o5.
☀ love is war
5318 words.
r ; minho/onew, onew/hara, and one-sided minho/hara
summary ; onew starts dating hara and minho gets jealous.
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Jinki is the last person Minho ever thought he would be jealous of.
Minho never guessed that he would envy goofy smiles, childish jokes, and body gags. There is nothing special about those kinds of quirks. They aren’t appealing, endearing, or even entertaining -- at all.
So, why the fuck did Goo Hara pick Jinki over Minho?
Minho stands in front of the mirror, eyebrows furrowing together, and knuckles white from his grip on the counter. He carefully scans over his face, looking for an obscene deformity that would frighten her away.
But no, Minho did not see anything wrong with his face. Handsome, as always, he thinks, smiling smugly at his reflection. He runs his finger along his jawline, giving his reflection a smoldering stare. He grins in satisfaction briefly, before frowning again.
He was absolutely perfect, why would she turn him down?
Minho storms out of the bathroom and into the living room, tired of looking for imperfections that don’t exist. He collapses onto the couch with a huff and crosses his arms. He stares intently at the television, struggling to focus on Jung Joori’s latest antics, but he finds it hard to laugh when his mind is clouded with anger.
“What’s wrong with you?” Jonghyun falls into the couch beside Minho. He throws his arm across the back of the couch, nudging Minho’s shoulder with his knuckle.
He shakes his head. “Nothing, I’m fine.” Minho looks down at his hands and sees several half-moons imprints on the skin of his palms. He folds his hands shut, hoping Jonghyun hadn’t seen the marks.
Jonghyun shrugs, dismissing the topic. “When are you going to bed? We have schedule early tomorrow,” he says, tapping Minho’s arm as a reminder.
“I’ll go to bed once Jinki comes home.” He forces a smile, making himself more comfortable as he stretches out on the couch. “I want to make sure his date went ok.”
A suggestive smile grows on Jonghyun’s face and he stands up slowly. “I really don’t think that’s a good idea, he’ll probably come home late --” he winks twice down at Minho, “-- if you know what I mean.”
Minho frowns up at Jonghyun, going rigid from his insinuation. “Hyung, don’t,” he snaps, his eyes narrowing in anger.
Jonghyun shrugs and slowly begins to walk out of the room. “Do what you want, but don’t complain when you wake up with a sore back from sleeping on the couch,” he taunts, walking around the corner.
Crossing his arms over his chest, Minho snorts. Jinki isn’t going to come home late, it’s his first date with her; they’re still getting to know each other.
Minho wakes up the next morning with a kink in his neck, sprawled across the couch, to Jonghyun crooning in his ear, “I told you so.”
Everyone watches in amazement as the guest of today’s Star King spins bowling balls on the tips of his fingers. The viewers gasp in shock as he throws one up in the air, daintily catching it again with his finger. Minho wonders why the guy’s fingers aren’t snapping under the weight of the balls.
He stands up and walks over to Kang Ho Dong. “Sure, he can spin them, but is he any good at the actual game?” he asks, a cheeky grin growing across his face. Everyone erupts into a fit of laughter, even though its not funny, but that’s fine, because everything is scripted, anyway.
Soon after, the PD calls for a break while the camera crew changes the tape. Joon claps Minho on his shoulder as he walks past, complimenting him on his excellent execution, before mumbling something about the bathroom and scampering away. Minho bites his lip, deciding that he should probably head off to the bathroom too.
He tells Taemin where he’s going with a series of gestures, making sure not to do anything too obscene -- incase a fan is recording him right now. Taemin pouts and visibly deflates, sinking his shoulders and letting his hands fall limp at his sides. Minho laughs, noticing that Taemin is all alone on his chair; Jonghyun is off flirting with Hyomin, Kibum is trying to figure out how the guy managed to spin bowling balls on his fingers, and Jinki is in the bathroom.
Minho shrugs and mouths an apology, before turning around and walking backstage to the bathroom.
On his way to the bathroom, Minho passes by SHINee’s dressing room. He stops abruptly when he hears voices coming from inside -- nobody is supposed to be in there right now. He opens the door slightly and peers inside, looking in to see who the culprits are before he scolds them for being in places they shouldn’t belong.
Once he looks inside, he instantly wishes he had just kept walking, and ignored the voices.
Inside, Jinki and Hara are sitting on the couch together. Minho watches as Hara puts her hand on Jinki’s knee, Jinki’s goofy grin quickly turns into a weak smile, and Minho can tell that he is nervous out of his mind.
Jinki’s hands shake when he brushes a strand of hair away from Hara’s face and she smiles at him like it’s the sweetest thing a boy has ever done for her. She places her other hand on Jinki’s neck and Minho watches as she tangles her fingers into the hair at the nape of his neck.
Minho is so angry his vision is starting to blur, but he can’t bring himself to look away. He doesn’t want to see Jinki and Hara kiss, but a part of him is hoping that if watches, he’ll see Jinki screw up the kiss, and end up making out with Hara’s nose, instead.
Jinki’s hands flutter around her and Minho smirks, it’s obvious that he doesn’t know where to put them, but Hara doesn’t find it as amusing as Minho does. She takes her hand off his knee and pushes his hands to her waist. Hara has a look of intense concentration on her face, like this is her first time doing this. Minho doubts that.
Minho can tell that Jinki is uncomfortable by the way his expression turns to a look of pain. Jinki is polite enough to hide his feelings of discomfort by ducking his head; Hara interprets his actions and shyness, but to Minho its just too obvious. She giggles behind her hand and then pushes Jinki’s chin up, smiling warmly when he finally looks up at her.
Hara tilts her head slightly to the side and moves her face closer to Jinki’s. Minho watches as their eyes simultaneously fall shut and jerks away from the door before he sees their lips touch. He feels like his body is on fire and all he wants to do right now, is leave.
He storms back to the set, not caring if the two love birds can hear him stomping through the halls. He manages to walk into Kibum on his way back, but aside from that, he returns to his chair relatively unscathed, in spite of his rage-clouded vision.
When his sight clears, he is disgusted to see that the people around him are still continuing with their lives without a care. All Minho wants to do right now, is punch a wall, or something, but he knows that with all the anger pooling inside of him, he’d just end up breaking his hand.
Nursing a broken hand wasn’t really the best remedy for a broken heart.
Taemin blinks at him from his chair beside Minho, legs curling up against his chest from the fear of Minho’s murderous entrance. “Are you mad?” he asks, and Minho sends him a scathing look. Taemin reaches a hand out to comfort him, albeit slow and careful, as if he is afraid of Minho attacking him.
“No,” Minho says through clenched teeth. His hands ball into fists so tight, they start to shake.
In obvious disbelief, Taemin sighs and pulls his hand away from Minho. He clasps his hands together and rests them on his lap, frowning lightly. “Is this about Jinki and Hara?” he whispers, making sure that no one around them can hear him.
Minho takes a slow, steady breath as he stares down Taemin. Taemin blinks furiously, making no noise as Minho struggles to calm himself down.
Finally, he gives a heavy sigh, leaning forward to rest his head in his hands. “Why is this bothering me so much?” he asks, taking shallow breaths from the spaces between his fingers.
Taemin relaxes and moves his chair closer to him, pressing his side close against Minho’s. He slings an arm around Minho and rests his head gently on Minho’s shoulder. “It’s alright, everyone gets jealous once in a while.”
“I’m not jealous,” Minho says, his body tenses and his elbow jerks back, catching Taemin in the side. Taemin flinches and backs away, distancing himself to prevent further harm.
Taemin frowns and juts out his lower lip. He opens his eyes wide as his lip quivers, trying to give Minho his best kicked-puppy look. Minho thinks he looks somewhat like a petrified Furby, but he relaxes, regardless. “I’m sorry.”
“You shouldn’t let it bother you,” Taemin starts, making slow movements towards Minho again, “don’t you think Jinki deserves to be happy? He always takes such good care of us.” He shrugs and reaches a hand out to rest on Minho’s knee. “Jinki is happy with Hara, you shouldn’t ruin that.”
Minho sighs and nods hesitantly, wondering how Taemin managed to change his opinion of himself from “tortured victim” to “heartless bastard” so quickly. He didn’t realize how selfish he was being, until Taemin pointed it out.
“You’re right.”
Taemin smiles and jumps to his feet. “It’s a good thing you’re not dating Hara, actually.” Taemin’s smile turns devilish, “If you two got married, your kids would look like aliens.” Taemin opens his eyes wide with his fingers, looking around the room eerily as he scampers away to the safety of Kibum’s side, narrowly avoiding Minho’s kick.
Minho laughs, realizing that Taemin is right, about everything. Minho is selfish for wanting Hara for himself, when Jinki does everything for him. Doesn’t Minho owe Jinki at least one kindness? It won’t be too bad, Minho reasons, as long as he doesn’t have to see Jinki holding hands, hugging, or kissing Hara. At least, not until he gets over her.
He frowns hard at the thought of Hara and Jinki kissing. It’s awkward and jerky and Hara frowns in distaste, but Jinki is trying so hard to make this work.
His anger flares up again and his body trembles in fury. He knows he can make her happier than Jinki ever could, he --
Minho stops himself before his thoughts go out of control. He sighs and closes his eyes tightly, taking deep breaths to calm his shakes. This is going to be harder than he thought.
Crawling into the backseat of the van, Minho collapses against the window. The Star King shoot had gone on for longer than expected, and Minho is exhausted.
Every time Jinki made a silly joke, he would glance over at Hara, checking to see if she would laugh. If she did (and she always fucking did), he would start smiling like an idiot, simultaneously ripping Minho’s heart in half and making him feel like throwing up.
If that wasn’t bad enough, every time a hint of anger showed on his face, Taemin would place his hand on Minho’s knee and he would frown at Minho in a way that made him feel like the biggest douche in the world.
Sometimes, Minho really hates what Taemin is capable of doing to him.
Minho closes his aching eyes and presses his face against the cool pane of the window; it’s uncomfortable, but he’s too tired to care. He feels someone slump beside him and he hopes he doesn’t try to strike up a conversation, he wants to enjoy his hour-long nap before he has to be “charismatic” again for their upcoming photoshoot.
He can tell the car is moving from the vibrations against the window. Minho takes in a slow breath as he gropes his pockets for his mp3 player. He finds it soon enough and blindly turns it on, thankful when a soft ballad comes on. He relaxes his muscles and allows his mind to drift, slowly succumbing to the pull of sleep.
Just as Minho is starting to dream about finding a mysterious set of keys, the person crushing him against the window of the van begins to shake him back to reality. “Minho? Minho, are you awake?”
Groaning, Minho lolls his head onto the other person’s shoulder, nestling his face into the crook of his neck. “I’m tired,” he says, grumbling.
Minho is too tired to open his eyes long enough to see who he’s talking to, but based on how comfortable his shoulder is, Minho is positive it isn’t Taemin. As he nuzzles more against the warmth of the person’s neck, Minho decides that it must be Jinki; if the person were Kibum or Jonghyun, he wouldn’t be as polite about waking Minho up.
“No, Minho, I want to talk to you,” Jinki persists, his shakes becoming more rough. “Please, just for a little while?”
Sighing, Minho lifts his head off Jinki’s shoulder, realizing now that Jinki is begging. Minho is sure that Jinki wouldn’t bother him over something trivial -- they all know how important sleep is.
“What’s wrong?” Minho asks, pausing his music and rubbing the sleep from his eyes before blinking over at Jinki.
Jinki quickly averts his gaze, choosing instead to look down at his lap. “Can I ask you something?”
Minho panics, worrying that somone told him about his crush on Hara. “Yeah, sure.” He manages to hide his fear behind a forced smile. “What do you need?” he coaxes, swallowing hard.
Jinki looks up with a wide smile. “Thanks, Minho!” he says, obviously overjoyed that Minho is willing to help him. “Well, I was wondering --”
Taemin stirs beside him and Jinki stiffens in shock. Taemin sighs as he rests his head against Jinki’s shoulder, smiling slightly before drifting back into a deep sleep.
“Never mind,” Jinki says, unintentionally whispering loud enough for Taemin to squirm again. “We can talk back at the dorm, ok?” he whispers again, albeit more quietly this time.
Thankful that he can go back to sleep, Minho nods. He nuzzles back into Jinki’s shoulder, enjoying the warmth of his skin. Jinki chuckles and makes slow, careful movements, trying not to disturb the two boys on his shoulders, until he is comfortable between them. He finally rests his head against Minho’s, and sighs in relaxation.
Minho doesn’t turn his music back on. Instead, he falls asleep to the sound of Jinki breathing, and dreams of flying above intricately grown gardens, illuminated by soft, flickering candles.
“Does it bother you?” Kibum asks, when Minho slings his arms around his and Jonghyun’s shoulders. Minho flinches when Kibum’s hand grabs at his neck, pulling him closer. Minho forces a smile, ignoring the pain of Kibum’s grip.
“The way Jinki’s been acting,” Kibum clarifies, smiling alongside Minho.
Minho feels his smile falter and the camera’s flash blinds him. “No,” he says. Minho looks away, blinking furiously; he blames his sore eyes on the flash from the camera. He hears Kibum scoffing beside him.
The photographer calls for a break and the boys disperse. Taemin and Jonghyun run over to the buffet table, stuffing their faces with food while their manager’s back is turned. Jinki sneaks away to the corner of the room before pulling out his phone, smiling down at the screen, and tapping at the keys furiously.
Kibum and Minho stay together on the set as their stylists touch-up their hair and make-up. The two sit in silence in the presence of their stylists, but when the girls leave, Kibum rounds on Minho.
“Why don’t you say something to him?” he asks. His tone is sharp and demanding, yet quiet enough not to attract attention. Minho’s eyebrows raise and he opens his mouth to reply, but Kibum continues. “This is obviously bothering you -- don’t even try to to deny it, I see the way you scowl whenever you catch him texting her -- so, why don’t you save yourself the grief and just tell him?”
The corners of Minho’s lips turn up in a lifeless smile, it always amused him how Kibum wasted no time getting to the point of what he was saying. “Jinki’s happy with her,” Minho says with a shrug, “I don’t want to get between them.”
He glances across the room at Jinki, unable to control himself as his mouth shapes into a sharp scowl. All day, Jinki has been on his phone. Minho is sure that he’s texting Hara, and he can only imagine what sort of messages they are exchanging, based on all the sappy, love-sick faces Jinki is making at his phone.
Kibum shakes Minho back to reality. “See what I mean?” he sighs, his expression softening.
Minho shakes his head and looks down at the ground. “It’s fine, I’m fine -- don’t worry.” He looks back up at Kibum and tries smiling again; this time, it feels less forced. “I’ll get over her, it’ll be ok,” he says, unsure if he’s trying to convince Kibum or himself.
“Is this really about Hara?” Kibum says, scrunching his eyebrows together.
“What do you mean?” Minho asks, frowning, “Of course this is about Hara.”
Kibum sighs, “Promise me you’ll tell him? Everything will work out, just trust me.”
Minho doesn’t promise him anything.
When they finally get back to the dorm, Minho has already forgotten about his talk with Jinki in the van. Although, he remembers all to quickly when Jinki walks in on him undressing, mumbling a quick: “Can we talk now? If you’re not busy,” looking everywhere but at Minho’s exposed torso.
Minho feels his face burn and rushes to tug back on his shirt. “Sure, h-hyung,” he says, not knowing why he feels so embarrassed; it’s not like Jinki has never seen him topless before.
Minho gestures for Jinki to take a seat on his bed, he follows after him once Jinki has made himself comfortable. The two sit together awkwardly for a few minutes, Jinki solemnly looking down at his hands while Minho eyes him expectantly.
“Hyung?”
Jinki looks up from his hands, smiling like he is in pain. “Just, give me a second.”
Minho arches a brow, he wonders what it is that Jinki wants to ask him. Considering the way he is acting, it must be something serious. He is red-faced and sweating, his legs are trembling, and he has to mentally prepare himself for what he is about to say.
Minho briefly wonders if Jinki has gotten Hara pregnant.
“I know,” Jinki starts, shaking Minho out of his irrational rage, “I know that you’re, really good with girls.” Minho starts to laugh, but stops abruptly after seeing Jinki’s crushed look. “I’m not like you.”
Minho leans forward and takes Jinki’s hands into his own (ignoring how hot and clammy they are) and gives them a light squeeze. He hopes the gesture comes across as warm and comforting, instead of awkward and weird, like how he currently feels.
“Hyung, what’s wrong?” he asks, noticing how Jinki visibly relaxes when Minho smiles at him.
Jinki looks down at their hands and takes in a slow breath, still trembling. “I want you to teach me how to kiss.”
Minho blinks, staying silent as he waits for Jinki to burst into laughter and shout, “Just kidding!”, but he never does.
“I’ve never -- I’ve never kissed anyone before,” Jinki confesses, his face turning a darker shade of red as he looks away from Minho’s intense stare. “I mean, I’ve kissed people before, of course... but I’ve never, really,” he looks back up at Minho, eyes squinting in embarrassment, “kissed someone.”
Minho fails to see how you can kiss someone, but not really. “But, didn’t you already kiss Hara?” he quickly looks away, worrying that Jinki will realize Minho spied on them earlier.
Jinki laughs and closes his eyes tight. “We almost did, but...” he opens one one slowly, as if trying to predict Minho’s reaction, “I chickened out at the last minute, we ended up just rubbing our cheeks together -- it was really awkward.”
Luckily, Minho is able to gather enough self-control at the last minute to hold in his laughter. Jinki is obviously mortified that he made such a fool of himself, but Minho can’t help but think how cute that would have looked.
He breathes in slowly, thinking carefully about what to say next. He decides to give Jinki the best advice he can come up with, it sounds like he really needs it.
“I was going to ask Jonghyun,” Jinki says quickly, snapping Minho out of his thoughts, “but he would probably teach me, um, other things... all I just want to know how to kiss!” the corners of his lips turn up slightly as he tries to make light of the situation, his other eye finally falling open to look at Minho.
“Kibum would’ve laughed, and Taemin would probably cry.” Minho laughs at that. “I figured you would be the best person to ask.”
He pulls his hands gently out of Minho’s, shifting his legs to move off the bed. “I understand if you don’t want to help me, you’re probably busy with other things.”
Minho shakes his head and places a hand on each of Jinki’s shoulders, holding him in a sitting position on the bed. “It’s fine, but hyung, kissing isn’t really something you can teach.”
Jinki frowns and looks back down at his hands. “Oh... I understand.”
Minho leans in closer, “You need to learn from experience.” He doesn’t know why he moved his face so close to Jinki’s, it just felt natural. The beating of his heart starts to speed up and he briefly wonders, what is going on?
Blinking, Jinki shifts around, but he doesn’t back away. He swallows hard and his Adam’s apple bobs in his throat, Minho feels weird for noticing. “Um, Minho -- you’re kind of, uh, close,” he says, but he doesn’t sound uncomfortable.
Minho moves his hand towards Jinki’s chin, his fingers dancing across Jinki’s neck and jawline, the skin hot from his blush. Minho tilts Jinki’s head slightly, smiling slightly.
“I thought you wanted to learn how to kiss.”
He closes his eyes and leans forward. Minho brushes his lips gently against Jinki’s and the sound of his heart pounding is deafening as he pushes their lips together harder. His hands slide across Jinki’s shoulder to hold onto the back of his neck. Minho notices right away that Jinki’s lips aren’t chapped at all, they’re pleasantly soft.
Jinki presses back, lightly at first, and Minho knows he is nervous. When Minho’s mouth opens into the kiss, Jinki responds slowly. They awkwardly bump noses and their teeth clash a few times, but soon, everything is just perfect.
Minho feels like he just won the Olympics. His heart swells in happiness and he temporarily forgets everything around him, except how everything in this moment feels right.
He feels like an idiot when he smiles during their kiss, but then Jinki’s lips twitch, matching every curve of Minho’s smile with one of his own. Minho pulls away slowly and he’s sure that he looks like a goof with this stupid smile on his face, but that doesn’t matter because he’s pretty sure he’s on a cloud, or something.
Jinki opens his eyes slowly and Minho watches the smile on his face as it shrinks to nothing. “Wait, Minho -- what?” he looks at Minho with wide eyes, shaking his head in confusion, and Minho feels his heart fall into his stomach.
“I’m sorry,” he says, looking at anything but Jinki, “I don’t know why I did that.” His face burns in embarrassment and shame, and he really doesn’t know why he did that.
“I have to leave,” Jinki says. Standing up, he basically sprints out the door.
Minho feels like dying.
When Minho wakes up in the morning, he’s glad to see that Jinki isn’t at the table. Actually, the table is completely empty, aside from Kibum.
“The others already ate breakfast,” he explains, looking up from his meal.
Minho nods and takes his seat across from Kibum. He scoops himself some rice and looks around at the food on the table. He doesn’t feel like eating right now, not after what happened last night.
“You told him,” Kibum says. He smiles, but he doesn’t quite look happy. “He broke up with Hara today.”
Minho blinks at him, but doesn’t say anything.
“He called her earlier this morning, and he’s been hiding in the bedroom ever since.” Kibum tongues at his cheek and Minho looks back down at his food, poking and prodding at his rice with his chopsticks. “What exactly did you say to him?” Even though Minho isn’t looking, he can tell Kibum is glaring at him.
“I didn’t say anything,” Minho snaps, and he’s being honest.
Kibum slams his chopsticks against the table and Minho flinches. “Well, then what did you do? I told you everything would work out, but somehow, you must’ve done something wrong.”
Minho sighs, “I don’t need this right now.” He shoves his bowl away from the edge of the table and stands up, Kibum takes in a sharp breath.
“Look, I don’t know what happened,” Kibum stands up and leans across the table to jab at Minho’s chest, “but I think you need to go talk to him. You shouldn’t keep secrets like this, especially when you don’t have to.”
“I really don’t know what you’re talking about,” Minho says and walks away from the table.
He had planned to go back to his room and hide in his bed for the rest of the day, but somehow he finds himself standing in front of Jinki’s door. He feels guilty for making Jinki break up with Hara, but he can’t ignore that a part of him is happy about this.
Was this his plan all along, to mess with Jinki’s mind so he’d break up with Hara? Now, Minho has a chance to go after her. He feels his heart clench, no, that’s not right.
He doesn’t even knock before entering the room. He is mildly surprised to find that the door isn’t locked, but then remembers that Jinki shares a room; it would be unfair of him to keep Kibum and Taemin out of their own room.
Jinki is sprawled out on his bed, hugging a pillow to his head, and looking away from the door. Minho easily manages to sneak into the room and sit on the bed, near Jinki’s foot. “Hyung, are you ok?” Minho feels like an idiot, “I heard about... what happened.”
“I’m fine,” he laughs and Minho gets worried. Should he really be laughing right after breaking up with someone?
Minho knows that he is probably the reason why Jinki broke up with Hara, but he wants to ask to make sure. Instead, he says: “Too bad you never got a chance to kiss her!” he laughs like it’s supposed to be funny.
Jinki rolls onto his back and smiles up at Minho. “Yeah, and I practiced really hard, too.” Minho feels his heart swell from how warmly Jinki is smiling and all of a sudden, the guilt of what he did hits him really hard.
“Hyung, did you break up of Hara because of what I did?”
Jinki replies bluntly, “Yes.” Minho doesn’t even have time to feel nervous.
He blinks at Jinki, stunned. “Oh -- hyung, I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to ruin your relationship.”
Jinki sits up and rubs at his eyes, still smiling. “I don’t think I really liked her, anyway.”
If he had said that yesterday, Minho might have gone into a rampage. Today, it doesn’t really matter.
“She... made me feel nervous, all the time.” Jinki shrugs and places his hands in his lap. “She made me uncomfortable a lot, like every time she touched me I would just -- I don’t know...” he shakes his head, his cheeks glowing with a tint of pink, “I thought it was because I liked her, but I don’t think so anymore.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Minho says, not feeling sorry at all.
“It’s alright. I’m glad I dated her though, if I hadn’t... I probably wouldn’t have realized that I liked someone else.” Jinki grins broadly and Minho looks down at his hands, he’s probably thinking about her now. Minho doesn’t know why he’s so mad.
“When I’m with, this person...” Jinki snickers, like he’s keeping a secret, “I never feel uncomfortable. When I’m with this person, I feel really, really happy, and when we touch -- it feels natural.” Jinki sighs but Minho knows that he still has that dopey grin on his face, “I don’t know how I didn’t realize before.”
Minho plays with the drawstring of his pajamas, trying hard not to overanalyze everything Jinki says.
Jinki gently grabs Minho’s chin, tilting his head so the two are facing. Minho continues to look down, he is not sure if he wants to look at Jinki’s lovesick face.
“Why are you acting so weird?” Jinki asks, and finally Minho looks up.
Minho brushes Jinki’s hand away from his face, he takes note of the confusion in Jinki’s eyes. “I’m glad that you found someone you really like,” he says, and suddenly Jinki is happy again, “when are you going to ask her out?”
The confusion returns and Jinki blinks. “Uh -- I kinda thought I already did...”
After a second, Minho manages to put the pieces together. “Wow, I’m really stupid,” he says, shaking his head in amazement. This is a first, Minho is normally really perceptive, he doesn’t know how he managed to keep himself in the dark for so long.
Jinki laughs and reaches out to hold Minho’s hands in his own. This time, when Minho’s heart beats a little faster, he doesn’t try to ignore it. “It’s okay, I was confused at first, too.”
When Jinki kisses him, Minho smiles. “Either you're a quick learner, or I'm a phenomenal teacher,” he says, his lips never leaving Jinki’s.
Jinki responds by skating his tongue along Minho’s lower lip and suddenly, Minho forgets how to talk.
Lol, why is this so long~~ D:
Hahah, I actually started this fic back in March, I have no idea why it took me so long to finish it. I did a lot of editing to this thing, in terms of its time line. Really, everything here is so different from my original draft, it's kinda weird. :/ Hopefully, everything still makes sense.
I'm glad to finally get this thing posted though, hahaha. :D Now I can go work on another fic thats been sitting in my WIP folder for the past few months! Woohoo~
Lol, just kidding. I'll probably just continue to ignore them all until December. ;D
5318 words.
r ; minho/onew, onew/hara, and one-sided minho/hara
summary ; onew starts dating hara and minho gets jealous.
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Jinki is the last person Minho ever thought he would be jealous of.
Minho never guessed that he would envy goofy smiles, childish jokes, and body gags. There is nothing special about those kinds of quirks. They aren’t appealing, endearing, or even entertaining -- at all.
So, why the fuck did Goo Hara pick Jinki over Minho?
Minho stands in front of the mirror, eyebrows furrowing together, and knuckles white from his grip on the counter. He carefully scans over his face, looking for an obscene deformity that would frighten her away.
But no, Minho did not see anything wrong with his face. Handsome, as always, he thinks, smiling smugly at his reflection. He runs his finger along his jawline, giving his reflection a smoldering stare. He grins in satisfaction briefly, before frowning again.
He was absolutely perfect, why would she turn him down?
Minho storms out of the bathroom and into the living room, tired of looking for imperfections that don’t exist. He collapses onto the couch with a huff and crosses his arms. He stares intently at the television, struggling to focus on Jung Joori’s latest antics, but he finds it hard to laugh when his mind is clouded with anger.
“What’s wrong with you?” Jonghyun falls into the couch beside Minho. He throws his arm across the back of the couch, nudging Minho’s shoulder with his knuckle.
He shakes his head. “Nothing, I’m fine.” Minho looks down at his hands and sees several half-moons imprints on the skin of his palms. He folds his hands shut, hoping Jonghyun hadn’t seen the marks.
Jonghyun shrugs, dismissing the topic. “When are you going to bed? We have schedule early tomorrow,” he says, tapping Minho’s arm as a reminder.
“I’ll go to bed once Jinki comes home.” He forces a smile, making himself more comfortable as he stretches out on the couch. “I want to make sure his date went ok.”
A suggestive smile grows on Jonghyun’s face and he stands up slowly. “I really don’t think that’s a good idea, he’ll probably come home late --” he winks twice down at Minho, “-- if you know what I mean.”
Minho frowns up at Jonghyun, going rigid from his insinuation. “Hyung, don’t,” he snaps, his eyes narrowing in anger.
Jonghyun shrugs and slowly begins to walk out of the room. “Do what you want, but don’t complain when you wake up with a sore back from sleeping on the couch,” he taunts, walking around the corner.
Crossing his arms over his chest, Minho snorts. Jinki isn’t going to come home late, it’s his first date with her; they’re still getting to know each other.
Minho wakes up the next morning with a kink in his neck, sprawled across the couch, to Jonghyun crooning in his ear, “I told you so.”
Everyone watches in amazement as the guest of today’s Star King spins bowling balls on the tips of his fingers. The viewers gasp in shock as he throws one up in the air, daintily catching it again with his finger. Minho wonders why the guy’s fingers aren’t snapping under the weight of the balls.
He stands up and walks over to Kang Ho Dong. “Sure, he can spin them, but is he any good at the actual game?” he asks, a cheeky grin growing across his face. Everyone erupts into a fit of laughter, even though its not funny, but that’s fine, because everything is scripted, anyway.
Soon after, the PD calls for a break while the camera crew changes the tape. Joon claps Minho on his shoulder as he walks past, complimenting him on his excellent execution, before mumbling something about the bathroom and scampering away. Minho bites his lip, deciding that he should probably head off to the bathroom too.
He tells Taemin where he’s going with a series of gestures, making sure not to do anything too obscene -- incase a fan is recording him right now. Taemin pouts and visibly deflates, sinking his shoulders and letting his hands fall limp at his sides. Minho laughs, noticing that Taemin is all alone on his chair; Jonghyun is off flirting with Hyomin, Kibum is trying to figure out how the guy managed to spin bowling balls on his fingers, and Jinki is in the bathroom.
Minho shrugs and mouths an apology, before turning around and walking backstage to the bathroom.
On his way to the bathroom, Minho passes by SHINee’s dressing room. He stops abruptly when he hears voices coming from inside -- nobody is supposed to be in there right now. He opens the door slightly and peers inside, looking in to see who the culprits are before he scolds them for being in places they shouldn’t belong.
Once he looks inside, he instantly wishes he had just kept walking, and ignored the voices.
Inside, Jinki and Hara are sitting on the couch together. Minho watches as Hara puts her hand on Jinki’s knee, Jinki’s goofy grin quickly turns into a weak smile, and Minho can tell that he is nervous out of his mind.
Jinki’s hands shake when he brushes a strand of hair away from Hara’s face and she smiles at him like it’s the sweetest thing a boy has ever done for her. She places her other hand on Jinki’s neck and Minho watches as she tangles her fingers into the hair at the nape of his neck.
Minho is so angry his vision is starting to blur, but he can’t bring himself to look away. He doesn’t want to see Jinki and Hara kiss, but a part of him is hoping that if watches, he’ll see Jinki screw up the kiss, and end up making out with Hara’s nose, instead.
Jinki’s hands flutter around her and Minho smirks, it’s obvious that he doesn’t know where to put them, but Hara doesn’t find it as amusing as Minho does. She takes her hand off his knee and pushes his hands to her waist. Hara has a look of intense concentration on her face, like this is her first time doing this. Minho doubts that.
Minho can tell that Jinki is uncomfortable by the way his expression turns to a look of pain. Jinki is polite enough to hide his feelings of discomfort by ducking his head; Hara interprets his actions and shyness, but to Minho its just too obvious. She giggles behind her hand and then pushes Jinki’s chin up, smiling warmly when he finally looks up at her.
Hara tilts her head slightly to the side and moves her face closer to Jinki’s. Minho watches as their eyes simultaneously fall shut and jerks away from the door before he sees their lips touch. He feels like his body is on fire and all he wants to do right now, is leave.
He storms back to the set, not caring if the two love birds can hear him stomping through the halls. He manages to walk into Kibum on his way back, but aside from that, he returns to his chair relatively unscathed, in spite of his rage-clouded vision.
When his sight clears, he is disgusted to see that the people around him are still continuing with their lives without a care. All Minho wants to do right now, is punch a wall, or something, but he knows that with all the anger pooling inside of him, he’d just end up breaking his hand.
Nursing a broken hand wasn’t really the best remedy for a broken heart.
Taemin blinks at him from his chair beside Minho, legs curling up against his chest from the fear of Minho’s murderous entrance. “Are you mad?” he asks, and Minho sends him a scathing look. Taemin reaches a hand out to comfort him, albeit slow and careful, as if he is afraid of Minho attacking him.
“No,” Minho says through clenched teeth. His hands ball into fists so tight, they start to shake.
In obvious disbelief, Taemin sighs and pulls his hand away from Minho. He clasps his hands together and rests them on his lap, frowning lightly. “Is this about Jinki and Hara?” he whispers, making sure that no one around them can hear him.
Minho takes a slow, steady breath as he stares down Taemin. Taemin blinks furiously, making no noise as Minho struggles to calm himself down.
Finally, he gives a heavy sigh, leaning forward to rest his head in his hands. “Why is this bothering me so much?” he asks, taking shallow breaths from the spaces between his fingers.
Taemin relaxes and moves his chair closer to him, pressing his side close against Minho’s. He slings an arm around Minho and rests his head gently on Minho’s shoulder. “It’s alright, everyone gets jealous once in a while.”
“I’m not jealous,” Minho says, his body tenses and his elbow jerks back, catching Taemin in the side. Taemin flinches and backs away, distancing himself to prevent further harm.
Taemin frowns and juts out his lower lip. He opens his eyes wide as his lip quivers, trying to give Minho his best kicked-puppy look. Minho thinks he looks somewhat like a petrified Furby, but he relaxes, regardless. “I’m sorry.”
“You shouldn’t let it bother you,” Taemin starts, making slow movements towards Minho again, “don’t you think Jinki deserves to be happy? He always takes such good care of us.” He shrugs and reaches a hand out to rest on Minho’s knee. “Jinki is happy with Hara, you shouldn’t ruin that.”
Minho sighs and nods hesitantly, wondering how Taemin managed to change his opinion of himself from “tortured victim” to “heartless bastard” so quickly. He didn’t realize how selfish he was being, until Taemin pointed it out.
“You’re right.”
Taemin smiles and jumps to his feet. “It’s a good thing you’re not dating Hara, actually.” Taemin’s smile turns devilish, “If you two got married, your kids would look like aliens.” Taemin opens his eyes wide with his fingers, looking around the room eerily as he scampers away to the safety of Kibum’s side, narrowly avoiding Minho’s kick.
Minho laughs, realizing that Taemin is right, about everything. Minho is selfish for wanting Hara for himself, when Jinki does everything for him. Doesn’t Minho owe Jinki at least one kindness? It won’t be too bad, Minho reasons, as long as he doesn’t have to see Jinki holding hands, hugging, or kissing Hara. At least, not until he gets over her.
He frowns hard at the thought of Hara and Jinki kissing. It’s awkward and jerky and Hara frowns in distaste, but Jinki is trying so hard to make this work.
His anger flares up again and his body trembles in fury. He knows he can make her happier than Jinki ever could, he --
Minho stops himself before his thoughts go out of control. He sighs and closes his eyes tightly, taking deep breaths to calm his shakes. This is going to be harder than he thought.
Crawling into the backseat of the van, Minho collapses against the window. The Star King shoot had gone on for longer than expected, and Minho is exhausted.
Every time Jinki made a silly joke, he would glance over at Hara, checking to see if she would laugh. If she did (and she always fucking did), he would start smiling like an idiot, simultaneously ripping Minho’s heart in half and making him feel like throwing up.
If that wasn’t bad enough, every time a hint of anger showed on his face, Taemin would place his hand on Minho’s knee and he would frown at Minho in a way that made him feel like the biggest douche in the world.
Sometimes, Minho really hates what Taemin is capable of doing to him.
Minho closes his aching eyes and presses his face against the cool pane of the window; it’s uncomfortable, but he’s too tired to care. He feels someone slump beside him and he hopes he doesn’t try to strike up a conversation, he wants to enjoy his hour-long nap before he has to be “charismatic” again for their upcoming photoshoot.
He can tell the car is moving from the vibrations against the window. Minho takes in a slow breath as he gropes his pockets for his mp3 player. He finds it soon enough and blindly turns it on, thankful when a soft ballad comes on. He relaxes his muscles and allows his mind to drift, slowly succumbing to the pull of sleep.
Just as Minho is starting to dream about finding a mysterious set of keys, the person crushing him against the window of the van begins to shake him back to reality. “Minho? Minho, are you awake?”
Groaning, Minho lolls his head onto the other person’s shoulder, nestling his face into the crook of his neck. “I’m tired,” he says, grumbling.
Minho is too tired to open his eyes long enough to see who he’s talking to, but based on how comfortable his shoulder is, Minho is positive it isn’t Taemin. As he nuzzles more against the warmth of the person’s neck, Minho decides that it must be Jinki; if the person were Kibum or Jonghyun, he wouldn’t be as polite about waking Minho up.
“No, Minho, I want to talk to you,” Jinki persists, his shakes becoming more rough. “Please, just for a little while?”
Sighing, Minho lifts his head off Jinki’s shoulder, realizing now that Jinki is begging. Minho is sure that Jinki wouldn’t bother him over something trivial -- they all know how important sleep is.
“What’s wrong?” Minho asks, pausing his music and rubbing the sleep from his eyes before blinking over at Jinki.
Jinki quickly averts his gaze, choosing instead to look down at his lap. “Can I ask you something?”
Minho panics, worrying that somone told him about his crush on Hara. “Yeah, sure.” He manages to hide his fear behind a forced smile. “What do you need?” he coaxes, swallowing hard.
Jinki looks up with a wide smile. “Thanks, Minho!” he says, obviously overjoyed that Minho is willing to help him. “Well, I was wondering --”
Taemin stirs beside him and Jinki stiffens in shock. Taemin sighs as he rests his head against Jinki’s shoulder, smiling slightly before drifting back into a deep sleep.
“Never mind,” Jinki says, unintentionally whispering loud enough for Taemin to squirm again. “We can talk back at the dorm, ok?” he whispers again, albeit more quietly this time.
Thankful that he can go back to sleep, Minho nods. He nuzzles back into Jinki’s shoulder, enjoying the warmth of his skin. Jinki chuckles and makes slow, careful movements, trying not to disturb the two boys on his shoulders, until he is comfortable between them. He finally rests his head against Minho’s, and sighs in relaxation.
Minho doesn’t turn his music back on. Instead, he falls asleep to the sound of Jinki breathing, and dreams of flying above intricately grown gardens, illuminated by soft, flickering candles.
“Does it bother you?” Kibum asks, when Minho slings his arms around his and Jonghyun’s shoulders. Minho flinches when Kibum’s hand grabs at his neck, pulling him closer. Minho forces a smile, ignoring the pain of Kibum’s grip.
“The way Jinki’s been acting,” Kibum clarifies, smiling alongside Minho.
Minho feels his smile falter and the camera’s flash blinds him. “No,” he says. Minho looks away, blinking furiously; he blames his sore eyes on the flash from the camera. He hears Kibum scoffing beside him.
The photographer calls for a break and the boys disperse. Taemin and Jonghyun run over to the buffet table, stuffing their faces with food while their manager’s back is turned. Jinki sneaks away to the corner of the room before pulling out his phone, smiling down at the screen, and tapping at the keys furiously.
Kibum and Minho stay together on the set as their stylists touch-up their hair and make-up. The two sit in silence in the presence of their stylists, but when the girls leave, Kibum rounds on Minho.
“Why don’t you say something to him?” he asks. His tone is sharp and demanding, yet quiet enough not to attract attention. Minho’s eyebrows raise and he opens his mouth to reply, but Kibum continues. “This is obviously bothering you -- don’t even try to to deny it, I see the way you scowl whenever you catch him texting her -- so, why don’t you save yourself the grief and just tell him?”
The corners of Minho’s lips turn up in a lifeless smile, it always amused him how Kibum wasted no time getting to the point of what he was saying. “Jinki’s happy with her,” Minho says with a shrug, “I don’t want to get between them.”
He glances across the room at Jinki, unable to control himself as his mouth shapes into a sharp scowl. All day, Jinki has been on his phone. Minho is sure that he’s texting Hara, and he can only imagine what sort of messages they are exchanging, based on all the sappy, love-sick faces Jinki is making at his phone.
Kibum shakes Minho back to reality. “See what I mean?” he sighs, his expression softening.
Minho shakes his head and looks down at the ground. “It’s fine, I’m fine -- don’t worry.” He looks back up at Kibum and tries smiling again; this time, it feels less forced. “I’ll get over her, it’ll be ok,” he says, unsure if he’s trying to convince Kibum or himself.
“Is this really about Hara?” Kibum says, scrunching his eyebrows together.
“What do you mean?” Minho asks, frowning, “Of course this is about Hara.”
Kibum sighs, “Promise me you’ll tell him? Everything will work out, just trust me.”
Minho doesn’t promise him anything.
When they finally get back to the dorm, Minho has already forgotten about his talk with Jinki in the van. Although, he remembers all to quickly when Jinki walks in on him undressing, mumbling a quick: “Can we talk now? If you’re not busy,” looking everywhere but at Minho’s exposed torso.
Minho feels his face burn and rushes to tug back on his shirt. “Sure, h-hyung,” he says, not knowing why he feels so embarrassed; it’s not like Jinki has never seen him topless before.
Minho gestures for Jinki to take a seat on his bed, he follows after him once Jinki has made himself comfortable. The two sit together awkwardly for a few minutes, Jinki solemnly looking down at his hands while Minho eyes him expectantly.
“Hyung?”
Jinki looks up from his hands, smiling like he is in pain. “Just, give me a second.”
Minho arches a brow, he wonders what it is that Jinki wants to ask him. Considering the way he is acting, it must be something serious. He is red-faced and sweating, his legs are trembling, and he has to mentally prepare himself for what he is about to say.
Minho briefly wonders if Jinki has gotten Hara pregnant.
“I know,” Jinki starts, shaking Minho out of his irrational rage, “I know that you’re, really good with girls.” Minho starts to laugh, but stops abruptly after seeing Jinki’s crushed look. “I’m not like you.”
Minho leans forward and takes Jinki’s hands into his own (ignoring how hot and clammy they are) and gives them a light squeeze. He hopes the gesture comes across as warm and comforting, instead of awkward and weird, like how he currently feels.
“Hyung, what’s wrong?” he asks, noticing how Jinki visibly relaxes when Minho smiles at him.
Jinki looks down at their hands and takes in a slow breath, still trembling. “I want you to teach me how to kiss.”
Minho blinks, staying silent as he waits for Jinki to burst into laughter and shout, “Just kidding!”, but he never does.
“I’ve never -- I’ve never kissed anyone before,” Jinki confesses, his face turning a darker shade of red as he looks away from Minho’s intense stare. “I mean, I’ve kissed people before, of course... but I’ve never, really,” he looks back up at Minho, eyes squinting in embarrassment, “kissed someone.”
Minho fails to see how you can kiss someone, but not really. “But, didn’t you already kiss Hara?” he quickly looks away, worrying that Jinki will realize Minho spied on them earlier.
Jinki laughs and closes his eyes tight. “We almost did, but...” he opens one one slowly, as if trying to predict Minho’s reaction, “I chickened out at the last minute, we ended up just rubbing our cheeks together -- it was really awkward.”
Luckily, Minho is able to gather enough self-control at the last minute to hold in his laughter. Jinki is obviously mortified that he made such a fool of himself, but Minho can’t help but think how cute that would have looked.
He breathes in slowly, thinking carefully about what to say next. He decides to give Jinki the best advice he can come up with, it sounds like he really needs it.
“I was going to ask Jonghyun,” Jinki says quickly, snapping Minho out of his thoughts, “but he would probably teach me, um, other things... all I just want to know how to kiss!” the corners of his lips turn up slightly as he tries to make light of the situation, his other eye finally falling open to look at Minho.
“Kibum would’ve laughed, and Taemin would probably cry.” Minho laughs at that. “I figured you would be the best person to ask.”
He pulls his hands gently out of Minho’s, shifting his legs to move off the bed. “I understand if you don’t want to help me, you’re probably busy with other things.”
Minho shakes his head and places a hand on each of Jinki’s shoulders, holding him in a sitting position on the bed. “It’s fine, but hyung, kissing isn’t really something you can teach.”
Jinki frowns and looks back down at his hands. “Oh... I understand.”
Minho leans in closer, “You need to learn from experience.” He doesn’t know why he moved his face so close to Jinki’s, it just felt natural. The beating of his heart starts to speed up and he briefly wonders, what is going on?
Blinking, Jinki shifts around, but he doesn’t back away. He swallows hard and his Adam’s apple bobs in his throat, Minho feels weird for noticing. “Um, Minho -- you’re kind of, uh, close,” he says, but he doesn’t sound uncomfortable.
Minho moves his hand towards Jinki’s chin, his fingers dancing across Jinki’s neck and jawline, the skin hot from his blush. Minho tilts Jinki’s head slightly, smiling slightly.
“I thought you wanted to learn how to kiss.”
He closes his eyes and leans forward. Minho brushes his lips gently against Jinki’s and the sound of his heart pounding is deafening as he pushes their lips together harder. His hands slide across Jinki’s shoulder to hold onto the back of his neck. Minho notices right away that Jinki’s lips aren’t chapped at all, they’re pleasantly soft.
Jinki presses back, lightly at first, and Minho knows he is nervous. When Minho’s mouth opens into the kiss, Jinki responds slowly. They awkwardly bump noses and their teeth clash a few times, but soon, everything is just perfect.
Minho feels like he just won the Olympics. His heart swells in happiness and he temporarily forgets everything around him, except how everything in this moment feels right.
He feels like an idiot when he smiles during their kiss, but then Jinki’s lips twitch, matching every curve of Minho’s smile with one of his own. Minho pulls away slowly and he’s sure that he looks like a goof with this stupid smile on his face, but that doesn’t matter because he’s pretty sure he’s on a cloud, or something.
Jinki opens his eyes slowly and Minho watches the smile on his face as it shrinks to nothing. “Wait, Minho -- what?” he looks at Minho with wide eyes, shaking his head in confusion, and Minho feels his heart fall into his stomach.
“I’m sorry,” he says, looking at anything but Jinki, “I don’t know why I did that.” His face burns in embarrassment and shame, and he really doesn’t know why he did that.
“I have to leave,” Jinki says. Standing up, he basically sprints out the door.
Minho feels like dying.
When Minho wakes up in the morning, he’s glad to see that Jinki isn’t at the table. Actually, the table is completely empty, aside from Kibum.
“The others already ate breakfast,” he explains, looking up from his meal.
Minho nods and takes his seat across from Kibum. He scoops himself some rice and looks around at the food on the table. He doesn’t feel like eating right now, not after what happened last night.
“You told him,” Kibum says. He smiles, but he doesn’t quite look happy. “He broke up with Hara today.”
Minho blinks at him, but doesn’t say anything.
“He called her earlier this morning, and he’s been hiding in the bedroom ever since.” Kibum tongues at his cheek and Minho looks back down at his food, poking and prodding at his rice with his chopsticks. “What exactly did you say to him?” Even though Minho isn’t looking, he can tell Kibum is glaring at him.
“I didn’t say anything,” Minho snaps, and he’s being honest.
Kibum slams his chopsticks against the table and Minho flinches. “Well, then what did you do? I told you everything would work out, but somehow, you must’ve done something wrong.”
Minho sighs, “I don’t need this right now.” He shoves his bowl away from the edge of the table and stands up, Kibum takes in a sharp breath.
“Look, I don’t know what happened,” Kibum stands up and leans across the table to jab at Minho’s chest, “but I think you need to go talk to him. You shouldn’t keep secrets like this, especially when you don’t have to.”
“I really don’t know what you’re talking about,” Minho says and walks away from the table.
He had planned to go back to his room and hide in his bed for the rest of the day, but somehow he finds himself standing in front of Jinki’s door. He feels guilty for making Jinki break up with Hara, but he can’t ignore that a part of him is happy about this.
Was this his plan all along, to mess with Jinki’s mind so he’d break up with Hara? Now, Minho has a chance to go after her. He feels his heart clench, no, that’s not right.
He doesn’t even knock before entering the room. He is mildly surprised to find that the door isn’t locked, but then remembers that Jinki shares a room; it would be unfair of him to keep Kibum and Taemin out of their own room.
Jinki is sprawled out on his bed, hugging a pillow to his head, and looking away from the door. Minho easily manages to sneak into the room and sit on the bed, near Jinki’s foot. “Hyung, are you ok?” Minho feels like an idiot, “I heard about... what happened.”
“I’m fine,” he laughs and Minho gets worried. Should he really be laughing right after breaking up with someone?
Minho knows that he is probably the reason why Jinki broke up with Hara, but he wants to ask to make sure. Instead, he says: “Too bad you never got a chance to kiss her!” he laughs like it’s supposed to be funny.
Jinki rolls onto his back and smiles up at Minho. “Yeah, and I practiced really hard, too.” Minho feels his heart swell from how warmly Jinki is smiling and all of a sudden, the guilt of what he did hits him really hard.
“Hyung, did you break up of Hara because of what I did?”
Jinki replies bluntly, “Yes.” Minho doesn’t even have time to feel nervous.
He blinks at Jinki, stunned. “Oh -- hyung, I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to ruin your relationship.”
Jinki sits up and rubs at his eyes, still smiling. “I don’t think I really liked her, anyway.”
If he had said that yesterday, Minho might have gone into a rampage. Today, it doesn’t really matter.
“She... made me feel nervous, all the time.” Jinki shrugs and places his hands in his lap. “She made me uncomfortable a lot, like every time she touched me I would just -- I don’t know...” he shakes his head, his cheeks glowing with a tint of pink, “I thought it was because I liked her, but I don’t think so anymore.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Minho says, not feeling sorry at all.
“It’s alright. I’m glad I dated her though, if I hadn’t... I probably wouldn’t have realized that I liked someone else.” Jinki grins broadly and Minho looks down at his hands, he’s probably thinking about her now. Minho doesn’t know why he’s so mad.
“When I’m with, this person...” Jinki snickers, like he’s keeping a secret, “I never feel uncomfortable. When I’m with this person, I feel really, really happy, and when we touch -- it feels natural.” Jinki sighs but Minho knows that he still has that dopey grin on his face, “I don’t know how I didn’t realize before.”
Minho plays with the drawstring of his pajamas, trying hard not to overanalyze everything Jinki says.
Jinki gently grabs Minho’s chin, tilting his head so the two are facing. Minho continues to look down, he is not sure if he wants to look at Jinki’s lovesick face.
“Why are you acting so weird?” Jinki asks, and finally Minho looks up.
Minho brushes Jinki’s hand away from his face, he takes note of the confusion in Jinki’s eyes. “I’m glad that you found someone you really like,” he says, and suddenly Jinki is happy again, “when are you going to ask her out?”
The confusion returns and Jinki blinks. “Uh -- I kinda thought I already did...”
After a second, Minho manages to put the pieces together. “Wow, I’m really stupid,” he says, shaking his head in amazement. This is a first, Minho is normally really perceptive, he doesn’t know how he managed to keep himself in the dark for so long.
Jinki laughs and reaches out to hold Minho’s hands in his own. This time, when Minho’s heart beats a little faster, he doesn’t try to ignore it. “It’s okay, I was confused at first, too.”
When Jinki kisses him, Minho smiles. “Either you're a quick learner, or I'm a phenomenal teacher,” he says, his lips never leaving Jinki’s.
Jinki responds by skating his tongue along Minho’s lower lip and suddenly, Minho forgets how to talk.
Lol, why is this so long~~ D:
Hahah, I actually started this fic back in March, I have no idea why it took me so long to finish it. I did a lot of editing to this thing, in terms of its time line. Really, everything here is so different from my original draft, it's kinda weird. :/ Hopefully, everything still makes sense.
I'm glad to finally get this thing posted though, hahaha. :D Now I can go work on another fic thats been sitting in my WIP folder for the past few months! Woohoo~
Lol, just kidding. I'll probably just continue to ignore them all until December. ;D