Yep [EXO]
Xiu Min/Chen
G
~2700w
Jongdae & Minseok go out for an ice cream date. (high school!au)
Uhuhu, I am so slow /o\ For htiitlstdct because she already knew this was coming because I literally tell her everything lmao even things that are supposed to be kept secret, gdi.
When Minseok asks Jongdae out for some ice cream-a date of sorts-he doesn't expect him to drop the box in his arms, effectively squishing Minseok's big toe. Perhaps it was bad timing (or good timing) on his part, but Jongdae accepts.
He doesn't really want to. I just surprised him and he accidentally said yes, Minseok reasons to himself. Because why would someone as gorgeous as Jongdae accept to go on a date with him, when they're just best friends and nothing more; if he had asked Jongdae on a normal day, he's sure that he'd be laughed at. Nevertheless, the flush coating his face doesn't fade away even as he thinks this, because he's staring too hard at Jongdae to stop it. It actually gets darker, especially around his cheeks.
Jongdae stares at him a little bit (but he really must be staring at his expression, since Minseok is still grimacing from the box's fall; he's sure that his toe is swollen and red under his shoe).
"I. What? Really?"
"Well, yeah," Minseok tries to be casual but fails when his legs start to shake, "Ice cream. If you want, you don't have to," he stutters and flushes even harder.
"Is this a...date?" Jongdae asks very slowly, almost carefully as if he can't believe that's what he heard.
"Um. It's," Minseok fidgets, "It's kind of. I mean, it is but you don't have to..."
"Yeah!" Jongdae kind of jumps and it makes Minseok flinch a little, "A date-" the words coming out of Jongdae's mouth makes Minseok's stomach churn, "I'd love to."
"Really?" Minseok gapes, "Really, really? Really?"
"Yeah," Jongdae's lips curl up into a smile. And it's Minseok's favorite smile because it just makes him feel so happy and bubbly just because he knows that Jongdae is happy himself. "I'd love to," Jongdae repeats softly.
This time Minseok is the one jumping for joy despite his toe still hurting.
"So, when do you want to go on this date?" Jongdae asks, still smiling. He says the word date very carefully and quietly as if he's afraid-and that can't be right since it's Minseok that should be the one that's afraid; afterall, Jongdae isn't in love with Minseok, it's the other way around!
"Uh," Minseok hasn't thought this far into it; he had been preoccupied standing in front of his mirror (which, to his chagrin, won't even reflect his whole body back to him, despite it being labeled full-length. There should be a full-width mirror too!) rehearsing the words over and over-"Will you out with me? No? Okay", and practicing his I'm-totally-not-rejected-face. "Right. Uh..."
Jongdae laughs and it's like music to Minseok's ears-anything that comes out of Jongdae's lips is music, Minseok thinks. Even at the age of five when they had first met, Minseok had loved his voice. "How about on Friday afterschool? That little ice cream shop around the corner, we can walk there. And Yixing works there, so maybe we can get a discount."
"Yeah," Minseok instantly brightens, "That sounds perfect!"
Jongdae lets Yixing know that they'd be dropping by the ice cream shop on Friday, but doesn't tell him that it's a date. Yixing figures it out in the first five seconds though, while Jongdae stares longingly into the chalkboard, not at all taking in the equations they were to copy down, despite his knowing that they'd get behind if they missed just a day in the AP Calculus class.
Yixing nudges him on the side when Jongdae starts to sloppily draw Minseok on his paper; the drawing weirdly looks like a sort of hamster. Yixing rolls his eyes, taking the paper away and replacing it with a copy of his notes.
Jondae draws a large gerbil in permanent marker on it.
Yixing glowers and Jongdae takes off his thick framed glasses to rub his eyes, completely oblivious to Yixing's glare.
Minseok's hair is styled on Friday and Lu Han bugs him about it. He's made sixteen (and counting) jokes since Wednesday when he had first heard (from Yixing of all people! He had been initially upset for that, pouting madly for three hours straight).
"Minseok and Jongdae sitting in a tree~ K-I-S-S-I-N-G~" Lu Han sings in his voice, and across the cafeteria Sehun stops to listen, even interrupting the lunch line, because he always does that, and it's not even considered weird anymore to Minseok. Lu Han never notices. "First comes love~ Then comes-Ow!"
Minseok almost pummels him; his face is bright red, and his knuckles are white from the punch he's given to Lu Han's arm. Lu Han almost wails, and Sehun almost runs over, but the lunch lady stops him because he still hasn't paid for his lunch.
"Sh-Shut up!" Minseok whines, touching his hair once again to make sure it's alright. "I wasn't this bad with you and Sehun."
Lu Han stares at him with raised eyebrows and Minseok relents, "Fine, I was. But you could take it-I can't!"
"Can't take what?" A voice asks, and it's Jongdae, Minseok knows, even though he can't see him-he's under the table, pretending to look for his fork.
"What are you doing?" Lu Han asks, head dipped low to look for Minseok, who had disappeared once Jongdae had arrived.
"Uh. Looking for my fork," Minseok mumbles, even though he's really sitting under the table, legs tucked under him, cheeks blazing.
Another head joins Lu Han, "Ah, it's right here? Minseokie, come back up."
Lu Han's eyes twinkle with mirth and Minseok's neck soon turns pink as well because-Minseokie? Jongdae doesn't seem to notice anything so Minseok keeps quiet and lets his face continue to turn pink everytime Jongdae brushes past him, be it his fingers, legs, or Jongdae's face when he accidently turns abruptly to get Minseok's opinion on something-Minseok still has no idea what they had been talking about, still thinking of Jongdae's face, two centimeters away from his.
Jongdae leaves later and runs his hand through Minseok's hair, "See you late, Seokie."
Lu Han teases him for the rest of the day.
They meet up right after sixth period; Minseok almost tries to head back, but Lu Han is there to stop him, and the boy (who is much stronger than he looks, Minseok realizes) drags him to the spot Jongdae is at.
It's kind of awkward, walking to the ice cream shop. Yixing's already zoomed off in his car, and hadn't offered the two a ride on the basis of "You drew a mouse on my Calculus notes." He emphasizes the two words carefully.
"It was a hamster,"Jongdae replies smoothly and takes Minseok by his hand to guide them away. Jongdae doesn't realize that he is doing so until he looks down, almost about to unconsciously wind them together. His fingers grow slack when he realizes it though, and he pulls away from Minseok's endearingly chubby hands. Minseok's face morphs, his blissfully aware face falling. Jongdae takes back Minseok's hand straight away and smiles when Minseok's toothy smile is shot up at him.
They communicate with their fingers as they walk-Jongdae glances down every once in a while and Minseok squeezes their fingers to say that he is content-more than content, so happy, judging from the way Jongdae's fingers are white after the second squeeze. Jongdae's hold is firm, but not suffocating, and he hums a little tune, his other hand swinging on the other side.
They walk to the end of the street and turn the corner, Minseok licking his lips as they spot Angel, the sweet little traditional ice cream shop Yixing works at.
"How may I help you," Yixing asks-states, really-when they enter.
"Banana split," Jongdae says right off the bat, ordering the same thing he's always ordered.
"Strawberry sundae," mumbles Minseok a few minutes later, when he's done looking at all the displays. He feels like strawberry today.
Yixing takes their money professionally but it is all he can do but roll his eyes at them-Jongdae's much too obvious about the staring and Minseok is red, which actually has become normal for the past three years when Jongdae is around or mentioned. Jongdae insists on paying.
"Where do you want to sit?"
"Outside? It's not too hot," Minseok replies.
"Okay!" Jongdae can't help but ruffle Minseok's hair, messing it up. Minseok starts to complain but Jongdae interrupts, "I like it when your hair's natural. It's fluffy."
"Fluffy?" Minseok asks, face tilting up. Yixing tries not to snicker while he scoops out the ice cream.
"Yeah, fluffy. It's really soft," Jongdae comments, his tongue sticking out playfully.
"Oh." They're both blushing now, Jongdae of embarrassment and Minseok of happiness.
"Hey," Yixing interrupts, smirking. "Your ice cream's done."
Jongdae insists on carrying both the ice creams, but Minseok refuses, and in retrospect maybe he should've let him, because they're walking and Minseok ends up tripping over the threshold of the little ice cream shop and the sundae slips out of his hand and onto the floor. Jongdae is there in a second to help Minseok up, and Yixing practically leaps over the counter with a mumble of "My manager's going to kill me," before starting to clean the glass and melted ice cream from the floor.
But then Jongdae, after brushing Minseok off thoroughly because he's sure that there's still glass on him, looks at Minseok and sees his expression and he kind of wants to cry because it's absolutely heartbreaking. There are tears streaming down Minseok's face and he tries to stop them by squeezing his eyes shut, but the tears come down anyway, riding down his cheeks. His cheeks are infuriatingly red; he doesn't say anything, but Jongdae knows that if he were to open his mouth, his plump, red lips would spurt out blubbers and sobs and Jongdae really can't take that because this is already hard enough as it is.
He brings his fingers up to wipe Minseok's cheeks all the while whispering condolences softly, repeatedly into Minseok's ear. It calms him down, just a bit, but Jongdae doesn't realize this and he continues to stroke Minseok's face. It takes a moment for Minseok to calm down enough to let out a noise-it's soft and Jongdae cringes a little because even that little noise held a crack to it, and he doesn't like it when Minseok's voice cracks because it's not supposed to; Minseok's voice is supposed to be happy and carefree and just really happy.
"Th-Thank you," Minseok mumbles a few minutes later, collecting himself.
Jongdae nods and squeezes Minseok's hand. "Do you want me to buy you a new one?"
"U-Uh," Minseok shuffles a bit; the red surfacing on his face is not one of sadness but of embarrassment. "Can we...Can we share?" he asks timidly, biting the inside of his cheek.
"Oh!" Jongdae grins, "Of course!"
Minseok mumbles a quick thank you to Yixing, who had all but finished cleaning up the mess, and the two head outside to their destined table. They forget to get another spoon, but it doesn't really matter, they realize, because they like sharing the same spoon (though they would deny it if this were ever to come up in a conversation).
Minseok mistakenly asks about Jongdae's day, and Jongdae starts to ramble. Though shy and quite socially awkward with other people, Jongdae had a tendency to babble on about himself when it was just he and someone he was close to. In this case, it was Minseok, and Minseok doesn't mind because he's happy that he's the listener for once instead of the other way around.
"I was really nervous today so this morning I woke up at six to pick my outfit-" Minseok blushes at this "-but when I looked through my closet, there wasn't anything suitable, so I had to call Zi Tao who had to call Wu Fan because Tao's shirts definitely wouldn't have fitted me; but of course, Wu Fan's clothes wouldn't fit me either so he had to call practically every person he knew to find this one shirt, and in the end I realized that they didn't even find it because when I went to meet them at school, they didn't have anything. But thank god, Yixing had something for me-he said something about not wanting me to make a fool of myself in front of you, which I already have, I'm pretty sure-so he handed me this surprisingly nice shirt and-see?" He points to himself proudly. Minseok nods, smiling another toothy smile and Jongdae almost forgets what he's talking about.
"I should. Stop talking about shirts," Jongdae sputters when he realizes what he's just said. He blushes a lovely shade of pink and Minseok continues to smile because Jongdae is simply adorable.
They lapse into a sort of staring contest; they don't realize it though, and when one of them blinks, the other doesn't call him out on it (they're not sure who blinks first). It's just a flurry of thinking, really, because this staring they're doing doesn't help the thoughts in their heads, meshing around; it's a jumble, a race of words trying to beat each other.
It isn't until Jongdae thinks something coherent and strong that all of his frazzled thoughts stop, and he actually voices it-"Why did you ask me out on a date?"
The question also stops Minseok's train of thoughts as he tries to process his answer-he doesn't really have an answer on his tongue, and he stares blankly at Jongdae for a few moments before he can answer.
"Uh."
Jongdae smiles encouragingly, his tongue slipping out in a moment of nervousness.
"I just." Minseok heaves a small sigh. "I...like you."
"Yes, and I like you too," Jongdae replies, eyes curled up in happiness.
"No. I love love-I mean, like like you."
"You love love me?" Jongdae questions, his heart full enough to burst and his head tipping to the side. His glasses almost fall off the bridge of his nose and he slides them back up again.
Minseok bites his lip-I need to sound romantic because this'll probably be the only time that I'm probably going to tell him this because he'll probably reject me and say that we're just best friends and nothing more, and that he thought this wasn't a real date 'cause we do this all the time and-yeah.
"Yep." God, that didn't sound romantic at all.
"Uhm. 'Yep' what? That you love me? Because I love you..." Jongdae trails off, feeling a bit awkward.
Minseok's mouth falls open, "You do?"
"Well yes. I mean, I've loved you for years," Jongdae tells him, his ears turning crimson.
"You-really? Really, really?"
"Yeah," Jongdae chuckles. "I thought you'd figure it out. I guess you didn't. I was sort of waiting for you to ask me out."
Minseok starts to retort but stops when Jongdae takes the spoon out of Minseok's hands and sets it down. He holds Minseok's fingers tight in his, and he grins, bright teeth glinting. "You were really obvious, Minseokie."
Minseok shuffles, "I was?"
"Yep," he answers mockingly, with no resulting answer.
They end the date on a high note, Jongdae walking Minseok home from the ice cream shop, long after it's closed. Along the way, Jongdae pauses to buy him a balloon and Minseok happily drags it with them as they walk, Minseok holding onto the ribbon and Jongdae holding onto Minseok's hand.
When they reach the door to Minseok's house, Jongdae smiles playfully before leaving. Minseok doesn't pull him back for a kiss, so Jongdae turns-he finds Minseok with a sullen face. He lifts Minseok's face up with a finger, smiling down at him.
"I was honestly expecting you to pull me back."
"Oh. I thought. I don't know, that, you didn't want to kiss me?"
"Minseok," Jongdae mumbles, reaching down to pull him closer by the waist. "I love you."
"Do you?"
"Stop questioning it, Seokie. Now say it back to me," Jongdae half demands, eyes sparkling.
"I love you," Minseok murmurs into Jongdae's shoulder. Jongdae squeezes him tighter.
When they kiss, it's chaste and soft-just a brush of lips, but the butterfly-things in Minseok's stomach start to unfurl, and it feels like the first time he had met Jongdae, that first day of school when his stomach then had also been shakey, mainly because of the nerves. Minseok tells him that, and Jongdae laughs; he agrees nevertheless: "Yep."