Still Civil

Still Civil.

Jihoon did not believe in fate.

Fate was chaotic. Illogical. Poorly organized.

Which was why, when the housing office assigned him a roommate without warning, Jihoon decided fate clearly had something against him.

The door burst open on move-in day.

“Hi! I’m Kang Minjae!”

Jihoon looked up from his neatly labeled storage boxes and immediately regretted it.

Minjae was tall. Broad. The kind of unfairly attractive that made people turn twice in hallways. His smile was bright, effortless.

Jihoon adjusted his glasses. “Lee Jihoon. Please don’t be loud.”

Minjae blinked. “That’s your first sentence to me?”

“Yes.”

Minjae grinned wider. “We’re going to get along great.”

Jihoon doubted that.

---

Living together started as a silent war.

Jihoon liked order. The fridge was alphabetized. The books were color-coded. The laundry schedule was precise.

Minjae liked… chaos.

“Why are the eggs under ‘E’?” Minjae asked one morning.

“Because they start with E.”

“They’re dairy.”

“They are eggs.”

Minjae laughed so hard he had to lean against the counter. Jihoon pretended not to notice how the movement made his shoulders flex under his thin shirt.

This was going to be a problem.

---

The first crack in Jihoon’s carefully controlled world came two weeks later.

He walked into the kitchen at midnight for water.

Minjae was cooking.

Shirtless.

Jihoon stopped.

Minjae turned casually, spatula in hand. “Oh. Hey.”

Jihoon’s brain short-circuited.

“You’re burning the eggs,” he said stiffly.

Minjae looked down. Smoke rose accusingly from the pan. “Wow. You noticed that but not the fact that I’m basically on fire?”

Jihoon blinked. “You are not on fire.”

Minjae smirked. “You’re staring.”

“I am observing the cooking hazard.”

“Uh-huh.”

Jihoon turned around immediately. His ears were burning.

Behind him, Minjae laughed softly.

It lingered in Jihoon’s chest longer than it should have.

---

The second crack was worse.

Jihoon didn’t knock before entering the bathroom.

He normally did.

Normally.

But exhaustion made him careless.

The door swung open.

Steam curled out.