[fic] Minho/Key - SHINee - Circle's End [1/2]
Title: Circle's End
Author: fonulyn
Rating: R (NC17 if you read the outtake)
Warnings: none really (pairings including OCs?)
Pairing: Minho/Key, Jonghyun, Taemin, Onew (all paired with OCs at some point)
Disclaimer: I own no one, only my dirty imagination.
Summary: Every end is also a beginning; as you’ll learn when life takes its course.
Comments: I just really, really wanted to write Minkey. which was a lonesome process seeing I have no one to complain to when the fic wouldn’t do what I wanted it to, lmao.
but I enjoyed it immensely anyway this is so self-indulgent, ahah and I hope you like the outcome~ half of it is random bff-ery :D
please read! towards the end of the fic there’s a smutty scene I cut out since I wasn’t sure if it broke the flow of the fic. but there’s a link to it if you want the NC17 version! so everyone, pick for yourself. fic posted in two parts due to the length (gdi lj you and your limits).
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“What is your ideal type, Minho?”
“Someone nice, and pretty. Someone who will go to soccer matches with me and make me dinner. Someone I’ll want to marry.”
“Someone like Jaehee?”
“Who else?”
When his brother would ask him these questions, Minho would always answer easily. In his mind, it has always been easy. He has been with Jaehee ever since the last year of high school and even now, seven years later people still dub them the perfect couple.
There is something he doesn’t know, though.
Ideal type or not, you can’t control love.
It’s not often Minho has to travel far for his job. He knows he got incredibly lucky when he landed a job in a known newspaper, even if not the biggest one in Seoul, just after graduating. A steady pay check allowed him and Jaehee to move into a slightly bigger apartment, instead of both living in their separate dorms. Minho has always thought things are going nicely, he has a steady girlfriend and a job he actually enjoys. What more could he wish for?
That is, until his life is turned upside down in one go. Minho is sent to do an interview of some old lady who can’t travel to the city. Everything goes well and he ends up with a long recording to transcribe and the lady’s neverending admiration. He feels like he can conquer the world, expecting a warm dinner and gentle smiles when he returns home.
There is none. The apartment is cold and dark, and he spends five minutes searching the rooms, calling for Jaehee. Then, he spots the note on the kitchen table.
I’m sorry. I never meant for it to end like this. Please don’t contact me. - Jaehee
Minho has no idea what this is all about. At least, he tries to make himself believe he doesn’t. Surely he imagined all those awkward phases, the sudden tension where there used to be none. Or the way he had started to look at her like a friend more than someone he was supposed to marry. She had, in a way, just turned into a piece of furniture.
The thought makes Minho wince and he crumples the paper, throwing it in the trash. There must be something edible in the kitchen, he figures, and starts opening the cupboards.
The first night of his sudden bachelor-life, Minho sits on the worn couch and eats cold soup straight from the can. He didn’t find any plates. Or proper cutlery. A closer inspection shows that he doesn’t have any plates, not anymore.
Resigned, Minho thinks he probably has to make an inventory to see what he owns. Can’t be Jaehee took everything with her, right? Right.
With newly set determination, Minho decides he can do this.
Replacing cutlery and plates is easy. Replacing all aspects of his life isn’t, and Minho never really realized just how much spirit Jaehee brought into the shared apartment with the little decorative items and fresh flowers, by just being there.
Again, Minho sits in the dark living room and it feels like the silence might just crush him. He realizes he has never been this alone. It’s not like he can contact any of the shallow friends he had back at the high school soccer team, or call his brother in the middle of the night. He moved into Seoul because Jaehee insisted, and all the friends he has here are her friends too. Couple friends. Friends that only like you as a half of an entity, not for yourself.
Minho realizes he needs to go out there and make friends.
He doesn’t know how.
Minho’s attempts to find a friend somehow backfire and he ends up with a line of one night stands and quick affairs. He brings home a few girls who look almost exactly like Jaehee, before he realizes he can’t go down that lane. Next he goes for the complete opposite and dates girls who couldn’t be further from Jaehee, both personality- and look-wise. He dates men, too, not too picky in that aspect.
At the end of the day he is still always alone. He figures he’s not that good at this whole friendship-business.
Good things come surprisingly, though, and Minho learns that when his boss calls him into his office. He sweats a bit, trying to recall if he’s done anything wrong recently, but in the end just pushes the door open and gives director Han a curt bow. “You wanted to see me, sir?”
The next few moments go by in a blur and suddenly Minho walks out of the office with a pretty new intern hanging on to his arm. Or, well, not hanging on to him literally but that’s how it feels when this young boy follows him around like a puppy. “So, you’ll be spending a lot of time with me,” Minho clears his throat to go on, “so I suggest you try to feel at ease. I’ll be easy on you, promised.”
The new kid looks up at him from clear, admiring eyes, like he’s the best thing to have happened to all of humanity. It’s kind of an ego boost, in a strange sort of way. “Thank you, sir! Thank you so much,” he says and smiles a little wider.
“Minho,” Minho says, “call me Minho.”
“Alright,” the kid’s eyes sparkle even more, if humanly possible, “Minho-hyung.” He seems to slot easily into the situation, acting like they’ve known for years.
Minho feels vaguely embarrassed that he doesn’t remember the kid’s name, but he can’t exactly go back to ask his boss about it. His only choice is to admit to it. “Uhm, I’m sorry, but I didn’t quite catch-”
“Taemin!” The kid, Taemin, provides easily. “Don’t worry, I’m bad with names too.”
There is something in Taemin that makes him easy to like, easy to be around. Minho cracks a smile. “Alright, Taemin, let’s get to work. We actually do things around here.”
That is how Minho finds a new friend. In the end, it’s easier than he expected. Maybe he has been going about it wrong all this time.
“I always wanted to have a big brother!” Taemin says, happily, and Minho instantly takes it as a compliment. He’s found that his days at work are infinitely more interesting now that he has a curious student asking him about everything and nothing, someone who looks up to him whenever he answers a particularly hard question. Taemin is only a couple of years younger than him, but it sometimes feels much more.
“Except I do have Jonghyun-hyung and Kibum-hyung, but they’re kind of… not fit to be big brothers, you know?” Taemin beams. Actually, Minho has no clue, but he only smiles and it’s obviously enough to set Taemin off to yet another ramble about his friends. “Jonghyun-hyung is like a big bully, usually. But he means well! It’s not his fault he’s kind of an ape.”
Minho smiles slightly as he listens to the ongoing explanations, picking on his lunch. During the past week this has become a common occurrence, the two of them sharing lunch and Taemin taking care of the talking. Usually he talks about school, asks questions about the work, or just babbles about his two best friends. It kind of feels that Minho knows them too, he’s heard so much.
Especially Kibum, who seems to be Taemin’s favourite person in the whole wide world, judging by how much he talks about him and how often Minho’s heard the lines Kibum-hyung says and Kibum-hyung thinks.
“You should totally meet them!” Taemin exclaims, effectively pulling Minho back on earth from his thoughts. “You’d get along so well with Jonghyun-hyung, he is easy to impress. And don’t worry if Kibum-hyung won’t take to you instantly, he sometimes doesn’t. He can be a bit wary around new people but I’m sure you’d like him!”
It takes a few more minutes of convincing from Taemin before Minho shrugs, figuring that he has nothing to lose. “Alright.”
“- and you seem to know your way ar- what?” Taemin stutters, his eyes widening.
“I said, alright,” Minho repeats. He has to deal with a hyperactive assistant for the rest of the day, but he doesn’t really mind. He doesn’t even scold Taemin for texting his friends during work hours, noticing how badly the boy tries to cover up what he’s up to.
Besides, it never hurts to meet new people, right? Friends, Minho tells himself, friends are good.
Usually, Minho would spend his Friday night either at home alone or somewhere getting drunk (that is, after Jaehee left him to his own devices), and he has to admit it’s been ages since he’s spent it in an ice cream parlour. Taemin explains to him that yes, his friends are sane enough but that this became some sort of a habit when he was still the only minor in the group and couldn’t get into the clubs. Even now that he is twenty-two, I can show my ID! Taemin says his friends treat him like a kid, more often than not. Looking at those bright eyes and innocent smile, Minho can’t blame them.
So, he finds himself sliding into a booth after Taemin tells him he’ll get both their orders, twisting his hands nervously. Meeting new people shouldn’t be this hard, now should it? Minho supposes he’s become something of a hermit recently.
“So you are the great and magnificent Minho-hyung Taemin keeps going on and on about?” A voice shakes Minho from his thoughts and when he turns his head he instantly locks gazes with a young man, probably around his age, extremely attractive, and from the looks of it either Kibum or Jonghyun. He doesn’t get the chance to try and say something witty though, before a hand is offered to him promptly. “I’m Kibum. Nice to meet you.”
Minho reaches out and shakes the hand, Kibum’s fingertips nicely cool against his. He offers a smile. “I thought it was you he kept talking about. I feel like I’ve known you for years already.”
“Ooh,” Kibum laughs, “aren’t you the sweet-talker? Are you hitting on me the first thing when we meet?”
The words are obviously teasing and although Minho flushes a little, he can feel his grin growing wider. “Don’t think too highly of yourself.”
“No?” Kibum arches an eyebrow.
“No.” Minho shakes his head. “Taemin says you nag. A lot.”
That again makes Kibum laugh and his eyes are sparkling with pure amusement as he slides to sit next to Minho in the booth, giving him a friendly pat on the shoulder. “Alright,” he says, “I do. But I always have a good reason for it.”
“Good reason for what?” Another voice cuts into the discussion and this time it’s another stranger, holding a huge sundae in both hands. “If you were talking about me and how you bully me then no, there is never a good reason, and you can kiss your ice cream goodbye!”
“Oh Jjongie,” Kibum flutters his eyelashes flirtatiously, reaching for the one with chocolate sauce and colourful toppings. “You know I’d never say a single bad thing about you.”
“No, you’d say a whole ton of bad things,” Jonghyun replies but he’s grinning, still when he turns to offer his hand to Minho. “Jonghyun. The one with the looks. Oh, and the brains. I’m sorry to say Kibum never got much of either.”
The next moment Jonghyun lets out a pained yelp when Kibum kicks his ankle, hard, and sends him flailing. It results in Taemin’s and Minho’s sundaes all over the floor, as Taemin has never had a good timing. At least Kibum apologizes profusely and Jonghyun goes to get them new ones.
Minho decides he likes these people, a lot.
The next few hours consist of such enthusiastic babbling Minho has troubles keeping up with all of it. He learns a lot and inwardly thinks he probably should’ve made notes. While he already knew Kibum and Taemin are roommates, sharing a small dorm on campus, it’s news to him that they also went to high school together. It’s obvious Kibum is older than Taemin, but Minho doesn’t get the chance to ask why they were in the same class.
Jonghyun, on the other hand, studied both music and economics and ended up working for a small record company. He’s more than enthusiastic when he describes his flexible working hours and cool colleagues, but especially how he gets to use the facilities for his own recordings. Apparently he’s pretty good, even Kibum admits that, making his friend beam.
Eventually they get kicked out of the ice cream parlour. Or that’s how Kibum puts it, while in reality they simply get some disapproving glances from the manager and the workers, until they decide it’s time to go. Taemin is skipping along the road happily, regardless of Kibum nagging at him to stop it before he breaks his skull. It all feels like they’re one oversized family and Minho likes it. The sense of belonging is something he almost forgot, along these past months.
“We should do something fun!” Taemin suggests as he swirls around to look at the trio walking behind him. “The night is still young, people!”
“And what would that ‘something fun’ include?” Kibum asks, arching an eyebrow.
“We could go clubbing,” Jonghyun suggests, but both Kibum and Taemin shake their heads.
“Too crowded,” Kibum says.
Taemin chirps in. “We’ll do that some other time. Once you get to know each other more!” He purses his lips thoughtfully. “We should go somewhere more private.”
“You know we can’t go back to our dorm,” Kibum says. “We’d get kicked out for being loud, and where would we then live?”
“Don’t look at me, Taeminnie!” Jonghyun raises both hands to gesture he’s against the suggestion, even before it’s voiced out loud. “The last time we spent an evening at my place, I needed a month to get the stains off the carpet. Hyein would kill me!”
Taemin protests, while Kibum complains loudly about the strictness of Jonghyun’s girlfriend. Neither of them realizes it when Minho clears his throat, startling when he speaks. “We could go to my place? It’s quite spacious.”
He is met with three sets of wide eyes, and then three pleased grins.
“You are the best, Minho-hyung!”
“What would we do without you, man?”
“I hope your place is clean.”
Yes, Minho’s place is clean, but no, he doesn’t have any snacks or anything to offer them. So they stop by at the supermarket, grabbing bags of chips and sugary treats enough to last for a week. Once they finally get into Minho’s apartment and kick off their shoes, Minho feels both oddly self-conscious and kind of giddy. This is the first time he’s had friends over after the break-up!
Taemin launches himself straight into the plush armchair, mismatched with the couch and the coffee table, all from different sets. Jonghyun is only a tad bit more reserved as he plops down on the floor, spreading the bags of goodies on the table. Kibum, on the contrary, stops in the doorway with a hand on his hip. “Well,” he says, his eyes on the room. “This is simplistic.”
For some reason, it makes Minho blush. “I kind of had a rough break up. My girlf- ex-girlfriend, she took most of the furniture. And decoration. And the curtains.”
“I kind of noticed,” Kibum snorts. “We need to go buy you decent curtains, Minho. You can’t just hang sheets up and hope they pass as curtains. I do not approve.”
Minho chuckles and doesn’t even say what’s on his mind, a snide remark about it not being Kibum’s home to furnish. In fact, it feels kind of nice to have someone who thinks it’s worth the trouble. “I hope you approve of drinking the liquor from tea mugs. I have nothing else.”
“What!?” Kibum pretends to be hurt, elegantly placing a hand on his heart. “You are making me drink from a tea mug? How dare you.”
When Kibum grabs his wrist and drags him into the kitchen, Minho laughs. He concludes that it’s been a while since he felt this good. This happy.
After a few drinks, Minho is even happier. He is slouching on his couch, Kibum’s feet propped up on his thighs. At first Jonghyun scolded Kibum for using Minho as a pillow, but he dropped it soon as he noticed it had no effect whatsoever. Besides, Minho doesn’t exactly mind.
“We should totally play a game!” Taemin says. His cheeks are flushed, his eyes shining almost feverishly, but they all know it’s just the amount of alcohol consumed. “We need to get to know each other better!”
“Taemin,” Kibum groans, waving a hand. “I know everything about Jonghyun, we were friends already in diapers. And I know almost everything about you. What makes you think I would want to hear anything more?”
“You’re nosy,” Jonghyun supplies helpfully. “You always want an update on fresh gossip. Besides, you know nothing about Minho.”
“Nonsense,” Kibum says. “I know plenty about Minho. He had a rough break-up with his girlfriend three months ago and he’s still hung up on it enough to live in the midst of this desert. He urgently needs new curtains and plates. Oh and proper glasses! He likes to sit back and observe people around him, and he is sharper than Jonghyun could ever hope to be. Plus he’s hot and thus makes a perfect addition to our twisted little family.”
The analysis makes Minho blush, as much as he tries to fight it, and to cover it up he takes a sip from his mug, the alcohol burning down his throat. He pretends to be more casual than he is, while in reality his heart just did a stupid little flip in his chest. Family? Well that’s nothing he’s going to resist.
“You make it sound like I’m dumb,” Jonghyun whines. Everyone ignores him.
“I think Taemin’s right,” Minho speaks slowly, carefully. “I know next to nothing about you. If we’re to be family,” he gives Kibum a sidelong glance, “I’d like to know more.”
“Then,” Kibum smiles at him and struggles to sit up properly. “We will play.”
They start off with some random, lame questions. It’s to warm up, Kibum says. Finally they get to more personal questions and Minho is surprised at the ease with which his new friends share secrets with him. In turn, he feels compelled to share some of his own. He talks about his break up, how sudden it was and how he still knows the relationship hadn’t been all well.
“Does it still hurt?” Taemin asks softly, and Minho pauses to think. Does it?
Slowly, he shakes his head. “Not really.” Maybe that’s yet another sign that everything was doomed, long ago. They fall silent for a while, before Kibum cuts the silence.
“Now it’s Minho’s turn! Make it mean, to compensate, okay?”
Minho doesn’t even need to think about the question. “Why did you go to school together with Taemin? You’re older than him, right?” Ever since the beginning, when he was told the two used to be classmates in high school for a year before becoming roommates in the university, he’s felt that something doesn’t quite add up.
“You consider that mean?” Kibum asks, grinning. “Alright. I skipped class like a pro, so I ended up in the kid’s class. I’m two years older.”
“Hyung!” Taemin sounds incredulous. “You didn’t ‘skip class’, you had valid reasons to be absent.”
“Whatever, Taemin.” Kibum waves aside. He turns to look at Minho instead. “You’re born in 91, right? We’re of the same age.”
Minho smiles. “What valid reasons were those?” He asks, referring to Taemin’s words.
Kibum has none of it. “It’s not your turn to ask questions now, Choi! Button it up and let Jjong aim a mean one at us.”
There is no other alternative and Jonghyun instantly needles Taemin about this girl he obviously has a crush on, making him blush and flail. Once it’s Minho’s turn to ask the next question he’s forgotten all about the previous exchange, focusing on their common task to embarrass Jonghyun instead.
Minho doesn’t miss the way Kibum leans on him ever so often, how he hits Minho’s thigh or shoulder when he laughs. Neither does he miss the way he actually quite likes it.
It’s actually quite funny. Just when Minho scores not one friend but actually three, a fourth one just falls onto his lap. They get a new editor in the paper and again, he ends up being the one to show him the ropes around here. The man is all nervous smiles and polite bows as he introduces himself. “Lee Jinki, pleased to meet you!”
Taemin instantly likes the man and it seems to be mutual. Minho doesn’t really mind, either, as it’s nice to have people to talk to during breaks or the less hectic workdays. Besides, he has taught Taemin so much already that he can make him do some of the introduce Jinki to the house things. Besides, Taemin practically vibrates with energy, so pleased with himself he could burst, whenever he knows the answer to a problem Jinki has.
They’ve taken it a habit to go to the ice cream parlour at least once a week, sometimes more often, spending time at Minho’s place afterwards almost without fail. After Jinki’s arrival they make the mistake to mention him to Kibum, after which he keeps bothering them about the new friend. Sometimes, Minho bitterly regrets sharing his phone number with Kibum, especially when he gets seven messages in a row in the middle of the workday, all something along the lines of are you with the Jinki guy? or is he hot? or ask him to come meet us!
Minho doesn’t know if it’s the fact that he kind of feels sorry for Jinki, being equally much a loner as well, or if he just can’t resist those smiling eyes. Or maybe it’s Kibum’s insistent nagging and complaining. Whatever it is, he asks Jinki to come along one evening when he and Taemin pull on their jackets to get out for an ice cream with their group.
Jinki’s eyes shine when he gets to tag along. He nearly trips over his feet when they step inside and head towards their regular table to greet the other two. Jinki is visibly nervous, the more the closer they get. He needn’t be.
Kibum instantly loves him. “Oh why didn’t you bring your friend along sooner? Minho you’re such a jerk!” He pushes Minho’s shoulder, but unfortunately - to him - Minho was expecting it and doesn’t budge an inch. Kibum doesn’t waste a moment for frowning though, instead pulling Jinki to sit down. “You’re my new best friend, okay. You look so much nicer than these idiots.”
“Kibum-hyung,” Taemin says, a slight whine to his voice, as he blinks his eyes.
Instantly, Kibum gives in. “Except you, Taemin, you’re always my favourite.”
That’s how Jinki becomes a part of their family too.
Whenever they try to baby Taemin, he reminds that he is as academically advanced as Kibum, trying to argue his way out of it. It eventually always leads to hyung I am already twenty-two and depending on the situation, it either helps or not. Usually not.
What bugs Taemin the most is how his friends are all equally enthusiastic to hear about his dates, about the girl he’s currently crushing on, about anything including his romantic life or lack thereof. Often, there is no girl he’s interested in but one of his friends is still convinced otherwise. Usually, it’s Kibum, who tends to see flirting and romantic overtures wherever he looks. It’s kind of in crass contrast with how he’s so unconsciously flirty himself, touching people and hanging off their shoulders, never meaning it as anything more than a friendly gesture.
He isn’t alone in trying to pair Taemin up, since Jonghyun is almost equally bad. He keeps giving good advice - good only in his own opinion, though - and tries to nudge Taemin whenever he thinks he should be talking to a pretty girl eyeing him. Sometimes they team up against the poor kid and force him to make a move on someone he obviously looked at that way!
Occasionally Kibum pesters Taemin to give a cute boy a chance too, only to be told that not everyone is as gay as you, Kibum-hyung. Kibum always waves it aside nonchalantly, wherein Minho always stays silent and fails to mention his own experiences with the same gender. They don’t need to know everything, right?
Sometimes, after one or two beers too much, Kibum groans about how sad it is that he has to live through his baby brother, when did his life get so sad? He has no romantic life to speak of so of course he has to make sure Taemin doesn’t end up as sad as he.
In the end, it’s Jinki who successfully manages to pair Taemin up, as they put it, even though Taemin complains it so doesn’t sound romantic. It’s on accident, too, when he trips over open shoelaces and sends his sundae flying towards the cashier girl. It ends up all over, and Taemin ends up being the gentleman to help her clean the counter. It scores him a date.
Kibum and Jonghyun frown for nearly two weeks, complaining how it’s entirely unfair.
In a few months, Taemin has to go back to his studies, his internship at the paper ending. He’s done a good job, enough for the chief editor to tell him he has a good shot to get a job when he’s done studying. It leaves Taemin more than a little happy. That combined with the fact that he’s now officially going out with the cashier girl, Minji, makes Taemin almost unbearably giddy.
During the nights both Taemin and Jonghyun are out with their girlfriends, the last three are left on their own. “Thank god for you and Jinki!” Kibum says more than once. “Without you two I’d be alone now that those two bastards are running after skirts. Abandoning their life-long friend!” The two are rarely seen at their get-togethers, and while Kibum whines and moans about it too, they all know it’s for show.
One night, Kibum and Minho are alone, as Jinki has gone back home to visit his parents. They’re sitting on the battered couch, the very same couch on which Minho sat alone when his life was falling apart, echoing its emptiness. Somehow that feels fitting. None of that is on Minho’s mind though when Kibum leans closer and sets his head on his shoulder.
“You know,” Kibum drawls, a whiff of alcohol on his breath, “now we need to find Jinki someone!”
“I thought you were the one complaining all your friends are leaving you for girls?” Minho points out, patting Kibum’s side. He has decided already long ago that when Kibum gets cuddly it’s best to go with the flow. It’s the most comfortable when he slings an arm around Kibum’s shoulders, allowing him to snuggle in.
At that, Kibum laughs. “Don’t interrupt me when I’m scheming a master plan! I repeat: we need to find someone for Jinki!”
Minho decides to humour him. “A pretty girl like Minji?” He huffs a laugh, remembering the awkward way Jinki had greeted the petite girl. They’d all been exposed to a fair amount of second hand embarrassment.
Kibum shoots him an odd look but doesn’t say anything. It’s silent until Minho can’t take it anymore. “What? What did I say?”
“Nothing,” Kibum shakes his head, “I just thought you knew. Everyone else knows.” He sits up straight again and a part of Minho instantly misses the closeness, even if he wouldn’t admit it for the world.
“Knows what?” Minho frowns. He doesn’t really appreciate being kept in the dark and right now? He has no clue at all what’s going on.
Kibum leans closer, grinning. “We need to find Jinki someone, yes. But not someone like Minji.” He pauses for effect, his dark eyes gazing straight into Minho’s. Distantly Minho wonders how it would be to kiss him, to part those rosy lips with his tongue and claim - he doesn’t get any further when Kibum startles him back to reality. “Someone like you.”
“Me?”
“Yeah,” Kibum grins, leaning back. The same rebellious part of Minho from earlier is screaming for him to come back come back stay close, while another part is heaving a relieved sigh for the restoration of personal space. “Someone reliable, who appreciates him for what he is. Someone gorgeous! Someone with a big dick. So, obviously, someone like you.”
You think I’m gorgeous? is the first thought screeching through Minho’s mind and he already opens his mouth to protest when something else hits him. “Someone with a big dick? How do you know anything about my dick?”
“Public baths. I peek,” Kibum answers so nonchalantly Minho almost forgets to be embarrassed, instead sputtering out a laugh.
“So you compare sizes when everyone around you is washing up, all innocent and oblivious?”
“I didn’t say I peek at everyone.”
Minho’s jaw drops and he just gapes. Until Kibum uses two fingers to close his mouth, telling him it’s highly unattractive.
That conversation probably should’ve triggered something but in the end, Minho only wipes it under a rug and pretends nothing happened. He knows it can’t go on forever but he is quite determined to try just how long.
This time, they agree to meet on a Saturday, since it’s a day both Jonghyun and Taemin say is good for them. Despite that, they ditch their friends early, gushing something about a double date. Minho can see how Kibum struggles not to say something snappy, quite impressed by the smile he manages in the end.
It doesn’t even take more than a couple of hours before Jinki has knocked back a few too many shots, lying passed out on the floor.
Kibum kicks Jinki’s lifeless form, only to make him start snoring. “Great.” Kibum scrunches up his nose. “Fucking great. Now we have to listen to him do that for the whole night.”
“How do you know he won’t stop if you kick him again?” Minho suggests, innocently.
Kibum grins. “I always knew there was a reason you were my favourite!” He kicks Jinki again, a little harder than before. It doesn’t help, and Jinki’s melodious snores still resonate in the air. Kibum frowns. “Now you gotta distract me. I hate snoring.”
Minho has something witty on his tongue and he’s prepared to shoot, but then Kibum does that little thing he always does, purses his lips just so, and Minho finds his resolve crumbling. Instead of giving a snappy comeback he leans in, connecting their mouths.
He kisses Kibum and when Kibum kisses back his life is all sorts of wonderful. Careful not to break the spell of the moment, Minho cups Kibum’s jaw in his palm, strokes the soft skin of his cheek with his thumb.
Minho doesn’t know about Kibum, but he at least forgets all about Jinki snoring less than two feet away from them. Latest when he pins Kibum down on the couch and kisses him in earnest.
After they end up making out on the couch until dawn, Kibum is far less sour about losing his friends to their girlfriends. Instead, he quite happily starts to spend more time with Minho alone during the following months. They end up repeating that night more often than not, especially when they both find out just how much they enjoy kissing. Kissing each other, in particular. Minho is competitive and straightforward, where Kibum is playful and seductive, and that brings an endless amount of variations.
They never make a big announcement to their friends but it seems that everyone notices the shift in their relationship. They get subtle eyerolls from Taemin, bright and happy smiles from Jinki, and overly exaggerated reactions from Jonghyun. Kibum might lean on Minho a little more; Minho might sneak an arm around Kibum’s waist a bit more often than before. That’s about as far as their massive revelations go.
“You know,” Jonghyun suggests as they’re spending time at his place for once, he and Kibum, now that Hyein is out of town and their apartment is free game again. “We should go on a triple date!”
Kibum frowns at the suggestion, looking at his friend as if he’s completely off his rocker. “A triple date? What about Jinki? We can’t ditch the poor guy just because he’s the only one who doesn’t have anyone to bring.”
“You and Minho could adopt him for a while?” Jonghyun suggests. “Isn’t that what most gays do? Open relationships and stuff. Think about the possibilities, all the hot threesomes and-”
That’s as far as he gets before Kibum punches a pillow into his face and pounces him. After a good moment of a rather violent tickle-slash-pillow fight, Kibum finally relents and pulls the pillow back not to suffocate his long time friend. All those years have to count for something, right? “If I ever catch you saying such prejudiced shit, Kim Jonghyun, you will never see the light of day again. I will end you and hide the body.”
Jonghyun laughs but it comes out a little shakily. C’mon, an angry Kibum is a scary Kibum, he learned that at the age of five. “C’mon man, I didn’t mean it like that! It was you who started going on about poor lonesome Jinki.”
“I didn’t mean I’d be willing to share what’s mine,” Kibum says. As if to underline the statement he frowns, punching Jonghyun’s shoulder. “We don’t need any hot threesomes for our sexlife to be mind blowing.”
Jonghyun is grinning though. “You’re so whipped,” he sing-songs. “You are so in loooove~”
“Shut up, you caveman!” Kibum blushes and to distract Jonghyun he punts another pillow straight at his face.
They don’t go for a triple date. Instead they take the whole bunch and go to movies, but not before threatening Jonghyun with the loss of fingers if he does anything indecent. Thankfully Hyein is on their side and she knows exactly how to fend off her boyfriend’s advances whenever she wants to.
It turns out to be surprisingly much fun and by the end of it, they all promise that this won’t be the last time they get together. It’s already way past midnight when Kibum clears off the snacks from the living room and gets them into the kitchen with Jinki’s help. He notices how Jinki is a little more quiet than usual, and is determined to confront him, but he doesn’t get the chance before Jinki spills the beans.
“It’s just, it’s so nice to see you all so happy,” he smiles, radiating honesty. “I kind of wish that I would, you know, find someone too once.”
Kibum wants to tell him that there’s no hurry, he’s awesome and he will find someone good enough for him. He doesn’t say anything though, but instead pulls his friend into a tight hug. When he feels Jinki relax against him he knows the message is conveyed either way. “Besides,” Kibum mutters later, “at least you have an absolutely kickass bunch of friends!”
Jinki beams, his eyes smiling crescents.
“You know what,” Kibum announces all of a sudden. Eager for distractions, Minho glances up from the paperwork, not exactly enthusiastic about doing his taxes. He doesn’t need to wait for long and Kibum goes on, grinning. “We should go shopping.”
“We just were shopping yesterd-” Minho begins, only to be interrupted halfway.
“I know. But you need new curtains! Or do you think I’m going to look at those hideous puke green ones any longer?” Kibum rolls his eyes for effect, waving his hand dismissively. He’s lying on his stomach, his feet shamelessly propped on Minho’s pillow. “You’ve had them for like, a year. I still don’t even understand why you got them.”
“You told me to go buy curtains. The first time we met,” Minho says.
Kibum snorts. “I didn’t tell you to go buy puke green curtains. Clearly, you need my impeccable taste in your life. While we’re at it, we could also get you a new couch and a coffee table that doesn’t threaten to fall apart any second now.”
“Kibum, I am not a millionaire,” Minho chuckles, “I can’t afford all of that at once. Especially not now that someone has been leeching off me and emptying my fridge daily.”
“Don’t whine, I cook for you too.” It’s true and Minho doesn’t argue. Instead he shakes his head and hides his grin by turning back to the papers. Neither of them says anything for a good while, comfortable silence between them. Kibum is lazily flipping through a magazine, his textbooks lying forgotten on the side.
Finally, Minho clears his throat. “Wanna try out the new Italian after buying curtains?”
He doesn’t look up, but he takes Kibum’s enthusiastic squeal as a yes.
Five hours later they are hanging the new, stylish curtains up, after Kibum contently stuffs the green ones into a plastic bag. He is determined to get rid of them, before Minho decides they’d go well in the bedroom or something equally horrible. The new curtains look dazzling, if one asks him, so worth the quarrel in the shop when Minho mistakenly thought they were too expensive.
Besides, watching Minho stretch to reach up is pretty nice, too. They could change curtains more often if this is the view it gains him. “You need help up there?” Kibum asks, while he lets his gaze slide down Minho’s back to the sliver of skin visible at his waist, and to his quite nicely shaped bottom.
Minho glances back and notices where Kibum’s eyes are fixed, unable to hold back a grin at that. “No,” he says, pausing to get one of the clamps fastened. “You can relax and enjoy the view.”
At first, Kibum sputters, but he doesn’t even try to deny that. Instead he sinks down into the armchair, getting comfortable. “Then you could work a little slower, you know.” He smirks. “Maybe I should get some snacks and drinks.”
“You might miss the show if you leave,” Minho says. As if to underline the statement he wriggles his butt, in a way that instantly has Kibum staring. Kibum spaces out for a second, only snapping back to reality when Minho winks at him from over his shoulder.
“Oh you ass.”
“You mean ‘oh your ass is gorgeous’, right?” Minho moves his hips again, exaggeratedly enough to make it downright hilarious.
Kibum bursts out laughing. “Yeah, I do. I think I do.”
The more serious Taemin’s relationship with Minji gets, the more time Kibum spends over at Minho’s apartment. He says he’s exiled from his home, but they both know that the dorm room isn’t any more a home to him than Minho’s apartment is. Especially now that along the weeks, Kibum has started to give the place his own touch. It all starts with a tablecloth to cover up the crack on the coffee table, but soon little decorative items follow, as well as new plates and quite nice second-hand glassware.
There is also the fact that a second toothbrush has migrated into Minho’s bathroom, neatly placed right next to his own. Once, in a sleepy haze after a way too long day at work, he stands there and wonders which one is his, until Kibum chides in and points out that his has his name written on it. Exactly like the embroidered towel that is suddenly hanging next to the mirror.
It’s like playing family, and Minho quite likes it. He doesn’t say it out loud but he sleeps easier when Kibum is there at an arm’s reach, when he can listen to steady breaths next to him before he passes out, when it’s Kibum he gets to see the first thing in the morning, to kiss him, morning breath and all. He’s not one to say no to an active, regular sexlife either. Kibum still goes back to the dorm from time to time, spends a few nights there before returning to Minho’s apartment.
This seems to be a good deal all in all.
When Minho starts awake in the middle of the night, he automatically reaches out for the warm body next to his. His hand only meets cold sheets and he tries to swallow the tinge of disappointment. It isn’t until his sleepy mind gathers the first coherent thought when he realizes he wasn’t alone when he went to bed.
Blinking sleep from his eyes, Minho forces himself to get up. The floor is cold underneath his bare feet so he spends a moment trying to locate his socks underneath the bed. He gives up when he finds one of them, picking it a random pair from his closet. Just when he’s about to step into the living room, he hears a distinct sniffle.
He pauses, his fingers carded into his hair, and listens carefully. Another muffled sob follows soon after, oddly audible in the dark room. In an instant, Minho is fully awake, eyes wide. He moves slowly so he won’t stumble over any sudden obstacles, but it doesn’t take much to locate the origin of the silent crying.
Kibum is sitting curled up in the corner of the couch, knees pulled up to his chest and face pressed into them. He looks so small it makes Minho’s heart constrict painfully, and without thinking he moves in. Carefully he takes a seat, sliding an arm around Kibum’s shoulders to pull him close against his chest. He can feel Kibum tense for a second, before he slowly leans in.
“What’s wrong?” Minho asks, his words a faint whisper right into Kibum’s hair. He can feel the tension in the body in his arms and keeps rubbing soothing circles on Kibum’s back. There is no answer, except for the weak sniffles, for so long that he almost forgets he spoke up to begin with.
“I can’t make it go away,” Kibum finally whispers, “the pain won’t go away.”
The answer isn’t exactly what Minho expected, even if he doesn’t know what his expectations were to begin with. There are a million questions on the tip of his tongue, but he swallows them back when he feels Kibum tremble. Instead, he shifts so he can hold him a little closer, press a soft kiss on his temple. “Want me to get you painkillers? I have some in the bathroom.”
The answer is an almost violent headshake, the tension in Kibum’s body increasing tenfold. “No! Don’t make me, please.” He sounds weak, like the crying has made all his strength slip away.
“Ssh, it’s alright,” Minho says, “Relax.” Obviously, he isn’t going to force Kibum to take painkillers if he doesn’t want them. Although he has to admit he’s burning to know what is going on, what he can do to make it better.
“It’s my leg,” Kibum says, finally, after a long pause. Minho doesn’t say anything, only waits patiently, toys with the hem of Kibum’s shirt. “It’s. It always hurts when the weather changes.” He lets out a hollow laugh. “Sounds ridiculous, right? Like the old folks predicting rain with their bones. But it hurts.”
“It doesn’t sound ridiculous,” Minho says. It really doesn’t. He’s known enough people with sports injuries or people who went through bad accidents, and he knows sometimes it’ll never go away for good. He also knows that there is nothing he can do right now. So he simply holds back the questions, focusing on being there, keeping Kibum close to himself.
Somehow he feels that if he holds Kibum tight enough, he can take some of the pain away. That is exactly what he does for the rest of the night. Even when Kibum falls asleep, his head still resting on Minho’s shoulder against the tear-soaked shirt, Minho doesn’t move.
The deep, even breaths sound like heaven in Minho’s ears, easing the tightness in his chest. The first rays of the rising sun paint the walls of the room golden with their glow when Minho finally drifts off as well.
In the morning Minho wakes up with the worst backache of the century, and no Kibum anywhere in sight. He figures it’s just normal, after all Kibum doesn’t officially live with him and has the tendency to randomly decide where he wants to stay. What does surprise him is that there is no note, no nothing, waiting for him in the kitchen or on the cracked coffee table. He shrugs it off.
For the next days, he doesn’t hear anything from Kibum. It’s not for the lack of trying. At first, Minho sends a few messages with casual questions of how are you, but never gets an answer to any of them. When Kibum doesn’t answer a single phone call either, Minho begins to worry. Under normal circumstances he might not have been as jumpy about something like this, but waking up to Kibum crying his eyes out in pain and then finding him gone? Minho can’t stop his mind from coming up with all sorts of worst-case scenarios.
The next logical step is to go for a visit, but that’s when Minho realizes he doesn’t even know where the dorms are. He has never been to the campus, either. They’ve always hung out at his place, or a few times at Jonghyun’s tiny condo.
So he calls Taemin, skips past all the formal greetings and how have you beens and gets straight to the point. “Do you know where Kibum is?”
Taemin seems completely unfazed by the impoliteness, his voice as chirpy as ever. “Oh, he’s at the dorm. Don’t worry! I’ll let him know you called.” It sounds a little like a rehearsed reply, though, and it sets all alarm bells ringing in Minho’s ears.
“What is going on, Taemin?” he asks. “You’re both avoiding me. I haven’t seen you in almost a week. Is everything alright?”
“We’re not avoiding you.” Taemin’s voice softens a little. “Really, don’t worry. We’ll come over soon.”
Minho sighs and rubs his temples. “Let me talk to Kibum? Please. He’s ignoring my messages.”
“No.” The answer is a lot more stern than expected. “I’m sorry, hyung. I’m not going to make him take any calls, and I’m not giving him a phone, his or mine.”
“I just want to know what’s going on.” I’m scared shitless, Minho adds, but only in his mind.
“You’ll have to ask Kibum-hyung the next time. Sorry! Talk to you later.”
The call ends and it leaves Minho even more confused than before.
After debating over it for a grand total of ten seconds, Minho calls Jonghyun. “I swear to god, Jonghyun, if you don’t tell me what’s going on I’ll do something desperate.” He doesn’t really know what the desperate could be, maybe hacking into the university database to get the information on housing and where Kibum and Taemin live in their shared room. He obviously lacks all knowledge to do it, but he’d find a way. Somehow.
“Oh wow. Hello to you too,” Jonghyun laughs. “What are you rambling on about?”
“Don’t act like- oh fine,” Minho groans. He’ll get to it faster if he just answers all the questions more or less patiently. “I haven’t seen Kibum since last Sunday. What’s going on and why is he avoiding me?”
“Oh.” Jonghyun instantly sounds more serious. “Something happened?”
“No!” Minho exclaims, before even really thinking about the answer. “Or, well, yes. Kind of. He was crying? Said his leg hurt, but wouldn’t tell me anything more, and then the next morning he was gone.”
“Oh,” Jonghyun says, again. “Listen, I gotta go.” That is sudden, and Minho already starts to protest, but Jonghyun cuts him off. “Hey, are you free around five?”
“Yeah.” Minho switches the phone from ear to ear, straightening a little.
“I’ll drop by. See you, man!”
Well. This is at least better than nothing, Minho decides, and proceeds to stare at the clock, willing it to go faster.
read part 2/2
This entry was originally posted at http://rabenhorst.dreamwidth.org/92725.html. You can also comment there using OpenID!
Author: fonulyn
Rating: R (NC17 if you read the outtake)
Warnings: none really (pairings including OCs?)
Pairing: Minho/Key, Jonghyun, Taemin, Onew (all paired with OCs at some point)
Disclaimer: I own no one, only my dirty imagination.
Summary: Every end is also a beginning; as you’ll learn when life takes its course.
Comments: I just really, really wanted to write Minkey. which was a lonesome process seeing I have no one to complain to when the fic wouldn’t do what I wanted it to, lmao.
but I enjoyed it immensely anyway this is so self-indulgent, ahah and I hope you like the outcome~ half of it is random bff-ery :D
please read! towards the end of the fic there’s a smutty scene I cut out since I wasn’t sure if it broke the flow of the fic. but there’s a link to it if you want the NC17 version! so everyone, pick for yourself. fic posted in two parts due to the length (gdi lj you and your limits).
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“What is your ideal type, Minho?”
“Someone nice, and pretty. Someone who will go to soccer matches with me and make me dinner. Someone I’ll want to marry.”
“Someone like Jaehee?”
“Who else?”
When his brother would ask him these questions, Minho would always answer easily. In his mind, it has always been easy. He has been with Jaehee ever since the last year of high school and even now, seven years later people still dub them the perfect couple.
There is something he doesn’t know, though.
Ideal type or not, you can’t control love.
It’s not often Minho has to travel far for his job. He knows he got incredibly lucky when he landed a job in a known newspaper, even if not the biggest one in Seoul, just after graduating. A steady pay check allowed him and Jaehee to move into a slightly bigger apartment, instead of both living in their separate dorms. Minho has always thought things are going nicely, he has a steady girlfriend and a job he actually enjoys. What more could he wish for?
That is, until his life is turned upside down in one go. Minho is sent to do an interview of some old lady who can’t travel to the city. Everything goes well and he ends up with a long recording to transcribe and the lady’s neverending admiration. He feels like he can conquer the world, expecting a warm dinner and gentle smiles when he returns home.
There is none. The apartment is cold and dark, and he spends five minutes searching the rooms, calling for Jaehee. Then, he spots the note on the kitchen table.
I’m sorry. I never meant for it to end like this. Please don’t contact me. - Jaehee
Minho has no idea what this is all about. At least, he tries to make himself believe he doesn’t. Surely he imagined all those awkward phases, the sudden tension where there used to be none. Or the way he had started to look at her like a friend more than someone he was supposed to marry. She had, in a way, just turned into a piece of furniture.
The thought makes Minho wince and he crumples the paper, throwing it in the trash. There must be something edible in the kitchen, he figures, and starts opening the cupboards.
The first night of his sudden bachelor-life, Minho sits on the worn couch and eats cold soup straight from the can. He didn’t find any plates. Or proper cutlery. A closer inspection shows that he doesn’t have any plates, not anymore.
Resigned, Minho thinks he probably has to make an inventory to see what he owns. Can’t be Jaehee took everything with her, right? Right.
With newly set determination, Minho decides he can do this.
Replacing cutlery and plates is easy. Replacing all aspects of his life isn’t, and Minho never really realized just how much spirit Jaehee brought into the shared apartment with the little decorative items and fresh flowers, by just being there.
Again, Minho sits in the dark living room and it feels like the silence might just crush him. He realizes he has never been this alone. It’s not like he can contact any of the shallow friends he had back at the high school soccer team, or call his brother in the middle of the night. He moved into Seoul because Jaehee insisted, and all the friends he has here are her friends too. Couple friends. Friends that only like you as a half of an entity, not for yourself.
Minho realizes he needs to go out there and make friends.
He doesn’t know how.
Minho’s attempts to find a friend somehow backfire and he ends up with a line of one night stands and quick affairs. He brings home a few girls who look almost exactly like Jaehee, before he realizes he can’t go down that lane. Next he goes for the complete opposite and dates girls who couldn’t be further from Jaehee, both personality- and look-wise. He dates men, too, not too picky in that aspect.
At the end of the day he is still always alone. He figures he’s not that good at this whole friendship-business.
Good things come surprisingly, though, and Minho learns that when his boss calls him into his office. He sweats a bit, trying to recall if he’s done anything wrong recently, but in the end just pushes the door open and gives director Han a curt bow. “You wanted to see me, sir?”
The next few moments go by in a blur and suddenly Minho walks out of the office with a pretty new intern hanging on to his arm. Or, well, not hanging on to him literally but that’s how it feels when this young boy follows him around like a puppy. “So, you’ll be spending a lot of time with me,” Minho clears his throat to go on, “so I suggest you try to feel at ease. I’ll be easy on you, promised.”
The new kid looks up at him from clear, admiring eyes, like he’s the best thing to have happened to all of humanity. It’s kind of an ego boost, in a strange sort of way. “Thank you, sir! Thank you so much,” he says and smiles a little wider.
“Minho,” Minho says, “call me Minho.”
“Alright,” the kid’s eyes sparkle even more, if humanly possible, “Minho-hyung.” He seems to slot easily into the situation, acting like they’ve known for years.
Minho feels vaguely embarrassed that he doesn’t remember the kid’s name, but he can’t exactly go back to ask his boss about it. His only choice is to admit to it. “Uhm, I’m sorry, but I didn’t quite catch-”
“Taemin!” The kid, Taemin, provides easily. “Don’t worry, I’m bad with names too.”
There is something in Taemin that makes him easy to like, easy to be around. Minho cracks a smile. “Alright, Taemin, let’s get to work. We actually do things around here.”
That is how Minho finds a new friend. In the end, it’s easier than he expected. Maybe he has been going about it wrong all this time.
“I always wanted to have a big brother!” Taemin says, happily, and Minho instantly takes it as a compliment. He’s found that his days at work are infinitely more interesting now that he has a curious student asking him about everything and nothing, someone who looks up to him whenever he answers a particularly hard question. Taemin is only a couple of years younger than him, but it sometimes feels much more.
“Except I do have Jonghyun-hyung and Kibum-hyung, but they’re kind of… not fit to be big brothers, you know?” Taemin beams. Actually, Minho has no clue, but he only smiles and it’s obviously enough to set Taemin off to yet another ramble about his friends. “Jonghyun-hyung is like a big bully, usually. But he means well! It’s not his fault he’s kind of an ape.”
Minho smiles slightly as he listens to the ongoing explanations, picking on his lunch. During the past week this has become a common occurrence, the two of them sharing lunch and Taemin taking care of the talking. Usually he talks about school, asks questions about the work, or just babbles about his two best friends. It kind of feels that Minho knows them too, he’s heard so much.
Especially Kibum, who seems to be Taemin’s favourite person in the whole wide world, judging by how much he talks about him and how often Minho’s heard the lines Kibum-hyung says and Kibum-hyung thinks.
“You should totally meet them!” Taemin exclaims, effectively pulling Minho back on earth from his thoughts. “You’d get along so well with Jonghyun-hyung, he is easy to impress. And don’t worry if Kibum-hyung won’t take to you instantly, he sometimes doesn’t. He can be a bit wary around new people but I’m sure you’d like him!”
It takes a few more minutes of convincing from Taemin before Minho shrugs, figuring that he has nothing to lose. “Alright.”
“- and you seem to know your way ar- what?” Taemin stutters, his eyes widening.
“I said, alright,” Minho repeats. He has to deal with a hyperactive assistant for the rest of the day, but he doesn’t really mind. He doesn’t even scold Taemin for texting his friends during work hours, noticing how badly the boy tries to cover up what he’s up to.
Besides, it never hurts to meet new people, right? Friends, Minho tells himself, friends are good.
Usually, Minho would spend his Friday night either at home alone or somewhere getting drunk (that is, after Jaehee left him to his own devices), and he has to admit it’s been ages since he’s spent it in an ice cream parlour. Taemin explains to him that yes, his friends are sane enough but that this became some sort of a habit when he was still the only minor in the group and couldn’t get into the clubs. Even now that he is twenty-two, I can show my ID! Taemin says his friends treat him like a kid, more often than not. Looking at those bright eyes and innocent smile, Minho can’t blame them.
So, he finds himself sliding into a booth after Taemin tells him he’ll get both their orders, twisting his hands nervously. Meeting new people shouldn’t be this hard, now should it? Minho supposes he’s become something of a hermit recently.
“So you are the great and magnificent Minho-hyung Taemin keeps going on and on about?” A voice shakes Minho from his thoughts and when he turns his head he instantly locks gazes with a young man, probably around his age, extremely attractive, and from the looks of it either Kibum or Jonghyun. He doesn’t get the chance to try and say something witty though, before a hand is offered to him promptly. “I’m Kibum. Nice to meet you.”
Minho reaches out and shakes the hand, Kibum’s fingertips nicely cool against his. He offers a smile. “I thought it was you he kept talking about. I feel like I’ve known you for years already.”
“Ooh,” Kibum laughs, “aren’t you the sweet-talker? Are you hitting on me the first thing when we meet?”
The words are obviously teasing and although Minho flushes a little, he can feel his grin growing wider. “Don’t think too highly of yourself.”
“No?” Kibum arches an eyebrow.
“No.” Minho shakes his head. “Taemin says you nag. A lot.”
That again makes Kibum laugh and his eyes are sparkling with pure amusement as he slides to sit next to Minho in the booth, giving him a friendly pat on the shoulder. “Alright,” he says, “I do. But I always have a good reason for it.”
“Good reason for what?” Another voice cuts into the discussion and this time it’s another stranger, holding a huge sundae in both hands. “If you were talking about me and how you bully me then no, there is never a good reason, and you can kiss your ice cream goodbye!”
“Oh Jjongie,” Kibum flutters his eyelashes flirtatiously, reaching for the one with chocolate sauce and colourful toppings. “You know I’d never say a single bad thing about you.”
“No, you’d say a whole ton of bad things,” Jonghyun replies but he’s grinning, still when he turns to offer his hand to Minho. “Jonghyun. The one with the looks. Oh, and the brains. I’m sorry to say Kibum never got much of either.”
The next moment Jonghyun lets out a pained yelp when Kibum kicks his ankle, hard, and sends him flailing. It results in Taemin’s and Minho’s sundaes all over the floor, as Taemin has never had a good timing. At least Kibum apologizes profusely and Jonghyun goes to get them new ones.
Minho decides he likes these people, a lot.
The next few hours consist of such enthusiastic babbling Minho has troubles keeping up with all of it. He learns a lot and inwardly thinks he probably should’ve made notes. While he already knew Kibum and Taemin are roommates, sharing a small dorm on campus, it’s news to him that they also went to high school together. It’s obvious Kibum is older than Taemin, but Minho doesn’t get the chance to ask why they were in the same class.
Jonghyun, on the other hand, studied both music and economics and ended up working for a small record company. He’s more than enthusiastic when he describes his flexible working hours and cool colleagues, but especially how he gets to use the facilities for his own recordings. Apparently he’s pretty good, even Kibum admits that, making his friend beam.
Eventually they get kicked out of the ice cream parlour. Or that’s how Kibum puts it, while in reality they simply get some disapproving glances from the manager and the workers, until they decide it’s time to go. Taemin is skipping along the road happily, regardless of Kibum nagging at him to stop it before he breaks his skull. It all feels like they’re one oversized family and Minho likes it. The sense of belonging is something he almost forgot, along these past months.
“We should do something fun!” Taemin suggests as he swirls around to look at the trio walking behind him. “The night is still young, people!”
“And what would that ‘something fun’ include?” Kibum asks, arching an eyebrow.
“We could go clubbing,” Jonghyun suggests, but both Kibum and Taemin shake their heads.
“Too crowded,” Kibum says.
Taemin chirps in. “We’ll do that some other time. Once you get to know each other more!” He purses his lips thoughtfully. “We should go somewhere more private.”
“You know we can’t go back to our dorm,” Kibum says. “We’d get kicked out for being loud, and where would we then live?”
“Don’t look at me, Taeminnie!” Jonghyun raises both hands to gesture he’s against the suggestion, even before it’s voiced out loud. “The last time we spent an evening at my place, I needed a month to get the stains off the carpet. Hyein would kill me!”
Taemin protests, while Kibum complains loudly about the strictness of Jonghyun’s girlfriend. Neither of them realizes it when Minho clears his throat, startling when he speaks. “We could go to my place? It’s quite spacious.”
He is met with three sets of wide eyes, and then three pleased grins.
“You are the best, Minho-hyung!”
“What would we do without you, man?”
“I hope your place is clean.”
Yes, Minho’s place is clean, but no, he doesn’t have any snacks or anything to offer them. So they stop by at the supermarket, grabbing bags of chips and sugary treats enough to last for a week. Once they finally get into Minho’s apartment and kick off their shoes, Minho feels both oddly self-conscious and kind of giddy. This is the first time he’s had friends over after the break-up!
Taemin launches himself straight into the plush armchair, mismatched with the couch and the coffee table, all from different sets. Jonghyun is only a tad bit more reserved as he plops down on the floor, spreading the bags of goodies on the table. Kibum, on the contrary, stops in the doorway with a hand on his hip. “Well,” he says, his eyes on the room. “This is simplistic.”
For some reason, it makes Minho blush. “I kind of had a rough break up. My girlf- ex-girlfriend, she took most of the furniture. And decoration. And the curtains.”
“I kind of noticed,” Kibum snorts. “We need to go buy you decent curtains, Minho. You can’t just hang sheets up and hope they pass as curtains. I do not approve.”
Minho chuckles and doesn’t even say what’s on his mind, a snide remark about it not being Kibum’s home to furnish. In fact, it feels kind of nice to have someone who thinks it’s worth the trouble. “I hope you approve of drinking the liquor from tea mugs. I have nothing else.”
“What!?” Kibum pretends to be hurt, elegantly placing a hand on his heart. “You are making me drink from a tea mug? How dare you.”
When Kibum grabs his wrist and drags him into the kitchen, Minho laughs. He concludes that it’s been a while since he felt this good. This happy.
After a few drinks, Minho is even happier. He is slouching on his couch, Kibum’s feet propped up on his thighs. At first Jonghyun scolded Kibum for using Minho as a pillow, but he dropped it soon as he noticed it had no effect whatsoever. Besides, Minho doesn’t exactly mind.
“We should totally play a game!” Taemin says. His cheeks are flushed, his eyes shining almost feverishly, but they all know it’s just the amount of alcohol consumed. “We need to get to know each other better!”
“Taemin,” Kibum groans, waving a hand. “I know everything about Jonghyun, we were friends already in diapers. And I know almost everything about you. What makes you think I would want to hear anything more?”
“You’re nosy,” Jonghyun supplies helpfully. “You always want an update on fresh gossip. Besides, you know nothing about Minho.”
“Nonsense,” Kibum says. “I know plenty about Minho. He had a rough break-up with his girlfriend three months ago and he’s still hung up on it enough to live in the midst of this desert. He urgently needs new curtains and plates. Oh and proper glasses! He likes to sit back and observe people around him, and he is sharper than Jonghyun could ever hope to be. Plus he’s hot and thus makes a perfect addition to our twisted little family.”
The analysis makes Minho blush, as much as he tries to fight it, and to cover it up he takes a sip from his mug, the alcohol burning down his throat. He pretends to be more casual than he is, while in reality his heart just did a stupid little flip in his chest. Family? Well that’s nothing he’s going to resist.
“You make it sound like I’m dumb,” Jonghyun whines. Everyone ignores him.
“I think Taemin’s right,” Minho speaks slowly, carefully. “I know next to nothing about you. If we’re to be family,” he gives Kibum a sidelong glance, “I’d like to know more.”
“Then,” Kibum smiles at him and struggles to sit up properly. “We will play.”
They start off with some random, lame questions. It’s to warm up, Kibum says. Finally they get to more personal questions and Minho is surprised at the ease with which his new friends share secrets with him. In turn, he feels compelled to share some of his own. He talks about his break up, how sudden it was and how he still knows the relationship hadn’t been all well.
“Does it still hurt?” Taemin asks softly, and Minho pauses to think. Does it?
Slowly, he shakes his head. “Not really.” Maybe that’s yet another sign that everything was doomed, long ago. They fall silent for a while, before Kibum cuts the silence.
“Now it’s Minho’s turn! Make it mean, to compensate, okay?”
Minho doesn’t even need to think about the question. “Why did you go to school together with Taemin? You’re older than him, right?” Ever since the beginning, when he was told the two used to be classmates in high school for a year before becoming roommates in the university, he’s felt that something doesn’t quite add up.
“You consider that mean?” Kibum asks, grinning. “Alright. I skipped class like a pro, so I ended up in the kid’s class. I’m two years older.”
“Hyung!” Taemin sounds incredulous. “You didn’t ‘skip class’, you had valid reasons to be absent.”
“Whatever, Taemin.” Kibum waves aside. He turns to look at Minho instead. “You’re born in 91, right? We’re of the same age.”
Minho smiles. “What valid reasons were those?” He asks, referring to Taemin’s words.
Kibum has none of it. “It’s not your turn to ask questions now, Choi! Button it up and let Jjong aim a mean one at us.”
There is no other alternative and Jonghyun instantly needles Taemin about this girl he obviously has a crush on, making him blush and flail. Once it’s Minho’s turn to ask the next question he’s forgotten all about the previous exchange, focusing on their common task to embarrass Jonghyun instead.
Minho doesn’t miss the way Kibum leans on him ever so often, how he hits Minho’s thigh or shoulder when he laughs. Neither does he miss the way he actually quite likes it.
It’s actually quite funny. Just when Minho scores not one friend but actually three, a fourth one just falls onto his lap. They get a new editor in the paper and again, he ends up being the one to show him the ropes around here. The man is all nervous smiles and polite bows as he introduces himself. “Lee Jinki, pleased to meet you!”
Taemin instantly likes the man and it seems to be mutual. Minho doesn’t really mind, either, as it’s nice to have people to talk to during breaks or the less hectic workdays. Besides, he has taught Taemin so much already that he can make him do some of the introduce Jinki to the house things. Besides, Taemin practically vibrates with energy, so pleased with himself he could burst, whenever he knows the answer to a problem Jinki has.
They’ve taken it a habit to go to the ice cream parlour at least once a week, sometimes more often, spending time at Minho’s place afterwards almost without fail. After Jinki’s arrival they make the mistake to mention him to Kibum, after which he keeps bothering them about the new friend. Sometimes, Minho bitterly regrets sharing his phone number with Kibum, especially when he gets seven messages in a row in the middle of the workday, all something along the lines of are you with the Jinki guy? or is he hot? or ask him to come meet us!
Minho doesn’t know if it’s the fact that he kind of feels sorry for Jinki, being equally much a loner as well, or if he just can’t resist those smiling eyes. Or maybe it’s Kibum’s insistent nagging and complaining. Whatever it is, he asks Jinki to come along one evening when he and Taemin pull on their jackets to get out for an ice cream with their group.
Jinki’s eyes shine when he gets to tag along. He nearly trips over his feet when they step inside and head towards their regular table to greet the other two. Jinki is visibly nervous, the more the closer they get. He needn’t be.
Kibum instantly loves him. “Oh why didn’t you bring your friend along sooner? Minho you’re such a jerk!” He pushes Minho’s shoulder, but unfortunately - to him - Minho was expecting it and doesn’t budge an inch. Kibum doesn’t waste a moment for frowning though, instead pulling Jinki to sit down. “You’re my new best friend, okay. You look so much nicer than these idiots.”
“Kibum-hyung,” Taemin says, a slight whine to his voice, as he blinks his eyes.
Instantly, Kibum gives in. “Except you, Taemin, you’re always my favourite.”
That’s how Jinki becomes a part of their family too.
Whenever they try to baby Taemin, he reminds that he is as academically advanced as Kibum, trying to argue his way out of it. It eventually always leads to hyung I am already twenty-two and depending on the situation, it either helps or not. Usually not.
What bugs Taemin the most is how his friends are all equally enthusiastic to hear about his dates, about the girl he’s currently crushing on, about anything including his romantic life or lack thereof. Often, there is no girl he’s interested in but one of his friends is still convinced otherwise. Usually, it’s Kibum, who tends to see flirting and romantic overtures wherever he looks. It’s kind of in crass contrast with how he’s so unconsciously flirty himself, touching people and hanging off their shoulders, never meaning it as anything more than a friendly gesture.
He isn’t alone in trying to pair Taemin up, since Jonghyun is almost equally bad. He keeps giving good advice - good only in his own opinion, though - and tries to nudge Taemin whenever he thinks he should be talking to a pretty girl eyeing him. Sometimes they team up against the poor kid and force him to make a move on someone he obviously looked at that way!
Occasionally Kibum pesters Taemin to give a cute boy a chance too, only to be told that not everyone is as gay as you, Kibum-hyung. Kibum always waves it aside nonchalantly, wherein Minho always stays silent and fails to mention his own experiences with the same gender. They don’t need to know everything, right?
Sometimes, after one or two beers too much, Kibum groans about how sad it is that he has to live through his baby brother, when did his life get so sad? He has no romantic life to speak of so of course he has to make sure Taemin doesn’t end up as sad as he.
In the end, it’s Jinki who successfully manages to pair Taemin up, as they put it, even though Taemin complains it so doesn’t sound romantic. It’s on accident, too, when he trips over open shoelaces and sends his sundae flying towards the cashier girl. It ends up all over, and Taemin ends up being the gentleman to help her clean the counter. It scores him a date.
Kibum and Jonghyun frown for nearly two weeks, complaining how it’s entirely unfair.
In a few months, Taemin has to go back to his studies, his internship at the paper ending. He’s done a good job, enough for the chief editor to tell him he has a good shot to get a job when he’s done studying. It leaves Taemin more than a little happy. That combined with the fact that he’s now officially going out with the cashier girl, Minji, makes Taemin almost unbearably giddy.
During the nights both Taemin and Jonghyun are out with their girlfriends, the last three are left on their own. “Thank god for you and Jinki!” Kibum says more than once. “Without you two I’d be alone now that those two bastards are running after skirts. Abandoning their life-long friend!” The two are rarely seen at their get-togethers, and while Kibum whines and moans about it too, they all know it’s for show.
One night, Kibum and Minho are alone, as Jinki has gone back home to visit his parents. They’re sitting on the battered couch, the very same couch on which Minho sat alone when his life was falling apart, echoing its emptiness. Somehow that feels fitting. None of that is on Minho’s mind though when Kibum leans closer and sets his head on his shoulder.
“You know,” Kibum drawls, a whiff of alcohol on his breath, “now we need to find Jinki someone!”
“I thought you were the one complaining all your friends are leaving you for girls?” Minho points out, patting Kibum’s side. He has decided already long ago that when Kibum gets cuddly it’s best to go with the flow. It’s the most comfortable when he slings an arm around Kibum’s shoulders, allowing him to snuggle in.
At that, Kibum laughs. “Don’t interrupt me when I’m scheming a master plan! I repeat: we need to find someone for Jinki!”
Minho decides to humour him. “A pretty girl like Minji?” He huffs a laugh, remembering the awkward way Jinki had greeted the petite girl. They’d all been exposed to a fair amount of second hand embarrassment.
Kibum shoots him an odd look but doesn’t say anything. It’s silent until Minho can’t take it anymore. “What? What did I say?”
“Nothing,” Kibum shakes his head, “I just thought you knew. Everyone else knows.” He sits up straight again and a part of Minho instantly misses the closeness, even if he wouldn’t admit it for the world.
“Knows what?” Minho frowns. He doesn’t really appreciate being kept in the dark and right now? He has no clue at all what’s going on.
Kibum leans closer, grinning. “We need to find Jinki someone, yes. But not someone like Minji.” He pauses for effect, his dark eyes gazing straight into Minho’s. Distantly Minho wonders how it would be to kiss him, to part those rosy lips with his tongue and claim - he doesn’t get any further when Kibum startles him back to reality. “Someone like you.”
“Me?”
“Yeah,” Kibum grins, leaning back. The same rebellious part of Minho from earlier is screaming for him to come back come back stay close, while another part is heaving a relieved sigh for the restoration of personal space. “Someone reliable, who appreciates him for what he is. Someone gorgeous! Someone with a big dick. So, obviously, someone like you.”
You think I’m gorgeous? is the first thought screeching through Minho’s mind and he already opens his mouth to protest when something else hits him. “Someone with a big dick? How do you know anything about my dick?”
“Public baths. I peek,” Kibum answers so nonchalantly Minho almost forgets to be embarrassed, instead sputtering out a laugh.
“So you compare sizes when everyone around you is washing up, all innocent and oblivious?”
“I didn’t say I peek at everyone.”
Minho’s jaw drops and he just gapes. Until Kibum uses two fingers to close his mouth, telling him it’s highly unattractive.
That conversation probably should’ve triggered something but in the end, Minho only wipes it under a rug and pretends nothing happened. He knows it can’t go on forever but he is quite determined to try just how long.
This time, they agree to meet on a Saturday, since it’s a day both Jonghyun and Taemin say is good for them. Despite that, they ditch their friends early, gushing something about a double date. Minho can see how Kibum struggles not to say something snappy, quite impressed by the smile he manages in the end.
It doesn’t even take more than a couple of hours before Jinki has knocked back a few too many shots, lying passed out on the floor.
Kibum kicks Jinki’s lifeless form, only to make him start snoring. “Great.” Kibum scrunches up his nose. “Fucking great. Now we have to listen to him do that for the whole night.”
“How do you know he won’t stop if you kick him again?” Minho suggests, innocently.
Kibum grins. “I always knew there was a reason you were my favourite!” He kicks Jinki again, a little harder than before. It doesn’t help, and Jinki’s melodious snores still resonate in the air. Kibum frowns. “Now you gotta distract me. I hate snoring.”
Minho has something witty on his tongue and he’s prepared to shoot, but then Kibum does that little thing he always does, purses his lips just so, and Minho finds his resolve crumbling. Instead of giving a snappy comeback he leans in, connecting their mouths.
He kisses Kibum and when Kibum kisses back his life is all sorts of wonderful. Careful not to break the spell of the moment, Minho cups Kibum’s jaw in his palm, strokes the soft skin of his cheek with his thumb.
Minho doesn’t know about Kibum, but he at least forgets all about Jinki snoring less than two feet away from them. Latest when he pins Kibum down on the couch and kisses him in earnest.
After they end up making out on the couch until dawn, Kibum is far less sour about losing his friends to their girlfriends. Instead, he quite happily starts to spend more time with Minho alone during the following months. They end up repeating that night more often than not, especially when they both find out just how much they enjoy kissing. Kissing each other, in particular. Minho is competitive and straightforward, where Kibum is playful and seductive, and that brings an endless amount of variations.
They never make a big announcement to their friends but it seems that everyone notices the shift in their relationship. They get subtle eyerolls from Taemin, bright and happy smiles from Jinki, and overly exaggerated reactions from Jonghyun. Kibum might lean on Minho a little more; Minho might sneak an arm around Kibum’s waist a bit more often than before. That’s about as far as their massive revelations go.
“You know,” Jonghyun suggests as they’re spending time at his place for once, he and Kibum, now that Hyein is out of town and their apartment is free game again. “We should go on a triple date!”
Kibum frowns at the suggestion, looking at his friend as if he’s completely off his rocker. “A triple date? What about Jinki? We can’t ditch the poor guy just because he’s the only one who doesn’t have anyone to bring.”
“You and Minho could adopt him for a while?” Jonghyun suggests. “Isn’t that what most gays do? Open relationships and stuff. Think about the possibilities, all the hot threesomes and-”
That’s as far as he gets before Kibum punches a pillow into his face and pounces him. After a good moment of a rather violent tickle-slash-pillow fight, Kibum finally relents and pulls the pillow back not to suffocate his long time friend. All those years have to count for something, right? “If I ever catch you saying such prejudiced shit, Kim Jonghyun, you will never see the light of day again. I will end you and hide the body.”
Jonghyun laughs but it comes out a little shakily. C’mon, an angry Kibum is a scary Kibum, he learned that at the age of five. “C’mon man, I didn’t mean it like that! It was you who started going on about poor lonesome Jinki.”
“I didn’t mean I’d be willing to share what’s mine,” Kibum says. As if to underline the statement he frowns, punching Jonghyun’s shoulder. “We don’t need any hot threesomes for our sexlife to be mind blowing.”
Jonghyun is grinning though. “You’re so whipped,” he sing-songs. “You are so in loooove~”
“Shut up, you caveman!” Kibum blushes and to distract Jonghyun he punts another pillow straight at his face.
They don’t go for a triple date. Instead they take the whole bunch and go to movies, but not before threatening Jonghyun with the loss of fingers if he does anything indecent. Thankfully Hyein is on their side and she knows exactly how to fend off her boyfriend’s advances whenever she wants to.
It turns out to be surprisingly much fun and by the end of it, they all promise that this won’t be the last time they get together. It’s already way past midnight when Kibum clears off the snacks from the living room and gets them into the kitchen with Jinki’s help. He notices how Jinki is a little more quiet than usual, and is determined to confront him, but he doesn’t get the chance before Jinki spills the beans.
“It’s just, it’s so nice to see you all so happy,” he smiles, radiating honesty. “I kind of wish that I would, you know, find someone too once.”
Kibum wants to tell him that there’s no hurry, he’s awesome and he will find someone good enough for him. He doesn’t say anything though, but instead pulls his friend into a tight hug. When he feels Jinki relax against him he knows the message is conveyed either way. “Besides,” Kibum mutters later, “at least you have an absolutely kickass bunch of friends!”
Jinki beams, his eyes smiling crescents.
“You know what,” Kibum announces all of a sudden. Eager for distractions, Minho glances up from the paperwork, not exactly enthusiastic about doing his taxes. He doesn’t need to wait for long and Kibum goes on, grinning. “We should go shopping.”
“We just were shopping yesterd-” Minho begins, only to be interrupted halfway.
“I know. But you need new curtains! Or do you think I’m going to look at those hideous puke green ones any longer?” Kibum rolls his eyes for effect, waving his hand dismissively. He’s lying on his stomach, his feet shamelessly propped on Minho’s pillow. “You’ve had them for like, a year. I still don’t even understand why you got them.”
“You told me to go buy curtains. The first time we met,” Minho says.
Kibum snorts. “I didn’t tell you to go buy puke green curtains. Clearly, you need my impeccable taste in your life. While we’re at it, we could also get you a new couch and a coffee table that doesn’t threaten to fall apart any second now.”
“Kibum, I am not a millionaire,” Minho chuckles, “I can’t afford all of that at once. Especially not now that someone has been leeching off me and emptying my fridge daily.”
“Don’t whine, I cook for you too.” It’s true and Minho doesn’t argue. Instead he shakes his head and hides his grin by turning back to the papers. Neither of them says anything for a good while, comfortable silence between them. Kibum is lazily flipping through a magazine, his textbooks lying forgotten on the side.
Finally, Minho clears his throat. “Wanna try out the new Italian after buying curtains?”
He doesn’t look up, but he takes Kibum’s enthusiastic squeal as a yes.
Five hours later they are hanging the new, stylish curtains up, after Kibum contently stuffs the green ones into a plastic bag. He is determined to get rid of them, before Minho decides they’d go well in the bedroom or something equally horrible. The new curtains look dazzling, if one asks him, so worth the quarrel in the shop when Minho mistakenly thought they were too expensive.
Besides, watching Minho stretch to reach up is pretty nice, too. They could change curtains more often if this is the view it gains him. “You need help up there?” Kibum asks, while he lets his gaze slide down Minho’s back to the sliver of skin visible at his waist, and to his quite nicely shaped bottom.
Minho glances back and notices where Kibum’s eyes are fixed, unable to hold back a grin at that. “No,” he says, pausing to get one of the clamps fastened. “You can relax and enjoy the view.”
At first, Kibum sputters, but he doesn’t even try to deny that. Instead he sinks down into the armchair, getting comfortable. “Then you could work a little slower, you know.” He smirks. “Maybe I should get some snacks and drinks.”
“You might miss the show if you leave,” Minho says. As if to underline the statement he wriggles his butt, in a way that instantly has Kibum staring. Kibum spaces out for a second, only snapping back to reality when Minho winks at him from over his shoulder.
“Oh you ass.”
“You mean ‘oh your ass is gorgeous’, right?” Minho moves his hips again, exaggeratedly enough to make it downright hilarious.
Kibum bursts out laughing. “Yeah, I do. I think I do.”
The more serious Taemin’s relationship with Minji gets, the more time Kibum spends over at Minho’s apartment. He says he’s exiled from his home, but they both know that the dorm room isn’t any more a home to him than Minho’s apartment is. Especially now that along the weeks, Kibum has started to give the place his own touch. It all starts with a tablecloth to cover up the crack on the coffee table, but soon little decorative items follow, as well as new plates and quite nice second-hand glassware.
There is also the fact that a second toothbrush has migrated into Minho’s bathroom, neatly placed right next to his own. Once, in a sleepy haze after a way too long day at work, he stands there and wonders which one is his, until Kibum chides in and points out that his has his name written on it. Exactly like the embroidered towel that is suddenly hanging next to the mirror.
It’s like playing family, and Minho quite likes it. He doesn’t say it out loud but he sleeps easier when Kibum is there at an arm’s reach, when he can listen to steady breaths next to him before he passes out, when it’s Kibum he gets to see the first thing in the morning, to kiss him, morning breath and all. He’s not one to say no to an active, regular sexlife either. Kibum still goes back to the dorm from time to time, spends a few nights there before returning to Minho’s apartment.
This seems to be a good deal all in all.
When Minho starts awake in the middle of the night, he automatically reaches out for the warm body next to his. His hand only meets cold sheets and he tries to swallow the tinge of disappointment. It isn’t until his sleepy mind gathers the first coherent thought when he realizes he wasn’t alone when he went to bed.
Blinking sleep from his eyes, Minho forces himself to get up. The floor is cold underneath his bare feet so he spends a moment trying to locate his socks underneath the bed. He gives up when he finds one of them, picking it a random pair from his closet. Just when he’s about to step into the living room, he hears a distinct sniffle.
He pauses, his fingers carded into his hair, and listens carefully. Another muffled sob follows soon after, oddly audible in the dark room. In an instant, Minho is fully awake, eyes wide. He moves slowly so he won’t stumble over any sudden obstacles, but it doesn’t take much to locate the origin of the silent crying.
Kibum is sitting curled up in the corner of the couch, knees pulled up to his chest and face pressed into them. He looks so small it makes Minho’s heart constrict painfully, and without thinking he moves in. Carefully he takes a seat, sliding an arm around Kibum’s shoulders to pull him close against his chest. He can feel Kibum tense for a second, before he slowly leans in.
“What’s wrong?” Minho asks, his words a faint whisper right into Kibum’s hair. He can feel the tension in the body in his arms and keeps rubbing soothing circles on Kibum’s back. There is no answer, except for the weak sniffles, for so long that he almost forgets he spoke up to begin with.
“I can’t make it go away,” Kibum finally whispers, “the pain won’t go away.”
The answer isn’t exactly what Minho expected, even if he doesn’t know what his expectations were to begin with. There are a million questions on the tip of his tongue, but he swallows them back when he feels Kibum tremble. Instead, he shifts so he can hold him a little closer, press a soft kiss on his temple. “Want me to get you painkillers? I have some in the bathroom.”
The answer is an almost violent headshake, the tension in Kibum’s body increasing tenfold. “No! Don’t make me, please.” He sounds weak, like the crying has made all his strength slip away.
“Ssh, it’s alright,” Minho says, “Relax.” Obviously, he isn’t going to force Kibum to take painkillers if he doesn’t want them. Although he has to admit he’s burning to know what is going on, what he can do to make it better.
“It’s my leg,” Kibum says, finally, after a long pause. Minho doesn’t say anything, only waits patiently, toys with the hem of Kibum’s shirt. “It’s. It always hurts when the weather changes.” He lets out a hollow laugh. “Sounds ridiculous, right? Like the old folks predicting rain with their bones. But it hurts.”
“It doesn’t sound ridiculous,” Minho says. It really doesn’t. He’s known enough people with sports injuries or people who went through bad accidents, and he knows sometimes it’ll never go away for good. He also knows that there is nothing he can do right now. So he simply holds back the questions, focusing on being there, keeping Kibum close to himself.
Somehow he feels that if he holds Kibum tight enough, he can take some of the pain away. That is exactly what he does for the rest of the night. Even when Kibum falls asleep, his head still resting on Minho’s shoulder against the tear-soaked shirt, Minho doesn’t move.
The deep, even breaths sound like heaven in Minho’s ears, easing the tightness in his chest. The first rays of the rising sun paint the walls of the room golden with their glow when Minho finally drifts off as well.
In the morning Minho wakes up with the worst backache of the century, and no Kibum anywhere in sight. He figures it’s just normal, after all Kibum doesn’t officially live with him and has the tendency to randomly decide where he wants to stay. What does surprise him is that there is no note, no nothing, waiting for him in the kitchen or on the cracked coffee table. He shrugs it off.
For the next days, he doesn’t hear anything from Kibum. It’s not for the lack of trying. At first, Minho sends a few messages with casual questions of how are you, but never gets an answer to any of them. When Kibum doesn’t answer a single phone call either, Minho begins to worry. Under normal circumstances he might not have been as jumpy about something like this, but waking up to Kibum crying his eyes out in pain and then finding him gone? Minho can’t stop his mind from coming up with all sorts of worst-case scenarios.
The next logical step is to go for a visit, but that’s when Minho realizes he doesn’t even know where the dorms are. He has never been to the campus, either. They’ve always hung out at his place, or a few times at Jonghyun’s tiny condo.
So he calls Taemin, skips past all the formal greetings and how have you beens and gets straight to the point. “Do you know where Kibum is?”
Taemin seems completely unfazed by the impoliteness, his voice as chirpy as ever. “Oh, he’s at the dorm. Don’t worry! I’ll let him know you called.” It sounds a little like a rehearsed reply, though, and it sets all alarm bells ringing in Minho’s ears.
“What is going on, Taemin?” he asks. “You’re both avoiding me. I haven’t seen you in almost a week. Is everything alright?”
“We’re not avoiding you.” Taemin’s voice softens a little. “Really, don’t worry. We’ll come over soon.”
Minho sighs and rubs his temples. “Let me talk to Kibum? Please. He’s ignoring my messages.”
“No.” The answer is a lot more stern than expected. “I’m sorry, hyung. I’m not going to make him take any calls, and I’m not giving him a phone, his or mine.”
“I just want to know what’s going on.” I’m scared shitless, Minho adds, but only in his mind.
“You’ll have to ask Kibum-hyung the next time. Sorry! Talk to you later.”
The call ends and it leaves Minho even more confused than before.
After debating over it for a grand total of ten seconds, Minho calls Jonghyun. “I swear to god, Jonghyun, if you don’t tell me what’s going on I’ll do something desperate.” He doesn’t really know what the desperate could be, maybe hacking into the university database to get the information on housing and where Kibum and Taemin live in their shared room. He obviously lacks all knowledge to do it, but he’d find a way. Somehow.
“Oh wow. Hello to you too,” Jonghyun laughs. “What are you rambling on about?”
“Don’t act like- oh fine,” Minho groans. He’ll get to it faster if he just answers all the questions more or less patiently. “I haven’t seen Kibum since last Sunday. What’s going on and why is he avoiding me?”
“Oh.” Jonghyun instantly sounds more serious. “Something happened?”
“No!” Minho exclaims, before even really thinking about the answer. “Or, well, yes. Kind of. He was crying? Said his leg hurt, but wouldn’t tell me anything more, and then the next morning he was gone.”
“Oh,” Jonghyun says, again. “Listen, I gotta go.” That is sudden, and Minho already starts to protest, but Jonghyun cuts him off. “Hey, are you free around five?”
“Yeah.” Minho switches the phone from ear to ear, straightening a little.
“I’ll drop by. See you, man!”
Well. This is at least better than nothing, Minho decides, and proceeds to stare at the clock, willing it to go faster.
read part 2/2
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