Writing this here, in case someone haven't seen it: I'm sorry guys, but I have two weeks of project writing, starting today, so I can't write on this story until I'm finished with this project! I'll do my best to update more regularly when this is over, until then, please bear with me ~ and I promised progress last time, too, I'm sorry D:

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He looked around to make sure he was alone in the room, before taking out the album from underneath his mattress. With trembling fingers he turned to the first page. His teary eyes were vividly reflected in the glossy surface of the family picture, showing two smiling young parents and their two-year-old son sitting between them with a kitten in his arms and a wide smile dominating his innocent little face.

“Mum…”

He ran his finger softly from the child in the picture to the smiling woman next to him. He followed the line of her face, imagining how it would be to touch her long black hair and her fair white skin, which he had inherited, along with her brown almond eyes.

Minki quickly wiped the tears away from the picture, almost as soon as they had landed. No, he shouldn’t cry, not anymore. After all, she looked happy in this picture, she most definitely wouldn’t have wanted for her son to keep weeping over her every time he was alone.

And his father, also smiling, and his eyes placed on Minki’s mother. The look on his face gave off the feeling that he would never want to take his eyes off her.

Yes, they had been truly happy, Minki thought, biting his lip as hard as he could to keep himself from letting out sobs. He closed the album again, already at his limit, and folded his arms around it tightly.

Why was he still such a mess? He had promised himself to move on when he had met Minhyun, who definitely had trouble of his own. It wasn’t fair to his first ever friend that he was acting so weak, so selfishly, so… lonesome. Minhyun shouldn’t have the slightest reason whatsoever to worry about Minki, too. Aron was enough of a headache already, he decided, taking a deep breath and put the album back into its hiding.

No more crying.

He sighed and rose from the bed. If he was going to forget his parents he might as well do it while being useful, starting with ridding Minhyun of his headache.

On his way from the room he realised he had lost his hairband, but he just ran his fingers through his blond locks of white hair to make it look right. On legs more confident than he felt, he walked towards the room he knew Aron and Jonghyun lived in.

Begging he was in luck he knocked the door a few times with the backside of his hand, waiting.

Soon after the door was opened. Minki paled.

Jonghyun looked surprised at him, brushing his wet hair from his face. In Minki’s opinion he didn’t look embarrased enough at all.

“Hey there, what’s up?”
“Uhm, I just… I was wondering if Aron was here by any chance” he managed to mumble while staring at the floor, stubbornly refusing to look at Jonghyun as long as his outfit was no more than a towel around his waist.

His legs had completely lost their confidence and now they felt as if they were made out of jelly.

“Oh sure, come in. He’ll be back any minute, I think he went to see if Minhyun was okay”.

“What, something happened?!”
“No no, he just got a scratch before and went to the school doctor, that’s all”.

“I see…” He nodded, absentmindedly biting his lip. Jonghyun couldn’t take in why his eyes suddenly fixed onto that luscious bottom lip of Minki’s, but fortunately he managed to tear his gaze from it before it became uncomfortable.

“Anything specific you wanted to ask Aron?”

“Uhm, I just wanted to know if he had that show we talked about earlier on DVD. It’s been ages since I last watched it.” He shrugged with an apologising smile. “I wanted to borrow it”.

“I think he does actually… Just a tic, I’ll find it for you. I can’t imagine him having anything against you borrowing it”. Minki tried to return the wide smile Jonghyun sent him, but as soon as he turned around he had to frown. If Aron wasn’t there it had been pointless to go there. He had to see Aron, not a towel-wearing, wet skinned version of Jonghyun who had started to search for Aron’s DVDs in the drawers next to the bed.

Finally, after having tortured Minki through seeing his crouched back move around for almost five minutes, he straightened up with a smile and a DVD-case in his hand.

“Here it is. Hope you don’t mind the lack of subtitles… What’s wrong?”

Minki had turned his face away, his cheeks almost flashing with heat. He gulped once before he forced out the words: “your towel’s on the floor”.

Never before had he wanted to actually become invisible at once. With feverishly shaking fingers he snatched the towel from the floor and tied it around his waist again, completely unable to look at Minki.

“I’ll go get some clothes, hold on…”

In two steps he was out of the room and had slammed the bathroom door behind him. Still shaking he silently collapsed on the floor. He was sure he was going to die of embarrassment, nothing less. Why hadn’t he thought of at least putting on a bathrobe before answering the door? Just because him and Aron was so used to each other it didn’t matter to them what they wore anymore wasn’t insurance others would feel as relaxed.

Even so, it had been a harder shock than imagined. His palms, his forehead, everything felt sweaty and his heart was pounding so fast he thought it would rip itself from its ribcage. On top of that not a single coherent thought would form in his head for almost a minute. The only thing he was finally capable of thinking was that he was way too upset from this.

Another boy had looked at him , so what, it happened all the time in the locker rooms after gym class. It was normal. Why did he feel as if he had committed some kind of deadly sin?

Furious with himself he got on his feet and grabbed a pair of jeans and a T-shirt from the pile on the floor. Even though it was Aron’s clothes he didn’t care, he just had to wear something, anything in order to get rid of the odd feeling of being completely exposed.

Maybe this was the feeling Minki had felt when the boys in the cafeteria had tried to take off his shirt. Suddenly he felt a lot more compassionate than before. It must have felt disgusting.

He opened the door again, determined not act as if it had been really funny and not unpleasant at all.

Minki was sitting on the chair by the desk, trying really hard not to look at anything except the wall.

The sight of his troubled face immediately made him lose every shred of determination.

“Do you know if Aron’s coming back anytime soon?”

His silent, sad voice didn’t make it any better.

“Who knows?” Jonghyun already felt uneasy again. “If he’s talking to Minhyun I doubt he’ll return before dinner… But I’m sure it’s fine if you borrow…”
But Minki cut off his far from poised sentence.

“I lied before”. He his lips slowly and looked up at Jonghyun, eyes darkened by guilt. “I wanted to talk to Aron because… because Minhyun really needs him…”

“How?”

Jonghyun sat down on the bed to level with Minki, who seemed to feel even worse because of this action. His eyes flickered, every time he looked at the bed his face grew paler and at last he chose to just stare at the floor.

“Minhyun needs to be loved. He needs someone who cares for him, truly.”

“What about you?”
A sad little smile formed on his plump lips.

“I’m no good for him. I crave too much… He needs someone who’s stable and who doesn’t freak out by the mere mention of a white sheet”.

“What?” Jonghyun turned his head to look at the bed, then back to Minki again. “You’re afraid of bed sheets?”
“Please let me finish…” Minki looked as if he could have eaten his own tongue; clearly it hadn’t been his intention to say it. “If Aron really is serious about Minhyun, then I have to find out. Minhyun’s done so much for me during the two months we’ve known each other, it’s only fair that I repay him. I brought him here, which, looking at it now, was just stupid. If Aron’s not truly into him, then we need to leave. I couldn’t stand seeing him hurt!”

Jonghyun’s sudden smile made Minki blush a bit.

“What is it?”
“You really care about him, don’t you?”

“I told you, he’s all I’ve got. But I’m just a burden to him all the time, it feels… it feels as if there’s nothing I can do to help him”. The hopelessness that dominated his face was so grave Jonghyun’s stomach began to hurt.

“You don’t need to ask Aron, I promise he’s truly sincere about Minhyun. I’ve never seen him like this before… And don’t worry, if he ends up breaking his heart, then I swear I’ll beat him up for you”. His playful attitude that somehow got worked into everything he said made Minki lighten up a bit.

“Don’t talk like that about your friend” he said, trying to sound harsh, but the brunette’s smile was too contagious to scold. Then he sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “Honestly, I think I care too much… Minhyun said so as well. But I just can’t help it”. He bit his lip, a habit Jonghyun wasn’t sure of how to handle. “Sorry, I sound weird again… I don’t know what to say”.

They sat there for a while, the silence dominating the room. Then Jonghyun managed to get Minki to look at him again.

“Minki, I… I know we’ve just met and that I shouldn’t be asking this, but won’t you please tell me what it is you don’t like about sheets? Also, earlier today, you just left… It would be nice if you could tell me why”.

Minki’s eyes were slowly filled by tears and he angrily wiped them before they started to run down his face.

“I can’t… I’m sorry, but I can’t right now. It hurts…”

He struggled to get the words out right and it was obvious that he couldn’t keep holding back his tears.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to tell me”. Jonghyun couldn’t bear to watch him anymore. He reached out and pulled him from the chair to the bed. Carefully he placed both arms around Minki and hugged him lightly, making sure he could move away if he wanted to. “But don’t think you can act all strong just because you’re with me. One should never have to cry alone”.

Somehow he had expected that Minki wouldn’t accept his embrace, but as soon as the words had left his mouth the younger one put both arms around him, clenching him so hard that he for a moment felt unable to breathe. Minki’s body was shivering from crying and Jonghyun realised he wouldn’t have been able to hold back for a second longer. The blonde was so overcome by tears he had to gasp for air, making him shiver even more.

Taking a deep breath Jonghyun softly started to his back in attempt to comfort him, but soon understood that Minki didn’t need comfort at this point, only to cry himself empty.  The only thing he could do for him right now was to hold him until he wasn’t wanted anymore.

Aron felt as if he had just made a marriage proposal. How could it be so nerve-wracking to casually ask if they should do a sleepover next weekend, all four of them? Looking at Minhyun’s facial expression he felt that he had to run over their conversation in his head once more to make sure that he really did propose a sleepover, not a wedding.

He had even empathised that it would be the four of them, right? Yes, and he hadn’t used the wrong words, he was sure of it. And Minhyun wasn’t looking oddly at him anymore either. In fact he was smiling.

“Sounds nice. I’m sure Minki wants to as well. We should watch that new Marvel film then. I’ve thought of buying it for a long time anyway”.

“Of course. We’ll have to borrow a roll mat or two, I hope you don’t mind?”
“No, not at all”. Minhyun’s smile wouldn’t vanish, although it started to look a bit forced. Aron, however, didn’t notice. He was far too thrilled about the upcoming sleepover, even though it was only a small step in the right direction. As long as the others were around there was no way he could make a move.

“Why don’t we go get the mats right away then?”

“Sure. Then let’s go to the town afterwards and buy that film. There’s also a game I want, might as well buy it while I’m there”. He struggled to keep a straight face, but his time working as a model had taught him enough self-control to manage.

“Cool, which one?”
“The new Assassin’s Creed, do you know it?” His voice now sounded odd as well, he thought helplessly as he tried not to let his eyes wallow in the sight of Aron’s boyish lips that once again parted in an unbearably charming smile.

“Of course I do! We should play against each other”.

“Are you sure? I’m really good at it.” He lifted an eyebrow, trying not to smirk too much. Aron returned the daring look in Minhyun’s eyes. Every aspect of his face were covered in downright y confidence, his lips curling into a sly smile.

“Believe me, I’m going to tear you apart” he answered, his slow, husky voice being too much for Minhyun to handle. Terrified he could feel how probably every drop of blood in his brain rushed south and he was quite sure Aron wouldn’t miss it.

“Yeah, as if”. He tried to sneer the words out with a sarcastic smile, but his face was impossible to get to cooperate now. And Aron’s lifted eyebrow and the almost glowing look in his dark eyes didn’t make it any easier.

“Then what are we waiting for, let’s find out!”

They walked down the hallway, or at least Aron was walking, while Minhyun teetered behind him. Finally they reached the corner he had been waiting for.

“Uhm, Aron, I just have to go to the bathroom. I’ll meet you outside, okay?”

Without awaiting the answer he hurried into the bathroom and locked the door behind him.

Aron went two steps further down the hallway, then he decided to wait for Minhyun right there instead and went back. As soon as he stood by the door to the bathroom he wished he had gone outside instead. The muffled sound of moans leaked out from beneath the door, mixing with ragged panting and a frustrated whimpering.

Aron’s cheeks felt as if they had burst into flames and he had to swallow a few times in order to breathe. The series of moans grew louder and he was sure Minhyun was on the verge of screaming. He wanted to leave to make sure he wasn’t caught eavesdropping, but when he heard his own name in the mix of ic mewls he had a hard time not lingering.

Just the thought of the tall, beautiful boy to him, him, was almost enough to make him need a bathroom of his own. Flushed he managed to move away from the soft sound of Minhyun’s heavy breath, heading outside as planned.

As he reached the main entrance of the school, his thoughts started to clear up, but his heart definetely hadn’t slowed down. He couldn’t believe himself to be so lucky, he had to be mistaken. Minhyun couldn’t have said his name, he had just wanted to hear it. Yes, that was probably the explanation.

The taller one caught up with him shortly afterwards, still smiling, but out of breath.

“So, are we going?”

“Of course”.

They walked side by side to the nearest buss top, both of them trying to look as if nothing had happened.