#frrrr oml if someone did this to me id be SO ANNOYED (wld still kinda think its sweet at the same time tho-)

[fairyhaos]

❍ the 2k event: minghao + password

alternative title: three words, eight letters

pairing: minghao x gn!reader

genre: college au, roommates au, friends to lovers, fluff

word count: 1068

warnings: none

event taglist (send ask to be added): @slytherinshua @rubywonu @weird-bookworm @amxlia-stars @pepperonijem @hannyoontify @my-moarmy-heart @suminsfav @minhui896 @haocovr @lockburn-castle @sweet-like-caramel @horanghae8

"Xu Minghao!"

There’s the sound of someone crashing through the apartment, and Minghao attempts to stifle his grin. Not even a second later, his bedroom door is thrown open and you stand at the threshold, laptop in hand, fuming.

“Xu Minghao,” you repeat, teeth gritted. “What have you done to my laptop?”

Minghao cocks an eyebrow. “I didn’t do anything.”

You scream, a frustrated yelp that would be much more terrifying if you weren’t pouting like a baby. It’s cute.

“Hao! Come on, I need this laptop for my assignments. Please, please tell me what the password is. What did you change it to?”

Minghao shakes his head, going back to his phone, sipping his cup of tea. “I told you, I didn’t do anything.”

There’s a long silence. He looks up.

You fold your arms, the laptop still dangling in one of your hands. You stare at your roommate for several seconds longer, before turning around on your heel with a sniff.

“Fine. I’m gonna call your mother and tell her that you’ve been bullying me.”

“Wait!” Immediately, he sets down his teacup and scrambles out of bed, following you as you run into the kitchen to dial Minghao’s mother and tattle on him. “Wait! Y/N, no, wait, I’ll give you a hint.”

“No. Give me the whole password,” you say, dangling your phone in the air, out of Minghao’s reach.

It works for all of five seconds, because Minghao is some crazy flexible person with ridiculously long arms. He snatches your phone away, exiting you out of the phone app and shutting your phone down. You whine, attempting to snatch your phone back but he holds a hand over your face, keeping you in place.

“A hint,” he repeats firmly, and there’s desperation in his eyes, along with something… warm? “I’ll give you a hint, and you won’t call my mother.”

You remove Minghao’s hand from your face, huffing. The laptop is on the counter beside you, and you glance at it before looking up at Minghao again.

“Fine,” you say at last, making grabby hands for your phone. “Gimme a hint.”

Minghao grins, bright and happy again. “The password is three words, eight letters. All lowercase.”

You huff as Minghao plops the phone back into your hand and then retreats back to his room. “That’s not a very safe password!” you yell back at him.

“Have fun!” is all he replies.

You roll your eyes, unable to stop yourself from smiling, just a little, at his antics.

———————————— ⌨️

“This absolute idiot,” you mutter to yourself, typing angrily on your laptop. “How can three words only have eight letters between them?”

The sun is now dipping below the horizon, slowly bleeding into the darkness of the night, and you’re still locked out from your own laptop. After receiving your hint from Minghao, you’d sat down at your desk, cracked your knuckles, and set to work.

It’s been hours since then. You’ve had your laptop bar you from inputting a password attempt at least ten times. You’re five more ‘incorrect password’ messages from tearing the thing to pieces.

“Minghao!” you yell. “Tell me my password!”

You receive no reply.

“Why did you change my password in the first place?”

Silence.

“Minghao, I hate you!”

Minghao laughs. “I love you, too!”

You grumble to yourself, staring at the log-in page in front of you. The log-in page stares mockingly back. The cursor continues blinking at you, and really, who knew that cursors knew how to look like they were laughing?

“I bet it’s something really simple,” you groan. “If I were Minghao, what would I change Y/N’s password to? What would annoy Y/N the most?”

This third-person thinking really just proved how the whole situation was driving you insane.

You frown down at your laptop, chin in hand, tapping your cheek thoughtfully.

“Minghao! Is it a sentence?”

There’s a brief pause. “Yes.”

Your eyes light up. “Of course! I-H-A-T-E-Y-O-U!”

The sound of dry laughter floats across the hall from Minghao’s bedroom. “Haha, Y/N, very funny.” He pauses. “You’re not far off, though.”

“What, you hate me?”

“No!” Minghao pokes his head out of his room, glaring at you. “Figure out your password yourself.”

“You’re the one who changed it!”

Minghao just shrugs, as if to say ‘that’s your problem’, and his head disappears with a slam of his bedroom door.

“Idiot,” you mutter. “What’s close to ‘I hate you’, anyway?”

But then you freeze, a shiver running down your spine, fingers halting on top of the keyboard. What if it’s not ‘I hate you’ but rather… 

Your brain is screaming at you, telling you to get out of your fantasies, but your heart is thrumming in your chest with hope, faint, foolish hope, and your fingers shakily input the letters anyway, holding your breath.

You press the ‘Enter’ key.

Your laptop’s homescreen wallpaper flashes up in front of you.

———————————— ⌨️

Minghao wakes up to a laptop in his lap, and a post-it note slapped on the lid.

He rubs his eyes, wondering idly if it’s a note telling him that you’ve taken his laptop hostage until he tells you the password to yours, before pausing. Because this is his laptop in his lap, right now, and your obnoxiously bright pink post-it note has a mere four words written on it.

Four words, eleven letters.

Minghao tilts his head, smiling, suddenly much more awake. The apartment is quiet, almost unusually so, and he can almost see you in his mind’s eye, already wide awake in your own room, waiting to see what his reaction will be.

Part of him is proud that you figured out the password to your own laptop. Part of him is annoyed that you messed with his in retaliation.

Well, he supposes, he kind of started this.

He thinks he already knows what you’ve changed his password to, considering the fact that you’ve decided to respond in this way rather than storm into his room and yell in his ear before promptly trying to pack a bag and leave him. 

Nevertheless, he won’t deny that his heartbeat is abnormally loud as he opens the laptop lid, typing in the password that comes to mind.

I love you too.

The log-in page pauses, loading, as if intentionally prolonging Minghao’s anticipation, before then it lets him in, presenting him with his laptop’s homescreen.

Minghao smiles.