Chapter Text
mingi is loud, dopey, and he acts stupid all the time for no reason. worst possible roommate. -10/10. yunho wanted quiet when he came to university. not necessarily to be quiet or to live a quiet life, but he just didn’t want… well, this.
it went south in five minutes and it hasn’t gotten better since: yunho goes to move his things in the dormitory for the start of his freshman semester. he’s excited to meet his roommate, excited to start a new year, excited, excited, excited. he hikes up the stairs to his (insufferably hot) floor and finds the door to his room already open.
and from inside on bass-boosted speakers, the “eva” noise that wall-e makes on repeat. ridiculously loud, and not even music. over, and over, and over again. he moved all his stuff in listening to “eeeevaaaa” and then escaped as quickly as possible.
it was his own dorm, he shouldn’t have to “escape” god damnit.
and now, exactly three months in to his freshman year, yunho still hates his roommate and still rarely visits the dormitory. in fact, he sleeps over with fellow dancers wooyoung and san more often than not, because they’re nice to him and even though they’re disgusting to look at (face-sucking instead of kissing is a preference yunho didn’t know of), at least they’re not currently playing the wii tennis smacking sound on loop.
of course, there are times when yunho has to actually see his roommate. it’s inevitable. and worse, some of those times? yunho has to speak to him. yunho swears he loses braincells with each sound that comes out of that kid’s mouth. like now. he came to get his textbook since he’s staying at wooyoung and san’s place and needs it for his 8am (god forbid waking up early to come here ). It’s been half an hour and he’s still sitting awkwardly on his own barren mattress with the book between his arms, staring at the guy who said he had something “important to say” and is now spewing something about super smash bros ultimate.
“ i’m sorry, but–” i really need to go, is what yunho meant to say. but in that moment, he made eye contact with his roommate for the first time and exactly everything in his brain that was left functioning after the overwatch vs tiktok memes as a way to waste time lecture fried. they were long, slanted, and sort of intimidating, at least that’s what yunho had thought, until the boy looked up at him from where he spun side to side in his gaming chair and all yunho wanted to do was pinch his cheeks. he was. so cute. “what’s your name again?”
“ um,” said the boy, in less of an offended way and more of a well, what was my name again way. “minty. mingi! my name is mingi. not minty. your hair– it’s minty. colored. but i am not mingi! i am mingi! no wait– i am not minty.”
“ got that much,” mumbled yunho. “well, it was nice to meet you, mingi, but i’ve really got to go now.”
“ oh,” said mingi, looking absolutely crestfallen. yunho forced himself not to whimper at the absolute adorableness of the boy. “okay! um, have fun wherever you’ve been!”
yes, the boy is adorable, but yunho can’t lose more braincells tonight than he already has . yunho turned to shut the door after him after he had made his way out –
“ but, um,” said mingi, suddenly very close. yunho hadn’t even heard him get out of his chair, but now he was in the doorway, seeing yunho out. “can i ask you something before you go?”
yunho sighed, shifting his books. “sure.”
“ why… no. ” mingi started, but stopped there as he tried to rephrase whatever it is he wanted to say. it took about ninety seconds of him staring into open space with his mouth hung open stupidly for him to say something more. “was it the wall-e sounds or me?”
yunho froze, the bored look falling right off his face as he looked up at the taller boy. he didn’t know how to answer that– in fact, he didn’t know how to process a question like that at all. “what?”
“ you don’t have to tell me now, if you haven’t really thought about it. sleep well tonight– text me if you need help with that,” said mingi quietly, nodding at the textbook in yunho’s hands before shooting him a meek smile and shutting the door.
it was such a blatant difference from the loudmouthed idiot yunho was used to seeing and hearing that he didn’t sleep at all that night. instead, he mulled over ever single moment in the conversation they’d had (past the video game tangents). first of all, the way mingi looked absolutely shocked that yunho was even engaging in conversation with him, even if it was just asking for a name he should have learned ages ago. in fact, he looked happy that yunho was trying to learn his name now. yunho knew mingi wasn’t short of friends– in fact, mingi was quite a people person and everybody seemed to love him, yunho had seen it everytime he’d been out on campus. so the small expression of shock on his face, paired with the way the moment yunho opened his mouth he shut his, and the look in his eyes that in retrospect was less “cute puppy” and more something between analysis and hope.
then the textbook. when yunho got back to his san and wooyoung’s, he realized it wasn’t the textbook he needed, and in fact it wasn’t his textbook at all. level three python programming didn’t interest yunho since he didn’t have the class, but maybe mingi asssumed he did. he knew mingi wasn’t a computer science major, so he didn’t know where the textbook came from, just that the spine looked like his. the important part though was that mingi had looked at the textbook and he knew the contents in it enough to offer his help.
and then the question. yunho spent far too long thinking about what he meant, and once he had that, even longer figuring out an answer. was it the wall-e sounds or me? mingi is perceptive. incredibly so. maybe an overthinker, too. he noticed that yunho doesn’t stay around, and that he quickly found friends to stay with, and then he narrowed down the possibilities of why to just two. both of which were incredibly viable and something yunho didn’t have the right words to go about answering. he still doesn’t.
now it’s three in the morning, san’s and wooyoung’s giggles have long died down into snores, and yunho still can’t figure it out. and that’s why he’s here, with the wrong textbook in his hands as an excuse, his bag slung over his shoulder, and his knuckles hesitating over the hollow wood of the dormitory door. you idiot, you have a key, he’s asleep, don’t make him get up out of bed just to –
“ yunho?”
he knows my name??? was the first question in yunho’s head, rather than the obvious what is mingi doing outside of the room at three in the morning?
“ um, hi,” said yunho, turning his gaze to see mingi in the stairwell, one hand on the railing and holding his weight while the other fanned the collar of his shirt.
“ did you lose your key?”
“ no, i have it,” said yunho. mingi nodded, like this made perfect sense, not questioning why yunho was standing outside the door like an idiot.
“ okay great, you’re actually a saint because i realized i left mine inside when i went out. are you some sort of psychic, yunho?”
“ no…?” said yunho, slipping a hand into his backpack to fish out the keycard and swipe it, letting mingi in first. it was incredibly subtle, the way that mingi dropped his own keycard at the same time as his shirt when he went to pull it off, but yunho was looking. mingi went out of his way to lie just to make yunho feel less stupid? why?
“ so what’s up?” said mingi, his back to yunho as he put on deodorant and threw on a sleep shirt. yunho tried to ignore how fabulous the muscles on mingi’s back looked when they rippled.
“ huh?”
“ is everything okay? you’re not normally here, much less at three in the morning.” there’s not much i can provide you that your friends can’t , is what yunho heard. after all the thoughts he’d been thinking tonight, talking with mingi face to face only proved them more: yunho’s actions since the start of the semester had made mingi’s sense of self-worth decrease, at least when face-to-face with the man himself.
“ it wasn’t wall-e, and it wasn’t you, either,” blurted yunho in one rush, before he could stop himself. he continued talking as he ripped his bedsheets out of his bag and began to fidget around his bed, making it up in case he slept here tonight. “it wasn’t either of you. it was… it was me. i made some judgements, too quickly, and didn’t give you the time to prove them wrong.”
mingi didn’t ask what judgements, because yunho is pretty sure he knows how much of an idiot he acts like.
“ i’m sorry if i made you feel like you weren’t worth my time.”
he was met with complete silence, so as he tucked the last corner of the bed he turned to sit on it and look at mingi in the eyes. he found a very soft-looking mingi, in a very soft-looking sleep-shirt, with very soft-looking eyes staring right back at him from where the taller boy curled up on his own bed.
“ that’s nice,” said mingi, smiling sleepily. it was a sad smile, one with years more intelligence than the dopey ones he put on for their friends. “i’m glad it wasn’t me.”
“ can i ask why you don’t just play music?”
“ do you want me to play music?”
“ no,” said yunho. “i just want to know why you don’t.”
“ everything’s crazy. everyone’s crazy, too. life is all over the place. music is a trip. listening to one sound on loop makes things less complicated.”
“ why sounds like that?”
“ eva?” yunho nodded, and mingi inhaled, a rustling of sheets the only thing in the quiet night. “move-in day reminded me of that. wall-e only ever knew one thing, his home planet full of trash and sorting through it on a daily. he still found the magic in that trash world, little things like puzzles and toys. and then eva showed up and showed him this whole new world, and even when things became absolutely nut-case crazy, wall-e still managed to find the little pieces of magic, like eva. if trash-world was high school, and college was gonna be all shiny and new, then i didn’t want to lose that.”
yunho didn’t know what to say to that, so he climbed under the covers and stared at mingi’s side profile instead. birds began to sing outside. “i thought you were really stupid.”
“ lots of people do.”
“ do you want them to think that way?”
“ if it makes them feel happy, sure. if it makes them feel better about themselves, or at least gives them a laugh, then i’ll play the crewman number six.”
yunho doesn’t know what that means, and now he only feels more stupid.
“ see? you don’t feel good. i should say something dumb now, and make you laugh, but i can’t think straight when you’re around.”
yunho has the sudden urge to hug something, anything, preferably mingi. he wants a hug. that’s not weird, right? he’s always been a touchy person. hugs are how he makes things better. yunho really wants to hug the thoughts right out of mingi.
“ mingi?”
“ hm?”
“ can i hug you?”
“ i reek like sweat.”
“ i want to.”
"okay."
yunho crawls out from under his own covers and under mingi's arm, where he's been holding up the sheets for him. he tucks his face into the crook of mingi's neck and his knees up, effectively balling himself against mingi's side.
"mingi?"
"hm?"
"why don't you hate me?"
"why would i?"
"either you'd hate me or you wouldn't care at all, but i've been avoiding you, rolling my eyes at you, and dismissing you since basically before we even met. why wouldn't you?"
"i figured you had your reasons."
"they weren't very good ones," mumbles yunho.
"nevertheless, they're reasons. and you changed your mind on those reasons, that's why you're here. so why should i hold a grudge? i'm just happy you feel comfortable around me now."
"thanks," says yunho, squirming into a more comfortable position and nuzzling his cheek against mingi's collarbone. mingi doesn't ask what for, instead wraps his arms and the sheets around yunho and cuddles him 'til the sun comes up. mingi best roommate. 10/10 would recommend getting a mingi. mingi is loud, dopey, and he acts stupid all the time for the best reason.