It started as a joke—your best friend inviting you over for “casual game night” at her shared apartment. You thought it was innocent until you walked in and saw him again. Lee Heeseung. The roommate.

The one with silver rings and a muscle tee, grinning like he knew you were gonna show up just to suffer.

It was getting out of hand—every Thursday turned into some slow, flirty mental breakdown. Arm wrestling turned into him holding your wrist just a bit too long. Movie nights turned into him pulling you into his lap with a lazy “you look more comfortable here.”

You weren’t complaining. At first.

Until your best friend casually admitted that she had a thing for her roommate. “Heeseung's kinda cute, right?” she said, all smiley, sipping from her iced coffee. “But don’t tell him. I get shy.”

You felt your soul leave your body.

So, you did what any girl with a shred of loyalty and emotional damage would do: you shut that shit down.

You stopped flirting. You stopped calling him “pretty boy.” You stopped playing with his hair when he was going bankrupt on monopoly.

You started saying things like “pass me the chips, bro.” with a straight face. You started getting up from his lap like it wasn’t the safest place you’d ever known.

You even fist-bumped him once.

Heeseung was spiraling.

“I swear to god if you call me ‘bro’ one more time I’m throwing you out the window,” he muttered one night after Jenga.

You just smiled. “Lighten up, dude.”

He was dramatic about it, too. Started fake-flirting with everyone but you. “Noona, you’re so pretty,” he told your best friend’s cousin. Loudly. You just blinked. He pouted for a full twenty minutes.

You caught him glaring at your phone when you laughed at someone else’s message.

You caught him glaring at you when you asked Jay to fix your necklace.

And when he slammed his door during Uno and refused to “talk to traitors,” you had to physically stop yourself from laughing.

Heeseung wasn’t subtle. He was crashing out bad. And you were too.

But girls code was girls code, right?

…Right?