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51…

In less than a minute, Dongho’s assigned nap time will be up but the male is showing no sign of waking from slumber. He hasn’t moved a single muscle or changed his sleeping position even an inch the whole time and this is making the rest feel unsettled. Every now and then, Jonghyun will check up on Daehwi’s progress and the poor boy looks almost as dead as Minhyun. One by one, the guys residing in the living room enters Minhyun’s room to make sure that Minhyun doesn’t do anything stupid, leaving Dongho’s sleeping figure alone on the couch. No one has a single idea to why Kang Dongho’s being so calm in this kind of urgency.

Minki stands by the doorframe to his friend’s bedroom, staring pitifully at Daehwi who’s mouthing a desperate ‘S.O.S Help me!’ from time to time while Minhyun continues his rambling in Japanese, talking about how he found a cute rabbit but couldn’t take it home since his sister was allergic to furs. The so-called depressed guy has his arms slung tightly around Jisung and Daniel’s shoulders respectively as part of his ‘hug festival’, making the two victims gulp every now and then in fear. Seonho resorts to massaging his favorite hyung’s feet diligently, stating “it improves blood circulations, relieve stress, alleviate headaches and decrease anxiety.” No one has the heart to tell the puppy that Minhyun can’t feel his legs for the next few months after the accident and his massages would probably be at no help.

All they can do is now pray that either Dongho wakes up any second now or Minhyun miraculously snap back into reality so they can pretend that this incident never happened and go back to their peaceful non-dramatic life. The second option is not very likely to happen.

“All of your shoulders are no good,” Minhyun says with exasperation, stopping Daehwi from his speech and alarming everyone. He lets go of the two boys in his arms and sighs.

“He’s not using the anime language anymore thank you lord,” Jaehwan bemoaned before receiving a whack on his head.

Their attention returns to Minhyun as he glares to everyone with a not-so-scary gaze. “Too boney,” he points to Guanlin, Minki, Daehwi, Woojin and Jisung.
“You, you, you, you, you and you, too narrow, I don’t have any space to lay my head.” This time he pointed to Sungwoon, Jonghyun, Jihoon, Jinyoung, Seonho and Jaehwan. Minki cackles loudly and earns himself glares from numerous pairs of vicious eyes before shutting up in an instant. Minhyun’s scrutinizing eyes darted to Seongwoo and Daniel, “you guys are broad enough but still lacks cushioning.”

Hwang heaves a deep sigh and stands up from his sitting position on the bed’s edge.

“Do you think my shoulder can fit your strict criteria then?”

Everyone turns to the source of voice, still raspy and raw from slumber, and releases the breath they had been holding for what feels like an eternity. Dongho is now standing on the doorway, rubbing the sleep away from his eyes and shoves a hand to his pocket in a very relaxed manner. Somewhere in the background, Jaehwan screams out a loud ‘hallelujah!’ which grants him a slap on the neck by Jihoon.

“Well, well. If it isn’t the almighty Kang Baekho visiting lil’old me. Never thought you would appear again after ditching your closest, bestest, greatest best friend.” Minhyun crosses his arms and this is the first time that day where the boys can actually feel Minhyun being his old self, the sarcastic part of him at least. This is the closest they can get to see the normal Minhyun.

“3 seconds early, I’m actually proud of you.” Minki whispers as he checks his watch and pats Dongho’s back before leaping away skillfully to hide behind Guanlin, knowing very well that he’ll receive a painful punch on the ribs if he doesn’t escape at the right timing.

Jisung’s phone alarm rings and suddenly the room was soon filled with different music and more blaring songs from every direction.

“Seriously? Alarms? You guys don’t believe me or something?” Dongho questions with a raised brow.

“Better be safe than sorry. We did this just in case you wouldn’t wake up.” Jisung answers with a smile and walks away, out of the room and passes out on the couch.

Daehwi literally jumps out of the bed in pure agony, stomping his way to the door with a scowl. He punches no one in particular meaning he’s just throwing his fist into thin air continuously, never daring to lay a finger on the older male by the door. “I hate you!” he states all too clearly. Dongho wordlessly signals him to come closer and places a free voucher in the younger’s hand.

“I love you too, punk. Now buy yourself some frappe across the street,” the elder says as he ruffles Daehwi’s head. The kid shrieks happily, piercing everyone’s ears at the dolphin-ranged pitch he’s emitting, screaming to every single person that he finally got to have something for free. Not even five seconds later, Daehwi was already out of the main door while singing weird tunes that Seongwoo suspects to be Disney classics, all the way from the hallway.  And that leaves the remaining to handle the current situation with no possible idea on how to deal with the aftermath and only rely on Dongho as they have no other back up plan.

“So now you prefer playing with the younger kids? Seriously? Daehwi? Out of all the maknaes? Such a e, Baekho.” Minhyun hisses when Dongho sits on the edge of the bed. The other male looks too tired to care and only offer a smile as an answer.

Seonho scrunches his eyebrows in confusion. “Why is it ‘Baekho’ now? Who’s Baekho? Dongho hyung?”

Jinyoung and Jihoon hushed the baby chick and had to drag the insistent Seonho out from the room who keeps asking ‘why does Dongho hyung’s name suddenly change?’ and ‘is Minhyun hyung gonna be okay? Why is he so emotional all of a sudden? Do males have periods too?’

“Sorry for ‘ditching’ because unlike you, I needed toilet breaks and my daily dose of yoghurt.” Dongho says as soon as Seonho was out. “As an apology, I brought Oreo!” Dongho manages to pull out a long bar of chocolate Oreo behind his back and everyone witnesses the sparkle in Minhyun’s eyes lit up but quickly turns back to being cold and distant as if trying to hide the evident excitement.

“You can’t bribe me with food, .”

“If you don’t want to eat now, Guanlin can have it,” the other male replies and threw the package to an unsuspecting Guanlin. Minhyun growls and quickly snatches his favorite snack away from the young boy who still looks as dazed as ever, even more confused than before.

“I thought you can’t be bribed with food?” Dongho raises an eyebrow and smirks.

“Oh shut it.”

Dongho’s laugh resonates in the room and everyone can see how Minhyun effortlessly softens at the sight. “So do I get my hug or what?” This time Dongho opens his arms real wide, asking his friend to come over.

Minhyun pretends to look contemplative but approaches Dongho’s welcoming arms anyway. Both of them are sent rolling on the bed courtesy of Minhyun’s weight that sent Dongho wheezing at the sudden impact. Guanlin is still standing by at the corner with his trusted phone, documenting every single occurrence with his recordings. Dongho can feel Minhyun smiling throughout the hug as the boy nuzzled closely on the crooks of his neck.

“I like your shoulders the best. They are so comfortable! Your fat is useful.” Minhyun uses his fingers to poke his friend’s shoulder and laid his head for a moment.

Offended, Dongho frowns. “It is not fat. Those are my hard earned muscles.”

“Muscles are hard, yours are soft. So that gotta mean you have much baby fat.”

Rolling his eyes, Dongho only nods to whatever Minhyun says next because, hey, he’s dealing with Hwang Minhyun’s other personality that never accepts no as an answer and will always get away with what he wants. Soon, Dongho notices the others’ shocked gazes and mouthed that he’s actually okay with a grown adult squishing him with his weight. Although unsure, Seongwoo raises a thumb up.

“Respect, dude.”

“Thanks, Ong. Appreciate it.”

Dongho remained as a human mattress, the base of krabby patty, the punching bag or whatever that is, for a few more minutes with his friend lying flat on top of him and his tired lungs, hugging his poor body as if his life depends on it.  Dongho almost gave up breathing before Minhyun lets go and he finally feels his numb chest heaving up and down normally. This was even harder than the 2-hour weekly gym visit he always does.
Minhyun looks more relaxed now, seemingly satisfied with the bear hug but the tiredness is still painfully and obviously vivid in his eyes.

“Hwang Minhyun,” Dongho calls as the other male stands back up. “Let’s go on a date.”

Daniel was already coughing on thin air, hitting his chest continuously and Seongwoo’s trying his best to cover his hanging jaw at the unexpected request. It might make sense if the other kids would pull such prank on Minhyun but Kang Dongho? Oh, that’s like seeing Rhinos laying eggs, in meaning that as rare as it might be, it’s impossible to happen. All of them have been friends for at least 2 years and based on what they see on daily interaction, Minhyun and Kang Dongho are all about exchanging snide remarks and sarcastic comments, throwing shades and even roasting each other. But doing sweet stuff (did they just hug each other out of nowhere?) or even having nicknames for each other was never really what they would imagine. Baekho? What kind of nickname is that?

 Guanlin looks unfazed, still recording the whole thing even though feeling a bit freaked out, while Sungwoon sends questioning glances to Jonghyun and Minki who looked weirdly used to this kind of exchange. Woojin exits the room without a word and Jaehwan slaps himself a few times to make sure he isn’t dreaming.

“Well it depends on the itinerary.” Minhyun replies nonchalantly.

“We’ll have late lunch at McDonalds, then-“

“Okay, take me away.”

Dongho snickers, “can’t be bribed with food you say?”

-

The sun was no longer showering its rays mercilessly as the clock strikes four in the afternoon, instead, cold gushes of wind replaces the heat and clouds act as canopies for the whole city to take shelter. Winter is just around the corner but the question still lingers in Dongho’s head, why are the mornings causing him to sweat while doing completely nothing? What an anomaly.

“I’m cold,” Minhyun comments as he pulls his grey sweatshirt closer to his body. “It’s ing cold!” he nags yet again and Dongho was this freaking close, you know that tiny gap between each hair strands on your scalp, yeah that close, to punching the nearest tree and break his hand in the process but held it against himself. He’s dealing with the Hyde-and-Jekyll situation in Hwang Minhyun right now. Emotions shouldn’t be involved.

“I did tell you to bring a jacket, didn’t I?” he finally responds, opting for a safer answer.

Minhyun harrumphs and jogs to catch up with Dongho who’s already a few steps ahead. They are currently speed walking down the pavement, side by side, annoyed that the weather is so unpredictable and bipolar nowadays but thankfully the nearest McDonalds store is just a few minutes from the apartment so they didn’t have to suffer too long. Once the automatic doors slid open, the warmth from inside immediately welcomes the two guests. Minhyun’s tense shoulders slacken and his shivering cold hands stopped shaking.

“Go pick a table, I’ll order some stuff.” Dongho volunteers as he walked to the counter.

To Minhyun’s utter dismay, Dongho comes back only carrying a tray with one burger and one cup of cola.

“You call this a date?

“I don’t want you to call me a fatty,” Dongho calmly replies with a shrug as he takes the seat right next to Minhyun on the four-person table , not minding the obvious glare directed to him. He reaches out for the food on the table before his hand is swatted away by Minhyun with a painful slap and without a word Dongho retreats his hand. Minhyun gave him the cold shoulders, the silent treatment and kept on glaring at the untouched burger and cola on the table for god knows how long until an employee stops by their table with a tray filled with different types of burgers, fries and drinks.

“Sorry for the previous inconvenience. The soda dispenser is now working perfectly fine and the burgers are fresh, is there anything else that I can assist you with?” The female employee smiles brightly, too bright for Minhyun’s liking, and she’s clearly standing too close to their table while sending obvious signals that she is somehow interested with one of them and it’s obviously not him.

“That’s all we need, thank you.” Minhyun offers a smile of his own that Dongho knew all too well which is always reserved when his patience is very limited and ready to burst any moment. Sensing Minhyun’s sarcastic tone means something more than just a mere sign of gratefulness, the employee quickly retreats back to the counter.

It takes some time for Minhyun to return back to normal and grin more sincerely at the sight of more food to devour.

“You look like you were going to kill me when only the quarter pounder was out. Look at you now.” Dongho says in pure amusement.

“The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach,” Minhyun replies as he unfolds the paper to the big Mac and takes a bite.

“That’s why I brought you here.”

Confused to the reply, Minhyun turns his head to have a full view of the guy sitting next to him to probably ask what’s suddenly got into him. To his surprise, Dongho was already smiling at his direction and grabs his free hand into his own before shoving it into the pocket of his jacket without much of an explanation. For a moment Minhyun is speechless. But Dongho’s hand was warm and he kinda likes having the idea that his friend is holding his hand for no good reason at all.

“Your hand was cold,” Dongho calmly answers when he sees Minhyun’s questioning gaze. That’s actually a good reason.

“It wasn’t exactly that cold.”

“When you slapped my hand, I thought I touched an ice block.”

Minhyun nods but pretends to frown at the answer, “Now my other hand feels left out.”

Dongho quietly chuckles, “you have the heat from the burger. You won’t need my hand.”

Sure the Big Mac is warm but Dongho’s palm gives him the more comforting warmth and sense of security and the only thing he wants to hold for the rest of his pathetic life, except for burgers, he’ll want to hold onto burgers too. Minhyun held back the urge to smile like a Cheshire cat, or in his case, like a complete idiot and opts for enjoying the rest of his food, munching away in silence as Dongho digs in too.

“How was your day?”

“That’s so random, Baekho.”

“I just wanna make sure you didn’t try to commit suicide or do other stupid things you might regret,” Dongho answers. “And I’m trying to be a good nanny who looks out for you. So I’ll ask again, how’s your day?”

Minhyun just his lower lip out and scowls. “Fine. I had a terrible day. My assignment is due in less than 20 hours. I still have at least ten pages to finish by tonight. The professors today were just complete morons. Three girls asked me out this morning and they all cried when I told them I’m not interested. A freshman started stalking me and now I feel paranoid wherever I go. Turns out my sister is visiting on Monday so I gotta plan out her whole stay. I got ty sleep hours no thanks to the project and six bottles of redbull and now my head is spinning and my eyes are hurting and my muscles are aching and I feel like dying. That’s what you missed on Keeping Up with Hwang Minhyun.”

Just the thoughts of all the incidents that happened today, or the past week all in all, gave Minhyun a terrible vertigo that won’t go away no matter how many pills of aspirins and capsules of medicines he took. The headache suddenly worsens and his head feels like it was going to either burst to billion pieces and combust or just simply have his brain explode from mere pressure. He can’t overdose now. He still has a project to submit tomorrow.

“I have a shoulder you know.”

Minhyun looks up to see Dongho patting his own shoulder- a welcoming sign that he should probably take a rest there for a moment. He takes the invitation and casually leans on his friend, snuggling his head close to the warmth.

Dongho sighs, “Can you stop fretting over everything like it’s a big thing? That stupid task isn’t going to save anyone’s life.”

“It can save mine!” Minhyun argues, never leaving the comfort of Dongho’s body that he slowly merges with. “Those are gonna be my scores for the finals so it might help my overall grades.”

“Look, dude, no offenses but you’re that smartass in our group, you’re the infamous genius that the whole campus look up to so stop trying too hard. You’re hurting yourself.”

This earns Dongho a mirthless, almost sarcastic chuckle from the other. “People need to stop thinking that I’m smart. In fact, I’m far from it. I’m actually surprised that people think that I’m a genius. I just tend to spend more time cooped up in my room, sacrificing most of my youth and free time to reread books and highlight sentences that I could barely understand. But do you really think I wanted that?”

The words come out more like a statement than a question, lingering in the air with an underlying tension. Both of them tune out the laughter of children and the busy chattering crowd in the background as the topic becomes oddly sensitive. Dongho remains quiet and Minhyun continues.

“I don’t like being me. I hate being me. At one point in my life, I just can’t stop thinking that I’m always chased by time that I began getting anxious over every single tiny little detail. I wanted to be presentable, perfect, or at least presentable. I feel the need to make everyone be proud of me because I have everyone rooting for me and I can’t t let them down. I want my family to be proud, I want to make you guys proud to have a friend like me and I want to be the reliable person the other kids can rely on. That’s why I push myself over the limit like what I’m doing now.” Minhyun wets his dry lips and rambles on with his soliloquy.

“But then I wanted to have a life too, have fun like everybody else, go to karaoke booths to sing my heart out until I lose my voice, skip classes to visit the arcade, go to clubs just to see what it actually looks like inside and just do crazy stuff like you guys do. Heck I even thought of getting a tattoo like yours. But the thought of not wanting to let anyone down keeps me awake at night and I reject every thought of letting loose. I wanted to be good at something at least to make up for my boring nature. I’m selfish aren’t I?”

The silence that ensued makes Minhyun uncomfortable and he’s slightly regretting why he suddenly spill everything out in the open when he’s been keeping this concern all his life. Before he could apologize for the petty confession, Dongho’s deep voice cuts his train of thoughts.

“Minhyun, if you ask me, that’s what it’s called being a filial son.”

Dongho pauses as he tries to find the right word to continue but decides that, this, he’s just going to clean up everything.

“You’re Hwang Minhyun, who still finds time to spend with his family and friends while juggling insane amount of homework and classes but still manages to get flying scores. You’re Hwang Minhyun, the kid who used to be bullied pretty badly but managed to keep up with life and makes everyone regret their decision by growing up so well. And compared to someone called Kang Dongho, you’re basically a living angel. You’re the son that every parents wish to have, a friend that everyone would want to be well acquainted with. You never disobey your parents and you set your priorities straight, just wait a little bit more and my mom would adopt you. You’re a bit on the perfectionist side but at least your looks made up for it. You always stay out of trouble, help everyone who needs some -saving, too hard working sometimes and I just find it unfair that you also have that sense of humor. To be honest, I envied you.”

 Minhyun stays mum, not actually believing his ears.

“Right now I feel really ty and you know why?” Minhyun shook his head as a reply so Dongho continues. “Because my best friend is hurting and I don’t even have the slightest clue that he’s in pain. Hell, I couldn’t even cheer you up when you need some encouragement or some other stupid mentoring . That’s what best friends are for, right? But I couldn’t even do anything to ease your mind and for that, I’m mad at myself because I had to see you in this state again. Why can’t you tell me about anything?”

Minhyun shrugs, “Everyone has a busy life and I don’t want to bother you with my petty complaints because I’ll only be a burden.”

“But since when did you care?” Dongho brings up a hand to rub Minhyun’s bare nape. It’s effective on soothing and Dongho knows massaging his best friend’s sensitive spot can calm him down. “Being a burden to me? Isn’t that your life goal since we became friends? You always act before you think when it comes to me and I have never once complained, have I?”

Minhyun leans in to the touch and enjoys the treatment for a short while with both eyes closed.

“Why are you so nice to me? Are you really Baekho?”

“No, I’m actually your mom disguised in a young man’s body which is filled with tattoos more known to resemble your best friend. So no, I’m not Baekho.”

“And he’s back to being himself, welcome back.” Minhyun smiles with lines of pearly white teeth showing.

Dongho rolls his eyes but never stopping his hand movement. “But seriously, you should start complaining more like Jisung or Jaehwan, that way half of your stress can be poured out. And that way, I won’t get a heart attack if you suddenly cling to me.”

In that moment of comfortable silence, Minhyun thinks back to the past and realizes that Dongho was always the one who cracks him open like a nutcracker, having him spill the inner turmoil he’s facing without much of a force. Dongho was always the one who gathers his scattered senses and insecurities and put it back together to form who he is now. Dongho was the only one who knew when to push and when to pull. Dongho knows which buttons to press, he freaking knew when to say the right words and do the right stuff. Sure Dongho would always , they would fight and stuff but if Minhyun would entrust someone with his life, he would choose Dongho in a heartbeat. Maybe he’ll just properly thank his best buddy after all this is done for always taking his side. It’s nice to finally let a piece of his mind out in the open.

“Baekho…”

“Uhm?”

“When do you think the kids will realize that we actually know they’re here? I mean, they’re only sitting a few tables away and I can hear Seongwoo and Daniel bickering from here.”

Dongho laughs obnoxiously and doubles over while clutching his tummy. In fact, their group of friends is sitting behind them, with Jisung and Jihoon trying to shush everyone while Daehwi and Minki play at the kiddy corner at the back. “I thought you wouldn’t realize. But yeah, they get too rowdy for a bunch of guys on undercover stalking. ”

“Let’s just pretend that we don’t know. At least they meant well.”

“Of course they’re worried, you were a bit out of your mind a few hours ago. But are you feeling better now?”

Minhyun nods, still hanging on to Dongho’s arms.

“Wanna go to the old lady’s ramyeon shop near my house for dinner?”

“Call!”