Gyuvin was panicking. How on earth was he supposed to find Ricky? The campus was huge and apologising to the latter was mandatory.
Library was probably the last place on Gyuvin's mind when he set off to find his blondie friend. He ignored Gunwook's advice about searching there and kept on wandering around Ricky's department building for half an hour.
"Gunwook, I swear if I can't find him in the library." He spoke to the male beside him.
"Then what?"
Gyuvin tsked and whined right after. "Fine. At least you'll shut up when we don't find him there."
Oh boy ! He was so wrong. His eyes spotted the exact blonde haired guy he was looking for the entire time. Ricky, in his all black fit, was sitting on a corner table and studying from his macbook. He was so focused that for one second Gyuvin felt bad about interrupting him. But he had to anyway.
Gunwook shot a side-eye, accompanied by a knowing look to his best friend. "I'll leave you two here then." Gyuvin nodder and hastily waved his hands to the latter and approached Ricky.
The elder had airpods stuffed in both of his ears. Gyuvin mentally prepared himself after recalling what he was gonna say and took a seat beside Ricky. He observed Ricky looking up from the screen, blinking ever so softly and looking right back at him. He gently removed the airpods and diverted his attention to Gyuvin instead.
"Hey." Gyuvin started.
Ricky nodded in acknowledgment before looking down to his lap. He didn't know how he should apologize. Last night when Gyuvin cut the call right at his face, Ricky was scared and confused. Confused because he didn't know exactly what made made the younger upset and scared that he might lose the trusted friendship they built over such a short period of time. Nonetheless, he decided to speak. He let out the simplest 'I'm sorry' and started picking on his palm.
Gyuvin sighed before taking a hold of Ricky's hand and separating them. He noticed the reddish spot, not so freshly formed on Ricky's palm.
"Do you have anxiety?" The younger asked. His eyes were glued to that palm, holding a river of worry within them. "It's nothing." Ricky answered, letting out the breath he was holding for quite sometime. The brunette didn't push onto it any further. Instead, he dug through his bag and pulled out the macbook he was gifted last night, still looking brand new.
He placed it on the table and eyed Ricky before opening it. He typed in his password and there sat a puppy picture as his wallpaper. More specifically, his pet dog, Eumpappa.
"Gunwook talked to me about it and I decided to accept this gift. I even set it up as mine." He smiled a little to the blonde's direction, who looked somewhat relieved.
"I didn't know you'd take it that way, Gyub. I thought you needed a laptop, so gifting this would make you happy, you know." Ricky spoke in a low voice. "I'm just really sorry for being so inconsiderate." He added afterwards.
"I'm grateful for it, Ricky. And please don't think of yourself as being considerate. Gifting this was your way of showing affection." Ricky hummed at that. Gyuvin continued, "It's that just I don't like people spending their money behind me. This is also why I don't take any money from my parents, I try to cover my living expenses myself."
Ricky smiled finally, eyes full of adoration. He took hold of Gyuvin's right hand with his left one and intertwined their fingers. "I admire you so much for that. I'll do my best to actually do something for you with effort and appreciation hmm?"
Gyuvin nodded happily. His eyes traveled to their hands, perfectly fitting with each other. Ricky was also staring at that, face flushed. He honestly looked adorable and Gyuvin felt content. The feeling of pure euphoria made him smile to himself.
Ricky awkwardly scratched his nape with his free hand. "Uhh, I need to get back to studying actually." Gyuvin quickly nodded and let go of the other's hand. He didn't miss how red Ricky's ears turned instantly and internally cooed.
He secretly stared at Ricky a little more before deciding to work on his own assignments. His heart was giddy and his mind happy.
Both of them were doing fine, working on their respective macbooks and enjoying each other's company. Ricky didn't stuff his airpods this time. Listening to Gyuvin's steady breaths was calming to him and so he preferred that over music.
But that resulted both of the guys to hear small murmers all around the library. In general, those weren't distracting. Until Gyuvin noticed the same group of girls, who kind of humiliated him the day before, walking towards them. Before anything could happen, Gyuvin focused solely, with his all being, on his assignment.
Ricky's attention span only broke when one of tje girls stopped by Gyuvin, specifically the one who asked him to group for the presentation before.
Gyuvin tried his best not to oay any heed to the girl standing right beside him. Even at her foul expression, he remained oblivious. He slowly turned his head towards Ricky when the latter spoke, "What do you want?" He had a glare evident on his face, his voice stern.
"Nothing. I see you got your sugar baby a new present." She replied, eyeing the macbook with a nasty look. Ricky smirked before standing up. Her eyes immediately went up to maintain eye-contact with him. Even in this situation, Gyuvin didn't miss the faint glow on her cheeks. She had to bite her lips in order not to smile and it all clicked to him.
She had a crush on Ricky.
The next few things went by like a blur in his mind. He heard Ricky saying something spiteful. In which's response, she threatened Gyuvin. That she wasn't gonna let him go so easily. The brunette was intimidated but not scared. Because at that moment, something else occupied his mind. Someone had a crush on Ricky. Why was that bothering him? It wasn't like Ricky felt the same way. And even if he did, it wasn't any of Gyuvin's concern ; other than that it was his friend.
"Hey." The chain of thoughts broke when Ricky lightly shook him by his shoulder.
"Yes?" Gyuvin answered back.
"I was thinking if you wanna head to my place afterwards." The younger cocked an eyebrow. Ricky chuckled light-heartedly. Partly because of the mockery incident from which he wanted to distract the latter and mostly because he genuinely wanted to spend time with his friend. "Just to hangout. Nothing fancy or extra, I promise." He added.
Gyuvin thought for a while and nodded his head with enthusiasm. "Sure!"
—
When Ricky said he was gonna cook, Gyuvin was beyond surprised. He almost ended up believing that Ricky indeed knew how to cook actual food. But when the elder revealed two instant ramen packet with a cheeky grin, Gyuvin facepalmed to himself.
"I thought you would cook some real food." He said, sarcasm dancing in his voice.
Ricky clicked his tongue, almost as a sign that he was offended, playfully of course. He dismissed the talk saying "Ramen always hits."
Next moment, both of the said males grew busy with cooking. They put the noodles in the boiling water and waited for it to boiled. Gyuvin discovered noodle crumbs lying inside the packets. He poured them on his palm and tossed them in his mouth. Ricky watched with enormous eyes. "What the heck?" He questioned. Gyuvin replied with a 'what' and the latter's response made him burst into a fit of laughter.
"Ricky, these are okay to eat even if not cooked. It's just a small amount, you won't get sick." He somehow convinced the rich guy to try leftover, raw ramen crumbs and got a thumbs-up in return.
"Dude, how come I always threw these away?"
"That's because you're an idiot."
Ricky rolled his eyes and stirred the al dente noodles with a pair of chopsticks. They dumbed the extra water, poured the sauce, mixed that in and they were presented with a nice bowl of samyang ramen.
They put on a random show on Netflix and ate their delicious ramen with strawberry milk for Ricky and chocolate milk for Gyuvin. They slurped on the noodles just fine until Ricky's eyes started to water. He shouldn't have overestimated himself and pour the whole sauce packet in. But unlike others, Gyuvin didn't make fun of him for having a low spice tolerance. He exclaimed that he was a little surprised but that only made Ricky a lot cuter. Ricky's eyes watered again, but the reason wasn't the noodles this time and obviously that Gyuvin didn't have to know.
Their eating session was on pause when the doorbell suddenly rang. Ricky shrugged before getting up to see who that was. Was he expecting someone? No actually.
Unless...
Unless it was his own fucking cousin who blabbered stuff like Ricky took too long to open the door and walked in with his large trolly. Ricky groaned mentally. He was certain that at some point his cousin would end up spitting out something embarrassing seeing Gyuvin who was cluelessly sitting on the couch.
He was right. He heard a dramatic gasp which was quite recognizable as his cousin's. He was holding his free hand over his mouth, eyes enlarged in shock. And Gyuvin well...he was sitting with an equally perplexed face.
"Ricky ! Since when do you bring over people?! I thought you were still pure and virgin??"
Gyuvin spit out the noodles he had in this mouth. He immediately sipped on his chocolate milk to prevent his own self from choking and making the situation even more awkward. "It's not like that– we're just friends." He clarified, seeing the horrified look on Ricky's face.
"Just friends? So you mean friends with ben—"
"Zhanghao." Ricky called out, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Stop assuming things. He's Gyuvin."
The guy named Zhanghao finally understood and was even more shocked. "I see !" He exclaimed and quickly took the empty space beside Gyuvin, well startling him a bit of course.
"So you're the 'friend' he talked about. My bad, I was just confused seeing you two eating ramen and watching netflix." Gyuvin shook his head again. "We were for real just eating ramen and watching netflix– nothing else." The elder chuckled.
"Why are you here anyway?" The blonde asked. The other chinese male said, "Hanbin went to his house. So I thought I should pay a visit to my little brother."
"More like you were scared of staying alone?"
Hao dismissed it with a wave and turned his attention to Gyuvin again.
Ricky sighed and took a seat across them and watched them communicate.
Gyuvin turned the topic by asking and making sure if Zhanghao was Hanbin's boyfriend. The other immediately nodded with a glint in his eyes.
"Do you wanna hear how we got together?" He asked to which Gyuvin agreed right away. Ricky protested but he was outnumbered. And unfortunately, he had to listen to the same love story of his cousin and his boyfriend for the nth time.
But Ricky was happy to see how quickly Hao and Gyuvin bonded. It was almost like they knew each other from before. Hao later asked if Gyuvin was offended when he assumed him and Ricky were fucking around ; quite literally he used those two words. The younger assured that it was fine and he found Hao really fun. They bid goodbyes and Ricky walked Gyuvin to the door.
"How are you gonna get home now?" He asked. Suddenly the air felt thick, there was this heavy tension. Even Gyuvin's unsteady breaths could be heard considering how gloomy Ricky looked, standing by the doorframe.
"By bus, I guess." The younger replied nonetheless. His plams started to sweat when Ricky subtly smiled. He nodded gently and locked eyes with Gyuvin. "Get home safe then."
Gyuvin hummed. "I will."
None of them moved from their places and held the eye-contact. Both pair of eyes were holding some kind of untold emotions. Gyuvin regained his senses and managed to put on a friendly smile. He took only one step when Ricky called him again. He looked back and his world felt so warm all of a sudden.
Ricky pulled him into a hug, their second hug. He buried his face into the crook of Gyuvin's neck. Gyuvin knew this wasn't something friends would usually do, specially with a dynamic like theirs. Bit he didn't question the latter's antics, he never would. He wrapped his arms around the other's slim frame and rubbed his back.
"Thank you for today." The blonde murmured and pulled back from the embrace.
Gyuvin's eyes held a pool of worry when he saw Ricky's ones welled up with tears.
"Ric–"
"Ssh. I'm just a little overwhelmed right now. Don't worry, it's nothing." The blonde convinced.
Gyuvin pressed his lips in a thin line and nodded. He knew there was something going within Ricky but he let it slide for then. Because what really mattered was one thing that Ricky wasn't sad, he wasn't feeling any negative emotion. And with a deep breath, he walked away and set off for his home.
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Make sure to vote and comment y'all, i updated quite fast this time ><