You were wearing one of Taeyong's hoodies, and it was pretty big on you. The end reached the mid of your thigh and it gave you sweater paws, and for the first few minutes you thought it was cute. Hey! You could now live out your dream of being an aesthetic girl on pinterest holding a book for show with those sweater paws!

But after half an hour, you realized you had to keep pushing the sleeves up so you could help Taeyong build the miniature. It was getting pretty annoying, especially since you were handling glue and your fingers were already sticky.

Taeyong on the other hand was perfectly content with building it all on his own if it meant he could see you in that state. You looked absolutely adorable with your lips set in an indignant pout over those damn sleeves. You were sitting criss-cross opposite him on his room floor, with the miniature in the making between the two of you.

You had managed to get the walls of one of the houses upright and standing, and now was focusing on the roof. Taeyong applied the glue on the edges that had to be stuck onto the walls, before placing it carefully on top and lifting his fingers gently so as to not break the structure that the two of you had thirty minutes of your lives into.

You on the other hand, was trying to apply drops of clue on the little cardboard roof tiles that had come with it. They were tiny, and a pain to work with, but for the sake of it, you stuck it out.

You sighed exasperatedly as one of the pieces fell onto your palm and decided to stick there. Peeling it off, you looked up at the ceiling and to the window, noting that the roses were still alive, by some miracle.

"You are watering them!" You said, pleased with him. He nodded sheepishly, clapping his hands and dusting them off, "Okay, should we start with the roof tiles?"

You groaned, "I've added glue to like three, help me with them and we can do it as we go."

He obliged, taking a handful of the darn things and the other bottle of glue, doing his best to squeeze out a precise drop on each one. You watched him lose patience over them much like you were doing so and it made you feel slightly better. At least you weren't the only one suffering through it anymore.

Placing the first tile at the edge of the roof, you held your breath, praying it wouldn't fall off and would stick. Thankfully, it did, and you went on to the next, placing it right beside the first and humming an idle tune as you did so.

He joined you, and soon there was a line of little cardboard tiles at the edge. His fingers occasionally brushed against yours, sending that stupid fluttery feeling to your stomach.

You had come to the conclusion, after finishing half of the roof, that making miniatures was walking a fine line between pain in the ass and stressful and therapeutic. With the amount of times Taeyong had caught you swearing at the inanimate structure, you were leaning towards the first.

"You know, sometimes I wonder how it would be if we all lived in a perfect world," you said abruptly, "Just, nothing wrong you know? No writer's block, no exams, just staying right where we are."

"You think it's perfect where we are?" He asked, voice softer than you expected it to be.You nodded, "I like it the way things are, you know? Change makes shit volatile."

He hummed in agreement, "Yeah."

"That's why I write," you continued, "If I can make it up and put it into words on a page, or even a document. Does it make it real in some sense? I don't know, but in my mind, I guess it's a sort of escape."

You got to your feet with a sigh, " Like sure, I'm a journalism major, so really my job is to write about facts but If I can write a perfect world, at least every time I write it I can forget the real one."

He watched you speak, and got up himself to where you were standing, which was by the window. Your eyes were trained on the roses, hands around yourself. "So what is your idea of a perfect world?"
"Promise you won't get offended?"
"As long as it's not something like 'My lovely best friend does not exist' then I'll be fine."

You laughed, nodding, "Well, you still have completely dark hair, without the highlights." You started softly, looking up, "We're still freshmen, Yeji isn't moving away, and-" You hesitated, looking back down at your feet.

"And?" He prompted you to go on. There was not even a semblance of pressure in his voice, just curiosity.

The ghost of the words lingered on your lips, but you couldn't bring yourself to say it, it was too risky. In your perfect world, Taeyong would be yours. You glanced to your side to think of what you could say.

"And the roses wouldn't have died," you said, grinning teasingly, "These are new aren't they?"

Taeyong looked scandalized, stuttering out an excuse, "What-why would you think that?" He laughed nervously. You raised an eyebrow and he sighed, "Fine, okay I got new ones so you wouldn't give me your death glare for killing the first ones the second time,"

You giggled, glad to see that he seemingly believed your lie. "I'm not mad, it was kind of expected."

"Hey!"

The conversation fell into a comfortable silence. He sighed, "Maybe that's why people make miniatures, you know? Because it's an easy process with a perfect outcome. Maybe they think their mini world can be their perfect one."

You looked over to your miniature, only one house was made, the details still had to be added to it, but one could make out what it was supposed to be. You still had the other half to go and the placing of them together so it looked like the two of your houses.

"What if we just pretended that later on in life we moved in together so we don't have to build the other house right away?" He asked, "That can be my perfect world."

You cocked your head to the side in confusion, and he continued to explain, "You know, after graduation, if we can still stay together, we should move in together, we can have cereal anytime of the day with no one judging us."

"Together," you repeated, "That sounds really nice actually."

"Yeah?"

And that's when you realize how close the two of you are, it's too close. You could feel the breath of his words on you, and your cheeks felt impossibly hot. "Together," you repeated again, stupidly almost as your eyes fell to his lips.

No, this was dangerous, it was stupid and wistful and-

"Can I?" His voice was just above a whisper and your breath hitched in your throat. You swallowed the lump in your throat, "Can you what?"

"I have a feeling you'll slap me," he said truthfully, licking his lips. Gathering whatever courage you had, you let out a breath you didn't know you were holding in. "Only one way to find out then, right?"

You wanted to scream for sounding so nervous, for your voice being so shaky, but you couldn't help it. He leaned forward and-

Lee Taeyong kissed you.

He was kissing you? He was kissing you, and your knees almost buckled, they would have if not for his hands falling on your waist and pulling you closer to him.

Your hands worked on their own accord, entangling in his hair as you kissed him back. His kisses were soft, deliberate. You didn't quite know if it was real, or if you were dreaming. Maybe this was your writing, your imagination of having him.

It was definitely nothing like you had imagined it to be, but you didn't mind. It was just a little clumsy, as if the two of you were still figuring out where you wanted to go with it. You tugged slightly on the ends of his hair, pulling away only to press your lips back to his.

And despite it being your first kiss with him, you were falling and falling and falling. You had always been in love with Taeyong, but this was different wasn't it? This just wasn't your imagination, this was real.

He pulled away, resting his forehead against yours. You felt warm, like there was a fire in your chest that was burning brightly and you didn't particularly want to put it out.

"I like the idea," you said finally, "of being together after graduation. Of being together."

He stayed silent, choosing to cup your face and pull you into another kiss instead of responding. The miniature on the floor lay long forgotten, the new roses in the mug sitting on the sill.

Things were changing once again, but this time you didn't quite mind it.