{back to your regularly scheduled program!}

♡

JANUARY 7

...

COLLEGE IDIOTS 🤧

HYUNJIN

so we're going back to college tomorrow right

HYUNJIN

or is that fake news

CHRIS

wait is it actually almost time to go back

CHRIS

gosh i feel like we just started break

CHANGBIN

dude i thought it was today

SEUNGMIN

🤡

HYUNJIN

we're not leaving early as frick again this time right

CHRIS

depends, do you want to sit in traffic for three hours?

HYUNJIN

i hate you

CHRIS

no, you hate traffic

HYUNJIN

ok good point

CHRIS

you'll be okay, hyun

CHRIS

just go to sleep now instead of staying up until the wee hours

HYUNJIN

hypocrite

HYUNJIN

i bet you're still at work

CHRIS

....

CHRIS

my shift is almost over

HYUNJIN

SEE

CHANGBIN

im calling ur mom rn chan hyung

CHRIS

im literally the only one here i can't just leave lol

CHANGBIN

im calling ur boss too

JISUNG

well, im going to sleep

JEONGIN

me too

FELIX

im already sleeping

JISUNG

goodnight felix, ily <33

FELIX

ilyt sungie ( ' ∀ ')ノ～ ♡

JISUNG

you too, jeongin bby :]  sleep well

CHRIS

WAIT WHY IS MY BOSS HERE

CHRIS

CHANGBIN???

CHANGBIN

i told you i was calling her

CHRIS

YOU HAVE HER NUMBER??

CHRIS

well now im going home .. ? i guess

CHANGBIN

i did it 💪

...

    Minho didn't know if he was ready to get back to daily classes and studying and hangouts in 2Chan's room with Jisung staring at him. ...Or would that last part be changing, now? At least now that he'd been able to get back to a much more normal sleep schedule for the past few weeks, he felt that he had the energy. But now he had other problems to worry about once he got back to college.

    What was it gonna be like, after he'd caved and asked for Jisung's help? Would Jisung let him be, or...?

   Whether he was ready or not, he had no choice but to get out of bed, since he couldn't drive himself this time (as his car was currently sitting in a university parking lot), and again say goodbye to his room that was already missing his cats again (as he'd taken them back to his cousin's house the night before). He kissed his ridiculously comfortable mattress (at least, compared to the ones at the dorm) goodbye. He grabbed his suitcase and wheeled it outside, feeling early morning winter air nip at his exposed skin, irritating his tired eyes.

    Seungmin was clearly running late. Minho sat on his suitcase and shivered, hiding his hands in his sleeves. And just when he was about ready to give in and head back inside to wait, Seungmin's van pulled out of the driveway three houses down.

    Seungmin pulled up to the end of Minho's driveway where he sat waiting, and rolled down the window. "Get in, loser! We're going to college!"

    Minho laughed a little, just as much as he could be persuaded to laugh at about 7 AM, when he'd much rather be lying motionless underneath his pile of blankets without a care in the world or any places to be. After throwing his suitcase into the trunk beside Jeongin's shiny new one, he took a middle row windowseat, since he had everything but the two front seats to choose from.

    "Hi, Minho hyung," Jeongin greeted, smiling brightly.

    "Hey, Jeongin."

     Felix was next, then Changbin, and they both went to the back row to simplify seating arrangements. Neither of them wanted to be called short by anyone who wanted more leg room, Changbin especially.

    When they pulled into Jisung and Chan's neighborhood, the two of them were racing each other, with their suitcases following at ridiculous speeds on the bumpy road. Jisung won.

    "Hah! That's the back row for you, grandpa!"

     Chan only lost by about two seconds, but it made all the difference to Jisung. They, too, piled their stuff into the trunk and Chan took the last back row seat, but he was just happy to be with his roommate and Aussie buddy. Jisung slid into the middle, next to Minho, leaving the window seat for Hyunjin.

    Of course, Minho knew that the seat next to him had to be filled at some point, and that there would be no saving his precious personal space, but still, the moment that Jisung sat down, before he even realized, his leg started to bounce with nervousness as he pressed himself into the door of the car to keep his thighs from pressing against Jisung's.

   He still avoided eye contact— or any kind of contact— with Jisung, peering out the window with his chin leaned on his hand, while his entire left side was squished around the armrest of the door. Jisung didn't seem to be planning to do anything about that, which was good.

   It stayed quieter for longer in the car this time, and that might have been because they had gotten accustomed to sleeping in during break and were all feeling sleepier this time around. Which was certainly true for Minho. He'd only gotten used to sleeping in toward the end of break, but he'd certainly been making up for the weeks of missed sleep, sometimes by sleeping in until the afternoon, which made it even worse to wake up before 7 this morning.

    However, by the time they got to Hyunjin's house, a whole-car conversation about what they did for New Year's was going on.

    "Why didn't we get together to play games until midnight? We should've done that," Felix mumbled, regretfully.

    Jisung turned to face him in the back. "I tried playing game pigeon with you, but you were already sleeping!"

    "So was I!" Changbin high-fived Felix.

    "I just forgot it was New Year's," Seungmin snickered. "Jeongin woke me up right before midnight."

   Hyunjin opened the car door then and slid into the last seat, with his hair done up in a cute little ponytail, and his cheeks full of a rice ball he'd stolen from the fridge before running out with his suitcase.

   The back row cheered in unison for Hyunjin's arrival, and he looked back, with his eyebrows pressing together and with a little amused smile as his cheeks went down.

   "Alright, now that everyone's here..." Seungmin pressed hard on the gas, and Chan was immediately yelling for him to slow down and be careful, and then Seungmin called him a grandpa, which made him cross his arms and go quiet. Then, Seungmin asked Hyunjin to turn on some 'epic driving tunes', and tossed the aux cord back.

   That made Minho smile a little. Which reminded him: the last time he was in this car, he was a handful of sleepless nights away from his lowest.  This time, he felt... better. Better than he had in quite a while, even if he was sleepy.

    He enjoyed himself a little more, and even joined in on one of Jisung's silly road trip games (but he still made completely sure to look anywhere but at Jisung while he did so).

    There was a surprisingly short amount of time in the car ride before Felix was complaining that he was dying of hunger. Because it was the closest thing, they stopped at a Panera.

    As they walked back to the car, multiple of them were remarking that that had been the weirdest Panera trip they'd ever taken. While they were inside, Felix's smoothie got lost, Hyunjin stole juice on accident, Changbin got the wrong sandwich, and Seungmin ate someone random person's abandoned pizza.

    When they got in, Jeongin was still trying to convince Seungmin that it really wasn't necessary for him to pay for his soup, and that he could've just done it himself, but Seungmin brushed him off.

    "Someone else drive now!" Seungmin demanded.

   So Changbin ended up in the driver's seat.

...

    A little less than two hours and one driver later, Minho was restless; trying to rest his head and finding absolutely no comfortable position because nearly his only option was to press himself awkwardly into the cold, hard glass window. Eventually he gave up and pressed his head back into the headrest, closed-eyed, though it was uncomfortable for him to even close his eyes when there was anyone around to see.

   He was trying desperately not to fall asleep, telling himself over and over that he had to stay awake and only rest his eyes. But with the quietness of the car and the subtle, lulling sensation of the moving wheels— even the prominent discomfort of another presence directly at his side (and Jisung's for goodness' sake) wasn't enough to save him from his drowsiness, and his head lolled.

♡

   He was horrified to wake up and find that the suprisingly comfortable position he'd found himself in was one where he was leaning up against something that wasn't the car.

   His head was on Jisung's shoulder.

   Minho's eyes went wide with shock and he jerked his head away from Jisung as fast as he could manage, subtlety thrown out the window. There wasn't really any room to hope that no one had seen it for the whole, what, two hours (?) he'd been asleep? If no one saw it then, then Chan, who was right behind them, had almost definitely witnessed it now.

   Of course, it had to be Jisung that his head fell on. 

   But then again, wouldn't he be more embarrassed about leaning on someone else? It was bad either way.

   Minho's cheeks were red-hot as he gathered up his limbs and shifted himself back to the side of his seat to press himself into the door. And as he looked out the window, he realized they were pulling in to the dormitory parking lot.

   Well, at least there was that. He'd be able to get out of the car and away from Jisung and Chan and anyone else that might have seen soon enough.

   Hyunjin parked and shut the car off, and just like that, an uncomfortably eventful Christmas break was over. The one good thing about returning to daily classwork was that it kept Minho's mind from wandering to places he didn't like.

    The only thing on his mind, now, was: what on earth would be next? What new, uncomfortable situation? Because clearly, he couldn't get away from those.

     However, there was something up as they unloaded the car. Something was weird. The parking lot was already full, and there was no one else outside, rushing around with luggage.

    "Well, I guess everyone decided to come early this time?" Jisung suggested.

    But they walked inside and quickly realized what was wrong.

     "GUYS!" Hyunjin started, his mouth gaping. "It's fricking Monday, you idiots! I knew something was up! We were supposed to be back YESTERDAY!"

     They were almost all furrowing their eyebrows.

    "What— I thought classes were starting TUESDAY!" Seungmin yelled.

    "I TOLD YOU!" Changbin insisted.

    That was all it took for at least half of them to go sprinting down the hall, suitcases still in hand. Minho, Chan, and Jeongin lingered and shared wide-eyed glances before following after, trying to catch up.

    That is how eight boys were made extremely late for their first classes of the semester.

yeaaaahhhh we're back !

chapters may end up being delayed sometimes from here on out, because this point in the story is where it gets tricky for me to write. please be patient if i'm late! thanks for the support, everyone <3

oh that reminds me, i keep forgetting to say thanks for 3k, and at this point we're like halfway to 4k lol. thanks guys ;-; i think you all know by know that i wasn't sure people would like this so it means a lot when you give feedback!!