Chapter 1: Introducing the best friend.
Don't Stop CountingA/N: It's short update but I wanted to let my subscribers/readers know that I haven't abandoned this story! Comment to let me know your thoughts on the first chapter. [:
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It is safe to say that Luhan is one of Minseok's closest friends.
But his best friend happens to be none other than Kim Jongdae.
Kim Jongdae is ridiculous, embarrassing, too optimistic, and just always there. Which is good, Minseok tells himself. Because when he's not feeling so good, Jongdae pops up and tells some stupid joke that makes him laugh anyways. He does the craziest things in public that makes Minseok want to curl up and hide behind a pole, but it's fun nonetheless. His favorite times with Jongdae is when he so much as glances at a mirror, Jongdae is there to hold his face, look into his eyes, and tell him he's handsome.
Not always, but enough to make him think of his words when he's not around.
It's like his job. And he probably says it a few times every day, believing--no, hoping--that Minseok agrees with him. When Jongdae says it, the older male wants to believe him, wants to see those words and think of himself as them. It's those times when Minseok doesn't know whether to believe his best friend or the mirror.
It's his biggest enemy: mirrors. He has the strangest fear of them, fears seeing him so ugly and disgusting, yet he can't stop himself from looking at his reflection. Is he really this ugly? Is he really this fat?
Oh, how Jongdae hates that word. Fat.
Don't ever say 'I feel fat' in front of him. Don't ever say 'I don't want to eat this because I'll get fat' in front of him. Don't say 'I don't want to get fat' or 'this makes me look fat'. Don't ask him 'does this make me look fat?' or 'am I fat?'. And most of all, don't ever let him hear you call yourself or someone else fat.
Because to Jongdae, fat should not be an insult. 'Fat' should not make people cry, should not make people hate or hurt themselves. It should not be used to put others down. It is no longer an adjective. It is no longer a lipid, a tissue. It is slander, a taunt that slaps you in the face. Why had society made this word so cruel? So hurtful?
Jongdae hates it when people use it as a feeling. You cannot feel fat. Fat is not a feeling. And yet, people seem to feel it and in return their self-esteem lowers. He despises it. Despises how it creates horrible feelings inside of someone, how it is used to abuse others, how it hurts people.
Above all, he despises how it hurts his best friend.
Because in his eyes, Minseok is not fat. He is the most handsome person he's ever met. And no matter how many times he tells Minseok that, the despicable word 'fat' ruins it all. It ruined his best friend, that's what it did.
When they wake up, tangled in the sheets and curled against each other, Jongdae still thinks Minseok is handsome. Minseok grins, it's lazy and lopsided and his eyes are barely even open anymore. "G'morning," he mumbles, wrapping his legs around Jongdae's calf and locking them around his knee.
The former yawns and pretty soon, he's sleeping again.
Jongdae just watches him. When he finds his voice, he whispers good morning back.
It's quiet except for Minseok's snoring, the little things he does in his sleep (scratch his nose, neck, thigh,), and their breathing. If Jongdae strains his ears hard enough, there are chirps here and there, birds singing to each other in the early morning. Minseok's curtains are drawn apart and the sun's ray cast across the room through the window.
Jongdae squints his eyes to find the clock, staring at the blinking, red numbers. It's 7:03. Too early to get up for a Saturday morning.
He listens to their surroundings for awhile longer. Looking around, mostly at the male beside him. Then, he sighs and the sheets rustle as he scoots closer to Minseok. He attempts to wake him up, asking whether Minseok wanted to watch morning cartoons or to sleep in.
Of course the older croaks out, 'Five more minutes." Jongdae knows he really means 'two more hours', so he settles next to him, skin touching skin, and closes his eyes.
He'll have to tell Minseok he's handsome later.
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