Hyunjin was nearly late to his eight o'clock class, again, because he stayed up late practising Criminal while Changbin worked on a song for his classes. Taemin had finally released a dance practice video, and this time Hyunjin quickly figured out that the tie wasn't actually tied around Taemin's wrist, it was just a loose band and no complicated magic was involved.

When he told Changbin about this discovery, Changbin had looked as if he didn't know whether to laugh or cry – and Hyunjin could honestly relate.

"You said you'd be here earlier," Minho glared at him when Hyunjin ran into the room with twenty seconds to spare. "You're lucky the instructor is late, too."

"I was learning Taemin's choreography last night," Hyunjin panted, flopping to the floor and draping himself over Felix. "I promised the girls that I'd teach it to them tomorrow."

"Yeah?" Minho grinned. "How was your drama day with Changbin?"

"Yeah, tell us about your movie date," Felix whined, "have you kissed yet?"

Hyunjin sighed. The room was full, so he couldn't really remind his friends out loud that it was fake, could he? To his luck, the instructor arrived and led them into a warm up that left them too out of breath to even consider talking during their five minute water break.

Most Friday mornings were the instructors enjoying letting the students suffer, except sometimes the instructors had pity and just revised, and ordered everyone to practice freestyle. Today was such a day. Hyunjin enjoyed it; he had become a morning person and while that was undoubtedly tragic, he loved dancing too much to want to stop.

His friends didn't have to know he'd written a little motivational post-it note for Changbin this morning as well. Hyunjin didn't have feelings for his roommate, no matter what Felix seemed to believe. After all, Hyunjin wasn't Y/N, he wasn't even the main character. Of course he knew that Changbin was great, and one day Changbin would be in a super cute relationship with someone who could be super cute with him.

Until then? Hyunjin would kiss Changbin's cheek whenever he got a chance, including when he sat down next to him during lunch in the music department cafeteria. Changbin blushed, but kissed his cheek in return.

"Right in front of my salad," Chan accused with a teasing undertone.

Hyunjin tried not to blush. "Hyung. You're eating bibimbap, that's not a salad."

"Isn't it?" Chan frowned. "Traditional Greek salad doesn't have lettuce, it has yoghurt. They call it salad. This bibimbap has lettuce and spinach, but I can't call it a salad?"

That... okay. "When did you last sleep," Hyunjin asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Oh, no," Chan shut his eyes and let his forehead sink into his hands. "Everything is a salad."

"I don't think he slept much tonight," Changbin casually swallowed a lettuce leaf. "It happens. He'll be fine."

"Okay then," Hyunjin thought about bringing the 'ocean is a soup' TikTok to Chan's attention, but ultimately decided against it. He didn't want to break Chan.

Changbin didn't share Hyunjin's reluctance, he just showed the clip to Chan and cackled when Chan whisper-yelled about not knowing if there was a difference between a soup and a salad. Changbin put some of his food on Huynjin's plate and shrugged, smiling slightly.

"I'm telling you, he'll be fine," Changbin murmured. "He'll sleep on it, and then he'll either be embarrassed or go write a song about the meaning of life."

That didn't sound remotely reassuring, but Hyunjin accepted it. Chan was a great person, and sometimes he had a crisis about existence too. That was okay. "I'll dance with Felix and Minho in the afternoon. Instead of going directly to the cafe after your lecture, how about you come visit us?" Hyunjin patted Chan's hand. "I'm sure Felix can help you with your soup-salad problem."

"That's right," Chan brightened and smiled. "Lixie will know. And I don't think I've seen all three of you dance outside of performances yet."

Briefly, Hyunjin thought of sitting in a circle and eating fast food, of jumping up and down and screaming Lady Gaga lyrics, of crying about a failed test, of doing each other's makeup and not even listening to music, of covering Hyuna choreographies and freestyling 3Racha's Wow until they had to lie down on the floor in embarrassment and Minho made them swear to never ever ever mention to Jisung that it happened.

Hyunjin firmly shoved those memories aside and told them the room number and location of their practice room.

"Just call one of us if you get lost," Hyunjin added, leaning back and gathering his hair in his neck. He couldn't yet tie up all his hair – it was too short in the back for a bun on the top of his head, and too short in the front for a proper ponytail. Still, Hyunjin aimed for something in between, letting strands fall around his eyes and ignoring the strands too short to be useful.

Changbin choked on his water.

"You okay?" Hyunjin let his hair be to turn his attention to Changbin.

"Yeah," Changbin coughed and turned his eyes to his food. "I just – swallowed weirdly. No worries."

"Ha, right," Chan giggled.

"Shut the fuck up," Changbin replied.

Chan lifted his hands in surrender, grinning and sounding way too happy for what he said next. "Don't kill me please! Also, we probably need to leave if we don't want to be late."

Hyunjin and Changbin quickly finished their food. Chan started humming under his breath and drumming a beat with his fingers. (Hyunjin kept half an eye on Changbin in case he choked again.)

At the doors, they briefly stopped. Changbin lifted his and Hyunjin's joined hands and pressed his lips onto Hyunjin's skin. Hyunjin's breath caught in his throat.

"See you later," Changbin murmured with an upturn in the corners of his mouth and a sparkle in his eyes.

Hyunjin closed his mouth a full minute later, blinking into the space where Changbin had stood before he dragged Chan to the right classroom. "Yeah," he said soundlessly, paying no attention to the curious looks the other students gave him.

Right. Hyunjin not only liked kisses on the cheek, he also liked kisses on his hands. Did he also like kissing Changbin's hand? Only one way to find out, but that would have to wait or Minho would feed him a towel and he'd die. He ran across the lawn between the music and the dance building, arriving at their practice room out of breath but before Minho and Felix started warming up.

"Changbin-hyung and Chan-hyung will come here when their lecture ends," Hyunjin told them, gasping, "because Chan is sleep deprived and thinks the planet is a salad and the milky way is a soup."

"Oh no," Felix immediately furrowed his brows. "I warned him I'd just sleep on top of him if he didn't come to bed but then I fell asleep."

"Don't blame yourself, Lixie," Minho said.

"Still. I'll take him home early tonight. I have my ways, after all," Felix smirked.

Hyunjin, tired from a long week and a late night of Taemin choreography, did his best to move slowly and take warmup and stretching even more seriously than usual. Forty minutes later they started rehearsing the steps for the choreographies they were learning or trying to improve in their morning class, and Hyunjin and Felix took an extra moment to walk each other through some complicated technical steps while Minho just told them when they did something wrong.

Meanwhile, Minho practiced a handstand, because his name was Lee Minho and he did what he wanted, physics could shut up.