Ficorpio
Chapter 1
【Dual Male Leads】My roommate is always trying to drag me into the shower so he can scrub my back.
While he does it, he tells me I smell amazing.
He also likes climbing into my bed and falling asleep with his arms around me.
While he’s rubbing against me, he says I’m soft.
On top of that, he finishes whatever I leave on my plate.
He even does my underwear in the laundry sometimes.
I honestly thought this was just guys being close.
It wasn’t until one of our other roommates asked if we were dating that I realized something might be seriously off.
After that, I started avoiding him.
Then he cornered me in the shared bathroom.
He lowered his head and bit my lip, his voice dark and dangerous.
“If I’d known you were going to run from me, I wouldn’t have bothered pretending in the first place.”
—
Logan Hayes was from up north. He was pushing six-three, looked cold as hell, and was actually ridiculously clingy.
A week after school started, he invited me to shower with him so we could scrub each other’s backs.
I’m from the South. I do not have any habit of getting naked with other men for bonding purposes, so I turned him down on the spot.
I didn’t expect him to look at me with a miserable expression and say that where he came from, guys did that all the time. It was how they bonded. Then he asked if I just didn’t think of him as a real friend.
He even said that as a northerner who’d just come down south, I was the first genuinely nice person he’d met here.
And apparently, I’d only been nice with my mouth. I didn’t actually mean it.
The thing was, all I’d done during move-in was help him put a bedsheet on his mattress once. Then, out of politeness, I’d told him if he needed anything later, he could ask me.
I had no idea he would immediately file me under close friend.
But when a guy that tall stood there looking like a drenched puppy with drooping ears, I caved.
So I agreed.
I thought it would be a one-time thing.
I was wrong.
After that, every time I went to shower, he somehow squeezed in after me too.
He called it building friendship.
I turned him down a few more times, but every single time, he gave me those pathetic puppy eyes.
Eventually I ran out of ways to refuse and just let him do whatever he wanted.
Later, he got even bolder.
Whenever I couldn’t finish my food, he’d pull the plate over and eat the rest himself.
At first I thought maybe his family didn’t have much money.
Then I glanced down at the designer sneakers on his feet that probably cost more than my monthly living expenses.
Right. The broke one was me.
Chapter 2
But the most ridiculous thing happened one night when he climbed onto my bed and said, “Evan, I’m kind of scared of the dark. Can I sleep with you?”
I looked him over, full of suspicion. “So you weren’t scared of the dark when school first started?”
“I was,” he said. “We just weren’t close yet, so I could only lie there and scroll on my phone until sunrise.”
Thinking back, he actually had looked exhausted those first few days. That made me a little less doubtful.
When I didn’t answer for a long time, Logan’s eyes dimmed instantly. He lowered his head, voice soft and dejected.
“Evan, do you seriously not think of me as your friend? I thought we were already close. I can’t believe you won’t even sleep in the same bed with me…”
There it was again.
I sighed helplessly. “That’s not it. Go get your pillow.”
Once there was a first time, of course there was a second.
So the next night, when he showed up hugging his pillow and climbed into my bed again, I didn’t say anything. I just silently scooted inward to make room for him.
After that, he became more and more enthusiastic about scrubbing my back.
More and more eager to eat my leftovers.
And climbing into my bed? He got so practiced at it he might as well have lived there.
Then one time, he wrapped an arm around my waist from behind while we were sleeping, buried his face in the crook of my neck, and rubbed against me a little as he mumbled, “Baby, you’re so soft. And you smell so good.”
My heart skipped.
A sharp sense that something was wrong flooded me almost instantly.
I turned around and shoved him away, then asked flatly, “Do close guy friends do that too?”
Logan’s gaze was unfocused. He still seemed half out of it, like he wanted to lean back in and bury his face against my neck again. His voice came out rough.
“Y-yeah. Of course.”
I still wasn’t convinced.
Not until he made a video call to some friends from back home and proved that, apparently, they really did act that way with each other too.
Only then did I finally let my suspicions go and silently accept all his “just guys being close” behavior.
Before this, I’d honestly believed this was just how close guy friends acted.
Ryan had pulled me out onto the balcony a few minutes earlier, ears red as he asked, “Evan… are you and Logan dating? Could I ask you for some relationship advice?”
Dating?
Me and who?
Who was dating me?
I’d stared at him, completely baffled, and hurried to explain, “No, we’re not dating. Logan and I are just guys being close.”
Ryan had looked like he wanted to say more, but then a harsh crashing sound came from inside the dorm.
We both turned at the same time.
Logan was back.
Chapter 3
He stood there with a dark expression, staring in our direction—or more specifically, glaring at Ryan like he wanted to kill him on sight.
Ryan, somehow oblivious, gave me an awkward little smile. “Sorry. I guess I got the wrong idea.”
I shook my head to show I didn’t mind.
After Ryan left the room, Logan was still staring at the closed door like he could burn a hole through it.
I didn’t have the attention to spare for him. My mind was still stuck on what Ryan had just said.
Did other people really look at me and Logan and think we were dating?
But Logan had told me this was normal for guys from his side of the country. And I’d even seen proof—those friends of his were even more affectionate than we were.
They’d even kissed each other on the cheek.
“Baby, you two…”
Something brushed lightly against my leg, snapping me back to myself.
At some point Logan had crouched down beside me. He was half-squatting by my chair now, his voice hesitant. “What were you talking about?”
I lowered my eyes to look at him.
His chin was resting on my thigh, and those dark, bright eyes were fixed on me so intently he looked exactly like a golden retriever begging for attention.
I reached out and touched his cheek. “Nothing.”
He grabbed my hand at once, urgency creeping into his voice. “Does he like you?”
I blinked.
I had no idea how his brain had made that leap.
Absentmindedly, I ruffled his hair and leaned back in my chair with a helpless sigh. “No. Don’t overthink it.”
“Then why did he call you out there?”
I already knew that if he didn’t get an answer he liked, he wouldn’t let it go.
So I sighed and told him, “He was asking whether you and I are dating.”
Then I turned and looked straight into his eyes.
“Logan… are we?”
The moment he heard that, his gaze darted away.
All at once he seemed bizarrely busy—running a hand through his hair, scratching his cheek, rubbing the back of his neck.
Only after all that did he mutter, without much conviction, “N-no, right? We’re just guys being close.”
My eyes drifted to the tips of his ears.
They were red.
That evening, I gathered my clothes and headed for the shared bathroom, with Logan trailing close behind me as usual.
Right before I went in, I stopped him. “I want to shower by myself tonight.”
He parted his lips, like he wanted to argue.
I cut him off before he could. “Be good, okay?”
I patted his face, used the motion to nudge him backward, and shut the door neatly in front of him.
In the last sliver before the door closed completely, I saw him standing there in a daze, fingers lifting to the spot I’d just touched.
After my shower, while I was drying my hair, I got a text from my childhood friend Ryan Brooks.
If I Try Online Dating Again I’m a Dog: You free this weekend? Come have a drink with me?
Q: Got dumped again?
If I Try Online Dating Again I’m a Dog: [sobbing emoji sticker]
If I Try Online Dating Again I’m a Dog: No!!
If I Try Online Dating Again I’m a Dog: I dumped him!!!