Ch.7
To Whom it May Concern
Being the generally logical person that he was, Jinki mulled over his situation with Minho all weekend. Analyzing every fluttering feeling he'd commited to memory involving the other boy, he'd even gone as far as to search typical physical reactions you get when dealing with someone you like. Of course, Jinki hadn't allowed himself to grasp that fact just yet; he was just doing research, or so he told himself. Today would be the true test of whether or not he would come to terms with the thing he knew deep down to be true. He sat in the grass at lunch, just like always, waiting for Minho to show up and settle down next to him. The glass doors of the cafeteria creaked open and out strolled the his long legged junior, the most prevelant and widely suggested reaction kicked into high gear almost immediately. Jinki's stomach flip flopping all over the place in his abdomen as he mentally checked off the first sign on the list.
Minho sat down next to him, smiling that perfect smile of his and Jinki could feel his stomach contract hard into itself. " Hey.", Came the ever casual and typical greeting Minho always graced him with.
" H-hey..." Jinki stuttered back, mentally cursing himself and checking off sign two on his list.
" No lunch today?" Minho questioned, looking around the other for a hidden bag.
In his rush to prepare for said event currently going down, Jinki had completely forgot to even grab his lunch on the way out the door that morning. With the way his stomach fluttered, he doubted he would even be able to eat in the first place. " I was in a rush and left it..." He kept his eyes downcast, finding it even harder then ever to look Minho in the eyes as the signs racked up against his favor, checking yet another one off.
" Well, we can share...My mom always makes me way too much anyway." Minho pulled out the contents of his bag, attempting to divide them up as best he could.
" It's ok, I'm not really all that hungry..." Jinki turned down the offer, wiping his sweaty palms on the beige material of his pants, ticking off the last mental box in his head.
" C'mon, at least eat a little...I'll feel bad if you just sit here and watch me eat." Minho countered, pushing Jinki's half of the food closer to him.
Jinki nodded, taking a small bit and chewing slowly as he mulled heavily over his lose in the ' Minho Crush' battle. " So how was the rest of your weekend?" He kept it casual, trying to push down the fear pooling in the pit of his stomach.
" Pretty ok, I hung out around the house mostly. You?"
" I spent most of the weekend studying..." This technically was true.
" Really? What?" Minho countered.
' You...' Was the thought that rang out in his head. " Math.."
" Speaking of math...Would you mind helping me out? I'm total crap when it comes to math..." Minho scratched at the back of his neck, looking rather sheepish.
Jinki couldn't help but smile, " Sure, I don't mind."
" Is Friday cool with you? My parents are going out again...So my mom won't be all over you."
Jinki laughed, nodding in response. He would push these feeling back as long as he could, not wanting to lose the one true friendship he'd had in a long time or that smile that he'd hoped shone a little brighter when it was directed at him.
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When Friday came Jinki stood outside of Minho's house, bag filled with pajamas and an extra set of clothing hung that against his thighs. Minho had only taken less then a day to ask him to stay the night, 'so they could get extra studying in'. Just as before his mother more than willing complied, practically shoving him out the door as soon as he had gotten home after school. Just as he went to knock the door was pryed open, Minho's mother and father standing on the other side dressed to the nines.
" I wish you would stop-" Her eyes fell on him. " Oh hello!" She turned back towards Minho, " See, all that pushing us out the door and I still got to see him!" She directed her attention back to Jinki, " Help yourself to anything in the fridge, sweetie! Don't let my irresponsible children get you into too much trouble, ok?"
" God, mom would you just go!" Minho waved his parents further out the doorway, Jinki stepping to the side to let them by.
She waved back, not bothering to turn as they walked down the path. " Love you too, my darling son!"
" Ugh...." Minho flushed crimson with embarrassment. " C'mon in..."
Jinki stepped up into the house, slipping his shoes off by the door he followed Minho back into his room. The room was much more clean the second time around, no need to kick a path to the bed. Jinki dropped the bag by the foot of the bed, and plopped down next to Toki who took up his rightful space in the center of Minho's pillows. Minho flopped back next to him, " Sorry about her...I tried to get them out as soon as I could."
" It's fine, your mom's actually pretty funny."
" Ugh, don't ever let her know that..It'll just fuel the fire."
" So...Should we get get on with studying?" Jinki wanted to keep in mind the real reason he was here, even though he was fairly sure it wouldn't get done.
" Can't we go out first?"
Jinki's eyes widened, " What?"
" Like to go get food, or to rent a movie...Anything, I've been cooped up in school all day and then house...Oh, I know we could play soccer! All we had this week was practice..."
Soccer was becoming Jinki's mortal enemy. He loved...Wait, no really, really liked the way Minho lit up whenever he played, but it always left Jinki sore and dizzy. His stomach grumbled, and he latched a hand onto the noisy muscle, face twisting up as hunger pains ripped through him. " Can't we go eat?"
" Oh, we can eat later...C'mon." Before he could utter so much as a protest, Jinki found himself dragged out of the room and he could have swore he saw Toki smirking back at him as he was pulled down the hallway.
Minho refused to let up until Jinki scored at least one goal against him, but the issue was Minho treated this game as serious as one of his school games. Jinki knew he could never get a goal in, dizzy feeling weighing heavily all over his body as he chased Minho up and down the field. His stomach was cramping up as he breathed hard, cool air burning his lungs, trying to fight the blackening edges of his vision away. " M-Minho...I...really can't..." He stopped, slumping over to grip his knees as he coughed hard.
Minho bounced around him, kicking the ball in ways that were making Jinki even more nauseous. " Oh, c'mon Hyung...You can make at least one goal..."
Jinki's heart pounded in his head, rushing sound starting to fill his ears. He started to speak, throat dry, and the sound that came out not anywhere near a real word. He looked up at the younger boy, Minho starting to fade in and out of focus, doubling in front of Jinki's eyes before becoming one again.
" Hyung?" Was the last thing he heard before the blackened edges swept completely across his sight.
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Jinki blinked, running sweaty palms over the cool covers of a bed. Wait? A bed? Wasn't he just outside playing soccer? He blinked harder, attemping to focus his blurry vision. He pushed up, or tried to, a hand came down to press against his bare chest, stilling his movements. " Hyung, d-don't move around too much..." Minho's voice was somewhere to his left, sounding further away then it should be.
Something cool and moist came to away the sweat beaded at his brow, " What happened?" His voice was hoarse, throat feeling as if someone had forced him to swallow salt.
" You turned really white, and passed out. I carried you back to my house...I was gonna call your mom, but you woke up." His vision finally focused, Minho staring down at him with large concerned eyes, bottom lip tucked under his front teeth. Jinki didn't think he'd ever felt worse in his life than in that moment, that normally bright face he adored now three-sixtied into something verging on terrified. Jinki shifted around, sweaty back sticking to the sheets below him; he tried to sit up once again, fighting Minho's pushing hand. " Are you sure you can sit up?"
Jinki nodded, " Yeah, I'm ok now..." He looked down at his practically form, stripped down to just his underwear. He would have flushed if he wasn't already so hot, " Umm, Minho? Why am I only in my boxers?"
" You were way too hot, I thought taking your clothes off would cool you faster." Minho stated, no embarrassment or second guessing behind his gaze. " You really scared me, Hyung...I thought I was going to have to call an ambulance."
Jinki heart wrenched, " I'm sorry, I'm fine I promise. I was just really hungry...I guess running on empty isn't isn't the best idea when playing sports."
" Why didn't you say something? We could have stopped!" Minho's voice raised.
" You just looked like you were having so much fun...I didn't want to ruin it." Jinki fiddled with his hands, looking away.
" Hyung...Yeah, sports are important to me, but...not that important." Jinki could have sworn he saw a small tint of pink in Minho's cheeks, but he still didn't trust his eye sight just yet.
" Can you hand me my shirt? It's kind of weird to just be sitting here undressed..." Jinki eyed the shirt twisted up into Minho's fists.
" Oh, right...Do you want to take a shower first? You sweated a whole bunch..."
Jinki laughed, " Are you trying to say I smell?"
" N-No! I just figured you'd be more comfortable after a shower..." He looked down, wrinkling the shirt further.
" I'm kidding...But I still need to put clothes on, I can't really walk to the bathroom with just my underwear on."
" Why not? We're the only ones here..." Minho raised a brow.
" Erm, ok then..." Jinki swung his legs over the edge of the bed, he leaned down and grabbed his bag, removing his sleep clothes from it. He stood, partially covering himself with the material.
" Go ahead to the bathroom, I'll bring you a towel, ok?" Minho waved him towards the door.
Jinki nodded, he opened the door, eyeing up and down the hall for any signs of life. Finding none, he scurried across the hall into the bathroom and flipped on the light. Minho followed a few moments later, depositing a towel on the sink for him.
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Jinki came out of the steamy bathroom, towel drying his hair roughly as he padded across the hall to Minho's room. Minho stood, back to him in just a pair of sleep pants, ever adorable ponytail failing to wrangling all the strands of his wet hair back. Jinki gulped, almost dropping the damp towel on the floor; Minho's pants slung low on his hips, revealing lower back dimples. Jinki had to fight not to reach out and touch. Minho turned, a half bitten cookie hanging from his lips, " Feel better?"
Jinki nodded, not trusting his own voice to sound normal. He hung the towel off the edge of the hamper as Minho came up to him, offering the other half of the cookie that was just hanging out of his own mouth. Jinki took it numbly, biting down against the edge jagged with teeth marks. Minho traversed back across the room, swiping up a discarded shirt on his bed; Jinki let his eyes linger over the dimples, forgetting to chew the cookie turning to mush in his mouth. He exhaled as they slipped out of sight when Minho pulled the shirt down over his torso, starting to push the vision of those perfect indents into his ' remember to forget' box. However he stopped, he would allow himself just this one thing to remember, deciding it was fairly unforgettable to begin with.
" Ready to help me with math?" Minho deposited his maxed out book bag onto the bed, space around it dipping low from the weight it carried.
" Actually, I'm kinda hungry..."
Minho's eyes widened further, " Right! Oh crap, I'm sorry...I'll be right back!" He tore off out of the room, leaving Jinki to wonder what the big issue was.
He opted to sit on the bed, grabbing up Toki and fiddling with the scrappy looking animal. " You know...I'm jealous of you..." He patted it's little head, and toyed with it's feet, paw prints stitched there were unravelling at the edges, slowly morphing the paw shape into something unknown. He could hear Minho banging around in the kitchen, worried what kind of thing he was going to bring back for them to eat. His stomach grumbled, signaling it didn't give a damn as long it was semi-edible.
Minho slid back into the room moments later, hugging a bag of chips in one arm. The other holding a plate of what Jinki assumed to be sandwiches, but he couldn't be too sure. Minho dropped the plate down onto his legs, taking a seat next to him as he unfurled the top edge of the chip bag and sliding it between the pair of them. He took a sandwich for himself, taking a large bite out of it before shoving a few chips in along with it. He swallowed hard, coughing a bit to fight the food down. He blinked at Jinki, " Well, go ahead and eat.."
Jinki blinked back before snapping out of his Minho induced daze; he grabbed a sandwich, eyeing the odd combination. Ham, cheese, mayo and ketchup were wedged between two pieces of white bread, the crusts not so neatly removed. He took a bite, taking notice to the similarity in the way Minho and his mother liked to stare people down when it came to their cooking. He swallowed, " It's good."
Minho smiled back, taking another bite of his sandwich. " It looks pretty gross I know, but I'm glad I'm not the only one who likes it..."
Jinki finished the sandwich, dusting the crumbs that clung to his finger tips off into the plate. He dragged Minho's bag over, grunting at it's excessive weight and placed it between them. " I guess we should get started..."
Minho sighed, " Yeah, yeah...."
They spent a good two hours going over all the material Minho just couldn't grasp, Minho head came to fall on Jinki's shoulder. " Uugh, why is this so hard? I feel like my head's gonna explode..."
Jinki laughed, " Your head's not going to explode, just focus..." He shrugged the shoulder supporting Minho's head up and down, trying to get him to concentrate once more.
Minho spoke as his head bounced on Jinki's shoulder, voice raising and lowering in an uneven tempo. " I don't wanna, we've been doing this forever..Can't we stop for the night?"
" Minho-" Jinki was cut off by a knock at the door, Minho's head popped up.
" Yeah?"
Minsuk stood into the doorway, " Just letting you know I'm heading out...I left it on the coffee table."
" Thanks!" Minho had this weird glint Jinki couldn't place as he waved bye to his brother.
" Later Jinki." Minsuk called, closing the door behind him.
" B-bye..." Jinki felt strange that Minho's brother had acknowledged him, let alone said bye. He turned to Minho who was stealthily, or at least attempting at that, putting his things back into his bag. " What does he mean by 'it'?"
Minho stood, " You'll just have to follow me and see..." He walked slowly out of the room, hands crossed at his back walking foot over foot.
Jinki soon found himself staring down a brand new bottle of eighty proof liquor, Mihno gracing him with possibly the biggest smiled he'd ever seen.
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