Hey, listen boy…

Luhan groaned as the sounds of Gee began to play at seven in the morning.  He reached out blindly for his phone, groping along the floor as he wondered why he had ever thought using this song for an alarm was a good idea because it definitely didn’t make him any happier to get up. 

Once he succeeded in both finding and silencing his phone, he flopped back onto his bed, arm hitting its other occupant who, up to that moment, barely awake Luhan had completely forgotten about. 

Of course, that changed when his arm smacked against Minseok’s side and Minseok let out his own unhappy moan, a sound that had Luhan completely awake in a moment.  He was up and out of his bed in an instant as Minseok let out another sound and rolled over to face into the room. 

(Luhan’s bed was in the corner of the room to maximize floor space and Minseok had been on his side facing the wall until Luhan had so kindly finished waking him up.)

Minseok’s eyes blinked for a couple seconds in confusion before he was jerking up into a seated position while throwing the blanket Luhan had tossed over him away so that he could see his body.  It was only after he took in the presence of all his clothes that his shoulders visibly relaxed, and he turned back to face Luhan to ask “What happened?”

“You got a little drunk, and I was feeling lazy, so I just had you sleep here.  I didn’t do anything but take off your shoes and socks.  You even had a separate blanket.”  Luhan answered, trying to keep any evidence of hurt from his voice.  He had assumed Minseok knew him well enough to know that he wouldn’t do anything to him while he was drunk (or while he was sober even), but apparently not.

As he spoke, Minseok’s eyes widened and by the time Luhan had finished up, he was already starting to wave his hands in front of his body.  “That’s not what… I wasn’t worried about you.  I know you wouldn’t do anything.” 

Luhan cocked his head confused.  “Huh?”

“It’s just me… and well I haven’t been drunk in a while… and you…” Minseok rambled for a couple seconds before letting out a heavy sigh and looking Luhan directly in the eye to say firmly.  “Forget it.  Can we just start over?”

“What?” Luhan asked, even more confused.

Minseok pressed on as he got off Luhan’s bed, revealing exactly what he meant.  “Good morning.  Sorry for drinking a little too much, and thanks for letting me sleep here last night.  Now, do you have any Tylenol, because my head hurts, and I don’t think I’m really thinking straight.”

Luhan just stared for a few seconds, shocked by the change in tone.  None of what Minseok had just said made any sense.    

Why wasn’t he worried about Luhan?  What was wrong with him?  And why were they now just forgetting about it?

All of those questions were bouncing around in Luhan’s head, and he wanted answers to them, but the way Minseok looked at him as he finished speaking and waited for a response let him know Minseok didn’t want to give them.  In fact, Luhan was fairly certain Minseok was all but begging Luhan not to ask, and so, Luhan didn’t, for now.  Instead, Luhan answered Minseok’s question. 

“It’s in the kitchen.  Follow me.”  Luhan said as he went to the door to start making his way towards the kitchen.

“Thanks,” Minseok answered as he followed after.

Minseok took a seat at the table as Luhan grabbed Tylenol from the medicine cabinet and a glass of water.  He sat both down in front of Minseok before returning to the cupboards to pull out a protein bar.  He was fairly certain he wasn’t making it to the dining hall for a quick breakfast this morning.

“Want one?” he asked, holding it up for Minseok to see.

Minseok jumped before glancing up from the table, where he had already drank his glass of water and taken the two Tylenol.  “Sure.”  He said as his eyes fell on the bar in Luhan’s hands.

Luhan gave a nod and grabbed another bar from the box in the cupboard before grabbing the water pitcher from the fridge and another glass.

He placed the bar in front of Minseok, refilled his glass and then sat down across from him, filling his own cup and taking a sip as he watched Minseok closely.  Even though Luhan had been playing along since they left his bedroom, Minseok still seemed uneasy, uncomfortable even, and the way he was breaking off small pieces of the protein bar to eat was doing little to dissuade that impression.

He also wasn’t looking at Luhan, which hurt more than he’d like to admit, and Luhan, fairly certain “forgetting it” wasn’t really working for either of them, decided to risk one question, just one.

“You okay?”  He asked.

Minseok jumped again at his words, but he did look up to meet his eyes for a second at least before he looking away to say in a slightly defeated tone, “Yeah.”

“You sure?” Luhan pressed.

Minseok gave a nod, even as he continued to look off at the wall of the kitchen, mind clearly somewhere else.

“Then why are you acting so weird?”

Minseok sighed, shaking his head and facing Luhan as he said, “It’s just been a while since this has happened to me.”

“What’s happened?”

Minseok opened his mouth to answer, stopped, shut it again, and then finally reopened it to answer.  “That I’ve drunk that much.”  

“It wasn’t really that much.  I mean, I probably could have gotten you back home.  I was just being lazy.”

Minseok shook his head.  “Still, I should have been more careful.  I’m not supposed to get drunk.”

“Well, um, why?  You didn’t really do anything.”  Luhan asked, confused.

“I didn’t?”  Minseok asked, eyes lighting up suddenly.

“Well, you did get a bit more clingy, but otherwise no, not really.”  Luhan admitted, surprised by how happy Minseok currently seemed.

Minseok’s blushed at his words, embarrassed.  “Sorry about that.”

Luhan waved off his apology with a quick flick of his hand.  “It’s cool.  It’s not like you’re the first guy to cling to me.”

Minseok laughed at that.  “I can imagine,”

Luhan nodded in agreement, allowing himself to get carried away as he enjoyed the fact that Minseok was laughing again.   “It can be quite annoying really.  Tao hugs everything when tipsy, and Lay did it a lot back when we dated.”

“You dated?”  Minseok asked, eyes wide.

Luhan nodded.  “For like 0.2 seconds.  Tao set us up, but we quickly realized we made way better friends than boyfriends.”

“And what led to that realization?”  Minseok asked, amused.

“Honestly, we’re not each other’s types.”  Luhan said matter of factly.

Minseok laughed at that.  “So what, Lay is attracted to Suho’s and you’re attracted to…”

Minseok’s.  “Not Lay’s or Suho’s.” 

Minseok shook his head with a smile.  “That’s probably a good thing.”

Luhan nodded in agreement.  “Yup.  Don’t need any more drama up in here.  Life makes enough of that all on its own.”

“It sure does,” Minseok agreed.

“It does,” Luhan echoed.  It really, really does.

They fell silent after that, and it was then that clock on the kitchen counter began to ring insistently, causing them both to jump. 

Luhan got up to turn it off as Minseok asked, “What is that for?”

“That,” Luhan said as he returned to the table to grab his glass and the water pitcher, “is the 7:30 alarm to tell me that I should be leaving to eat breakfast, but since I already did that, it’s the alarm telling me to get dressed and get my to class.”

“I forgot you had morning classes.  I’ve really messed up your schedule, haven’t I?”  Minseok asked eyes apologetic.

“It’s fine, really.  You seem to keep forgetting I was the one who didn’t take you home like a good friend should.”

“But you took care of me like a good friend should.”  Minseok countered as he rose to put his own glass in the sink.

“Of course.  I’ll always do that.”  Luhan wanted to bite his tongue as those words slipped past his lips, but Minseok just smiled.

“Thanks.  I’ll hold you to that.  Now, where are my shoes so that we can both get out of here?”

“I think they’re still by the door.”

“Great.”

Luhan got to class with a minute to spare, but it didn’t really matter.  Sure, he was copying down the words the professor was writing on the board, but his mind was elsewhere, trying to process his morning into manageable chunks of information because something was wrong with Minseok, he just didn’t know what, and no matter how many times he tried to work over the words he had heard this morning, it didn’t make sense.

Minseok said he didn’t think Luhan would do anything, which meant that Minseok wasn’t upset Luhan had slept next to him, but Minseok had still clearly been freaked out about it.  Why?

Minseok had clearly been worried about how drunk he had gotten, even though he really hadn’t done anything bad.  Why?

And finally, Minseok just wanted to forget everything.  Why?

---

Given the events of the morning, Luhan wouldn’t have been entirely surprised if Minseok had skipped yoga that evening, but he was there, mat in hand and another apology fresh on his lips.

Luhan just shook his head with a smile and proceeded to teach the class as usual, well at least until he went to gently tap Minseok’s shoulder to tell him to lean back a bit more.  The action caused Minseok to flinch slightly, and he moved away from Luhan’s hand before understanding and adjusting his body accordingly.

At first, Luhan assumed he had simply caught Minseok off guard, but after it happened two more times, Luhan realized that probably wasn’t the case, and so Luhan stopped going over to him altogether, opting to pay attention to other students so that he could stop making Minseok uncomfortable, and hopefully not become depressed by the apparent problem he had created.  If he had known not taking Minseok home would cause this many problems, he never would have done it.

The end of class saw students filing out dutifully, words of thanks on their lips, but Victoria paused for a second to whisper in his ear.  “Are you okay?”

Luhan nodded.  “I’m fine.”

Her expression clearly said she wasn’t buying that, and her words echoed the sentiment.  “Well, if you ever want to talk about it, call me.”

Luhan just shook his head with a smile.  “I’m fine, really.”

“Yeah, yeah, and the sky is green.”  Victoria said with a wave of her hand as she walked away, allowing Luhan to keep his secrets.

“Why is the sky green?”  Minseok asked, coming up behind Luhan.

Luhan jumped at his voice.  He had kind of assumed Minseok would leave with everyone else, considering he’d been avoiding his hands all evening, but there he was, standing behind Luhan with a questioning expression, his mat still on the floor several feet behind him.

“Vic is just weird.”  Luhan said, deciding not to explain. 

“Ah, I see.” 

Neither said anything after Minseok voiced his response, and after a what was probably only a couple seconds, but felt like an eon of awkward silence, Luhan’s brain blurted out the first thing it could come up with.  “Why are you still here?”

Minseok seemed caught off-guard by the bluntness of the question, and Luhan almost immediately wanted to take it back, but before he could, Minseok started to speak, albeit hesitantly.  “Well, um, you know how I agreed to help you for the class?  Well, I looked it up, and…”

I can’t do it.  Luhan was so ready to hear those words that he just stared in shock as Minseok finished.

“…I think we need to practice some or I may kill you.”

“What?”  Luhan asked in disbelief.

Minseok blushed.  “I mean, some of these things have the two people literally holding each other up.  If I’m going to accidentally drop you, I’d rather do it when people aren’t watching.”

“We aren’t going to be doing anything that complicated.”  Luhan reassured, trying to find a way out for both of them. 

“Still, I’d rather know what I’m doing, you know?  We can just do a little after class each day, don’t you think?”  Minseok asked nervously.

Luhan did think, and what he was thinking was that there was no way this was going to work if Minseok didn’t want to be touched by him, but if Minseok had looked it up, then Minseok should have already known that practicing would require, well, touching, so if Minseok was offering, clearly he was fine with it. 

Well unless, he was offering despite not being fine with it.  Maybe he just had weird sense of honor like Suho, who wouldn’t break his promises no matter how ridiculous.  Perhaps, just like him, Minseok felt he couldn’t back out now and therefore, he had to let Luhan touch him, even if he was uncomfortable with it.  

Luhan shook both thoughts away.  It didn’t matter which it was.  What mattered was Minseok was standing in front of him asking Luhan to practice with him, and Luhan needed to say yes because they probably really should practice a little bit, even if it was going to be awkward a hell.

“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.” 

“It is?”  Minseok asked with a smile, relaxing.

Luhan nodded.  “Yeah it is.  Come on, we can just do some really preliminary stuff today.”

“Great,” Minseok said, following after.

Luhan sat on Minseok’s mat before motioning for him to do the same.  “Sit so that your back is touching mine.”

Minseok nodded and lowered himself down before backing up until their backs were touching.  “Like this?”

Luhan nodded, unable to immediately find words as he felt Minseok’s back press up against his.  He had thought this would be a problem for Minseok.  Clearly it wasn’t.

It was a problem for Luhan though, a big one.

“Luhan?”  Minseok asked, turning his head slightly to look over his shoulder.

“Yeah?” Luhan asked.

“Is this right?”  Minseok persisted.

“Oh, yeah.”  Luhan answered, realizing Minseok hadn’t seen him nod before.  “Now just look forward and close your eyes with your hands on your knees and focus on your breathing and mine.  Ideally, we’d eventually get the timing to where one of us is breathing in while the other breathes out, but really the point is just to become aware of your partner’s breathing.”

“Aware of breathing.  I think I can do that.”  Minseok said.

“Exactly.”  Luhan answered.  “Now let’s just be quiet.”

“Okay.” 

After that word passed his lips, Minseok fell completely silent, and Luhan closed his eyes, deciding to do as he had just instructed as well in the hope that if he just focused solely on breathing, the part of him still reeling about the fact that Minseok was touching so much of him after avoiding him earlier would shut up.

It did.  Pretty soon, Luhan was aware of only one thing, how the expansion of his body felt against Minseok’s back as he breathed in, and how Minseok’s body pressed against his as he breathed out, his inhale perfectly in time with Luhan’s exhale. 

The sensation was calming, allowing Luhan to relax.  Sure, he didn’t understand what was going on with Minseok, but if they could do this, if they could line up their breathing so perfectly, then surely, whatever was going on would work out.  It had to.

---

The rest of that practice session consisted of only a seated twist because, by the time Luhan was breaking up their synchronized breathing session, it was almost time for the next class in the room to begin, which meant that after Luhan hurriedly taught Minseok how to place his right hand on Luhan’s left knee and twist his spine while Luhan did the same to Minseok’s knee, the two were rushing out of the room to grab a late dinner. 

“You were right.”  Minseok said as they sat down at a table together.

“About what?”  Luhan asked, too relieved that Minseok had joked with, jabbed at, and hung on him all the way to dinner to really know what Minseok was on about.  He was just glad that Minseok was back to being Minseok.

“I didn’t really need too much training to do that.  Tell me, are you planning to just have your couples sit and breathe for thirty minutes?”  Minseok said with a smirk.

Luhan laughed.  “No, I was just… I was tired, okay?  We’ll do something more complicated on Wednesday.”

“I’ll be holding you to that.”  Minseok said, still amused.

“Easy promise to keep.”  Luhan reassured.  “More importantly, can you get me to soccer tomorrow?  My car is still out of commission.” 

“I thought it was supposed to be done today?”  Minseok asked.

“It was.”   Luhan confirmed.  “Then they called and told me it’d be ready Friday.”  He continued in disgust.

“Oh wow, um what happened?”

Luhan shrugged.  “The parts they ordered didn’t come in on time, but they already took out what needs to be replaced.”

“Wow that .”

“Pretty much, yeah, but it’s not like I’m paying for it so my complaints only carry so much weight.”

“You could at least ask for a free oil change coupon or something.”  Minseok said as he spun his fork in his pasta.

“That,” Luhan said with point of his finger, “Is an excellent idea.”

Minseok smiled.  “Glad to be of service, and of course, I’ll give you a ride.  I can do it all season if you want.  Saves you gas and the environment.”

Luhan laughed, as he quickly considered the offer as he had really only been asking for rides this week because he had no alternatives. 

On the one hand, accepting Minseok’s offer meant more life threatening rides on his motorcycle.  On the other hand it meant more Minseok, and with Minseok seemingly back to himself, that sounded pretty good.   

“Sounds good to me.”

---

Luhan was rethinking his decision not a day later as he again found himself grateful to have his feet back on solid ground.

“Still not used to it yet?”  Minseok asked, amused.

“I was fine until you decided to split two cars.  Are you trying to kill us?”

“We had plenty of space.”  Minseok said with a laugh.

Luhan just shook his head, muttering under his breath about his pending death as Minseok dragged him into the soccer complex.

It only took a couple steps inside for Luhan to remember that while most of Minseok’s teammates from last Saturday had been more than welcoming, one was decidedly cold.  The same one that now had his gaze affixed to where Minseok’s hand was linked with Luhan’s, tugging him along towards the entrance to the field. 

Luhan pulled his hand away from Minseok’s.  It seemed the wise thing to do.

Despite his intense stares, practicing with Leo was decidedly normal, well except for the fact that of everyone there, he clearly took it the most seriously, but that was probably a good thing considering some of his other teammates, namely N (who was off his crutches, claiming his ankle was already recovered, even though it probably wasn’t) and Ken, were far too good at getting carried away doing other things.

Minseok, for his part, was somewhere in the middle, willing to play around, but still trying to do something productive at the same time.  Luhan followed suit, and by the end of the night, he was beginning to think that maybe, just maybe that had gained him an ounce of approval as Leo finally spoke to him in order to tell him to adjust where he was striking the ball for a little more accuracy.

The advice served him well as Luhan’s next shot soared into the goal with ease, and Leo gave a satisfied nod before going over to stop Ken from collected pellets from the AstroTurf to throw at people. 

“Nice shot.”  Minseok said as he came up beside Luhan.

Luhan nodded, watching as Ken began to run around the field in mock terror, and Leo just rolled his eyes in annoyance before kicking a ball at him that he turned and caught with ease.

“He has good hands.”  Luhan said with a nod in Ken’s direction.

Minseok nodded.  “Yeah. He plays well in goal so long as he’s not too distracted.”

“That seems like something that may be hard for him to do.”  Luhan said, amused.

Minseok shrugged.  “Pretty much, but the others keep him in line.”

“You mean Leo keeps him in line.”  Luhan modified.

Minseok laughed.  “N can too, when he isn’t joining in.”

“Really?”

Minseok nodded.  “Yup, and besides, it’s a good balance.  Leo needs people to loosen him up and Ken sometimes needs held back.”

“So I’ve noticed.”  Luhan said.

Minseok laughed at his tone.  “Yeah, it’s pretty hard to miss, but trust me, it’s better this way.  Leo’s a lot happier now that he’s with Ken, and Ken does---“

“They’re together?!”  Luhan cut Minseok off in shock.

Minseok turned to him, confused.  “Did I not mention that?” 

“No, I do believe you skipped that part.” 

“Oh, well, yeah.  They’ve been together for… 6 months, give or take I think.”

“You can’t be serious.”  Luhan said as he watched Leo continue to shoot balls in Ken’s direction, the two seemingly have fallen into a practice drill of sorts.

Minseok shrugged.  “Like I said, it works.”

“But they don’t…”

Minseok laughed.   “I know you haven’t known him long, but do you really think Leo’d be up for public displays of affection?  Ken holds back, most of the time.”

Luhan just shook his head in disbelief.  One, he wasn’t really sure this relationship should work, and two, if it did work, it threw his only currently viable, but only loosely conceived, theory about Leo’s harsh looks at him and Minseok into a tailspin because clearly, Leo wasn’t harboring anything in the way of feelings towards Minseok if he was with Ken, which left Luhan at square one in that department.

Minseok laughed again.  “Look if you don’t believe me, I can show you a picture later.  I’m pretty sure I have a photo where Ken won the PDA battle for once.”

Luhan shook his head.  He didn’t need to see that.  “No, I believe you.  I’m just surprised is all.  I wouldn’t have guessed that.”

“Well, like they say, love moves in mysterious ways, right?” 

“Right.”  Luhan agreed. 

Mysterious, confusing, and unhelpful ways.

---

After class on Wednesday, Luhan decided that he really did need to keep his promise to actually do something slightly more challenging, so he opted for teaching Minseok double down dog.  The move basically required one person to get into down dog and then the other person would move into the same position, except his feet would be balanced on the back of the other person.

Minseok just stared in disbelief as Luhan finished describing the pose and showed him a picture on his phone.

“You have got to be joking.”

Luhan smirked. “Didn’t you say you wanted to try something more challenging?”  Luhan countered.

“Yeah,” Minseok agreed, “but not that leads to our deaths.”

“Oh, c’mon, neither of us is going to die.  Now, get on the floor.  I’ll go first if you’re so nervous.”

“I can’t believe I’m doing this.”  Minseok grumbled as he got down on the floor and hoisted himself up into down dog.

“It’ll be fine.”  Luhan reassured as he got down in the same position in front of Minseok, “Just let me know if anything hurts.” 

“Okay.” 

With that, Luhan began to slowly inch his way back until he was able to hoist his feet up and settle them on the backs of Minseok’s hips, balancing himself carefully.

Minseok let out a sound as Luhan’s weight began to press against him, causing Luhan to ask, “You okay?”

Minseok opted for his own question in response.  “Just how much do you weigh?”

Luhan laughed, “Are you implying that I’m fat?”

“No, but I’m not thinking a girl could do this for guy.”  Minseok countered.

“Oh, don’t worry, there’s a modification if that’s the case.”  Luhan said, amused.

Minseok looked up from his position in order to see Luhan’s upside down, smiling face.  “Then why are we doing this right now?”

“Well, you’re not a girl, last I checked.”  Luhan said with a smile.

Minseok shook his head before looking back at the ground.  “I may not be a girl, but I don’t think I can get on top of you like this either.”

“Well, you can also do the modified version when we switch, okay?”

Minseok nodded.  “Good.  Now what?”

“Well, we are supposed to hold this pose while breathing in and out for maybe 5-7 times, but I think we are already past that, so if you’d just start lowering your hips down towards the floor so I can get off…”

“Say no more.”  Minseok carefully lowered himself downwards, allowing Luhan to easily step his feet off his back and onto the floor, at which point, Luhan spun to face Minseok, who was already kneeling on the ground.

“See, it wasn’t that bad was it?”

Minseok shook his head.  “Where do people come up with this stuff?”

Luhan shrugged.  “Who knows, but you have to admit, it did make you get a nicer stretch, didn’t it?” 

Minseok nodded.  “It did.”

“Good, because that’s the point.  Now, turn around and we can try it the other way.”

“I thought you said we were modifying this?”  Minseok asked, unsure.

“We are.”  Luhan answered as he got back into down dog.  “Now, stand up and walk back until your feet are between my hands.”

Minseok moved back into position.  “Now what?”  He asked.

“Now use your hands to lower yourself down so that you are lying against me.”

“What?!”  Minseok asked, turning to look down at Luhan.

Luhan looked up, amused.  “It’ll be fine.  Just do it.”

“Look, I know I’m not that tall, but it’s not like I don’t weigh—“

“I can handle it Minseok.  Just lean back already.  I’m not getting any younger down here.”

Minseok shook his head in disbelief.  “You’re crazy.”

Luhan laughed.  “Thanks.”

“It wasn’t a compliment.”  Minseok said as he place his hands against Luhan to carefully lower himself down against his back.

“I know,” Luhan said, adjusting quickly to the added weight of Minseok against his back.  “Now, raise your hands above your head to get a stretch of your own.”

“Are you really sure that’s a good idea?”

“I haven’t collapsed yet have I?”

“True,” Minseok agreed, and he raised his arms.  “Oh, you’re right, this does feel good.”

“Told you, now breathe.”

In response, Minseok took a breath.

Luhan did the same, and began to really focus in on enjoying the way Minseok’s added weight helped intensify the feeling of his current position.  For all his worrying, Minseok should have realized that this actually felt pretty nice, and the gratuitous body contact was an added bonus now that Minseok was completely back to not caring about it.  Still, all good things must come to an end.

“And now, you push back off.”

Minseok braced his hands again and pushed himself back onto his feet before turning around to face Luhan, who had fallen back into a cross-legged seated position.

“You think a girl can handle that?”  Luhan asked with a teasing smile.

Minseok rolled his eyes.  “You win.  What’s next?” 

“Well, since I’m already here, you sit and we can do the reverse of what we did the other day.” 

“What do you mean?”  Minseok asked as he sat down in front of Luhan.

“What I mean, is let’s do a forward facing twist.”

“Oh, how?”

“First, look to the right, and put your right arm behind your back, like this.”  Luhan quickly demonstrated, turning to the right and moving his arm accordingly.  Minseok mirrored his actions.

“Now what?”

“Now, we use our left hands to grab each other’s right hands and pull.”  Luhan said as he reached out his left hand to grab onto Minseok’s right, pulling gently. 

Minseok did the same as he said with a laugh, “I think I like this better.” 

Luhan was equally amused as he turned his head back to find Minseok’s face.  “I’ll try to keep that in mind.”

“Thanks.”  Minseok responded as he turned his head in Luhan’s direction as well, a smile on his lips. 

It was as their gazes met that Luhan became palpably aware of how close their faces were as the tangle of their arms kept them in place.  Minseok seemed to have noticed it as well, smile freezing in place as he stared at Luhan’s face, not saying a word.

Luhan briefly considered what would happen if he let go of Minseok’s hands and moved.  If he closed the gap... but then he remembered Monday morning.  Remembered Minseok basically avoiding him, if only for a very short while, and he was turning his head away and saying, “We are supposed to keep looking away, not in.”

“Oh, yeah, sorry.”  Minseok said, turning back as well.

Luhan held back a sigh.  It wasn’t Minseok’s fault.  It was his. 

All his.

---

Little late with this update.  Sorry guys, was having a minor case of writer’s block, but we are past it now.  Whee!  Hope to see you again next weekend.

And thanks for all the subs and comments.  They keep me writing <3