Yeosang tries to enter his and Wooyoung's dorm as quietly as possible. It's nearly midnight but Wooyoung is always awake during this time, the problem is whether he is in his room or not.

Luckily he's able to slip into his room before his roommate can see him. He's sure Wooyoung has heard the front door but to him, Yeosang has just come back from an innocent tutoring lesson. If he sees the marks that are littered all over his body, he's definitely going to know what they've really been up to.

It's not supposed to be a secret, but Yeosang just doesn't want to deal with the millions of questions Wooyoung will probably have. And knowing him, he'd want all of the details. So he tries to head to his room then the bathroom quickly without the other noticing.

"You're back! That took ages" Wooyoung calls from his room, Yeosang pauses as he's about to open the bathroom door, not daring to move another inch.

"Uh yeah, his house is far. Rich people things you know" he says, not turning around and quickly entering the bathroom and hoping Wooyoung didn't think anything strange of it.

Sighing, Yeosang hops into the shower and cleans himself up. He winces slightly at the ache on his lower back which he's certain will grow more painful overnight. His skin also shows light bruising on his hips a long with hickeys all over his chest and neck. He looks crazy.

Yeosang groans, not knowing whether to find it hot or annoying. When he's done, he looks at himself in the mirror, hands tracing lightly over the marks on his neck. Mingi's lips had felt so good at the time, and now he's just forced to have this reminder on his skin for the next few days. He's going to have to use concealer to cover it up, or wear turtlenecks, which isn't out of the ordinary since its autumn.

He dries himself off and reaches for his clothes. Except for the fact that they're not there.

"Shit" Yeosang had been rushing to get into he bathroom without Wooyoung noticing so he forgot to get a change of clothes. All he has is his towel which doesn't cover a thing. Glancing in the mirror, the marks on his chest and neck look even more obvious suddenly.

He considers wearing his old clothes but they were now in the laundry basket so he decides against it. It's not that big of a deal, he can just run to his room.

Wrapping his towel around his hips, he prepares himself to run as he opens the door.

"Finally! I wanted to show you this thing that I-"

Yeosang did not expect Wooyoung to be waiting outside the door for him. He internally curses his best friend as he watches him freeze and how his eyes go wide as he scans his body.

"What the fuck? I thought you went out to do your tutoring" he exclaims, hands immediately grabbing Yeosang to examine the marks.

"I did..." he replies quietly and Wooyoung snaps his head up, jaw hanging open.

"YOU SLEPT WITH YOUR STUDENT?"

Yeosang winces at his loud voice, "you're making it sound weird, we're the same age! And yes... I kind of hooked up with Song Mingi"

"Hooked up? You look like you've been eaten alive!" Wooyoung laughs out of disbelief, hands rubbing his own face while trying to make sense out of the situation.

"How the hell did this exactly happen? This isn't like you at all Yeosang, you finally got laid!" Wooyoung cheers, then pauses with wide eyes. "He didn't force you or anything right?" He gasps, covering his mouth "That bastard! Did he use his status against you, look at all those marks-"

"I agreed to it stop worrying" Yeosang groans, this is exactly what he expected Wooyoung to be like if he found out.

"Why didn't you tell me! Were you going to keep this a secret?" he pouts, and Yeosang shakes his head. Wooyoung may be annoying sometimes but he can't bear to see him upset, even if he's joking.

"I was going to tell you tomorrow!" Maybe not tomorrow, but definitely soon. But now that Wooyoung's found out, Yeosang decides theres no point hiding anything since he's planning to tell him eventually.

~

"So Song Mingi is actually incredibly smart and is purposefully getting bad grades to rebel against his father?" They are sitting on the sofa as Yeosang explains the situation to his roommate. The expression on Wooyoung's faces is so serious Yeosang almost laughs, its like he's trying to solve a murder mystery.

"Well, he never mentioned the actual reason but why else would someone like him sabotage their education?" Yeosang still finds it unbelievable that a person can be this privileged where they can keep their space at a top-class university while purposefully failing their classes. With situations like this, he really dislikes rich and powerful people, Mingi's spot at this school could've gone to someone who actually works hard. He probably doesn't even know how selfish he is being by doing this.

A smack on his shoulder wakes Yeosang up from his angry trail of thought. "So I don't get why his side of the agreement was to sleep with you? He sounds like a weirdo"

"I don't know either, but he was surprisingly polite so I don't think he had any weird intentions" Yeosang shrugs, its over now and whats important is the fact that anything between them is done, as long as Mingi improves his grade on the next test.

"Maybe he fell in love with you at first sight! And he couldn't keep his hands to himself" Wooyoung snickers and this time, Yeosang smacks him.

"As if" Yeosang rolls his eyes at Wooyoung's wiggling brows. "I'm pretty sure he hates me for making him pause his stupid little plan"

"Ok but even then, maybe he did find you attractive, you're literally the hottest person I've ever seen in my life!"

"Sure, whatever. I'm going to sleep now" Yeosang says and gets up to go to his room, he's got morning lessons tomorrow and its past midnight (not to mention his 'tutoring' session with Mingi really tired him out).

***

Wooyoung and Yeosang go their separate ways for their morning lessons. As arts majors, neither have traditional lectures very often, while Yeosang is mostly having lessons in the music studio, Wooyoung is also taking lessons in the dance studio. Luckily for him, his dance society is in the same room so he doesn't need to move around the campus a lot.

Once Wooyoung's lesson is over, he and his dance friends prepare for a society session. He eyes the doors nervously as he knows Jongho will soon be walking through them. He and his friends are always present for all the sessions, its how Wooyoung slowly developed his little crush.

Jongho is an extremely good dancer, especially for someone who's not majoring in it. When Wooyoung first saw him dance, his expressions and groove, the way he carries himself confidently, he fell for it all immediately.

Fast forward a year and Wooyoung still hasn't interacted with him.

It's not his fault this guy always has his three friends attached to him, let alone one of them being the Song Mingi. No one ever really interacts with those four, and they keep to themselves too.

Their dance society is also huge, with many students using it as a away to de-stress from the pressures of university. So Wooyoung never gets the chance to even look at them because there are so many others blocking his way.

Wooyoung is setting up the speakers when he notices Jongho and his friends enter the studio. This is an early session which is usually more emptier as students usually have classes at this time, but as usual, these four are present. He tries not to stare so he looks away, they must really like dancing.

When he's done, he goes to his other dancer friends, sneaking a glance at Jongho and his friends. His eyes wander over to Song Mingi and frowns. This guy had his hands all over his best friend last night. He'd spent all morning helping put concealer on Yeosang's neck just to make him look half decent.

They laugh at something he says and Wooyoung wonders if Mingi told his friends about Yeosang, wonders what they'd think.

Sighing, he looks away when music starts playing as the session starts. Wooyoung decides to stay at the back today, usually he's a front row person, trying to get on the good side of the choreographer. Luckily it turns out staying at the back gives him a good view of Jongho and his dance.

All four of them pick up the choreography quickly, and Wooyoung admits that Mingi is really good. He's never noticed it because he's always distracted by Jongho.

He pouts. Yeosang got laid last night and here he is pining over his crush's back. They were supposed to be single and getting no action together!

Once the session is over, Wooyoung has already made up his mind and decides that he's going to get over there and get Jongho to fall for him. If Yeosang can sleep with the most popular person in the school, his friend shouldn't be too hard right? He's Jung Wooyoung, the people-loving extrovert. He's not supposed to have this much trouble socialising with someone.

As everyone is stretching and cooling off, Wooyoung walks towards the four, he can just introduce himself for now, say that he liked his dance.

However, when he gets close to them, he changes his mind, playing it off like he's looking for an empty spot to stretch. None of them noticed anyway. Wooyoung squeezes his eyes shut in annoyance.

What are you so scared of Wooyoung. He scolds himself, he never knew having a crush would turn him into a coward. Wooyoung has never had to deal with something like this, all his past relationships were people fawning over him and him just basking in the attention, he's never been on the other end where he has to get someone's attention before.

As he stretches, Wooyoung realises that he's close enough to hear their conversation. He leans in slightly trying to focus on them.

"Ugh that test was so hard, and he didn't even let us know that we had one, who does pop quizzes at university!" San pouts.

"It's fine San, he said it doesn't count towards our grade, it's just to see progress" Yunho replies, patting his boyfriend's shoulder.

"What are you guys talking about? That wasn't hard at all" Mingi says, genuinely confused. Wooyoung almost reacts in surprise along with Mingi's friends. That means he kept his promise to Yeosang. He thinks, smiling to himself.

"What the fuck? Did you actually do the test and not sleep through it?" Jongho says, bewildered when Mingi nods nonchalantly. "What? Why? What happened to your plan?

"I've paused it for a second to do well on this test, but this is the only time" Mingi mumbles, and his friends all stare at him with wide eyes.

"Is this about your tutoring? Wow! I wonder how your tutor broke the great Song Mingi and made him actually take a test" San claps in admiration and shock. "Don't tell me you just did it for free? This means a lot to you, there's no way you broke your streak because of some stranger's scholarship". Wooyoung raises his eyebrows, so he didn't tell his friends.

"I'll tell you guys about it later" Mingi dismisses their groans as he stays cautious about eavesdroppers. He doubts Yeosang would appreciate rumours of them sleeping together. "You guys went off track, we were talking about Jongho's birthday".

Wooyoung perks up, suppressing a gasp. That's right, Jongho's birthday is in a few weeks time (how he knows his birthday is no one's business). 

"We've already decided to go to the club near campus, I don't want to do anything fancy. Just chill and have fun" Jongho says while the rest of them nod, heading out the door.

Wooyoung smirks, he's heard everything he needed to. This is the perfect opportunity to talk to Jongho. He can calm his nerves with a few drinks and hopefully talk to him while his friends are having fun.

Feeling a sense of accomplishment now that he has a plan, he heads out the door. Operation Jongho is a go.

***

A week later, Wooyoung and Yeosang are in their usual hangout place at Hongjoong's studio. It's a nice quite place for Hongjoong and Yeosang to work on music while Wooyoung and Seonghwa keep each other company.

"Have you done what I've asked you to do?" Hongjoong asks Yeosang, who nods and presents his laptop to the older. Hongjoong is always giving Yeosang little projects to do whenever he's free from doing assignments, it's his favourite way of getting real music making practice.

"Woah, this is great Yeosang!" Hongjoong listens to the guide tracks Yeosang has made, and changes a few things here and there. Yeosang smiles in satisfaction. Hongjoong is not easy to please so he's always proud of himself when his hyung compliments his work.

"You've got some real talent Yeosang, and I'm not just saying it because we're friends. Your work is really useful, I was going to end your project here but if you want, I've got your next task ready for you".  Yeosang nods enthusiastically, he loves it when the older gives him projects like this. It's not only good practice, he genuinely loves doing it.

"Thanks hyung, for everything. You're a great teacher" Yeosang says, making Hongjoong laugh happily.

The pair collect the other two and head out for lunch. Once they're sat down and ordered, Yeosang gets a notification, widening his eyes when he sees what it is. "Oh my god".

The rest of them look at him in conflation "What?" Wooyoung says, leaning over to look at Yeosang's phone.

It's an email from Mingi's father. He can't see what it's about yet because he's still on his lock screen, hesitating to click on it. It could either be good news or bad news. He's either letting Yeosang know that Mingi's grades have improved so he doesn't need to tutor anymore, or its an email of him wondering why they haven't had anymore tutoring sessions and threatening him.

He and Mingi didn't contact each other after that night, so he has no idea whether he kept his end of the bargain or not. Sighing, he presses a shaky finger at the email and reads it.

Dear Mr Kang,
I would have liked to tell you this in a meeting but I've recently been very busy so apologies for letting you know by email. Fortunately, Mingi has improved his grade by quite a lot, his recent test result came out to be extremely high.
I am throughly impressed by your work Mr Kang, and I regret to tell you that you do not have to keep tutoring my son. I would have loved to keep you as his tutor but I agreed to let him stop tutoring if he improved his grade. He must have listened to you well and worked had, so thank you for agreeing to this in the first place and improving his grade.
Yours sincerely,
Prof. Song, Head of Cheongyang University

Yeosang scoffs, he didn't agree to it, he was forced. He breathes a sigh of relief anyway, Mingi thankfully kept his promise and now his scholarship is not in danger anymore.

Next to him, Wooyoung cheers "you're free! It's good we went out for lunch, we can celebrate!" He grabs Yeosang's shoulders and gives them a shake, the other playfully shoving him away. 

They all clap for him and Yeosang laughs, rolling his eyes. He wonders if Mingi told his father to stop the tutoring or if he did it on his own once he saw his son's improved grade. It doesn't matter anyway, he's free from interacting with Mingi ever again.

It's not like he was a horrible person, it's just that they were too different, the way he thinks and carries himself annoys Yeosang to death. Although, the only time Mingi didn't annoy him was their last 'lesson'. He hates to admit it but Mingi is amazing in bed. Maybe a small part of him is the tiniest bit regretful that they'll never interact again.

***

When Mingi makes music, he goes to Hongjoong. He only met him two years ago but now he's the only one he trusts to make his music.

Because he's doing it in secret, his music is all under his stage name 'Song'. Even though nothing is released yet, only Hongjoong knows his name and face, the rest of Hongjoong's producing team only know Song and his voice.

Today he's listening to what Hongjoong has produced for him, while working on some lyrics too. Since he's graduating soon he wants to start his music career as soon as possible.

He wants to make a name for himself without his parents help, luckily he has an amazing producer and extremely supportive friends.

"This is great hyung, it's just how I was imagining the best to be like" Mingi hums along to the tune and Hongjoong smiles.

"Glad to hear it. Can I take a look at the lyrics you wrote for this one?" Hongjoong says and Mingi hands him a notebook.

He waits nervously as his hyung scans the paper, occasionally nodding. Mingi is really passionate about his lyrics and puts a lot of thought about what rhythm would suit it. He's lucky he and Hongjoong have the same taste.

"These look good to me, I'll pass these on to the rest of the team so they can adjust the beat where necessary if that's alright?" Mingi nods, letting him take pictures of his lyrics.

"Thanks hyung, for helping me. It might sound a bit dramatic but it really means a lot to me" Hongjoong smiles at the younger, patting his back.

"Of course, I can tell you're really passionate- thats why I like working with you. It's a shame that you have to keep yourself secret because of your parents" They would not appreciate Mingi putting time and effort in making music instead of his maths assignments.

"Don't worry, as soon as I graduate and start releasing my music, I can slowly reveal myself"

"Good! Because the others who work on your songs are dying to meet you" Mingi smiles but also feels regretful that he chose not to reveal himself to the other producers. It's too risky having a lot of people knowing who he is, his father cannot know for now, otherwise he'd probably prevent him from going to the studio.

***

Yeosang can tell that Wooyoung is up to something with the way he's been acting all day. It's not like he's not nice, but today he's being extra nice to him. Like how you do chores before asking your parents for money.

He's already had his breakfast made for him, which isn't out of the ordinary, but what really made Yeosang suspicious was when his roommate sat in silence and studied with him. Wooyoung rarely studies.

"Okay, what do you want?" Yeosang turns to his best friend, finding the silence maddening. He's not used to being at peace when studying nest to Wooyoung.

"What do you mean? I'm just doing my assignment" Wooyoung says innocently.

Yeosang nods sarcastically, he's definitely up to something. If anything, Yeosang is more impressed with the fact that he is actually doing his assignment and hasn't cracked. "Jung Wooyoung we've known each other for so long I can practically read your mind at this point, I know you want something from me"

"Okay fine! You got me".Wooyoung laughs, finally giving in. "I need you to free your calendar next Tuesday, we're going to the club".

Yeosang immediately shakes his head. "You know the club is not my thing, go without me"

His roommate sighs, knowing this would be his reaction. "I need you to come with me! It's Jongho's birthday and I need someone to get me home safely".

"So you just want me to be your bodyguard?"

Wooyoung nods enthusiastically. "Exactly! You don't have to drink or party, just relax and when I'm done flirting, you can take me home"

Yeosang looks away from him, know that if he even glances at his best friends pleading expression he'll give in. "Pleaseeee Yeosangiee" Wooyoung pouts, wrapping his arms around him in an attempt to get Yeosang to look at him. "You know I've been trying to talk to Jongho, this time I have the perfect opportunity! Pleaseeee"

"Fine." Yeosang says with a defeated sigh, Wooyoung always gets what he wants from Yeosang and even today, his streak remains unharmed. "But drink moderately! I don't want to be dealing with puke" he says. "And you're buying me lunch the whole week for this".

"Done! Thank you I love you!" Wooyoung cheers happily, kissing his cheek and running away before Yeosang can smack him.

Watching him excitedly run to his room, Yeosang chuckles. The things he does for Wooyoung, he thinks he needs an award for being the best best friend. Wooyoung must really like Jongho to have him asking for help.

Yeosang frowns. If it's Jongho's birthday... theres a very high chance Mingi will be there too. What if they bump into each other, Is he supposed to avoid him or not? Pretend they've never met or acknowledge him and what they did last time they met?

Standing up, Yeosang goes out to get some fresh air. He doesn't want to give himself a headache trying to think of what to do. He can't bail out on Wooyoung since he's so excited. He'll just try his best to avoid Mingi.

A/n: Just a heads up the next chapter may take a bit longer than usual because I'll be on vacation. Thank you for reading and I hope you're enjoying so far! <3