Rating : G for this part
Genre: AU, Romance
Length : part 03 – 3500+ words
Notes: un-beta-ed.

+

The table was covered with empty plates, thanks to Sungmin. After more than half an hour of their dinner, Kyuhyun had learned one thing for sure: Sungmin ate a lot. He had guessed before, though, because he could definitely see that Sungmin was quite stout. However, he hadn’t been expecting that Sungmin would eat that much. Maybe all the energy from his food was channeled to the immense amount of movement he always did for the musical. Kyuhyun blinked amazedly as Sungmin finished their last plate (it was spaghetti).

“Ah, that was delicious,” Sungmin held back a burp and wiped his mouth delicately with a napkin. He then looked up at Kyuhyun. “Are you surprised at how much I ate?” his expression turned into a worried one.

Kyuhyun shook his head and laughed a little, “Yes and no, actually. But, well, considering the amount of physical activities you do everyday… it’s not really surprising,”

Sungmin grinned, “You look so thin. Maybe you need to eat more, Kyuhyun-sshi. This is weird, why am I surrounded by thin people? First Hyukjae, then Mimi—he’s completely a stick, he’s far thinner than you, by the way. Now my newest friend is also a stick,”

Kyuhyun raised an eyebrow, “I’m not a stick, thank you, maybe it’s you who’s just too much of a round pumpkin,” he retorted lightheartedly. Sungmin chuckled at his response and Kyuhyun smirked.

They have been exchanging teasing remarks throughout the whole dinner like this, and Kyuhyun felt comfortable to show Sungmin this side of him who was able to throw witty and snarky comments. Most people would feel intimidated if he did that before they knew each other better. But Sungmin was different. Sometimes he would look like he couldn’t find anything to retort Kyuhyun, but then he would pout; jutting out his lower lip as his words replacement. His expression and body language after that showed he didn’t take Kyuhyun’s witty comments to heart, just like how Kyuhyun meant it. Kyuhyun was happy with this kind of response. That was why he felt it easy to open up and to be completely himself in front of Sungmin. Plus, the pout, Kyuhyun found it especially endearing.

“Let’s order our coffee now, then? Or are you too full already?” Kyuhyun asked with another smirk, gesturing to the plates in front of them.

“No, I’m still fine,” Sungmin answered cheerfully. And to prove his words, he raised a hand to call the waiter over again.

They ordered two different types of coffee. Kyuhyun liked the normal coffee with little sugar and little cream, and Sungmin chose cappuccino with extra marshmallow. After the waiter had left with their coffee orders, Kyuhyun saw Sungmin peek at his wristwatch. The latter frowned a bit, but it was gone in the next second and Kyuhyun wondered if he was just seeing things.

“Do you… do you have another appointment after this?” Kyuhyun asked carefully. “Or… do you have… someone… waiting for you at home?”

He hoped Sungmin would not answer with a ‘yeah, my boyfriend,’ or something around that line. Kyuhyun frowned and he suddenly felt unconfident again. It was pathetic, he thought, how his level of confidence rose and fell so fast when it came to Sungmin. There were just too many things Kyuhyun still didn’t know about Sungmin, and that made him feel insecure about his advances.

However, Sungmin answered with a simple, “Yeah,” that directly sent Kyuhyun’s heart so close to the edge of a heartbreak cliff.

Kyuhyun almost choked on his own saliva. He gulped down slowly, and he realized his voice was cracking when he cautiously asked, “W…who?”

Maybe it was his mother; his parents. But… Sungmin mentioned that he stayed in an apartment and that his parents were in Ilsan, so it couldn’t be the parents. Was it Hyukjae, then? Sungmin did mention about him a couple of times in their conversation over dinner, and Kyuhyun had to admit that the assistant choreographer was quite charming, especially when he danced (Kyuhyun saw him when he was stalking the rehearsal studio before). The name Sunkyu also showed up a lot. She was the female lead in the musical and Kyuhyun had noticed (also in his stalking period) how she seemed to be very close and comfortable with Sungmin. Wait, Kyuhyun realized with a panic stutter of his heart, I don’t even know his gender preference!

Then there was this someone called Mimi who was apparently Sungmin’s roommate.

Roommate. Kyuhyun tensed. Maybe the roommate was his boyfriend. It would be advantageous, to have your boyfriend as a roommate, right? They could stay together all the time; sleeping together every night, waking up to see each other’s face every morning, and then… showering together. Oh, crap. Kyuhyun was almost sure he could already hear the whooshing sound as his heart finally fell down that cliff.

“Yeah, it’s Mimi,” Sungmin confirmed and Kyuhyun looked down, eyes on the checkered pattern on the table cloth unseeingly. He wanted to bang his head onto the table in desperation. His mind was frantically thinking of ways to make himself disappear from Sungmin’s sight when Sungmin added, “I’ll just send him a message that I’ll be home late. It is fun talking to you and I don’t want to end it so soon!”

The falling-down-the-cliff scene stopped mid-air and Kyuhyun looked up so fast that the abrupt movement made Sungmin jolted back a little on his seat, surprised.

“Sorry,” Kyuhyun said offhandedly. “Are you sure it’s alright? He won’t be…” jealous?Kyuhyun wanted to ask; but he ended up with, “…angry?” instead.

Sungmin laughed, “Oh, he won’t. He’s not the type to get angry. He’s just too much of a worrywart sometimes. And we usually eat dinner together when both of us are at home. I’ll just text him now.”

Sungmin took out his cell phone and started to type. Kyuhyun could only watch him doing so, feeling uncertainty floating around his stomach. So? Was this Mimi guy really the boyfriend, then? Sungmin didn’t make it clear, and Kyuhyun was now too scared to ask. He had been confident before especially after seeing Sungmin’s reactions to his advances. He had found Sungmin to be quite honest, too. So he was very very hopeful when Sungmin had said he was happy it was not just coffee. And just now he said he had fun talking to him… but now Kyuhyun was not so sure anymore. Maybe Sungmin was just excited to meet a new friend.

Now my newest friend is also a stick.

Sungmin’s sentence from a few minutes earlier resounded in his mind and made Kyuhyun’s frown deepen. Oh—

“—CRAP!”

+

Sungmin almost dropped his cellphone in surprise when Kyuhyun swore loudly and stood up so abruptly he nearly knocked the table over and send their empty plates flying. Lucky for everyone Sungmin’s reflex was very, very, good. He managed to keep most of those plates from falling and crashing by catching two of them midair and buffering another plate plus a bowl with his foot so they only clinked a little against the floor, unharmed. One plate was flying too out of reach, though, so it magnificently crashed onto the floor not far from their table.

He looked up to find a wet Kyuhyun. Wet by coffee. Apparently the waiter had come back with their orders, tripped over his own clumsy foot and poured the hot liquid all over Kyuhyun’s body. Kyuhyun was still swearing and hissing from the heat seeping through the material of his clothes, scorching against his skin underneath. Quickly, Sungmin put all the plates back onto the table and rushed over to Kyuhyun’s side.

After a quick scan on Kyuhyun’s body, Sungmin exhaled in relief. He was alright, fortunately. None of the hot liquid poured straight onto his bare skin, but the coffee that seeped through his clothes was hot nonetheless. Sungmin glanced at the waiter and he seemed alright, too, apart from the tumbled mugs on his tray and all the panic ‘I’m terribly sorry Sir!’s he spluttered out as he reached for a napkin and tried to dry Kyuhyun’s drenched clothes.

Sungmin took the napkin from the waiter’s hand gently and grabbed his shoulder to calm him down.

“Let me take care of him, you go take care of those mugs and that broken plate over there,” Sungmin said. The waiter froze for a second, and then he nodded and scurried away to clean up. Not long after, another waiter showed up to give him a hand.

“Are you okay?” Sungmin asked as he focused on dabbing the coffee-drenched parts of Kyuhyun’s shirt and pants. He felt Kyuhyun stiffen for a split second, but then he glanced up to check on Kyuhyun’s expression, and Kyuhyun chose that moment to just nod. Sungmin smiled and continue dabbing for a while.

“We should just pay the bill now and go,” Sungmin said, straightening himself and throwing the napkin on to the table. Sungmin didn’t miss to see the way Kyuhyun’s expression fell.

“…okay then. Aisshh…” Kyuhyun hissed again, no swearing this time. “There goes our coffee…”

“Let’s head back to my place,” Sungmin said as he fished his wallet from his back pocket.

“What? Your place?” Kyuhyun’s eyes widened and he almost choked on his own saliva.

Sungmin raised both of his eyebrows at his reaction. “Yes, my place. It’s really close from here and you need to change your clothes, right? Or are you staying nearby, too?”

Kyuhyun shook his head at his last question and Sungmin grinned. He hurried to the cashier to pay for their dinner and just accepted the staff’s apology about the earlier incident with a soft smile. Kyuhyun was nervous when he gripped his arm and steered him out of the restaurant, Sungmin could tell. It made him feel a little amused.

Even though he had not been in a romantic relationship for quite some time now, it didn’t mean he was insensitive about other people’s feelings. He was attentive toward people’s feelings, and usually he would be considerate and subtly do things to respond to other people’s emotions and make them feel comfortable even without them realizing it. Now, with Kyuhyun, from their interactions the whole dinner, Sungmin could already tell that Kyuhyun was interested in him in a way that is more than just friends.

No matter how Kyuhyun tried to carefully mask his emotion from displaying on his expressions and body language, Sungmin was just too good at deciphering it. It was amusing, but mostly flattering, to see how Kyuhyun’s mood changes depending on whatever he said. The most interesting thing so far was, of course, how Kyuhyun seemed to be so disturbed about the fact that someone was waiting for him at home, and somehow, just this once, Sungmin wanted to be a little inconsiderate. He wanted to see how Kyuhyun would react if he with insecurities a little bit longer. Afterall, he did it only because he realized he felt something special for Kyuhyun, too.

The short journey to Sungmin’s apartment was filled with awkward conversation from Kyuhyun (because Sungmin enjoyed listening to awkward Kyuhyun, and he knew anyway that he might never got to see this kind of Kyuhyun again if Kyuhyun knew that he wasn’t attached to anyone and that he liked him, too).

“Are you sure it’s okay for me to go to your place?” was Kyuhyun’s first awkward question in that journey.

“Yes, of course, Kyuhyun-sshi. It’s perfectly okay,” Sungmin answered lightly. “That’s two mugs of coffee on your clothes, you know,”

And then there was silence. It seemed that Kyuhyun was too distracted by other thoughts to even think about another reply. Sungmin glanced sideways and he met Kyuhyun’s eyes for a millisecond. It turned out that Kyuhyun was side-staring at him, too, but he quickly turned his head away when Sungmin looked his way. Sungmin bit his lips, trying to swallow his smile.

Thirty seconds after that, Kyuhyun voiced his second awkward statement, “Please remind me to pay you back for the dinner’s bill. I was the one who asked you for dinner, so let me pay for it, ok?”

Sungmin blinked, a little unprepared to hear such request. “Umm, you don’t have to do that. But if you insist, how if we just split the bill? I’ll… I’ll remind you later,”

Kyuhyun opened his mouth. It seemed that he wanted to protest, but thought better of it, so he closed it again. He just nodded in silent agreement.

“Here we are,” Sungmin led Kyuhyun into his apartment building and to the elevator. Sungmin chanced another glance at Kyuhyun as he stepped into the elevator, but he saw Kyuhyun was frowning at the floor, unmoving. He quickly stepped out again and let the elevator door close automatically, without them in it.

“Kyuhyun-sshi?” Sungmin called, touching Kyuhyun’s arm cautiously, “Are you alright?” Sungmin wondered if he should just cut the crap and confessed straightaway because after a while this version of Kyuhyun was making him worry.

Kyuhyun looked up at Sungmin with resolve in his eyes.

“I think I should just go home, Sungmin-sshi,” he said, some kind of determined sparkle could be seen in his eyes when Sungmin looked up with a questioning (and almost horrified) look. However, before Sungmin could voice his befuddlement, Kyuhyun continued, “I don’t want to disturb you and your boyfriend,”

Sungmin gaped. This was not something he had expected. He had expected Kyuhyun to be more awkward and discreet about his assumption of Mimi being Sungmin’s boyfriend. This unexpected turn of event made Sungmin happier, though, because from that sparkle in Kyuhyun’s eyes, Sungmin knew Kyuhyun was now prepared to let his intentions be known.

“Kyuhyun-sshi,” Sungmin said gently. He decided it’s enough pretending that he didn’t know Kyuhyun’s purpose; enough making Kyuhyun feel anxious that he was already ‘taken’. “Mimi is not my boyfriend, there’s… I don’t have a boyfriend. You will not disturb anyone, really.”

Sungmin took his sweet time enjoying the look on Kyuhyun’s face as he said that. At first he could definitely recognize the surprised look. A second later, it turned into something akin to realization, and the next second, it was relief. Kyuhyun smiled impishly and scratched his not-itchy back of the head.

“Oh,” was all he could utter after a few seconds. “I won’t disturb you, then?” he asked, the confident grin was back.

Sungmin mirrored that grin on his own face. “No, of course not. Don’t worry,” he grabbed Kyuhyun’s elbow and pressed the elevator button again. “Stop running away, Kyuhyun-sshi,”

Kyuhyun blushed a little, apparently starting to be aware that Sungmin might already knew his feeling and his intention. “I was just being considerate,” he reasoned lamely, and Sungmin smiled understandingly.

They stepped into the empty elevator and stayed silent. They stood side by side, comfortable even when their arms were brushing against each other. Kyuhyun was staring straight at the elevator door, seemingly deep in thought. Sungmin, feeling the silence no longer awkward, spent his time observing Kyuhyun’s side profile. The perfect nose, the full lips, his pale white complexion, the way his fluffy fringe covered his rather wide forehead…. and the pimples on his cheeks. Sungmin bit back a laugh as he kept staring.

Kyuhyun seemed to finally finish his muse and realize that Sungmin was staring blatantly at his face. He turned his head aside and gulped visibly as they were now staring into each other’s eyes in such a close distance. Sungmin smiled, and Kyuhyun did, too. They didn’t break the eye contact for what seems like an eternity, but neither was willing to do so anyway.

Sungmin knew in that instance, that out of all his handsome features, he loved Kyuhyun’s eyes the most. It’s the first time he stared deeply into them and he felt himself drawn and drowning in those dark brown orbs. There was warmth, affection, determination, and a tiny hint of uncertainty in there. Sungmin wanted to erase that uncertainty, soon.

The elevator door opened and they were forced to finally break the eye contact as they stepped out of the chrome cabin and into the yellowish dim light of the narrow corridor.

+

They entered the apartment with a small, “I’m home,” announcement from the Sungmin, and they were welcomed by an excited, widely-smiling very tall man and a little brown poodle with a green shirt barking cutely beside him.

“Min! You’re fast, I haven’t even— ah! You must be Kyuhyun! Hello! I’m Zhou Mi, you can call me Mimi like everyone else does!” the tall man patted Kyuhyun’s shoulder and bowed at the same time, dragging Kyuhyun in by the next second.

Kyuhyun opened his mouth and blinked, but he was still too surprised to say anything.

“I’ll go get something for you to change, the bathroom’s over there~” Zhou Mi was suddenly behind him, and he pushed him gently toward a door that was presumably the bathroom’s door. Kyuhyun looked back at Sungmin, who was looking at him with a grin.

“Uh, thanks, Z— Mimi…?” Kyuhyun said a little uncertain. Zhou Mi laughed and patted his shoulder again before he left him (to get clothes for him, apparently).

“Well, so you’ve met Mimi,” Sungmin said, chuckling. “Go ahead and clean up, I’ll knock when Mimi’s back with the clothes… and the towel,”

“Uh, okay… but how…” Kyuhyun frowned, “How did he know I’m coming? How did he know my name?”

“I texted him while I was paying for our dinner earlier,” Sungmin shrugged like it was the most obvious answer, “I’ll make us coffee now. We were planning to have some coffee in the first place, weren’t we?” Sungmin walked to the open kitchen and started rummaging through the drawers.

Kyuhyun shook his head a little. Everything was suddenly felt too fast that it was almost surreal. Minutes before he was battling with his own mind about whether he should pursue this feeling for Sungmin or just let it go since he had thought Sungmin already had a boyfriend; but now he was in said person’s apartment, being all friendly with the roommate whom he had previously thought as his love-rival, watching his object of affection busying himself in the kitchen while letting him use the bathroom as though his presence there was only natural.

Kyuhyun stepped into the bathroom and closed the door behind him. He stripped off his coffee-stained shirt and pants leisurely, listening to the faint sound of glasses clanking from the kitchen. A while later, after he washed his face on the sink, there was a knock on the door.

“Here are the clothes and towel~” he heard Zhou Mi’s cheerful voice from behind the door.

He opened it a little to take the clothes and to peek at the helpful man. “Thank you,” he said politely.

“These are my clothes. Min’s would be too small for you because he’s too short,” Zhou Mi explained.

“Oi!” was heard from the direction of the kitchen. Kyuhyun and Zhou Mi laughed. And then Zhou Mi leant closer to the gap and he whispered so that only Kyuhyun could hear him.

“I’ve picked those that would really look good on you, so Min would be drooling when he sees you later,”

Kyuhyun’s eyes almost went out of their sockets. “Wh— excuse me?”

Zhou Mi shoved the clothes through the little gap on the door and winked at Kyuhyun. “Don’t worry! I’ll help you!” he whispered excitedly.

It took Kyuhyun a couple more seconds to realize what Zhou Mi was talking about. He then grinned and nodded as he saw Zhou Mi’s playful eyes (that reminded him very much of Heechul’s when he was planning something in his mind). “Thanks, really,” he said earnestly, before he closed the door.

He unfolded the clothes Zhou Mi gave him: a simple long-sleeved black V-neck shirt and a pair of black slacks. All black, huh? Kyuhyun thought amusedly. He thought he should just trust Zhou Mi in this. He had no idea how Zhou Mi could read through him that easily although they had just met minutes ago. He also wondered why Zhou Mi was so keen in helping him, but he was thankful for that and he would take any help offered.

Kyuhyun stared at his reflection on the mirror above the sink. The sleeves were a bit too long so he rolled them up to his elbow, but he looked good in a relaxed manner. Zhou Mi surely had a nice taste on this kind of thing.

There were more faint sounds of kitchenware, low buzz of conversation and chuckles from Sungmin and Zhou Mi that he couldn’t quite decipher. Seconds later, delicious coffee scent wafted in through the cracks on the door and he inhaled it deeply. The combination of those sounds and scents enveloping him was making him feel calm and oddly at home, despite the rollercoaster of emotion he had been through earlier that day. Kyuhyun smiled to himself as he grabbed for the door knob, pulling it open. It was finally, finally, his peaceful coffee time with Sungmin (and most probably with Zhou Mi, too XD).

+

TBC

t/n:

I don’t know what’s wrong with me XD This was really too long but really pointless. I wanted to finish this quickly because I have a HenMin plot in mind, but somehow this part turned out even longer than the previous ones *headdesk*. I wanted to end it in this third part but apparently, now I have to add another part XD

There, Mimi made his appearance (and very ninja Ni Qiu XD)! There would be more helpful Mimi in the next (and hopefully final) part. But I’m sure it’s quite a predictable plot hahahaha~ Oh well. Please tell me what you think?  And see you in the next part…! *waves*