I know this much is true...
 

Music softly filled Taemin’s ears from his discarded headphones on the nearby desk, as he watched soccer practice from the music room’s window. There were no more classes, they had officially graduated but could still come back to school to study for the CETs in the library during the summer. The soccer team was vigorously practicing for the upcoming game, it was barely a couple of weeks away.

Taemin had seen Minho last week, at their very brief coffee date in the short time between soccer practice and his internship. They texted all day and Minho called him in the morning on the way to soccer practice and at night when his internship was done.

Taemin was missing him despite all of it and had decided to watch the online class of the crash course he was doing over the summer instead of attending the face-to-face morning session only so he could see Minho, even if it was from afar. His mom didn’t have anywhere to go that day so he had taken her car and after parking it, he took the winding path into the school building, to not pass the soccer field and disturb the soccer team.

He was only going to stay for a bit and leave before soccer practice would end because he knew today of all days, Minho’s schedule was hectic. He was going to be assisting an outdoor photoshoot for the rest of the day.

The song had ended but Taemin was still humming, noticing that the coach had called for a break. The players were cooling off on the bleachers and Taemin stopped humming, blinking as he grew a little anxious because while he had been glancing at the coach, he had lost sight of Minho. He straightened up slightly, unable to find him in the bleachers, and was about to look in other places around the field when he felt arms wind around his waist gently and he could tell it was Minho from the sleeves of the jersey. 

Minho was resting his head on Taemin’s shoulder, slowly tightening the embrace, the arrhythmic rise and fall of his body against him indicating he had probably ran over.

Taemin just the back of Minho’s hand that rested on his waist, fidgeting with his watch strap as he bit back a little smile, which had grown wider despite the realization that his attempt on being discreet had failed, despite the slight guilt that instead of resting on his break, Minho was here, Minho had noticed even his hidden steps.

And somehow Minho also had an idea of what was going on in his mind because he whispered between his calming breaths, “I was waiting for the coach’s whistle ever since I saw a maroon Volkswagen drive in.” He nuzzled into Taemin, “I missed you.”

“I missed you too.” Taemin whispered, only to chuckle and squirm when Minho nuzzled into him, “Hey, that tickles.”

“You’re ticklish?” Minho asked, lifting his head from Taemin’s shoulder.

Taemin cleared his throat, “No, not at all.” And right after his suspicious denial, Minho’s hands that had been resting at his waist shifted, tickling Taemin instead and Taemin broke into chuckles, squirming and twisting before he turned in his embrace, “Stop!”

Minho chuckled, stopping, a little struck at Taemin’s flushed face flourishing with cheer, his breathless laughter slowly calming. 

Taemin grew aware of Minho’s gaze and Minho grew conscious of it too, and he cleared his throat in embarrassment, “Will you play me something?”

Taemin blinked, smiling, “Sure.”

After Taemin had uncovered the piano and gave it a quick wipe, they were sitting together on the piano bench, Minho watching as Taemin was thinking, a little conflicted on what to play. He finally seemed to have decided and just before he started, he turned to Minho, “You’ll have to guess the song.”

“Guess?”

“Hmm, I’ll give you a hint, it’s on the playlist in your car.”

Minho straightened up, “Bring it on.”

Taemin started and it was upbeat and also fierce, Minho recognized it right away, awed at how cool the song sounded on the piano. Taemin looked at him and Minho sang out his answer, “I love rock n’ roll,” He smiled nervously, “Na na na na na I don’t know the lyrics~”

Taemin was laughing as he finished, “It’s okay, you got it right.”

“Taemin…” Minho started after a few moments, asking something he had always wanted to ask, “Why didn’t you ever play for school activities?”

"I… I… actually it's something really silly," Taemin grew flustered, "At first, I did think I wanted to go pro but when I started playing again I realized I didn’t want to see myself on a stage or at a recital. I didn’t want to play for just anyone. The reason I started again…” He pressed a random key as he continued, “...was you.”

The air was silent as Minho also gazed at Taemin’s flustered fingers, pressing random keys, the moment, his words, making him bashful as well.

“You are all I think about when I play,” Taemin continued, his voice lower, and Minho followed the of his fingers, pressing the same keys Taemin had in his embarrassment.

“And you are all I think about,” Minho answered, smiling softly as he shifted closer, their shoulders brushing, “When I listen to music, no matter what song it is.” 

Taemin bit his lip, unable to suppress his smile at Minho’s proclamation and he continued to press keys, this time in a slow tune, “Even break-up songs?”

Minho grew flustered as he copied Taemin’s tune, “Yes, I think of how I could never break up with you.”

“Patriotic songs?”

“Yes–” Minho was so caught up in following Taemin’s rhythm, “No– I mean–”

Taemin was laughing softly as he continued playing the soft tune and Minho sighed fondly, grumbling to him to slow down so he could follow… and Taemin chuckled as he guided him again, saying he was getting the tune all wrong.

Minho tried again, although he didn’t really care for getting any tune right at the moment, too caught up in the way Taemin laughed so adorably, which was the most beautiful melody of them all.

Taemin was a little too excited for Minho’s game and had been exhaustingly covering up all of his excitement under his feigned disappointment that he had his crash course’s final mock exam on the same day as Minho’s game. Minho had insisted he studied properly and attended the exam instead of coming to the other town to watch him, which originally Taemin had settled for too… but he had managed to schedule it a week earlier with another batch after a lot of persuasions. He had missed the last revision classes but he’d gotten a good score despite it because the required subjects for his desired major– Sound Engineering– weren’t that hard, except for maybe Math.

He had even dragged both his friends into it, who were helping him keep his surprise under wraps and had even accompanied him to the stadium, to watch the game.

They were now seated in the front row at the stadium, way too early, watching it being cleaned for the game. Taemin rested back, stretching his legs and shifting his cap just slightly to shield his eyes from the sun. Jonghyun was yawning after having grumbled for a few minutes that they were too early but Jinki soon diverted his attention with the webtoon he was reading. He was sharing his earphones with Jonghyun and Taemin knew from that eerie music he could faintly hear that it was one of the recent popular horror webtoons that also had animations and music effects.

Jonghyun probably hadn’t known and he got scared at the loud spooky groan and the animated zombie and started hitting Jinki, who was laughing between his soft painful groans. Despite that, Jonghyun ended up reading more out of interest and his brows furrowed in tension, his palm fisted around Jinki’s arm as Jinki scrolled down.

They might have waited almost an hour with Taemin passing time on his SNS while he listened to music and his friends still engrossed in the webcomic. People had started to fill into the stadium, advertisements were playing over the announcement and on the screen, and Taemin saw players entering the soccer field too, perhaps from the opposing team. It was common that they’d warm up before the match and Taemin straightened up, waiting for their school team to enter. But instead, his phone rang and he blinked in surprise, finding it to be Minho calling.

Getting a bit nervous, he answered after giving his friends a glance and checking if the microphone on his earphones was not stuck anywhere in his clothes.

“Hello?”

“Taemin,” Taemin knew he was smiling from the gush in his voice, “How was the exam?”

“Oh,” Taemin bit his lip, getting a little more nervous because their soccer team had also entered the field to warm up, “It went well.”

“You were so worried about that theorem, did you get any questions–” Minho stopped suddenly and Taemin knew why. Because another advertisement had just started playing. Taemin had been quietly watching their school team enter the field and he had spotted Minho, phone pressed between his ear