minho knows how to appreciate music; the way his heart pulsates in time with the heavy beats; the way his head bobs to the melody; and the way the singing of the vocalist flows through his ears and his bloodstream, like a shot of insulin to his veins. he listens to any kind of music he can, learning different styles and sounds – which, of course, is important given his occupation – enriching his knowledge of music and the library of his ipod. he does, however, find himself in a bit of a frustrating rut when nichkhun sends him an english song from a band called the script and can’t understand more than just a few words in every other line or so. the song came along with a short message from the sender saying ‘i heard this on the radio when we visited california. thought it was the perfect song for you. take no offense, dongsaeng, you know hyung loves you ^^’, but minho doesn’t know what exactly about the song is supposedly offensive to him. he enjoys listening to it any time he can, adding the song to a special playlist on his ipod, and even tries to sing some of the lines out loud. so when nichkhun sends him an especially apologetic look when he sings some of the lines he’s memorized so far out loud in the waiting room of muzik bank, he decides to finally get some help.

“jinki hyung, could you tell me what these lyrics mean?” he approaches jinki who’s half sprawled on his bed, half sprawled on taemin’s bed, and hands him the printed out lyrics of the song he’s had stuck in his head for the past week or so. he folds his long legs under him as he finds purchase on the edge of jinki’s bed while the latter takes the sheet of paper and props his chin on minho’s thigh. it’s a while of watching eyes move across the paper and his leader’s soft hair, but jinki finally finishes reading.

“so, what does it mean, hyung?” he asks again, worried at the sigh jinki exhales when he sits up in front of minho.

the older looks hesitant but with a nudge from minho’s foot, he sighs again and gives in. “it’s about how this guy breaks up with his girlfriend, and she’s already moved on, but he hasn’t yet. it’s, like, when they broke up, he experienced more pain than she did – he’s still grieving their breakup while he’s seeing her all happy with a new guy and he’s wondering why she isn’t feeling as in pain as he is. and just like the song says, when a heart breaks, it doesn’t break even.” jinki gives him a pointed, albeit sympathetic look, and his eyes shift to their bedroom door when jonghyun and kibum come in.

minho follows his gaze and when he sees kibum’s mouth wide-open, laughter spilling out from it and jonghyun’s smile bright and all-teeth, little chuckles escaping him as well, he thinks oh, oh that’s why