The three had made plans to go to campus together for the next day. Despite having classes start later in the day, Jude gladly initiated the plan, she had picked Vinny up and they both are now currently on their way to make one last stop.

Vinny is sitting in his usual spot on the passenger's seat. He had connected his phone to the audio player and is singing along to a song too loud for Jude's taste.

Jude doesn't care. Having her person of interest acting the complete opposite way he was yesterday, all quiet and nervous to his usual giddy and excited self, her heart is soothed by the tingly comforting warm feeling. This is the person she's in love with, and if seeing him happy means she has to sit through hours of hyperpop music blaring onto her ears then she'd let them bleed from it.

"This is a li~ttle too loud though." She says as her hand turned the volume control down, laughing to herself for speaking a little too soon.

"Not my fault your music taste sucks." Vinny said smugly, causing Jude to roll her eyes.

"We're here, tell Ked to come down." Jude said as she stopped her car in front of Ked's appartement building. Vinny pulled his phone out and sent a quick message to his new friend. He then took a good look at the apartment building.

"Kind of a fancy place." He commented, squinting his eyes as he looked up to see how tall the building is. Painted in black and grey, the building stretched up to about 20 plus floors.

"I know, right? It kinda suits him though. If that makes sense." Jude took a quick look for herself, but quickly averted her gaze to look at Vinny who's eyes is still glued outside. It took everything in her to not freak out over how cute he looked, head tilted upwards with his mouth slightly agape and his hands perched next to the window. An uncontained smile appeared on her face though, and her hand gripped the steering wheel just a little stronger for a second as she screamed internally.

"Yea i know what you mean.. he does seem ri- yoooo that's a cool beanie!" Vinny, interrupting himself, sat up straight and pointed at the blonde boy walking out of the doors. Jude looked to where he was pointing, spotting Ked immediately and noticing the beanie Vinny was talking about. It looked unassuming at first, though once you look further the beanie is pointed on it's two top sides, creating a cat ear look. Rather than cool, Jude thought it was cute.

"Dude, he can't see us. Pull the window down and call him." Jude says as she notices the boy looking around confused.

Vinny burst out laughing at Ked's awkward gesture. He followed Jude's order, calling Ked's name out after pulling the window down. Ked's face light up once he saw the car, soon jogging towards it with a hand clutching his cat ears beanie.

"Hey you guys!" He said upon entering the vehicle, closing the door after him.

"Cool beanie!" Vinny exclaimed, twisting his body to look back at Ked, earning a quick thanks from the latter.

Jude smiled at the two. "You boys ready to go?"

"Yup!" "Heck yeah!"

Chuckling at the latter response from Vinny, she gestured him to sit back properly before shifting gears and began driving.

-

"Goodluck with classes you two." Jude said as Vinny and Ked opened the car doors and stepped outside.

"Thanks for the ride, Jude." said Ked before closing the door. Jude smiled and nodded her head in response.

"Bye Judie~" Vinny exclaimed as he walked away, waving his hands in the air.

He turned his body once he sees her car drive away. Just as he turned, Ked put an arm around his shoulder and pulled him closer, startling him a little. Having their distance closed, Vinny got a good whiff of Ked's cologne. He never considered himself to be an expert, but this scent, he thought was the perfect embodiment of his tall friend.

"Es-tu prêt pour aujourd'hui ?" Ked said smugly.

"Yea, yea, show off. I don't fucking know what that means." Vinny rolled his eyes and stuffed his hands into his pockets.

"Language, monsieur." Ked said, leaning his head towards Vinny teasingly. The latter, somewhat flustered, shoved Ked's body away with his, though it didn't budge Ked's strength in the slightest.

"Says the french guy. Putain, putain!" Vinny mocked the last part while leaning his head towards Ked's in return, almost challenging him. He did have to walk a little on his toes to do this, having even Jude standing slightly taller than he is.

His action however, succeded in breaking Ked's stance, making him burst out laughing. Ked used his hand that was resting on Vinny's shoulder to tousle Vinny's fluffy locks.

"Race you to class." Ked suddenly said before sprinting forward. Vinny yelled out to him as he tried to fix his hair, chasing after Ked's wide back.

He has his hair played with by Jude a lot. But he can't help but notice the slight but noticeable difference when Ked does it. More playful and slightly rougher.

He felt his cheeks going warm as he continued running after the boy.

-

"Je suis 19ans. Like that?"

"No. Idiot. It's J'ai 19ans."

Vinny groaned in frustration. "Why the fuck does French work this way?" He slammed his pen to the table and crossed his arms. "I just wanna read some spicy French novels, man."

The professor had assigned his students to work in pairs and write down a paragraph to introduce themselves. Naturally, Vinny and Ked partnered up.

"We have about a year to learn this before that. If you wanna properly read French books you gotta start from the basics. Now continue this part, I'll help," Ked pointed at the paper and started explaining to Vinny on what to write down next, but the latter is focused on the beanie the former is wearing.

"..so it's actually J'habite, not Je habite-" "How do you say cat in French?" Vinny cut him off, his hand mindlessly touching one of the cat ear on Ked's beanie.

Ked looked at the innocent looking boy, and can't help but grin at his expression.

"It's.. chat. You like this?" he said as he removed the beanie from his head, then fixing his hair a bit before proceeding to put it on the brunette.

Vinny's eyes looked straight onto Ked's as the latter's strong hands fixed up the beanie on top of Vinny's head. Neither of them would admit it, but they each knew something had happened in that moment. Their hearts skipped a beat.

"Et voilà. T'es un chat." Ked almost whispered as he finished tidying up the beanie, his voice low sending shivers all over Vinny's body.

Ked couldn't describe the way Vinny looked. Neither in English or French. The boy sitting before him, now wearing his beanie, has wide eyes, slightly sparkling with delicate fondness, above chiseled cheeks that look peachy, warm, smooth. and to top it all off, thin lips, pale and a little chapped, teasing every bit of Ked.

In an attempt to hide his agitation, Vinny turned his gaze away onto the paper again, calling Ked an idiot as he crossed out the previous mistake on the paper. Ked on the other hand, was also just as flustered. He chuckled, resting his head on his hand facing away from the smaller boy, biting his lips to contain himself.

-

Jude:
I'm already outside. No rush, come when you're ready.

Vinny:
We're on our way down now.

-

Jude felt the tension. In the car, the other two boys seemed quiet. It wasn't a tension of hate, they weren't fighting, but the heavy air tells her something is going on, but she couldn't put a finger on it. Vinny is next to her somehow wearing Ked's beanie, his arms crossed tensely, head looking away from hers. Looking up at the rearview mirror she had a glance of Ked on the back seat. He has his head down as he scrolled through his phone. Somehow, she was too scared to break the ice.

From campus to Ked's appartement, the ride stayed soundless.

Jude slowly stopped her car on the same spot as this morning when she picked Ked up.

"Alright, here we are." She says, breaking the silence.

Ked's head perked up before realising where they are. He took his bag and opened the door.

"Thanks for the ride again Jude. See you guys tomorrow." Just as Ked was about to close the door and walk away, Vinny shot up on his seat and pulled down his window. "Your beanie." He says as he proceeded to reach for it to take it off, only to be stopped by Ked.

"No, no, keep it." Ked said while closing the car door. "I have another one in red. You keep this one." He smiled warmly before reaching to give Vinny's head a little pat, then walked away.

Vinny quietly put his window back up and exhaled. He then slumped in his seat with his eyes closed.

"Are you okay?" Jude asked, voice filled with concern for the sulky boy.

"I wanna go home." Vinny muttered.

Jude sighed, not knowing what to do. She just quietly drove the boy back home just like he wanted. What on earth happened to them?