?” he asks heavily. “It’s only been five seconds.” 

“Seungkwan was right, you’re definitely drunk.” Wonwoo smiles at him and rests a hand on his neck. “How much did you drink?” 

“Only a little,” Chan says in a whisper. 

Seungkwan scoffs from the other side of him. “More like a lot. He had shots and then two bottles of soju by himself.”

“Jesus Christ,” Wonwoo says under his breath. Then to Chan, he says, “You need to chill off the liquor next time. Think you can walk?”

“Mm. Maybe? I think so.” Chan feels exceptionally powerful when he’s able to stand, ignoring the fact that Wonwoo is holding most of his weight.

“Cool, that means we can walk. See, you still get to walk like you wanted!” 

“Yes… Yes! Yes, I wanted to walk so bad. Are we going back to my apartment?” 

“No way,” Wonwoo laughs as he starts walking Chan out the door. 

He faintly hears his friends bidding them goodbye and feels glad when Wonwoo says goodbye for the both of them. 

When they finally get outside, the night air is so refreshing and cool. Chan almost thinks he’s completely sober from the way his cheeks feel less hot. It helps clear his head a bit, so by the time Wonwoo does haul him back to his dorm room, his vision is significantly better. 

“Hey,” Chan mutters when Wonwoo sits him down on his bed. Wonwoo’s dorm room is so quiet, it’s so peaceful compared to the apartment party Chan was at. “How did we get here so fast?” 

“The place you were at was only a couple blocks from me,” Wonwoo says as he starts rummaging in his dresser. 

“Oh. How far is my place?”

“Much farther than here. I hope you’re alright with crashing here tonight because I don’t think you’d make it back to your place,” Wonwoo chuckles.

“I love your place. Do you know how much I love the Red Ranger?” Chan asks as he touches Wonwoo’s sheet design again.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, he’s so cool.”

Wonwoo finally pulls out a hoodie from his drawer and gestures to Chan. “Come here.” 

Chan makes some noncommittal whines as he lets Wonwoo come to him instead. Wonwoo lets out a little sigh but laughs as he comments something about Chan being stubborn. He makes another comment too, but Chan can’t quite make it out over the rustling of Wonwoo pulling the sweater he’s wearing over his head.

His hair statics from his head as Wonwoo manages to get the other hoodie over his shoulders. The sleeves are too long and the fabric is worn but it’s so comfortable. When he opens his eyes, Wonwoo is pulling the hood over his hair and smiling at him. He brings another hand to Chan’s cheek to test how warm he is. 

“Good?” he asks softly. 

Chan hums and nods, his eyelids droopy. “Good.” 

“Good.” Wonwoo chuckles. 

“How does it look?” Chan murmurs. 

Wonwoo eyes his sweater on Chan. “It’s cute,” he replies. 

Chan smiles. “You think I’m cute?”

“All the time,” Wonwoo says with a chuckle. Chan can’t tell if he’s teasing him or not. 

“Hey, hyung.” Chan lifts his hand to rest atop of Wonwoo’s. He blinks at him foggily. 

Wonwoo blinks back at him. His hand freezes against Chan’s cheek when Chan leans into it. “Yeah?” he whispers. 

Chan smiles up at him. “Thanks for coming to get me.” 

“Yeah?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Anytime,” Wonwoo whispers.

“Hey, hyung?” 

“Yeah?”

“I think you’re really handsome.” 

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

If Chan could remember anything from this night, he’d maybe have some hindsight and blame the blooming warmth in his chest on all the alcohol he drank. But whatever comes over him at this moment is something he can’t pinpoint.

He can’t quite pinpoint what makes him reach for the fabric on Wonwoo’s chest with his free hand to pull him close. He can’t quite pinpoint why he closes his eyes, tilts his head and leans in to touch his lips to Wonwoo’s. 

They kiss all the time. This should be no different. But no one is around and Chan lets himself move slow against Wonwoo’s mouth. He lets himself really kiss him for once, like the way he imagines he would kiss Wonwoo if he were his real long distance, long time, hometown sweetheart boyfriend.

He feels Wonwoo’s other hand grip him at the waist. He can feel him bunch the fabric of his hoodie right at his side as he leans into Chan harder. Chan almost lets himself fall back onto the bed before Wonwoo stops suddenly.

“Chan,” Wonwoo mutters as he pulls away. “Chan, come on. You’re drunk.” 

“One more,” Chan whispers.

Wonwoo’s thumb caresses his cheek as he smiles. “No. If you kiss me again like that I might like you for real. You should go to sleep.”

“I don’t want to sleep.” Chan pouts up at him. After a moment, he raises his eyebrows like he’s come up with a brilliant idea. “Hyung, can I play a game of League?” 

Wonwoo’s face pauses for a split second, and then he absolutely bursts out laughing so hard, his glasses almost fall off his nose. “You want to play League?” 

Chan nods against his palm. 

He laughs again and plants a loud kiss on Chan’s forehead. “Of course,” he says. “You can play my account.”

Wonwoo lets Chan play a few rounds by himself while he tries to advise, but Chan is stubbornly not very receptive to it. He loses all the matches. But he plays some games, pecks Wonwoo’s lips a few more times, plays another couple of games and then forgets the entire night when he falls asleep in Wonwoo’s arms.

“Huh? What the fuck, where did he come from?” 

“The bushes, but it’s fine, you’re doing so good. Try to aim for some of the minions.” 

“That’s literally what I’m doing?”

“Um, well, you’re hitting the turret, but you’re super close!”

Chan frowns when the screen pans away with the words ‘Red Team Wins.’ He’s on the blue team. “This isn’t like Arcane at all.” 

“I told you it wasn’t.” Wonwoo smirks as he spins Chan around in his chair to face him. He clicks his tongue. “My turn.” 

“Knock yourself out,” Chan says with a playful sneer as he gets up and goes to flop on Wonwoo’s bed instead. He finds the Power Rangers quite comforting to lay atop of now. “The rest of the games are yours.”

“What, you don’t want to take turns?” Wonwoo laughs as he queues up for another game. 

“Not when I’m this bad,” Chan whines. “There’s no way this can be good for your account level.” 

Wonwoo’s smile stays on his face but something that looks like it could be pain flashes in his eyes momentarily. “It’s fine,” he insists. He clicks rapidly at nothing on his loading screen and scratches his nose. “Can’t possibly be as much as damage that night you kept playing my account. Besides, it’s cute when you play Nunu and Willump.” 

Chan blinks at him. “What night was that?” 

Wonwoo’s smile falls for a moment as he turns to look at Chan. He looks a bit confused when he smiles again. “The night I picked you up from your party? And you crashed here?” 

Chan scrunches his eyebrows. “Oh, I did that? I don’t even remember.” 

“Oh, you don’t?” Wonwoo repeats. He goes back to looking at his screen, one of his legs starts bouncing under his desk. He almost looks concerned. “Uh, yeah, you queued into Summoner's Rift, like, five times by yourself and kept telling me you were going to win for me.”

With a grimace, Chan asks, “Did I?” 

Wonwoo laughs and shakes his head. “No. But that’s okay, I pulled my rank back up during the week.” 

Chan chuckles at that and lays on his back to stare up at the ceiling. Neither of them say much else when Wonwoo starts up in a game, and Chan lets the looping music and sounds of character voices fade into white noise.

“Hey,” he says after a moment. “I didn’t do anything else embarrassing, did I?” 

Wonwoo looks at him sideways for a brief second as he clicks rapidly on his mouse. “Oh.” Chan sees his screen flash dark for a split second when his character loses a duel. He gives Chan a reassuring smile. “No.” 

do you want to come sit with me?
i’m in the library
i have to finish a paper
and i’m lonely :(

lolol loser
i thought ur paper was due last week? 

my professor gave me an extension :D
since i had the tournament

wowwww athlete privilege
but ya i’ll come
want me to bring u a red bull ? 

yes, please! 

i’m bringing u a sugar free one

what, how come???
i like the normal ones

yeah but u drink so many
it's so much sugar
not good for u ;0 

what if i wanted the full sugar one

no

:(

im just looking out for your health !

okay fine
red bull is red bull i guess 

<3
k i’ll leave soon
lmk where to find u 

thanks you’re the best <3 

hey btw

hm? 

i didnt actually do anything embarrassing did i?
when i stayed over at ur place 

hmmm
no :)
don’t worry about it hahah 

i worry sometimes lol
i know im a lot when i get too drunk

you definitely are
but you’re also fine
don’t worry!

:< if i was too much u dont have to pick me up
im srs i dont wanna be a burden

chan it's fine
besides there’s no way i would let you go home by yourself
i’ll come anytime you need me

okayyy okay

can i ask you something too?

yeah sure

you said you didn’t want a relationship
mainly because you’re too busy
do you still think that way?

hm
i guess i would say yes still
why? 

i dont know
i guess i feel like you’re balancing me pretty well
you’re still busy but we still make time to hang out

yeah true
thats different tho

different how? 

well this isn’t real
different from a real relationship uknow?

oh haha
yeah
that’s right

also how did ur tournament go? 

oh!
we won quarterfinals! \0/

sweet !!! 

Wonwoo doesn’t message him for a little bit. It’s not long—maybe one or two days. Chan figures that it’s because he’s getting ready for another round in his competition. But he kind of misses seeing his texts.

Chan’s in the middle of a rehearsal when a text finally chimes in. Luckily, they’re taking a break, otherwise he knows that Soonyoung would have had his head for being on his phone. But he thinks he might have risked it anyway, because it’s Wonwoo’s name popping up on his screen. 

He doesn’t quite remember when he starts to automatically smile when he sees Wonwoo’s name on his phone. Maybe it’s because Wonwoo says funny things sometimes. Every time he hears a funny joke, he sends it to Chan to hear too. 

When he opens this message, it’s not a joke, but Chan still finds himself smiling.

our team just won semifinals \0/
woohoo!

ay nice!
uknow i noticed
u kind of text like my dad

do not :( 

yes u do
still v proud of u hyung

heheh thanks :)
what time is your practice done?

Chan looks up at the clock that hangs in the gymnasium they’re practicing in. 

we still have a few run throughs left
soonyoung is running us into the ground today

did you eat yet?
lets go out to eat after

u should eat without me
i might not be out till late
im on clean up duty TT

you guys are staying there that late?

no just me :c
i get to lock up tn

what? by yourself?

yeah
brb back to practice

Chan shoves his phone back into his bag without much flourish and heads back to the center of the gym floor at the sound of Soonyoung’s voice. It’s easy to lose himself in the choreography, but he also thinks that if he has to hear this remix of Blame It On the Boogie one more time, he might lose his mind. At some point, he even thinks he would rather hear the looping background music of Wonwoo’s League matches. 

They’re only finished when Soonyoung claims they’ve finished two more perfect run throughs, and Soonyoung’s idea of perfect is a ridiculously high standard. By the time they’re done, the sun had set long ago and it looks dark behind the layer of sweat that fogs the windows. Junhui is lying next to him once the routine is up, chest down on the gym floor, panting heavily.

“Get up,” Minghao says, “the floor is so nasty. We were sweating here for, like, four hours.” 

“It’s also,” Junhui points out, “the only cool place I can lay against right now.” He hisses as he wills himself into a sitting position. “Fuck, it’s late.”

Soonyoung tosses a water bottle at him and chuckles, despite his chest also heaving. “It would have been done a lot sooner, if some of our guys didn’t fall.” 

“On the sweat,” Chan heaves as he also pushes himself off the ground.

Soonyoung snickers but he ruffles Chan’s sweat matted hair despite it still. “You did good today. I’ll see you all at the next practice!” he calls towards their teammates that slowly filter out. 

There’s a low, collective sound of acknowledgement as more dancers grab their things and head out.

Chan pouts as he finally stands with Minghao’s help. “Are any of you guys going to stay back with me today?” 

“Can’t,” Junhui says, running a hand through his hair. “I have to finish my lecture notes.” 

Soonyoung makes an apologetic face. “I’ve got an early class tomorrow.” 

Minghao also frowns as he slings his bag over his shoulder. “And I told Mingyu I would see him tonight.” 

“You guys suck,” Chan groans. He drags himself to the supply closet where the brooms are stored. “I won’t stay back with any of you guys next time.” 

“Sorry,” Minghao sings, walking backwards towards the door. “Next time?” 

Chan fakes a dramatic sigh, but smiles when the others laugh. He appreciates that Junhui at least pretends he has some trouble with his laces so that he stays longer by just a few seconds. He supposes that he won’t put up too much of a fight about mopping up everyone’s sweat for the night. 

He’s about to push his earbuds in and listen to anything except for their remix to Blame It On the Boogie, when he hears Minghao’s name suddenly calling out for him again.

“Oh, Chan.”

 When Chan looks up, Minghao is poking his head back in from the open entrance. “Yeah?” 

There’s a smirk on Minghao’s face as he eyes something beyond the door. “There’s, hm.” He laughs behind his hand. “There’s someone here for you. See you later!” 

He waves goodbye again before Chan can even ask what he means. But he doesn’t need to ask what it means when it’s Wonwoo who’s walking in, hands in his pockets. 

“Hey,” he says. Even though his voice is quiet like it normally is, it echoes in the empty gym. 

“Oh, hey. What are you—?” He looks around as if there’s anyone else to meet eyes with. “What are you doing here?” 

Wonwoo smiles and walks towards him, his steps resounding in the silence. “Came to see you,” he replies, as though it’s obvious. 

“Did you?” Chan asks in disbelief with a half snort. He watches Wonwoo walk right past him and into the supply closet also. “I thought you were going to go out to eat?”

“I was,” he hears him say. Wonwoo emerges with another broom and walks right up to Chan’s side. “But I don’t want you to walk back to your place alone.” 

His smile is warm. There’s something warm in Chan’s chest too. He hides the way the warmth is starting to travel up to his face by ducking his head to focus on his broom while he sweeps. “You didn’t have to do that,” he says. “So you didn’t eat yet?”

“Not yet,” Wonwoo replies as he starts sweeping alongside him. “I was going to eat with my team but you said you were going to be here late. I texted you saying I was going to wait outside till you were done.” 

Chan hasn’t even had the chance to check his texts since practice ended. His sweeping rhythm stalls for a second as he looks up. “Were you waiting out there this whole time? I’m so sorry, I didn’t check my texts, I know it’s cold out, hyung—”

“Chan, it’s fine.” Wonwoo also stops to meet his eyes and smiles again. He always smiles. “I wanted to come.” 

It can’t be normal for Chan’s heartbeat to quicken the way it does. No, he’s probably still just winding down from the amount of work Soonyoung made them do today. He doesn’t even know what to say, but it seems that Wonwoo takes his silence as enough thanks because he goes back to sweeping like nothing is wrong. 

He listens as Wonwoo tells him about their match instead, only vaguely understanding the terms still but he assumes that ganked isn’t a good thing. He tells Wonwoo about their dance practice once they’ve cleaned the floors and locked all the doors. 

They walk to a nearby late night burger spot after for food, and Wonwoo always laughs at his jokes, even when they’re not that good. Chan kind of likes that about him. When Chan says something comparing Soonyoung’s old freshman hairstyle to a cockatoo, Wonwoo laughs so hard that he gets ketchup on his shirt and Chan has to hold back his laughter so hard he nearly chokes. 

It’s cold that night when Wonwoo walks him back to his apartment, so he wraps his team jacket around Chan’s shoulders. And when he brings him to his apartment door, Chan thanks him with sparkling eyes and Wonwoo’s name wrapped around his back from the jacket. He kisses Chan goodbye when no one is around.

One day, after a particularly draining presentation that Chan had stayed up for almost two whole days to prepare, Chan comes over to Wonwoo’s dorm room just to nap. He only texts him ten minutes before he arrives and Wonwoo lets him in with an amused smile, asking why he doesn’t just go back to his apartment. 

Chan comes up with a few things—how Wonwoo’s dorm is so much closer than his apartment. His roommates don’t offer him the same peace and quiet that Wonwoo’s dorm room does. The sunlight feels warmer in Wonwoo’s room. And besides, he actually finds the Power Ranger sheets easier to sleep on. 

It all sounds ridiculous to Wonwoo, but he just laughs the way he always does and lets Chan slip under his covers. He says he’ll be quiet but he’ll be working on his assignment if he needs anything. Chan barely hears what he says before he drifts into a deep nap with Wonwoo’s covers pulled all the way up to his chin.

Wonwoo wakes him up later with a gentle shake. 

Chan blinks up blearily. “Hi,” he groans. “Is it morning—?”

“No, it’s only been a few hours,” Wonwoo hushes. “It’s almost dinner time, if you want to eat anything.”

With a lazy hum, Chan shakes his head. “Wanna sleep more,” he murmurs. He rubs at his eyes. Wonwoo’s eyes seem to be also weary and strained from having stared at his screen for so long. “Hyung, you look tired too.” 

“A bit.” 

Wordlessly, Chan lifts up the covers for Wonwoo to slip inside. Wonwoo chuckles breathily as he takes off his glasses to place them on the nightstand and join Chan under the blanket. 

“Guess I could use some sleep too.” Wonwoo yawns as Chan snuggles up to his chest. “What time do you want to go home? I can set an alarm.” 

“Mm. Can I just stay over?” 

“If you want. My roommate will actually be back later though.”

“That’s okay.” Chan closes his eyes again as Wonwoo pulls the blanket back up over the two of them. 

Wonwoo just hums, his chest vibrating under Chan’s cheek as he lets himself fall asleep. 

“It’s nice not being long distance, isn’t it?” 

Chan looks up from where he’s been scrolling on his phone and sees Jihoon lean on the counter next to him. 

“Hm?” 

Jihoon looks at him blankly, but somehow his eyes look anything but blank. He looks pointedly at the cup in Chan’s hands and says again, “I said it’s nice not being long distance. Isn’t it?” 

Chan looks down at his cup. It’s a mix of sprite and soju that Wonwoo got for him as soon as they had arrived together at this party. A couple of them are gathered together after a successful performance  at the school. Wonwoo had cheered so loud in the crowd, Chan thinks he heard him above the music. 

Chan looks to where Wonwoo is sitting on the sofa, Super Smash Bros. fighting animations glinting off his glasses as he beats Mingyu and Soonyoung for the third time in a row. He’s sipping on a matching cup of sprite and soju that’s not as strong as Chan’s. He knows that Chan likes his a bit heavier on the soju. 

“Yeah,” Chan says and maybe there’s some fondness that’s traceable in his voice. “It’s easier.” 

Jihoon chuckles as he looks over to where Chan is looking. “It didn’t look that way at first.” 

Chan sips at his cup. “What do you mean?” 

The way Jihoon looks at him makes him feel like he’s been caught in a lie. Maybe he has. Maybe he still hasn’t. But Jihoon locks eyes with him for just a moment before looking away and swirling his cup like it’s glass instead of red plastic. 

He shrugs. “It just didn’t look easy. The first time we met him, you guys looked like you barely knew each other. And you didn’t look that happy to see him either.”

“Oh,” Chan says with a soft smile. He thinks back to that awkward day at the club fair, where Wonwoo had put his arm around his waist. “Yeah, I guess it was just… new? Going from long distance to close distance and all.” 

“I was worried,” Jihoon says quietly after a moment. He laughs to himself at the sound of drunk Soonyoung yelling by the couch. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s not my place to judge your relationship. But it felt like you guys were on different wavelengths. Maybe you both had just grown in ways you didn’t realize during the distance. I told Soonyoung how much it was going to suck for you guys to finally be close to each other only to realize it wasn’t going to work.” 

Chan thinks he can feel Jihoon look at him, but he keeps his eyes trained on his cup. He just hums as he watches the ice cubes in his drink bounce against each other.

“I don’t see that any more, though,” Jihoon continues. “At first I didn’t really get it, but seeing you guys together these days—I figure you guys must have worked through it. That’s really cool to see.” 

When Chan looks up, Jihoon is smiling at him like he’s proud. “Really?” 

“Yeah, of course.” Jihoon nods. “When we first met Wonwoo he seemed super insecure about your guys’ relationship. I figured you must have told him how many guys tried to ask you out over the years.”

“Oh, yeah.” Chan flushes.

“He doesn’t seem that way anymore though. He’s really solid. Confident, but the quiet kind.”

“Yeah,” he agrees. After a moment, he says, “I like that about him.”

“I know it’s not easy—believe me, sometimes I think Soonyoung and I still being together is sometimes a miracle after all these years. But we work through it and come out stronger and it was nice seeing you guys do that too.” 

“You think so?” 

“Yeah. Wonwoo’s a pretty cool guy.” Jihoon looks like he’s going to say something more when Soonyoung’s loud screaming can be heard from the other room. With a snort, Jihoon says, “I should go over to him.”

When he looks over to Wonwoo, he’s won the fifth game in a row now and Soonyoung’s face is bright red from the alcohol and the losses. Wonwoo meets his eyes with a grin and gestures for him to come sit in his lap. 

Chan smiles and follows Jihoon over to the other room. He watches Jihoon scoop up a devastated Soonyoung in his arms as he goes to settle in between Wonwoo’s legs on the ground. It’s easy getting comfortable in between Wonwoo’s legs as they bracket his sides. 

Wonwoo plants a kiss on Chan’s cheek and nestles his chin on Chan’s shoulder. “I’m on a win streak,” he says as he brings his arms around Chan to hold his controller in front of the both of them. “You pick who I play next.”

Chan leans back against his chest and hums. “Play Kirby?” 

He feels Wonwoo smile against his neck. “Because he’s cute like me?” 

Chan snorts. “No. But use the black Kirby so that he matches your hair.” 

Wonwoo laughs. “Okay, okay. Watch me win this one for you.” 

Chan can’t say he pays the closest attention to the way Wonwoo destroys Soonyoung and Mingyu for the sixth time with a little puffball, not when he keeps looking out of the corner of his eye to catch the way Jihoon gazes at Soonyoung. And even though Soonyoung is still red in the face and his words border on nonsensical, Chan thinks for a second that the way Jihoon looks at Soonyoung mirrors the way Wonwoo’s been looking at him lately.

He doesn’t know what that’s supposed to mean.

When Wonwoo’s Kirby appears on the victory screen, he cheers for himself and then plants a kiss on the crown of Chan’s head, and whatever thoughts Chan has disappears for the time being. 

“Hey, are you going to come to my tournament final this weekend?” 

“I really should be studying… I’m kind of behind on my report.” 

“Oh…! Yeah, okay, that’s chill. It’s totally fine if you can’t make it.” 

“I think I can maybe find some time, though? If I do, I’ll try to make it—” 

“Really?! That would be so sweet if you came! I’ll text you the ticket I saved for you, just in case you do find time, okay?” 

“Okay, okay, that sounds good. No promises though!” 

“Mm, that’s okay! I’ll see you there if you go! Love you!” 

Wonwoo hangs up so quickly, Chan nearly doesn’t even catch the last part of his words. He thinks he misheard, maybe. But when Wonwoo texts him the ticket, he almost wants to message him back to ask if he thinks he heard what he thought he heard. 

He wants to, but he doesn’t. 

And Wonwoo doesn’t say anything about it either so, surely, Chan must have misheard. It was probably an accident, is all. 

At least, that’s what he keeps telling himself as he goes back to focusing on his report. 

Chan really should be studying. He needs to raise the grade in his class. And yet, he makes time to go out of his way and attend Wonwoo’s tournament finals instead.

The room that the finals are being held in is surprisingly impressive—it even reminds Chan of some of the stages he’s seen built for the dance competitions his team has participated in. Except on the stage are two long tables that seat each team member in front of a monitor and the tables have LED displays that write out each team’s respective school names. 

It’s not nearly as large as a set up of the stadiums that Chan has seen in the pro tournament videos that Wonwoo has made him watch before, but it’s an impressive scale for a collegiate level competition. There’s even a giant screen displaying the match behind both the teams that a live announcer narrates and Chan is somewhat able to follow.

It’s kind of funny, he thinks. Months ago he would have had no idea what any of these animations meant, but as he sits among the crowd of spectators, he cheers alongside them when Wonwoo gets the first blood of the game. To be fair, he’s still a little lost when terms like KDA, lane pushing, CS or Mana get tossed around but he’s able to follow along more than he would have been able to months ago. 

It’s during Wonwoo’s tournament finals that Chan wonders what they’re keeping things up for.

Because sure, Wonwoo is exceptionally handsome as he’s focused on his screen and communicating with his teammates. Sure, Chan rides the excitement of hearing that the first game goes to the team Wonwoo is on. Sure, Chan jumps out of his seat and cheers when it's Wonwoo who gets the last couple hits on the enemy team’s base. 

But it’s not like his friends are here to see it. It’s not like Chan is pretending that he’s proud to see Wonwoo’s face when it occasionally gets projected onto the big screen behind him. It’s not like he’s here for anyone else in this entire room aside from Wonwoo. 

So how come it’s Chan who’s heart races in the final moments of the game? How come it’s Chan’s heart that swells as he watches Wonwoo get the final victory with his team? How come it’s Chan who also feels like he’s won when Wonwoo jumps out of his seat to hug his teammates?

When Wonwoo spots him in the crowd and waves at him while grinning, Chan doesn’t bother trying to find an answer.

Wonwoo turning up out of the blue this semester already sent Chan world crashing down once. He never expects that his world would come crashing down a second time later that night, at the after party for Wonwoo’s team. 

He guesses he’s being dramatic. But at the same time, he doesn’t think he’s being dramatic at all.

Chan’s used to partying with his dance team friends. He thinks that they go hard, but he finds himself somewhat shocked when he attends the after party for the tournament and finds out that Wonwoo’s gamer friends are crazy drinkers too. It’s his first time going to a party that’s mostly made up of Wonwoo’s friends.

Usually, when Wonwoo follows him to parties, he’s there making sure Chan doesn’t overdo himself. But tonight, it feels like Chan is the one following Wonwoo around as he drinks more than Chan has ever seen.

“Hyung,” he says at one point, with a laugh, as he watches Wonwoo make a face after taking another shot that’s handed to him. 

Wonwoo gives him a knowing look. “Weird, huh?” he replies with a grin spread across his face.

“You’re drinking a lot,” Chan comments as he takes the shot glass and places it back on the counter before Wonwoo can let it slip out of his fingers. “I didn’t think you could hold your liquor that well.” 

“I can’t,” Wonwoo giggles, his voice low and his smile wide. Quickly, he pulls Chan in to leave a chaste kiss on his forehead and then says, “But I got you taking care of me tonight, right?”

Chan laughs at him again and nods. “Right, right,” he replies.

“Good.” Wonwoo kisses him on the mouth this time and then he accepts another shot. “Okay, I’m going to win some games for you.” 

He does that a lot throughout the night—drinking, kissing, winning games for him.

Chan figures that it’s the adrenaline of it all. Wonwoo and his teammates are still high off of their win, and more people from adjacent eSports teams are here to celebrate as well. That has to be why Wonwoo keeps finding Chan throughout the night to come kiss him. That must be why Wonwoo navigates through the crowded apartment every so often to come lay his hands on Chan’s waist and kiss him affectionately on the mouth, cheek and forehead. It impresses Chan, the way Wonwoo still has a mind to keep up appearances even while drunk and celebrating. 

His teammates cheer around him and Chan thinks about how silly it is that he keeps smiling as he watches Wonwoo celebrate with his friends. It’s just the adrenaline of it all—the adrenaline of their win, the adrenaline of keeping pretenses, the adrenaline of all of the eyes that could be watching them. That’s all it is. 

Chan doesn’t really have any other reason he’d be here other than keeping up pretenses with Wonwoo anyways. 

He doesn’t really consider that there could be any other reasons, until he’s here, in the kitchen with Wonwoo. Most of the apartment has emptied out, save for a few handful of people that includes Wonwoo’s teammates. Some of them are still playing games together in the living room, some of them are sleeping. He knows that Wonwoo’s team captain is in his room with his boyfriend, getting put to bed.

It’s well past midnight when Chan is giving Wonwoo another glass of water. 

“Aren’t you so lucky I’m your boyfriend,” Chan teases as he makes sure Wonwoo finishes the glass. 

Wonwoo still has a smile on his face, and it looks even more dumb and stupid since he’s been drunk for the past couple hours. Even now, his eyes are still cloudy as he continues to grin. 

“Super lucky,” he agrees as he hands the glass back. He’s a little slow, but he watches Chan quietly from where he’s leaned against a wall. 

“You’re sleeping here tonight, right?” Chan asks when he sees the way Wonwoo wobbles.

Wonwoo nods as he rests his head against the wall. His throat stretches out and Chan watches the way his Adam's apple bobs as he swallows. He tries not to look at it too long as he rinses the glass and puts it away. 

“Are you going to go home?” Wonwoo asks after a moment. 

Chan nods. “Probably. I still have to get back to studying and stuff.” 

“Can you stay a bit longer?” Wonwoo asks, his voice breathy. He holds out one of his hands towards Chan. “Just until I can stand up by myself?” 

Half of him has a mind to say no, but Chan finds himself putting his hand into Wonwoo’s open one with a soft smile. 

“Of course,” he says, his voice equally soft. He shouldn’t have let himself get pulled in by Wonwoo, shouldn’t have let himself stand in his arms, but it’s too easy. Wonwoo is so easy, and comfortable. “How are you feeling?” he asks.

Wonwoo smiles at him, brings up his hand to cradle Chan’s cheek as a breathy laugh leaves his nose. “Good,” he whispers as he wraps his other arm around Chan’s waist. His breath still smells vaguely of tequila. “Really good.” 

“Because you won?” Chan asks with his own chuckle. Wonwoo is still drunk—his eyes are hazy and his arm on Chan’s waist feels heavy. 

With a hum, Wonwoo nods again. Then his smile widens as his thumb touches the corner of Chan’s mouth. “And because you’re here,” he murmurs. 

“Hyung, you’re so drunk right now.”

“Hey…?”

“Hm?”

“I’m really happy you came today. I don’t know if I told you that yet.” 

“You did, a couple times,” Chan replies. He laughs to himself when Wonwoo’s head tilts forward heavily. 

“When I saw you in the crowd,” Wonwoo continues, “I got so happy. You don’t even know.” 

Chan just smiles up at him and lets him stroke his hair. It’s fine, he thinks, Wonwoo is just drunk. But when Wonwoo places his hand on his cheek again, he can’t help but think he’s drunk on something stronger than alcohol. 

“Your hands are hot,” Chan comments. 

Wonwoo doesn’t seem to hear him, but he still smiles and lets out a short laugh as he keeps staring into Chan’s eyes. Suddenly, Chan is aware that it’s really only just the two of them in the kitchen. There’s no reason for pretenses here. But Wonwoo keeps looking at him like he does when they’re around friends. 

“You know, I remember when you danced to APink at our high school festival.” 

Chan rolls his eyes and groans lightheartedly. He laughs afterwards and says, “Not this again, please—” 

“You were so cute, actually,” Wonwoo whispers. His thumb grazes over Chan’s cheek and his eyes search the other’s for just a moment. “You’re really cute now too.” 

He blinks. “Hyung—?” 

Before Chan can say anything else at all, Wonwoo’s leaning in and kissing him. It’s soft and simple and he doesn’t linger too long. There’s no one here in the kitchen but the two of them. Chan can distantly hear Wonwoo’s friends and teammates still playing games.

“Hyung,” he says again when Wonwoo pulls away, his voice quieter. 

“Is it bad,” Wonwoo asks, “that I don’t want to break up when this semester is over?” His voice is thick and weighted the way his gaze is. His eyes get caught on Chan’s lips and he runs a finger over them. 

“Hyung, you’re drunk—”

“I like you, you know.” Wonwoo pouts at him and he’s close again, his breath feathering over Chan’s skin. “I like you a lot. I like you so much.” 

His hands are pulling Chan towards him, and this time when Wonwoo presses their lips together, it feels different. He moves slower this time, takes his time feeling Chan’s mouth on his own, and Chan can’t lie and say he doesn’t get a little bit lost in it. It’s so easy to get lost when Wonwoo kisses him and sucks at his lip expertly while still so gentle and so tender.

Chan’s fingers curl into the front of Wonwoo’s shirt and he knows that this one is different. Wonwoo has been kissing him all night but this one is so different—this one feels like it matters. This time, Wonwoo kisses him in a way that feels real and it makes Chan’s heart drop. His entire stomach sinks to his feet when he pulls away and sees Wonwoo staring at him with an earnesty that even betrays his inebriation. 

He can’t do this.

He doesn’t even know what he means by this, but Chan knows that he can’t do it. Not when Wonwoo is looking at him with such fond eyes and his hands are still grasping Chan’s face so softly. From Wonwoo’s soft breathing, to the pulse Chan can feel through his fingertips, to the big, empty hole that keeps forming in his stomach—Chan can’t do this at all. 

“I—” He swallows. “Hyung, I need to go.” 

Wonwoo doesn’t seem to be confused by his words; maybe because he’s still tipsy and wobbly. But his eyebrows furrow just slightly as he asks, “Already?” 

“Yeah. U-Um, sorry, I just. I have to study,” Chan says weakly. 

“Oh. Okay.” 

The way Wonwoo looks absolutely eats at him, but Chan still guides him over to the living room and makes sure he’s comfortable on the couch with his friends before saying goodbye. All of Wonwoo’s friends say bye to him with promises to make sure they get Wonwoo back to him in one piece tomorrow and somehow, it makes him feel worse. 

It’s supposed to be foolproof, Chan thinks as he pulls his covers up to his chin. This whole thing with Wonwoo being his fake long distance, long time, hometown sweetheart boyfriend is supposed to stay foolproof. It’s just pretend. It’s supposed to be easy with no strings attached and no feelings involved. 

But as he thinks of every past glance and touch and smile that Wonwoo has given him this past semester, he wonders what’s the point of a plan being foolproof if it somewhere along the way, perhaps the two of them hadn’t even been fools to begin with.

Chan starts avoiding him.

He convinces himself that it’s not like he wants to. He just really does need to spend some extra time on his studies. He fills most of his free time with study groups and extra hours in the library—anything to keep him from contacting the other. 

The texts that come from Wonwoo the day after the party make him feel like an asshole. It comes in the morning, something along the lines of an apology for getting so drunk and saying too much. He even apologizes for kissing him so much after having too many drinks. That one makes Chan’s palms sweaty because he had hoped that Wonwoo didn’t remember that night at all. 

Despite that, he responds plainly with a few weak texts of ‘oh, it's okay’ and acts like everything is normal. 

But more texts come in over the course of the week. Not too many, as Chan figures that Wonwoo has his own finals to study for. Though he gets at least one a day. Most of them are just normal texts that Wonwoo usually sends. Stuff like ‘how was your class?’ and ‘did you eat yet? ’ and ‘wanna grab food later?’ but Chan doesn’t respond to any of them.

It’s only until one text comes in from Wonwoo after they don’t message each other for a week and a half that reads ‘hey are you sure everything is okay between us?’ that makes him feel guilty enough to reply.

hey
sorry ive just been busy w finals
everything is fine
why wouldnt it be right

okay yeah
right
you sure we’re good? 

yeah we’re good
just finals uknow ? lol

no no i get that
busy
it's just
are we breaking up ?

well i mean
we’re on track

on track?
oh you mean to break up

yeah
after finals still right

right 

right 

hahah are you going to
break up with me over text like this ? 

ofc not hahah

hahah
yeah

yeah
lol

After Chan’s last final, he almost messages Wonwoo asking him if he can come over and nap in his room, in the warm buttery sunlight that always hits his Power Ranger sheets just right. After Chan’s last final, he almost messages Wonwoo and tells him he misses him.

He almost does, but he doesn’t.

“You look like hell.” 

Chan lifts his head off of the table and finds the strength to shoot a glare at Seungkwan. “Oh gee,” he says, his voice groggy, “I was hoping you noticed.” 

Seungkwan makes a face as he enters the study room with his boyfriend, Hansol, in tow. They’re both in matching hoodies and they both look equally worn out. 

Sneering, Seungkwan says, “Damn, you have a lot of attitude for nine o’clock.” 

“You could have just said good morning.” 

Hansol smiles at him. “Good morning.” 

“See?” 

Seungkwan rolls his eyes. “Good morning.” 

“Good morning.” 

With a roll of his eyes, Seungkwan takes the seat next to him and pulls the other chair out for Hansol. “You still look like hell.” 

Chan groans and presses his cheek back onto the table. “Thanks, I’ve been dying over finals.” Finals. And definitely not the weird feelings in his ribcage. 

Seungkwan gives him a sideways glance as he pulls out his laptop, but his sigh sounds sympathetic at least. He says, “You’re telling me. I was supposed to finish my notes last night but I fell asleep at two.” 

“How many cups of coffee have you had already?” Chan asks, eyeing Seungkwan’s shaking hands. 

“Not that many—”

“Six,” Hansol cuts in, casting a knowing look at his boyfriend. Seungkwan looks indignant but doesn’t say anything back. 

Chan snorts. “Ouch.” 

Seungkwan’s face is pained. “I need it. Just until my last final is over. You have any left?” he asks as he pulls up one of his lectures. 

“Nope,” Chan says with a shake of his head.

He should sound happier about his finals being done and over with. But somehow, turning in his last exam did nothing to alleviate the tension that knots his shoulders. Somehow, the weight that clouds his mind hasn’t gotten any clearer at all. 

“Then how come you still look like shit,” Seungkwan asks without even looking at him. He ignores the way Hansol elbows him. 

Chan narrows his eyes. “I don’t know,” he replies. “I’ve only been free for three hours at most, let me let it sink in first, jeez.”

“Wow, so much attitude,” Seungkwan sings. 

Hansol laughs out of his nose as he shoves his hands into his hoodie pocket. “He’s just mad he still has a final left.” He grins and lifts his chin at Seungkwan. “And guess who gets to deal with him?”

Seungkwan can only let out a sharp sigh as he refocuses on the prerecorded lecture on his screen. Chan half expects him to throw another sharp quip at Hansol, but instead Seungkwan just grumbles a reluctant, “Love you.”

And even though Seungkwan looks like he’s either about to drop out or drop dead, he still manages a little smile when Hansol pokes him in the side. He even looks like he shakes a bit less when Hansol grins at him some more. 

It reminds Chan of the moment Wonwoo had accidentally ended their call with ‘Love you!’ as well. He still assumes it was an accident. It’s been so long since he heard his voice. It’s been so long since he’s seen him in person. The knots in his shoulders tighten. He misses him. Another knot forms in his chest. 

His phone vibrates in his pocket at that moment, and when he fishes it out to check the sender, it’s just Soonyoung giving him details about a post finals kickback that he’s been planning. He doesn’t know why that doesn’t make him feel better either.

WIth a sigh, he puts his phone away and when he looks back up, Seungkwan is looking at him.

“Everything good?” Seungkwan asks with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh?” Chan glances at his pocket where his phone lies. “Oh, yeah. Yeah, it’s all good.” 

“Was that Wonwoo?”

“Uh— no.” He shakes his head while staring at the table. “It was Soonyoung.” 

Seungkwan doesn’t look away from him. “Is everything…?” he starts. “Is everything good between you guys?” 

Chan blinks. “Between who? Me and Wonwoo?” He scrunches his eyebrows and tilts his head in confusion. “Yeah, why wouldn’t it be?” 

Chan can think of a couple reasons why it wouldn’t be, actually, but it’s not like Seungkwan or Hansol would know that.

But he catches the way Seungkwan looks back at Hansol slowly with concern in his eyes. The glance they share seems to be a silent exchange, like they share a secret something. When Seungkwan looks back at him, Chan’s eyebrows are knit.

“What?” he asks with a forced chuckle. “You guys know something I don’t?” 

Seungkwan purses his lips again, his lecture paused on his screen and Chan has half a mind to remind him to get back to studying, but before he can, Hansol nudges his boyfriend again.

“He should know,” Hansol whispers. 

“Are you sure,” Seungkwan hisses back. 

“It’s his boyfriend.”

“He just finished finals—”

“Guys,” Chan interrupts, his forehead creasing further, “I’m right here, you know. What is this about?” 

Hansol gives one more persistent look to Seungkwan, who sighs again. Although now, his sigh sounds resigned. 

“Okay, listen,” he begins, his eyes darting away from Chan’s every few moments, “it’s really not my business. But last night, I saw Wonwoo go to a guy's room on the fourth floor and I didn’t see him come out until this morning.” 

Chan thinks his forehead is going to crease permanently from the way his eyebrows knit further. The corner of his mouth lifts up into an unamused smile. “Um, what?” 

“Again, it’s not my business,” Seungkwan says quickly, “but I am the RA for that floor and I know Wonwoo isn’t on my floor. You also haven’t come over to the building in a while, and I’m not trying to accuse him of anything, but…”

Hansol finishes, “But we think you should talk to him about it, maybe.” 

Chan’s silent for a moment, focusing on the lines of the wood grain table adhesive under his fingers. He thinks he can hear Seungkwan and Hansol say something else but he can’t really hear them. 

“Yeah,” he still says in response to words he doesn’t comprehend. 

He tries to think. He can’t really think. He doesn’t understand what he’s feeling enough to think about it. He’s blinking hard as he tries to connect some of these dots—any of these dots—together. He can feel his smile fade as he tries to absorb this information in a way that matters to him. And yet still, he doesn’t understand why, out of all things, he’s feeling mad. 

Without another word, he stands up from the table. 

“Chan?” 

And without heeding either of Hansol or Seungkwan’s questioning glances, he leaves.

Chan doesn’t get why he’s mad. 

He shouldn’t be mad because, on a technicality, it’s fine for Wonwoo to want to see other people. It’s fine because they’re not real; they’re fake. He’s not his real boyfriend. He’s his fake, long distance, long time, hometown sweetheart boyfriend. There shouldn’t be anything making him mad in the first place. 

But he’s totally mad—he’s so mad—because even if they are fake, and even if Wonwoo isn’t his real long distance, long time, hometown sweetheart boyfriend, they haven’t even had their fake breakup yet. And for Wonwoo to just disregard that is just reckless because it’s so humiliating for Chan. 

It’s so embarrassing having Seungkwan confront him about Wonwoo possibly cheating on him when they’re supposed to currently still be together. Chan feels heat flare up in his cheeks as he enters the lobby of Wonwoo’s dorm building and marches right to the elevator. What was all this for is Wonwoo was just going to mess things up right at the end? 

When he gets in the elevator, all he can think about is how he never should have done this to begin with. He should have just made something up when he found out Wonwoo transferred here. He should have just told all his friends that Wonwoo dumped him right after transferring so that he could meet new people, and he could have just told all his friends to avoid him and let them believe that Wonwoo was the biggest asshole in the world.

Except it wouldn’t be true. None of it would be true because Wonwoo isn’t like that at all. Wonwoo is everything that Chan described to his friends—kind, handsome, lovely. And he’s caring and he’s attentive and he’s patient. 

The elevator dings to alert that he’s arrived on the fifth floor. Chan feels more mad than before as he walks down the hallway and right up to the room that he’s gotten so familiar with this past semester.

He knows it’s unlocked but he still knocks on it three times. 

When Wonwoo opens the door, Chan has half a mind to feel relieved to finally see him after so long. He looks the way he remembers. His hair is a little curly, his eyes are red from staring at his screen, and his glasses balance on his nose. 

“Chan?” Wonwoo’s eyes widen. 

Chan narrows his eyes. Maybe his eyes are red from staring at someone else’s screen for too long. He pushes past Wonwoo into his room—his roommate still isn’t here.

Wonwoo closes the door behind him and turns to face Chan. He stares at him for a second before looking down at the floor and focusing on his feet. “I messed up, didn’t I?” he murmurs. 

So it’s true, Chan thinks. “So you knew I knew?” 

“I figured you did,” Wonwoo mumbles, his cheeks red. “Listen, I wanted to talk about that night sooner. I was drunk and I—”

“Being drunk doesn’t make it okay!” Chan exclaims. “Do you know how embarrassing this is for me?”

“I know, but—”

“What were you thinking, coming out of someone else’s room this morning?”

Wonwoo pauses. He presses his lips together, his eyebrows knitting as he blinks slowly. “Wait. What are you talking about?” 

Chan furrows his eyebrows and crosses his arms. “What am I talking about? You know what I’m talking about.”

“Aren’t you…talking about that night?”

“That night? I’m talking about last night.” 

The confusion slowly starts to dissipate from Wonwoo’s eyes as he blinks again. “Last night.” 

“Yes,” Chan stresses. “Seungkwan said he saw you coming out of another guy’s room this morning. Hyung, I know the semester just ended but—”

“Chan.” Wonwoo interrupts him gently. “Chan, I was in their room, yes—but that’s all. The guy paid me to rank up his League account. I didn’t finish until, like, six hours ago.”

Chan feels himself blink two times. His eyes feel dry. “That’s… that’s it?” 

“That’s it.”

“Well, then what are you talking about?” 

“I thought you came over because you were still upset about the night I kissed you.” He raises an eyebrow and the corner of his lip twitches up. “Did you come here because you thought I slept with someone?” 

“I—”

“Chan, were you jealous?” 

His palms go sweaty. He swallows. After a beat of silence, he frowns and says, “What, why would I be jealous?” 

“Uh.” Wonwoo’s voice breaks with a chuckle. “You’re the one who came over without texting? And also because you thought I slept with someone.” 

“Well—” Chan sputters, his mind blanking along with it. This doesn’t make any sense. “I-I mean, I—” 

“You know,” Wonwoo starts again, “maybe we do need to talk about that night I kissed you though. Because I am sorry that I scared you, I really am—”

“Scared me—?”

“—but I still meant it. I do really like you, Chan.” Wonwoo’s eyes are full of that earnesty again, but this time his eyes are unclouded by the alcohol. “And I don’t think it’s fair to say that I’m the only one with real feelings here.” 

Chan presses his lips together and tears his gaze away to somewhere else, anywhere else. “What are you trying to say here?” he mutters, his voice low. All the intensity that he had entered with has dissolved into something warm and staticky—it almost sticks and prickles at his skin. 

“I don’t think I have to spell it out for you.” 

“What, you think I like you? You think I have feelings for you or something—”

“Chan, come on, you’re wearing my sweater.” 

Chan looks down at his arms. The long sleeves and worn fabric of this sweater definitely belong to Wonwoo. Oh. Maybe Wonwoo is onto something.

Quickly, he pushes that thought back into the crevices of his mind. His crossed arms tighten as he says, “That’s—! That’s not even related. How do you think I could like you? I can’t like you because this isn’t real! This whole thing is fake—everything we know about each other is fake!”

“Okay, well,” Wonwoo starts, his voice still gentle as ever as he takes some steps forward, “I know you’re an amazing dancer, and that’s real. I know you hate going to Minghao’s slam poetry nights, and that’s real. I know that when my team won, you were the only thing I could see in the crowd, and that’s real.”

“Hyung—”

“I know that every time you nudge my shoulder or call me a liar or laugh so hard you grab my arm, my chest feels like it’s going to explode on the spot.” He stops a step away from him. “And that’s real, Chan.” 

Real? Real? Chan can barely wrap his head around it. Because if Wonwoo is telling the truth then that means this —whatever it is that’s between them—has been going on for months. But that can’t be right. Chan hasn’t felt this weird weight on his shoulders for that long, has he? No, that’s only the most recent months. 

But Wonwoo. His Wonwoo hyung. Nothing about him has changed at all. He seems steady as ever. He’s even looking at him now, with that same sparkle in his eye, with that same smile on his face. The same look that Chan’s seen ever since…? 

Chan frowns again. He stares at the Red Ranger on Wonwoo’s sheets and asks, “How come…? How come you said yes to this? Or how come you were okay with it? Being my fake boyfriend.”

Wonwoo smiles at him. He’s missed his unwavering smile. “Because… you’re cute?”

“Hyung,” Chan says indignantly, looking up to give him a weak glare. “You’re such a liar. I’m serious.”

“I’m serious too,” Wonwoo urges with a lilt in his voice. “The way you ran in during my first day all nervous? You were so cute.” 

“That’s it?” 

“You’re also really funny.”

“That’s it?”

“And then I got to know you.” 

“That’s it?”

Wonwoo snickers under his breath as he brings his hand up to cradle Chan’s cheek. Chan doesn’t pull away. “Isn’t that enough?” 

Chan doesn’t realize that Wonwoo is waiting for him to answer. But he’s looking at him with those soft eyes again. The same soft eyes that he gave him before he kissed him after his dance performance. The same soft eyes that watch him destroy his ranking on his League account. 

It’s Wonwoo who’s always smiling. Wonwoo who’s winning games for him. Wonwoo who’s learned exactly how he likes his drinks at parties. He supposes it’s Wonwoo who’s really never been a fool to begin with. 

And maybe, Chan guesses, he’s not so much of a fool to ignore it this time.

So he softly says, “Yeah. That’s more than enough.” 

Wonwoo’s face splits into a full grin as an elated chuckle escapes from him. Without another word, he leans down and captures Chan’s lips in a kiss again. And instead of it making a hole in Chan’s stomach this time, he actually thinks that maybe this kiss relieves the tension in his shoulders as he goes up to wrap his arms around Wonwoo’s neck. 

Wonwoo kisses him the same way he has this whole semester—sweet and soft, tender and gentle. Chan thinks that maybe there was no need for them to pretend at all, if Wonwoo was going to kiss him all the same. 

When they pull away, Wonwoo rests his forehead on Chan’s and strokes his cheek. “This finals season sucked so much since you were ignoring me. Let me take you out on a date, please? A real date with the real me and not the fake boyfriend me.”

Chan finally thinks his cheeks feel light enough to smile up at his Wonwoo hyung again. “That’d be good, I think,” he says as he tightens his arms around Wonwoo’s neck. “I’d like that. But,” he adds. “I don’t really want to learn how to play League.” 

Wonwoo laughs out loud, the sound warm and comforting to Chan’s ears. “That’s fine,” he says as he goes down to kiss Chan again. “That’s totally fine.” 

Chan supposes all is well that ends well. 

Things go back to normal once his friends realize that everything between him and Wonwoo is fine. It feels like only good things happen now. 

The dance team choreography that he choreographed gets chosen for next year’s freshman welcome showcase. Wonwoo is able to upgrade to a newer, faster laptop after his team’s win. The burger place they like to eat at lowers its prices. Wonwoo’s planning to move into an apartment with Mingyu once he can leave his dorm. Chan even finally gets to meet his roommate and his boyfriend, who he learns are Dongho and Minhyun. 

And also, he gets to hold Wonwoo’s hand and not think about it too much. He gets to kiss Wonwoo and relish in the fact that it’s real—he’s real, and there’s no expiry date on him this time. He gets to have Wonwoo as his boyfriend for real. 

Maybe he’s not the real version of the long distance, long time, hometown sweetheart boyfriend that Chan always had in his mind. But he is Chan’s local, newly found, League of Legends nerd boyfriend, and Chan thinks he prefers it that way. 

When Wonwoo kisses him now, at the booth during the next semester’s club fair, he thinks that he really does prefer it that way.

“See you later?” Wonwoo says, rearranging the clipboard for Chan.

Chan pecks his lips again and nods. “I’ll come over with your red bull.” 

Wonwoo’s face melts into a smile. “I’ll wait for you till then. Love you.”

“Love you, too.” 

“Jeez.” Chan hears Jihoon mutter beside him as he waves goodbye to Wonwoo’s retreating figure. Jihoon is here to pick up Soonyoung from his turn at the table. “Is it me or have they gotten worse since winter break?” 

Chan keeps his smile to himself. He supposes that, in many ways, things have definitely changed. Secretly, they’re all changes for the better. 

But, hey—that’s not something his friends need to know.