"I'll explain, I'll explain!" Hyunjin quickly crossed the room, took the coffee out of Changbin's hands and clapped him on his back to help with the coughing. "Let's sit down and you can have breakfast and I'll tell you from the beginning, alright?"

"Yes, please," Changbin murmured, voice hoarse from the coughing.

Hyunjin tried to sit comfortably on the couch, which took him a few tries (they got the thing from craigslist, it was possibly made by dinosaurs and had definitely survived at least one ice age). He shuffled his notes out of his backpack to keep up a pretence of working on his homework. But really he was looking forward to the afternoon of Goblin The Great And Lonely God.

Changbin joined him, a second cup of coffee in his hand for Hyunjin, and a bowl of fried rice and egg for him. Hyunjin even spied a few vegetables.

"Thanks, hyung," Hyunjin accepted the coffee. "Are we still on for Goblin?"

"Of course," Changbin agreed. "I couldn't stop thinking about episode two all week. But what was that about fake dating?"

Hyunjin took his time to sip on his coffee. How should he start in a way that didn't make Changbin want to move out? Changbin really was a good roommate. Think of the new couch, Hyunjin... "I took this one music lecture this semester, you know?"

"Yeah, you mentioned it to Chan at some point, but what does it have to do with this?"

"This morning, a guy I've never talked to before came up to me and offered me ten million won if I fake dated his rival rapper," Hyunjin rolled his eyes, "and I should like, make him fall in love with me and then break up with him. I was going to say no, of course, who even does that? But then I thought hey, you and Chan and Jisung would maybe find this amusing, so I asked who the guy was that I was supposed to be fake dating..."

"And that's me," Changbin finished. "Who is the guy? I literally can't even think of anyone I would have offended enough for them to want to spend this much money just to humiliate me."

Hyunjin chuckled. "His name was like, Chad? Tenor? Tim? Wait... " Hyunjin leafed through his notes of the day. "No, Trevor! He has this green streak in his hair, it looks quite bad."

Changbin burst out laughing. "Really? The guy challenged me to a rap battle two weeks ago, saying he's better than Chan and Jisung and that him winning against me would prove it, I think." Changbin grimaced. "So naturally, I told him to fuck off and... well, I could have said it nicer."

"Good thing you didn't," Hyunjin disagreed. "This way we'll get ten million won and we can buy a new couch." He sighed wistfully. Something was definitely digging into his back.

Changbin's face got thoughtful. "Did he specify anything? Like, how long? What if I broke up with you and not the other way around?"

Hyunjin shrugged. "He said one month. I did say that it may not work if you just turn me down, so if you don't want to do this, I'll just tell him you turned me down, no biggie."

"... but you'd really like a new couch."

Hyunjin sighs. "And a fridge. Did you see the grey spots in the back? I think it's mold. Don't tell me to just clean it, what if it's alive? Maybe a new coffee machine? I was planning to take some extra dance classes outside of uni in summer, you know? I just wasn't sure how to finance them yet." He remembered he needed to make this appeal to Changbin as well. "Don't you need a new mic?"

"I'm not sure if all of this is possible with ten million won," Changbin said, slowly, as if still turning the thought over in his head and doing mental math, "but if we get the couch secondhand, I might be able to also get some synthesizers neither Chan nor the music department have... And the coffee machine."

"You'll do it?" Hyunjin felt warmth spread in his chest as he smiled. "I sort of just expected you to laugh it off and maybe hold it above Trevor's head."

"I mean," Changbin backtracked, "only if you're okay with accepting money for fake dating your roommate."

"Are you kidding?" Hyunjin leaned forward to drag Changbin into a half hug, "I'm absolutely in! We can pretend we're in a kdrama and have a tearful confession slash break up in the rain."

"Sure..." Changbin said, "if that's what you want..."

"Don't judge me! It's not as if we can easily stage a kidnapping and saving of said kidnapping and let the whole music department know what happened."

Hyunjin couldn't read whatever expression was on Changbin's face, it looked quite complicated and possibly like the beginning of an existential crisis, so he turned to the tv and pulled up the next episode of Goblin.

"Don't worry, hyung," Hyunjin said, "we can plan it all out and then we'll only have to find a time and place where we can both be in the music department, and if we forget what to say, we can just wing it."

"Okay, Hyunjinnie," Changbin answered faintly, "I'll just present love songs to my music classes for the next few weeks and keep the sad and angry songs for when we broke up."

"That's a brilliant idea," Hyunjin couldn't stop the smile spreading on his face. "I wonder if music department gossip makes it to the dance department... maybe I can do a choreo for one of your songs and then after we break up, I'll dance to Billie Eilish? I've always wanted to do that."

"You're so dramatic," Changbin sighed, but it didn't sound like an insult. "This will either be the best thing to happen ever, or a disaster, you know that."

Hyunjin just laughed. "At least none of us are over nine hundred years old and in love with a high school student."

"Low blow," Changbin said with a smile and pressed play.

Over a simple dinner of ramen and the last of the eggs, they discussed the plan, and Hyunjin went to sleep with an odd nervous flicker in his stomach and a smile on his face. It was going to be awesome.

The next day – Friday – Hyunjin waved goodbye to Felix and Minho at lunch and skipped over to the music department. He had been careful in choosing his outfit in the morning, wearing both a leather jacket and a sheer shirt underneath. It had caught Felix's attention, but Hyunjin had waved it off with the cold realisation that he hadn't yet thought of what to say to his friends. And Changbin hadn't brought them up either, or how they were going to tell them.

But alas, Hyunjin was on a schedule, so he simply shrugged and tried to smile mysteriously. Minho apparently didn't think it was important and changed the subject, so Hyunjin escaped with only a minor mental meltdown that he had good faith in to postpone until he could talk to Changbin about it at home.

Hyunjin knew that just after lunch on Friday, Changbin shared a class with Trevor. A fairly big class, too, and a lot of the students in the class spent lunch in the music department cafeteria. Changbin himself sometimes came to get food there and hang out with Chan, who, for some reason Changbin claimed he didn't understand, took some morning classes.

It was perfect.

Hyunjin briefly stopped before the cafeteria, making sure his makeup wasn't smudged and his hair still looked like it was supposed to. He sometimes struggled with growing it out, but what was a bit of hair in his mouth when it looked this good?

I'm here, Hyunjin texted Changbin. All set?

Changbin replied seconds later. Trevor is still eating. I'm getting up now, let's do this.

Hyunjin stuffed his phone in his backpocket and walked in, head held high. A few people turned to look at him, which is what pink hair does to you, but Hyunjin immediately focused on Changbin.

He was walking towards him, for all purposes looking like he didn't even notice Hyunjin, Chan following a step behind him, typing into his phone with a smile. Changbin wore his usual outdoor clothes, which consisted of: black. It did look kinda sexy, Hyunjin knew. But he prefered the pastel pink and bright yellow hoodies he knew Changbin owned and wore at home or at group hangouts.

"Changbin-ssi," Hyunjin called out a greeting, stopping in front of Changbin. He continued in informal speech, "can I call you hyung?"

Changbin raised his eyebrows. "No."

"How about oppa, then?" Hyunjin smirked. "Go on a date with me."

"No, who even are you?" Changbin deadpanned, ignoring Chan's open mouth as he followed the conversation.

"I'm Hwang Hyunjin, Changbin-ssi," Hyunjin ran a hand through his hair, looking through his eyelashes at Changbin (it may look ridiculous, since he was taller than Changbin, but it's the thought that counts, right?). "You may have heard of me – I'm the nude model over at the art department."

"I don't care," Changbin looked like he wanted to laugh, but Hyunjin knew only he and Chan would be able to tell. "Why do you ask?"

Changbin walked past Hyunjin, who did his best to let his smile crumple off his face and blink furiously.

"Wait," Chan whispered, sending a panicked look to Hyunjin and shuffling after Changbin to hang on his arm.

"Changbin-hyung!" Hyunjin called out, well aware that if their earlier display hadn't caught the attention of the entire room, this would. "I ask because I like you! Let's just go on one date, okay? Whatever you want."

Changbin turned around and glared, and Hyunjin did his best to make his smile seem wobbly and not victorious. He wrung his hands and awkwardly stuffed them into his pockets.

"Hyung," Hyunjin started. "I've actually – I've actually liked you for a long time, and your rap is really inspiring to me, and I understand if you don't feel the same... I... I'm sorry." Hyunjin focused on the floor and slumped his shoulders.

"Changbin, oh my god!" Chan whisper-shouted, which echoed through the quiet room. Steps, echoing in the tense silence, followed.

Changbin stopped in front of Hyunjin and sighed, extending his hand. "Okay. One date. Because I think you're pathetic."

"What?" Hyunjin looked at Changbin's hand and his face.

"Your phone, Hwang Hyunjin," Changbin said. "I don't have all day."

"Oh!" Hyunjin handed his phone over to Changbin, who pretended to save his number. "Um, thank you, hyung. I won't disappoint you."

Changbin smirked. "I don't have any expectations to begin with, so don't worry too much. Bye, Hwang Hyunjin." With that, he turned around and dragged a very confused Chan from the room.

Hyunjin allowed himself to smile and he looked around himself to catch everyone staring. He caught Trevor's eyes and smiled wider, winking at him. Trevor shot him a thumbs up.

So Changbin hadn't told Chan about this yet, huh? Hyunjin left the music department with many questions and the feeling of success in his gut. Their Asking Out had gone off without a hitch, even with Chan as a wild card right there. One sentence from Chan and the whole plan would have been screwed.