falling over, falling into
➳ In which Hendery falls over with his bike in front of you, and you realise that you are in the same major because you head to the same lecture hall afterwards.
♦ Pairing: uni student!Hendery x uni student!reader/you
♦ Genre: fluff, comedy, slice of life, uni au
♦ Words: 6.4k
♦ Warning: -
♦ 99 liners’ uni stories: Yukhei / Mark / Hendery / Xiaojun
♦ Click here to be added to the TAGLIST and to let me know about your fic preferences.
You wondered whether it was that bad to be the only girl in the biochemistry major, whether the stares that you had gotten had been only because of the fact that you were the only girl, or maybe they had looked at everyone the same way considering that everyone was new here? Well, being a first year student at university was confusing and a bit terrifying. You knew no one in your major, let alone in the department, and your best friend was studying at a different university, so you didn’t see familiar faces around, and that one orientation day the past week was enough to make you feel small anyways.
So you were deep in thought, feeling a bit discouraged already as you were walking to a lecture, and you would have gone on your way without any mishaps if a random guy hadn’t just fallen over his bike right in front of you. Quite literally.
It happened so quickly; he was riding his bike on the street ever so casually, and then in the next second, he literally crashed into a pillar and fell over his bike, falling to the ground as if he hadn’t watched what was in front of him.
You didn’t think twice about it; you immediately curried over to his side, crouching down, ready to help him get up.
“Oh my gosh! Are you okay?” you asked worriedly, your heart beating so loud as if you had seen someone die in front of you. That fall was so abrupt though, you didn’t even have time to process what was going on, you already found yourself by his side.
The boy was up to his feet in no time, dusting off his light jacket and denim jeans, flashing a wide grin at you. He looked totally unharmed and not at all surprised; as if it hadn’t been the first time he had gotten himself into such calamity. Still, his state worried you, so you couldn’t help but furrow your eyebrows out of concern.
“Yeah, yeah, sure, it’s not serious. I just didn’t really look ahead,” he admitted through a light chuckle that was enough to ease your nerves a bit, but not enough to completely dissolve your worry.
“Are you really okay?” you inquired yet again, but the boy just nodded, his smile not faltering a bit. Gosh, how could he look so cheerful even after falling off his bike? You couldn’t quite understand. “Do you have a band-aid?”
“I don’t, but it’s really not that serious.” He shook his head, bright as ever. Even though he had an apparent scratch on his hand, he seemed not to mind the sight. Unlike you.
“I’ll give you one. Just one second,” you remarked as you reached into your tote bag, searching for a band-aid that you kept there in case of emergency - not that you wore high heels a lot of times, but you never knew neither with shoes, nor with minor bruises, so you always had some plasters on hand. As you found a piece, you reached it out to him, hoping that he would at least put this on.
“Thank you.” He flashed an even wider grin at you as he got rid of the protective covering of the band-aid and put it on his scratch. You were immediately more relieved when you saw it happening because come on, it was basic decency to help someone who had fallen over his bike right in front of you! Not that it had happened before, thus you hadn’t known what you should have done, but you hoped that your assistance was enough.
On the other hand, you knew that you didn’t have more to say to him, so when awkward silence filled the air, you cleared your throat.
“Then, I’ll get going.”
“Yeah, sure. Thanks again.” The boy bobbed his head a bit as a sign of his gratitude, his smile ever so radiant. You let your lips curl upwards as you gave him one last look and turned on your heel to head to the science building, not quite believing what had just happened in under a few minutes. It couldn’t be any longer, could be? It was probably just another one of those chance encounters in your life that seemed all too surreal.
Before you would enter the lecture hall for your class, you paid a visit to the bathroom, but when you came out of it, you saw the same boy from before looking around the line of lecture halls with his phone in his hand. You wondered whether he was a first year just like you or his memory was rather bad for not remembering the numbering system, but you didn’t want to ponder over it for too long, so since you knew where to go (the little campus tour during the orientation day had done you good), you walked to lecture hall III confidently.
However, the boy was still lurking around the area between lecture hall III and V, and when he caught sight of you, he flashed a wide grin at you and inquired, pointing at the door in front of you:
“Cell biology?”
“Yes.” You nodded after a bit of hesitation, trying to mask your surprise. So was he in the same year with you, studying the same major?
“Thank god.” He let out a huff in relief before he reached for his locks to brush a few out of his eyes. You had to admit he was kind of cute, but such assumptions never helped with your non-existent social skills, especially not when it came to boys, so you tried to shush away your thoughts, focusing on not bumping into the door instead as he held it for you. What a polite boy.
“Oh right! I knew you were familiar from somewhere! You’re the only girl in our major,” he chattered joyfully when you two finally entered the lecture hall, spotting a few guys occupying some seats in the back and one guy sitting in the front row with his headphones on. You should have known that it was easier for him to remember the only girl in the major than for you to remember all the guys’ faces.
As you walked up the stairs, the boy continued on talking as if you had been friends for ages.
“Which is odd because I have a friend from KU, and they have a lot of girls there. I don’t know what happened to SNU and the biochem major. Though I’ve heard a rumour that it was more difficult to get into biochem here than elsewhere because of all the extra requirements. Not that you should feel bad or anything for being the only girl. I think it’s pretty cool. Just let me know if any guy bothers you, I’m gonna fight them for you,” he offered all too passionately, his supportive words catching you off-guard, your steps halting a bit on the stairs.
Since you were with your back to him, you didn’t have to worry about him seeing your flushed face for now, but you knew that it was inevitable for you to face him anyways, so you turned around, saving yourself from further overthinking.
“Okay, thanks,” you attempted to sound extra grateful instead of shy, gifting him with a side-smile. His lips curled upwards even more, his face filled up with his radiant, beaming smile.
“I know I don’t look like the type, but I can fight,” he clarified, patting his arms covered with the jacket he wore, and despite him looking like a quite lanky guy, you believed that he was a rather muscular one because it was easier and less awkward if you had done so. He didn’t need to prove you in front of everyone else.
You didn’t know how to comment on this newfound information, so you turned back to the stairs until you reached the rows in the middle and sat down, putting your bag on the table, the boy following you earnestly.
“Well, I hope you don’t mind having me as a seatmate because in that case…” He plopped down next to you without waiting for your approval, but you wouldn’t have minded either way. You quickly glanced at his hand as he was packing out of his bag, but it did seem like he wasn’t in pain because he didn’t hiss when his plastered hand came in contact with his pile of textbooks.
“I’m Hendery, by the way.” He turned back to you with his trademark smile, and since you were staring at him, you caught his eyes as he looked into yours, seeing nothing but kindness and affection in his orbs. You decided to follow your heart and trust him that he was indeed a friendly guy, introducing yourself in return for his name and letting him accompany you for your classes for the rest of the day.
After that, Hendery was practically glued to you. At first, you assumed that he would go away like the passing wind - coming and going smoothly and leaving nothing but memories of his trademark scent and cosy atmosphere behind -, but he stayed, and soon enough, you found yourself looking forward to your classes solely because he would be there. You became lab partners and you worked on assignments together, helping each other through the pile of work the professors threw at you. Before, you couldn’t have imagined why university students would crumble under the amount of assignments and revising they would need to do, but now you understood why.
You had never been the type to sleep through classes, but you seriously felt like falling asleep a few times as weeks went by, and you stayed up later and later as you tried to squeeze everything into your day. It wasn’t easy, but you liked that you could be working your way around your classes, setting up a schedule on your own. Besides your studies, you also became more independent and since it was the first time you were away from your family, you needed to learn - for example - how to do the laundry on your own, and you also had to take care of your meals. Which might have seemed trivial to others, but your mother would never let you do any of those, so you got a taste of real life without your parents’ supervision, and it felt both odd and good.
You didn’t make any friends apart from Hendery, but you wouldn’t have had it another way. His company was more than enough to fill your days with laughter and joy, and even when you needed to stay at the library together, working together on assignments late into night, his presence provided you with something that you couldn’t quite put your finger on. Not yet.
“I’ll buy something to drink,” Hendery announced as he leaned back into the chair and stretched his arms over his head. You had been in the library for a few hours now, but you still needed to revise another chapter for your exam the next day.
“You forgot your water bottle again?” You furrowed your eyebrows, a hint of an amused smile hiding in the corner of your lips.
“Hey! It’s been only a month since I got it,” he declared dramatically, putting a hand over his heart as if you had hurt him with your words. That’s just who he was though, extraordinary in the best way possible.
“No. I’m good, thanks,” you replied to his previous question, shooting a weary smile at him before turning back to your textbook, muffling a yawn. He walked away giddily, and if you hadn’t known him, you wouldn’t have known how he managed to stay so energetic even at 10pm. But it was Hendery, and he was always on cloud nine, his energy the same as a little kid’s who was on sugar high. His restlessness could make you crack a smile even in your most frustrated moments, so despite him being very different from you, you were thankful that he was being this way.
You were concentrating hard on memorising an equation when you heard footsteps from behind and there was a bottle of your favourite smoothie in front of you in the next minute. You looked up at Hendery, your eyes wide in surprise.
“I’ve noticed that you often buy this one,” he explained with his trademark smile, casually sitting back into his chair. You were so shocked that you kept staring at him, and your eyes wandered on his boyish features, the crook of his nose, the fluffiness of his chocolate-brown locks, the arch of his lopsided smile and the gentle touch of his when his hands brushed yours when he put down the bottle in front of you.
“Thank you,” you croaked out, still surprised by the fact that he had noticed such little things about you in the first place, and that he still remembered this detail. He sometimes seemed like he could lose his head any minute for how forgetful he was, so you felt extra grateful for him and his considerate action.
“Anytime,” he mentioned through the warmth of his gaze that invited streaks of burgundy onto your cheeks. You couldn’t bear to look at him anymore in your state, so you turned back to your textbook, trying to concentrate on the words.
Thankfully, the atmosphere was never awkward around Hendery, so you soon slipped back into the same cosy, almost homey feeling that you always felt beside him. Even something as mundane as revising seemed less daunting when he was around, and for all the fun stories you could listen to while you were walking back to the dorms together after your study sessions, it was all worth it.
“I’ve actually managed to walk into a shopping mall’s glass door once,” Hendery admitted that day, and you were nowhere near shocked anymore because it was him after all. You had met first when he had fallen over his bike in front of you.
“How? Couldn’t you see that there was a door there?” you asked between little fists of laughter. You knew Hendery wouldn’t mind you laughing at him because that’s exactly why he shared those stories with you, but still, you didn’t want to outright laugh into his face.
“I mean, it’s made of glass, and when I don’t wear my glasses or contact lenses, I really can’t see the difference between a glass door and well… the air,” he explained all too seriously for such a hilarious story, and you couldn’t bear it anymore, you let out a wholehearted laughter, earning a smile from the boy in the meantime.
“I can’t believe how such things happen to you.”
“Well, I’m a rather extra guy,” he boasted proudly, straightening his back as if he really wanted to show off. You kept giggling while he was holding the door of the dormitory for you, your stomach hurting from laughing so much.
“I know that,” you acknowledged joyfully, walking towards the elevator which meant the end of your conversation because Hendery would be going up to the fifth floor while you had your room on the first floor, and you always chose the stairs for the said distance.
You turned to him as you two waited for the elevator to arrive on the ground floor, and you found yourself smiling at his beaming self despite the tiredness that was taking hold of your body. Even the hours spent at the library seemed more bearable with him, but somehow, words didn’t seem to grasp what you were feeling, so you stayed quiet, sharing a gaze with him until he bid his goodbye, wishing you a good night. You waved as the elevator door closed on him, and smiled as you took the stairs to your room.
Before university, all you had wanted was to get into Biochemistry at your preferred university, and you had tried your very best - sometimes even more - to get in, your senior year filled with more sleepless nights than peaceful ones. Yet, now that you had been studying here for more than a semester, preparing for the midterms during your second semester, you had not been so sure why you had ever wanted to come here, why you had ever wanted to choose this major. Maybe you weren’t that qualified to be here or maybe you had expected more from yourself than you should have. It hurt you when your efforts didn’t pay off, and it bugged you because you didn’t know what else to do; you were already studying so much, you were already trying out different tricks and tips to study more effectively, to remember more.
With the midterms around the corner and these doubtful thoughts, you were more stressed than usually, and it showed in the way you didn’t have the energy to reply to Hendery’s messages each day, and in the way you smiled less, laughed less and constantly turned down the boy’s invitations to hang out more. You didn’t mean to distance yourself from him, but he seemed to enjoy himself so much that you didn’t have the heart to complain to him, yet you were terrible at pretending that everything was fine.
So you felt like you were stuck in the prison of your own feelings and boundaries, and there was no escape. No matter what path you walked down, you were either hurting yourself or the boy, and you wanted neither of those. Hence, you put up with everything, hoping that the feelings would just go away with the passing time, but then again, Hendery was Hendery, and he might not have wanted to voice out if he had noticed how you had been acting lately, but you couldn’t have not notice the way he always sent you encouraging messages and reminders to drink water, sleep enough and not to overwork yourself, and he was buying you your favourite smoothie and snacks ever so often when you were studying together in the library.
It was one of those days, staying in the library late into night, revising for a midterm exam. You let out a yawn as you finished revising yet another chapter, and despite your will to go through the whole section of the book that you had needed to learn for the exam, you found your head hanging lower, your eyes heavy. It surely had been some time since you had gotten a good night’s sleep because if it hadn’t been for studying, all those worries had kept you awake anyways.
“Should we call it a day?” Hendery caught onto your sleepy self right immediately, and you didn’t know whether it was because he had been keeping an eye on you, or you had merely yawned too obviously that he asked such a question so quickly, but you didn’t need much convincing.
“Yeah, we can. I mean, if you want to stay-”
“No, no. I was just hoping that you would finish too, so that we can go back to the dorms together,” he clarified with an almost bittersweet smile, and despite the gentle tone to his words, you knew what he might have been referring to. Lately, you had let him go back to the dorms earlier because you had wanted to stay in the library longer. You had always shrugged it off, thinking that Hendery might have been really fine with it if he had said so, but now it dawned on you that you might have been hurting him, too.
“Sure. Let’s do that!” You concluded then, letting a weary smile occupy your lips. The boy’s lips slowly curled upwards, and you couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was - maybe relief? -, but he seemed like he was back to his usual self yet again.
You packed your stuff quickly, throwing your bag over your shoulder, stepping out into the pleasant spring night with the boy by your side. Seasons had changed so quickly ever since you had become a university student, so already feeling the cheeky breeze of air play with the locks that had escaped from your ponytail was rather odd. Thinking back to those months behind your back, you felt quite sentimental upon seeing the seasons change.
You walked in silence for a while, but then Hendery spoke up gently, and you could already sense that he was about to say something because he was being fidgety.
“You can tell me what’s on your mind. I might not be able to help if it’s something that I can’t control, but at least I can listen to what you have to say,” he blurted out seriously, and you wished he hadn’t needed to come to this point.
“It’s okay. It’ll go away.” You shrugged, avoiding his eyes because you really didn’t want to bring him down. He had been making your days so much better, so much brighter, yet all you would be able to give him was a bunch of complaints? You didn’t want that.
“How do you know that?” Hendery counter-attacked, and the confidence in his voice triggered an alarmed reaction in you. You averted your eyes back to him, and as the way the light from the nearby street lamps was reflected in his eyes, you saw confusion, guilt and helplessness. “You might just bottle it up, and I don’t want that,” he added quieter, almost like a whisper.
You had no idea when you had become such important parts of each other’s life, but you wanted to see him smile and laugh and you wanted him to share his funny stories with you without feeling the weight of your studies. You wanted to be as carefree as the first time you had met, but now you had to realise that this might not work given the circumstances, and no matter how much you trusted him, you were afraid of bringing vulnerability into your friendship.
“It’s just…” You started, coming to a halt after so little because there was just so much to say, yet words failed you immediately. You looked at him again, and he nodded encouragingly, so you talked to him about how disappointed you had been in yourself and your performance, and how you had been questioning your choice of coming here and choosing this major lately, and how it had weighed you down because that’s all you had been working for in your life. Letting the words flow like the river helped your heavy little heart to let go of the burden a bit, but it wasn’t until he said the following that you actually let your shoulders drop in relief:
“I’ve been feeling that way, too. There’s no shame about it,” he admitted with an encouraging smile, and you were so taken aback by his confession that you didn’t even know what to say. Yet, it was enough for the boy to keep going. “I might not have looked like it, but I was also doubting my choice. I guess it’s only natural if you’ve put so much effort into achieving something, and it’s not quite how you imagine it to be.”
“How do you deal with these thoughts?”
You can’t help but inquire since he seems so collected, not someone who can be easily swayed. Of course, that could still mean that he felt a lot, too, just showed it differently.
“I think of it as an experience. Even if something doesn’t turn out the way you’ve wanted it to, even if that something was your one and only dream in life, at least you could say you’ve tried to make it come true. You would have regretted it if you hadn’t even tried, but if you are thinking that it might not have been a good choice, at least you’ve tried. Besides, we’re still so young, but we tend to think that our lives are determined at 20 or 25. For example, my mother found her calling at 40.”
Hendery talked so eloquently this time that you were surprised that he had such thoughts to himself. Not that you had assumed that he was a heartless robot, or that he took everything lightly because you knew all too well that he was taking things seriously even if he might not have seemed so, but still… It was a whole new side of him, and you were grateful that he dared to show it now that you were also being more vulnerable with him.
The walk to the dorms had never seemed so short than this day when you could have talked on forever about your worries and experiences and asking the boy how he viewed the situation you both had seemed to be in, but even that much peptalk was enough to put your heart and mind at ease, and for the first time in a while, you could sleep soundlessly without your worries keeping you awake.
Distance makes the heart grow fonder, as they say, and it couldn’t have been more relevant in your situation because as your first year at university came to an end, both Hendery and you went back home - to different parts of the country -, and you worked as a cashier during the summer to earn some extra money while Hendery spent a month in China visiting relatives, so it was difficult to arrange meeting up. Summer break wasn’t that long, but it seemed so due to the lack of face-to-face conversations with him, the endless library sessions and the fruit smoothies, the chattery walks back to the dorms, the funny stories about him and his two flatmates - Yukhei and Mark -, and of course the rambling sessions about your assignments and lab reports.
At first, you didn’t pay that much attention to that longing feeling in your chest because you told yourself that it was only because you liked routines and spending time with him had become a part of your routine. You were working full-time, so that should have occupied your thoughts, but you often found yourself wondering what he could be doing in that exact moment, and when you were walking home from the store alone, you wished that he could be there with you, sharing hilarious stories about his days and childhood and his chaotic life with his flatmates.
You kept in contact through texts and videochats, and you didn’t realise how obviously he made your days brighter until your mom asked why you were smiling at your phone these days. You had never been one to befriend boys, so it was rare that you were talking to one so intensively, but luckily, your mother didn’t give you any odd stares, she merely offered that Hendery could come visit you if he wanted. That didn’t happen due to him spending that month in China, but you were thankful for the suggestion as per se.
Needless to say, you were looking forward to the new semester like never before, and you were so giddy and restless when you moved back into the dorms that your smile was literally plastered onto your face. What you didn’t expect though was for him to wait for you in front of the dormitory after you had let him know while you had been on the train when exactly you would be arriving.
You froze for a moment when you caught sight of him because you were so surprised. The familiar warmth filled your heart as you looked at his excited lanky self, hair a bit messy and longer than before the summer break, but his smile, oh his smile, it was the same as always! Comforting, joyful and a bit like home.
When you began moving again, he started walking towards you as well, so you met halfway, and before you knew it, Hendery had already wrapped his arms around your body. It might have been because of the months you had spent apart, but you didn’t remember that he had always been this tall, but you welcomed the scent of his trademark lemongrass and mint shampoo as if you had been waiting for this moment, and maybe you had.
“Ah, I’ve missed you so much!” He mumbled into the crook of your neck, and his words spread through your veins like salvation. It felt so good to hear him say that because you had often wondered whether it had been only you thinking about him all day long.
“I’ve missed you, too,” you whispered back, letting the serene moment be engraved into your mind before it was over, and Hendery took a step back, bobbing his head in the direction of the dorms’ entrance.
“My family looked at me as if I was an alien whenever I was trying to talk about biochem stuff,” he started chattering as you began walking towards the huge glass door, the familiarity of the situation making you feel all giddy inside. “And Yukhei, that dude, didn’t fail to send us half-naked photos of himself working out in our groupchat, and basically, all we did with Mark after a week was to leave it on seen because what can you say to those? It’s not like I’m the one he’s trying to impress with his big muscles.”
“Didn’t he send them to his girlfriend?” You quirked an eyebrow with an amused smile, already having heard of Yukhei’s girlfriend.
“I hope not. Or at least, not all of them. I hope so. I didn’t dare to ask,” Hendery admitted, laughter accompanying his words as he tried to imagine the situation. Then, he shook his head and turned back to you, asking about you with the widest smile possible. You had missed the sight so much, it wasn’t the same through pictures.
Since you had basically texted him up until you had gotten on the train, you decided to tell him about the guy across your seat on the train who had basically broken up with his girlfriend through the phone, and all the passengers around him could hear it because he was talking so loudly, getting all upset and sulky. That had been the most interesting thing during the train ride, but Hendery listened to as attentively as if you had been telling him a secret.
The boy helped you with your suitcase without you mentioning anything, but you let him, knowing that he did it out of politeness, not because he deemed you a damsel in distress. You let both of you into your room, and knowing that your roommate wouldn’t arrive until a day later, you beckoned him to hop on your bed with you. However, before he would have done so, he hit his forehead, looking startled.
“Oh, I’ve forgotten something! Just a minute, I’ll be back!” Hendery promised, already bolting towards the door, and he was out of the room before you could say anything. You blinked around in confusion, but you decided to make yourself useful and started packing out of your suitcase while you were waiting for him.
You heard a knock on the door a few minutes later, and indeed, it was Hendery behind it, holding up a bottle of your favourite fruit smoothie as if he had been posing for a commercial.
“I’ve got you this! This semester can’t be the same without it!”
“Oh my gosh! You didn’t have to!” You squealed, more touched than you would have dared to admit, but you had a soft spot for that smoothie, and you knew that Hendery had always remembered your favourite. Still, you wouldn’t have thought that you would receive one from him on the day you move back to the dorms. “I have something for you, too!”
You stepped back, so that he could walk into the room again, and you immediately went searching for the food container in your suitcase. When you eventually took hold of it, you reached it out to him.
“My grandma made some hotteoks. I know you’ve said it’s your favourite Korean dessert, so I’ve asked her to show me how it’s done, but basically, she made it in the end,” you explained with an amused laughter because your grandma could never let anyone be in her kitchen without her interfering, and since you had asked for her assistance, she had ended up doing the whole thing, not letting you take part in it.
“Thank you so much! You’ve made enough for a whole class though,” Hendery remarked as he looked at the container in his hands, looking up at you after doing so, flashing you the brightest, loveliest smile.
“Oh, you have Yukhei and Mark, too. I’m not afraid that you won’t be able to eat all of it.”
“You’re right.” Hendery giggled, and so you finally sat down on your bed, munching on your grandma’s hotteoks and chattering about anything that came to mind as if you hadn’t been talking throughout the whole summer. It was different now though, having him be an arm length away from you, hearing his laughter, seeing his smile and just feeling his presence beside you. Nothing could compare to that feeling, like the soothing first ray of sunshine after a stormy night.
It was odd to think that it had been only a year ago that Hendery had fallen over his bike in front of you and you had offered him a band-aid because it seemed like you had known each other for a longer period of time. Sharing the same experiences, suffering through the same exams, having the same concerns had brought you closer to him than anyone else in the past year, and even though you had your own high school best friend studying at a different university and you still kept in touch, it wasn’t the same as being around Hendery all the time.
Maybe that’s why you were so reluctant to hope for anything more with the boy even though you had never seen him act like this around another girl. Well, not in your major, of course, but you had seen him interact with other females, and even though he was casual and friendly around others, he even told you that you were the closest girl to him (apart from his mother), and you had no idea what to do with that information, but still, the confession made your heart flutter, and you came back to his words every time you doubted his feelings towards you. You didn’t want to be delusional, but you couldn’t not notice the way he looked in guys’ directions who gave you odd stares, the way he took care of you and reminded you to take a rest through midterms and exam season, and of course remembering your favourite smoothie and bringing it to you every time you had a library session together.
Your love towards him grew more and more each day, but you didn’t want to get your hopes up high only to encounter a heartbreak in the end, so you were content without any big confession, just casually spending time with him as always. Even if his friends were wiggling their eyebrows whenever you came by their room, you decided to brush it off. You didn’t want Hendery to feel pressured into anything that he might not have felt or might not have realised.
Eventually, that turned out to be true because one day, totally out of the blue, someone knocked on your dorm room’s door, and there he was, panting, resting his hands on his knees as if you had been running.
“Hendey! What’s wrong?” you asked worriedly, ready to step closer to him to take a closer look at him, but he straightened his back in the next second, and you almost bumped into him. Quite literally. Well, it wouldn’t have been the first time you had gotten yourself into such situations. Life beside him was always a bit chaotic.
“There’s nothing wrong. I just…” He started and sucked in a deep breath, letting out a long exhale afterwards. You waited for him to continue patiently, ready to bring him a glass of water or whatever he needed. However, the way he continued made you go speechless. “I just think I’m in love with you.”
Silence. Only your erratic heartbeat could be heard, but oh boy, that was loud! You felt as if it would escape your ribcage, drumming so wildly. You had imagined this confession in many different ways, but when it finally happened, you didn’t know what to do with yourself. You were utterly shocked and swoon at the same time.
“When Yukhei and Mark were talking about what to buy for their girlfriends for Christmas, and they started talking about when they knew they had loved them, it just hit me. I-I really think I’m in love with you, and I didn’t want to waste more time, so I rushed over. I know it’s not the most perfect way to confess or anything, but…” He rumbled on and on, and you were sure that he would have kept rumbling if you had not crushed him into a bone-cracking hug, hugging him so tight, not wanting to let him go.
“It’s perfect to me, believe me. It’s perfect because it’s you,” you mumbled, feeling totally touched. You had never been in love, but you just couldn’t mistake this feeling for anything else, and you were extremely happy and thankful that he felt the same way.
“You sure?”
“Yes, I am.” You nodded a bit although he couldn’t have seen it because you were still hugging each other, but it didn’t matter. He knew it, he could feel it in the way you held onto his shirt so adamantly.
It seemed like he wasn’t the only one who had fallen when you two had met, you had fallen in love with him just as abruptly and just as chaotic as he had fallen over his bike. That was okay though because he was ready to patch up your heart with band-aids in case it got hurt anytime.