Too Soon To Forgive

“DAE!” Minseok called out in joy, hugging Jongdae as soon as he saw him.

“Minseok!” exclaimed Jongdae, giving Minseok a tight squeeze. “You made it!”

After pulling away, he noticed the two people standing behind of him. “Hey, Tao, you came too!” Jongdae narrowed his eyes at Minseok. “I thought I told you not to bring this ugly guy along with you.”

Zitao spluttered, looking like he either wanted to hit Jongdae, or cry. In the end, all he managed was a whimper.

“Zitao is not ugly, thank you very much,” Yifan interrupted, and Zitao looked like he could kiss him right there and now. “Besides, now at least I can have some fun while we’re out.” Yifan winked at Zitao, and Minseok could see Zitao almost fainting. He rolled his eyes.

“And this is… your friend, Minseok? Hi, I’m Kim Jongdae, Minseok’s best friend… you can call me Chen, if you want,” Jongdae introduced himself, bowing.

“Um, excuse you, but I’m Xiumin ge’s best friend,” Zitao huffed, pulling Minseok possessively to his side. Minseok rolled his eyes once more, before pulling away.

Lu Han bowed to Jongdae, obviously wanting to say something but not knowing how to say it.

“Wait, he understands Korean, right?” asked Jongdae, in panic. “Do you understand Korean?” he asked in Mandarin.

Lu Han smiled, letting out a gentle chuckle. “I do, no need to worry. It’s just a bit rusty. I’m Lu Han… my friends call me by my whole name, so you can call me that too.”

Minseok noticeably bristled, remembering when he used to call him Han. He supposed that he was no longer Han’s friend, and that a lot had changed since he’d last seen him.

“Minnie, that’s not what I meant—” Lu Han started, his nickname for Minseok coming out unintentionally.

“I don’t care anyway,” muttered Minseok, fists clenching. “And don’t call me that.”

“Min-Minseok, I’m sorry,” Lu Han murmured, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Don’t touch me!” Minseok shouted, flinging his hand off his shoulder. “Just… stop.” He took a deep breath, trying to regain control of himself. He rarely had bouts of anger, but Lu Han was bringing back way too many unwanted memories. “Can you just not for today? I… I just need to get used to you before we talk.”

“Yifan ge!” a voice cut through the tense atmosphere.

They all looked up to see Zhang Yixing grinning dazedly, a hand up in the air as a gesture of hello. Minseok had seen him before in the hallways but he’d never really gotten to know him very well, because they didn’t share any classes.

“Ahhhh Yixing, you’re here!” Jongdae grinned, practically skipping over to him and pulling him towards them.

Yixing bowed. “Hi, I’m Zhang Yixing. Umm if you can’t remember, you can just call me Lay. I’m a second year.”

(a/n: In Korea, high school is only three years, like many Asian countries. Middle school is also three years, and elementary school in turn goes up to grade six. So second year means Grade 11 in Western terms.)

“Don’t worry, all of them can speak Mandarin,” Yifan reassured.

Yixing’s eyes lit up. “Are you all taking Mandarin as your language elective?”

“Ahh, I’m a transfer from China too,” Zitao introduced shyly. “I’m Huang Zitao.”

“Ooh, where are you from?”

“Qingdao, how about you?” Zitao was clearly glad to meet another Chinese person amidst the heavily uniform country-with foreigners being rare and most times, avoided and alienated.

“Changsha!” Yixing smiled, a dimple appearing. “Aya, I’m so glad to meet you!”

“Why don’t we go inside to eat?” Jongdae suggested.

Everyone gave sounds of agreement, except for Minseok, who simply shrugged and looked away. He was slightly embarrassed at the commotion he had just caused, but he just couldn’t help it. It was clear that his friends were surprised as well, seeing their normally well-tempered friend behave in such a manner.

Jongdae held the door open, and everyone went in. Before Minseok could go in, Jongdae reached forward and gave his hand a reassuring squeeze, smiling slightly. Minseok couldn’t help but feel thankful for his friend, and the tips of his lips tugged upwards.

Minseok briefly squeezed him back, before slipping his hand out of Jongdae’s, and following the rest of them into the restaurant.

A waiter led them to a table for six, and Minseok found himself on the right of Jongdae and the left of Lu Han. Yixing was on the other side of Jongdae, then Yifan, and then Zitao. Yixing was still in a deep conversation with Zitao in Mandarin that Minseok had a hard time keeping up with due to the dialect, when he realized that the rest of the group was silent. Yixing paused, before turning to them.

“Hm… but the two of you are both Korean, like Jongdae, right?” he asked Lu Han and Minseok.

Lu Han shook his head, laughing. “Ah, actually, I’m Chinese too, I just came today. I’m Lu Han.” He didn’t continue, remembering what had happened previously.

Yixing’s face lit up once more. “You look so Korean though! Very handsome too!”

And that was why Jongdae hated Lu Han for the rest of the day (luckily, he wasn’t the type to hold grudges for too long).

“Ah, we have to leave now,” Minseok said to Yixing, seeing the meaningful look that Jongdae had shot his way.

“Yeah, I think my-I mean, Yifan ge and I will leave too,” said Zitao, smiling at the boy beside him.

They had decided to take a walk in the nearby park after they had finished dinner.

Yixing smiled at them, a dimple appearing on his right cheek as he did so. “Okay, I’ll see you guys later then! It was really nice meeting you all.”

Jongdae took this time to walk beside Yixing and slip his hand into Yixing’s. Yixing did not appear to be surprised, nor did he recoil. In fact, his smile grew even wider, before looking down at the other boy. Jongdae’s eyes crinkled as he smiled up at Yixing, seeming very pleased at the way this night was ending.

Seeing that his mission had been accomplished, Minseok turned and began walking in the opposite direction. A second later, Zitao, came skipping after him, fangirling silently. Minseok couldn’t help but laugh at the gleeful expression on his face. Then, Zitao disappeared from sight before appearing once more with a blushing Yifan’s arm linked in his own.

“Yifan ge and I are going on a date, so bye!” Zitao winked at Minseok, before dragging Yifan away.

That left the two of them alone. They walked in an awkward silence, Lu Han trailing after Minseok. He sighed, stopping in his tracks to turn around to face the other boy. Lu Han blinked in surprise, almost bumping into Minseok.

Minseok looked like he was going to say something, before running a hand through his hair in anger and letting out another sigh. He whirled around, starting to walk again, before whirling back, but it seemed that he couldn’t find the right words to say. In the end, all he could come out with was, “I’m going to the gym. If you want to, come with me. Otherwise, take the bus home or something.”

He glared at him, as if it would make the meaning of his words more clear, before spinning around and continuing on his path.

“I’ll come with you,” was Lu Han’s gentle reply.

If Lu Han could see his face, he would see the shock that occurred on it. But he couldn’t, and therefore had no means to find out what Minseok’s reaction was. Minseok hadn’t expected Lu Han to say he’d come to the gym with him, especially since both of them knew how awkward it would be. But what Minseok also knew was how stubborn Lu Han was-when he had his mind set on something, he would get it done.

There was no use trying to change his mind now.

They walked in silence, Lu Han jogging a bit forward so that they were walking side by side. For some reason, Minseok felt the great urge to reach over and grab his hand, like he used to always do when they were young.

After confirming that Lu Han quite liked clean things (especially his bed), he had deemed the boy safe to touch.

When they finally arrived at the gym, Minseok scanned ship card against the scanner beside the door, and it opened. Grabbing Lu Han’s arm, he hauled him in with him, so that they could get in as ‘one person.’ There was never anyone making sure, anyway.

Once they got in, he promptly let go of Lu Han’s arm as if it was a hot potato, before heading towards the running stations. He e on, setting it at 5 km/hour, wanting to start it off easily, and started running effortlessly.

Lu Han took the running one beside him, setting it at 8 km/hour, before starting to run as well. Minseok, peering at him through his peripheral vision, noticed that his form was pretty good-coming to the conclusion that he must run regularly. Maybe he still played soccer.

After a while, Minseok decided to up the pace, setting it to 10 km/hour, which caused Lu Han to automatically change his to 12 km/hour. Minseok had to forcefully stop himself from rolling his eyes. Lu Han had always been crazy competitive-which was fine as long as you were on the same team, and luckily they usually were-and it seemed that that quality of his hadn’t disappeared over the years.

He decided not to even think about competing, and stopped running after an hour. By this time, the backs of their shirts were drenched, although they hadn’t been running at an incredibly high pace.

Minseok took a towel from the towel rack, wiping his sweat off, and eventually taking his shirt off. It wasn’t uncommon for people at the gym to take their shirts off, after all. He heard Lu Han observing this, letting out a muffled gasp of surprise.

He proceeded to wipe his sweat off, before squeezing the sweat out of his hair. Man, he hadn’t even worked out that much today, yet he was sweating like crazy. When he turned to face Lu Han, to suggest that they should go back home, he saw that Lu Han was averting his eyes, with a slight blush on his cheeks. His hair was sticking to the sides of his head, white shirt stuck to his chest with sweat, enough so that Minseok could see that Lu Han didn’t have a bad body himself.

“Let’s go,” said Minseok, pouring some water over himself and then drinking it, before drying himself once more and putting his wet shirt back on. He took a black hoodie from the bag that he kept in a locker at the gym, slipping it on. Then he, closed the locker, about to lock it, before he realized that he should probably give Lu Han something to wear as well. He couldn’t exactly go home drenched in sweat with a white t-shirt on. Sighing, he re-opened his locker and took out his last remaining hoodie, tossing it to the boy.

He slammed the locker shut and locked it, before whirling around towards the exit before Lu Han could even let out a word of thanks.

That didn’t stop Lu Han from catching up to him, murmuring a quick thanks anyway.

By the time they got back home, it was around ten. It wasn’t anywhere near the time that Minseok usually slept, but for some reason, he was exhausted.

“I’m going to shower!” he called out to his mother, before heading to his room’s bathroom to take a quick shower. Once he finished showering and came out, he changed into comfortable clothes to sleep, before slipping into his bed.

There was a knock on his door-which could absolutely not be his mother. His mother never knocked: she just barged her way into his room.

“What is it?” he called out exasperatedly.

The door creaked open, and in the open space, Lu Han’s head popped through. “Um… I just wanted to say goodnight.”

“Good night, then.”

“Good night.”

Right when Lu Han was about to leave, Minseok called out, stopping him. “Uh… could you turn the light off?”

His blonde head popped back through the doorway, a wide smile on his face. “Of course!” With that, he turned the light off and left, shutting the door behind him.

Pushing all thoughts of uncertainties and conflicting emotions aside, he closed his eyes, and willed himself to sleep.

A/N: It's been kind of a while... well, my exams are done and semester two has started. So I finally got time in to write this for you guys...

I have no idea when my next update will be, but hopefully I'll write it when I have time? Which will be... who knows. Thanks for reading, and comments would really really be appreciated!! ^^