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Jisung burst through the open door of the RA’s room and declared, “We have a thief in our midst!”
Wonpil didn’t even bother glancing up from his laptop, “Go away, Jisung.”
“W-what?” Jisung sputtered, “I have a problem!”
“An actual problem this time or are you just being dramatic again?”
Jisung let out an indignant huff and folded his arms across his chest, “I am not dramatic.”
Wonpil leveled him with a hard stare and Jisung relented, “Okay, fine, I have been known to be a bit dramatic. But this is a real problem!”
Wonpil didn’t seem fully convinced but he waved Jisung inside anyway, getting up and crossing over to the door to close it as Jisung got settled on his bed.
“Don’t get comfortable.”
“You’re in a mood today,” Jisung mumbled, but stood up anyway.
Wonpil ignored that statement, “What’s going on? What’s the problem?”
“Oh, yeah.” Jisung’s huffiness bled away and he bounced on his toes before rocking back on his heels and stating, for the second time, with added flair, “There’s a thief in our midst.”
“If this is because your roommate ate your snacks again, I swear, Jisung, I’ll…”
Jisung cut him off before any threats could be made, “This isn’t about Felix. He didn’t do anything.”
Wonpil didn’t seem fully convinced, but he gestured at Jisung to continue anyway.
Jisung took a deep breath, “Someone stole my favorite sweater.”
“Felix?”
“I told you this has nothing to do with Felix,” Jisung dug his phone out of his pocket and swiped through it until he found what he was looking for. He held the phone out to Wonpil, jabbing his finger at the picture. It featured Jisung with his arm around his boyfriend, laughing at the camera. He was wearing a pink fuzzy sweater that matched the flush of his cheeks. “Felix hates this sweater. Besides, it was stolen from the laundry, not from my room.”
Wonpil stared at the photo for a few seconds and Jisung could tell he was exasperated, but Jisung wasn’t going to let this slide. He loved that sweater and he wanted whoever had taken it to go down for their crimes.
“I was doing my laundry, right? I know the sweater was in there. But when I went to get everything, after the dryer was done, the sweater was gone.” Jisung locked his phone and shoved it back in his pocket as Wonpil closed his eyes, his fingers rubbing at his temples.
“You left your laundry alone in the laundry room?”
“Well, yeah,” Jisung waved that away. “I wasn’t going to hang out there for two hours, of course I went back to my room.”
“Jisung, you can’t leave things unattended and then coming crying to me when something gets stolen. There are thousands of people at this school and not all of them are nice. Next time,” Wonpil placed a hand between Jisung’s shoulder blades and nudged him towards the door, “sit with your shit until it’s done.”
“You’re not going to help me?” Jisung blinked, surprise flirting over his features as Wonpil yanked open the door and shoved him out. “I have an actual problem this time and you’re just going to dismiss it?”
“I can’t help you. Please don’t leave your things alone.”
The door shut in Jisung’s face and he stood there, shocked at being thrown out. He knew he’d been a bit of a nuisance earlier in the year, bothering Wonpil all the time over petty problems, but now he had an actual issue. Someone stole his sweater!
Well, if Wonpil wasn’t going to help him, Jisung was going to have to go over his head. He stomped towards the stairs and made his way down, hoping the head RA would take this more seriously than Wonpil had.
When Jisung arrived at Chan’s room he slammed on the door, banging for a few minutes before he was forced to accept the fact that no one was home.
A door across the hall cracked open and Jisung turned, watching as it opened fully and a boy materialized in the doorway.
“He’s not there. Please stop making so much noise.”
“Do you know when he’ll be back?”
The boy shook his head and Jisung sighed.
“Can you give him a message for me when he gets back?”
“No.”
The door slammed and Jisung huffed, turning back to Chan’s door. There was a whiteboard affixed in the middle, bearing a notice about a mandatory floor meeting that Thursday at 7. Jisung scrubbed it away with his sleeve, then picked up the marker that was attached to the board and scrawled his own message. He signed it with his name and his room number before heading back upstairs, ready to wait for Chan to come help.
-
A half hour later there was a knock on Jisung’s door and he scrambled across the room to throw it open, his ‘thank goodness’ dying on his lips when he saw that Chan wasn’t alone.
“What are you doing here?” Jisung scowled, stepping aside to let Chan and Wonpil in to the room.
Chan answered for him, “When I saw your note stating there was an emergency and you needed to speak to me ASAP, I contacted Wonpil. As your RA, he’s the first person you should have gone to. I found out that you had talked to him. And that there isn’t actually an emergency.”
“Someone stole my favorite sweater! It is an emergency! A fashion emergency!”
Chan put a hand on Jisung’s shoulder and gently led him over to the bed, sitting him down and taking a seat next to him. Wonpil stayed by the door, arms crossed over his chest and annoyance on his face. Jisung avoided looking his way.
“I’ve been told that you have a tendency to be a bit...” Chan hesitated, “...dramatic about things. I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing, please don’t take it that way. I just need you to understand that we have a lot of issues to deal with and a lot of people to help, and I don’t want to belittle your problems in any way, but some things can be settled without our help. I know you believe someone stole your sweater from the laundry room, but I really need you to think back. Are you sure it was in the laundry? Could it possibly be somewhere in your room? Did you lend it to someone and forget?”
“I think I would know if I gave someone my favorite sweater,” Jisung sulked. “It was in the laundry!”
“You’re absolutely sure of it?”
“100%,” Jisung crossed his arms over his chest, lips set in a determined line.
Chan nodded to himself, “Okay. Was anything else missing?”
“No, just the sweater.”
Chan got to his feet, giving Jisung a reassuring pat on the thigh, “Look, I’m sorry your sweater was taken, but there’s not much we can do in this situation. If we get any more reports of clothes being stolen from the laundry, we’ll definitely look into it more, but as of right now, it’s just one missing item. We can’t start knocking on doors and searching people’s rooms. From now on, please don’t leave your things unattended in a common space.”
The two RAs left the room just as Felix returned from class and he glanced, confused, between Jisung and the two retreating males, “What’s going on? Are you okay?”
“Someone stole my sweater,” Jisung flopped back onto his bed and wrapped his arms around his favorite plushie, pouting. “They won’t help.”
“That fuzzy pink disaster?”
“It’s not a disaster,” Jisung sacrificed the toy, chucking it at Felix’s head. “It’s nice and pretty and I wore it on my first date with Minho.”
Felix’s expression softened, understanding dawning, “Oh.”
“Why would someone steal my sweater?” Jisung dropped his head to the pillow and stared at the ceiling. “Do you think someone in the dorm is secretly in love with me and stole the sweater to feel close to me?”
“I do not.”
“I’m loveable,” Jisung ignored Felix. “That’s totally a possibility. They’re obsessed with me and couldn’t resist when they saw I left my laundry alone. I wear that sweater all the time, any proper stalker would know how much I love it. That’s obviously the first thing they would take.”
“I don’t want you to take me adding to this conversation as a sign that I think it’s plausible, because I don’t, but wouldn’t a weird stalker steal your underwear first? Not an ugly sweater?”
“My stalker isn’t weird,” Jisung huffed indignantly. “They’re so madly in love with me that they need to feel like they’re in my embrace. Hence the sweater.”
Jisung rolled onto his stomach, propping himself up on his elbows and resting his chin in his cupped hands, “It’s probably Hyunjin.”
“Hyunjin is not secretly in love with you. He’s dating some guy who lives on the first floor. Seungmin or something.” Felix tossed Jisung’s plushie back to him, then headed towards the door, “Speaking of Hyunjin, I’m going to go hang out with him until you start acting rationally again.”
“I can’t believe you’re abandoning me in this trying time.”
Felix rolled his eyes, “Goodbye, Jisung.”
Once Felix was gone, Jisung dug his phone out of his pocket and facetimed the only person who understood him. Minho’s beaming face dominated the screen and Jisung felt calm for the first time all day, smiling back at his boyfriend, “I miss you!”
“I miss you too!”
The phone jerked and Jisung saw Minho’s roommate Changbin waving at him in the background, “Miss you three.”
Jisung laughed and blew Changbin a kiss, which the older boy caught before disappearing from the screen. Jisung heard the door close and knew they were alone as the camera focused back on Minho’s pretty face.
“Hi.”
Minho laughed, “Hi.”
“I’ve had the worst day,” Jisung sighed as his lips tugged down into a frown. Minho’s hand reached towards the phone and Jisung knew that meant he was trying to comfort him, so Jisung gave him a small smile. “But seeing you is making it better.”
“What happened?”
“Someone stole something from my laundry,” Jisung pouted. “I told my RA, but he didn’t care. So then I went to the head RA, but he talked to my RA before he talked to me, and now he thinks I’m being dramatic too. He said they can’t help.”
Minho was properly appalled, “Someone stole your things from the laundry and they don’t care? That’s ridiculous. Whoever it is is probably madly in love with you and wanted something of yours.”
“Thank you!” Jisung knew he could always count on Minho. “That’s exactly what I said to Felix! He thinks I’m crazy.”
“Felix is the crazy one. You’re perfect, of course people are secretly in love with you.”
Jisung smiled, then scrunched his nose up and screwed his eyes shut, putting on his best aegyo voice, “The whole world loves me, but I only love you.”
“I love you too. I’m coming to visit this weekend, okay? If they haven’t helped you by then, I’ll deal with it. No one messes with my baby.”
Jisung puckered his lips as Minho did the same on the other side of the camera, both making a kissy noise before ending the call. Jisung dropped his phone back to the bed and wished, not for the first time, that he hadn’t chosen to go to a different university than Minho.
-
It was finally Friday and Jisung was bouncing on his toes at the bus stop, arms wrapped tightly around his body in an attempt to ward off the bitter chill that was cutting through campus. He’d spent most of the week bothering Chan, since Woojin had stopped answering his door on Wednesday, but nothing had been done about the sweater situation. No one else had reported any stolen items and until they did, Chan refused to do anything more than smile sadly at Jisung and tell him he was sorry.
When Minho’s bus finally pulled up and his boyfriend climbed down, Jisung flung himself into his arms, burrowing into the older boy’s warmth. Minho hugged him tightly and pressed a giggly kiss to the crown of Jisung’s head, whispering about how much he’d missed him.
“I missed you more,” Jisung tilted his face up and was met with Minho’s soft mouth, warm and comforting and familiar. “Transfer here, live in my dorm room. Felix won’t care.”
“Felix definitely would care,” Minho untangled himself from Jisung’s hold and picked up his hand, slotting their fingers together. “Let’s get inside, it’s too cold out.”
Jisung clung to Minho’s arm the whole walk back to his dorm, whining about how the RAs still refused to help him. Which was why, when they entered the building, Minho stopped, “Where’s Chan’s room?”
Jisung led him over and Minho pounded on the door, Jisung hiding behind him as he knocked. Chan’s welcoming smile fell off his face when he answered, concern bleeding into his features at the angry set of Minho’s mouth.
“My boyfriend,” Jisung peeked over Minho’s shoulder and shot Chan a peace sign, “tells me that some of his personal property was stolen and nothing has been done about it. He’s very concerned that the person who took it has some sort obsession with him, and took the clothing in an effort to feel closer. He’s worried about his safety and you have done absolutely nothing to make sure that he’s okay!”
Jisung’s shock was reflected on Chan’s face, “He didn’t tell us he was scared.”
“Well he is,” Minho glowered at the older boy. “What are you going to do now?”
“I, um…” Chan seemed at a loss and he glanced at Jisung, then looked off down the hallway. “You guys wait in here. I’ll go get Wonpil and we can all discuss it together, is that okay?”
Minho nodded and stepped into the room, Jisung still hanging off his back. Chan shot Jisung a questioning look before tugging the door closed, leaving Minho and Jisung alone.
“What was that about?” Jisung shimmied out of his jacket and tossed it on Chan’s bed. “I’m not scared.”
Minho shrugged, working at the buttons on his own coat, “I needed to say something to make him listen.”
Minho’s coat fell away and joined Jisung’s on the bed as horror washed over Jisung’s face. Minho frowned at him, “What?”
Jisung didn’t say anything, just raised his hand and pointed at the fuzzy pink sweater Minho was wearing. Minho glanced down, then back up, his eyes widening in understanding, “Is this what you told them was stolen?”
“Maybe.”
“You gave it to me last time I visited! So I could feel closer to you when we’re apart!”
“I forgot!” Jisung grabbed the hem of the sweater, tugging it up and over Minho’s head. His boyfriend just stared at him, shirtless and hair now mussed, “Oh, god, why aren’t you wearing anything underneath? We need to hide this! They can’t know you had it, they’re going to murder me! I told them eight hundred times that I hadn’t lost it or given it to anyone!”
Jisung pulled his own sweater off, revealing a rumpled white t-shirt. He pushed it in to Minho’s hand, but before he could tug it on, the door opened.
They turned slowly to see Chan and Wonpil standing in the doorway, staring.
“You better be half naked because you two were about to have sex, and not because your boyfriend was wearing the damn sweater you’ve spent the whole week insisting was stolen,” Wonpil’s delivery was deadpan, but Jisung could see the simmering anger in his eyes.
Jisung laughed nervously, the sweater clutched in the hand he’d hurried to hide behind his back. He reached out and placed his free hand on Minho’s stomach, thumbing at the sharp dip of his hip bone, “That’s exactly what’s going on here. He’s just so hot, you know? Chan left us alone in a room with a bed and we couldn’t resist.”
Minho stepped back from Jisung and gathered their coats from the bed, snatching the sweater out of Jisung’s hand and bundling it with the jackets and Jisung’s own sweater.
“You know what,” Jisung twined his finger through Minho’s belt loop and began shuffling towards the door, tugging his boyfriend along with him, “I think I’ve bothered you two enough. Let’s forget about this whole sweater business and just move on. I’ll buy a new sweater. It’s fine. You guys were great, love you both, couldn’t ask for better RAs.”
Chan stepped aside so they could exit his room, but Wonpil didn’t move, a death glare intent on Jisung’s face. Jisung smiled, though he knew it came across as more of a grimace, and hurried out of the room. He pulled Minho close behind him and Wonpil slammed the door closed the second they crossed the threshold.
Jisung’s hand was still tangled in Minho’s jeans as he pressed him against the door across the hall from Chan’s, kissing him fiercely. Minho let out a soft noise of surprise, but let the bundle of clothes in his hands drop as he latched onto Jisung’s hips.
“What are you doing?” he asked breathlessly as Jisung dusted kisses across his cheeks and lips.
Jisung pulled back slightly, then ducked back in to smack a loud kiss off Minho’s nose. He grinned brightly at his favorite person in the world, “You were wearing my sweater. You love me.”
“You already know I love you, you idiot,” Minho laughed, but let Jisung kiss him senseless anyway. “I can’t believe you forgot you gave it me.”
“I remember now,” Jisung hands had drifted from Minho’s belt to his torso, softly running up and down his bare skin. “I just, I don’t know, it was missing and I panicked. It’s important to me, since I wore it to our first date and you told me I looked beautiful. Rationality went out the window when I noticed it was gone. I really thought it was in that load of laundry.”
“You always look beautiful,” Minho reached up and tucked a stray stand of blond hair behind Jisung’s ear, his fingers brushing gently over his flushed cheek before they pulled away.
Jisung had just dipped in for another kiss when the door behind them was wrenched open and they tumbled to the ground. Jisung landed on top of Minho, straddling his boyfriend as he took in the two pair of legs on the other side of the door. His gaze traveled up, a smile lighting his face when he saw who was there.
“Hyunjin!” he happily greeted his friend. His eyes danced to the other boy and recognized him as the kid who refused to tell Chan he was looking for him. “You must be Seungmin! It’s nice to meet you! I’m Jisung and this is my boyfriend, Minho.”
Minho lifted one of the hands that was bracketing Jisung’s hips and waved.
Hyunjin let out a tired sigh, already used to the pair of them, but Seungmin kept staring, obviously appalled, “Why were you making out against my door?”
“We got kicked out of Chan’s room,” Jisung climbed off Minho and stood, offering his boyfriend his hand and tugging him to his feet.
This news was equally as devastating to Seungmin, “Why were you making out in Chan’s room?”
“We actually weren’t,” Minho ducked back into the hall and grabbed the pink sweater, pulling it over his head. “But we might have. If left alone a little longer.”
Chan’s door opened and the four of them turned to see Wonpil come out, his gaze landing on the sweater Minho was now wearing. He didn’t say anything, but his heavy sigh was enough.
Jisung winced, “Sorry, dude. I really thought it was stolen.”
“Please don’t talk to me for at least three weeks.”
“I can’t make any promises!” Jisung called to his retreating back. “Felix has been eyeing my Pringles!”