Minseok was too shocked to chase after Luhan.  In fact, he was too shocked to even remain standing, instead he just collapsed onto the bench in front of the lockers, remaining there with his head in his hands and until he saw a pair of familiar feet appear on the ground in front of him.

“Please don’t say I told you so.”  Minseok groaned as he looked up to see Leo’s face.

Leo nodded.  “I won’t.”

“Good.”  Minseok said before looking back at the ground as Leo sat down beside him.

“What are you going to do?”  He asked, turning to Minseok.

Minseok groaned and leaned back until hit his head against the lockers.  “I don’t know.”

“You should tell him.”  Leo supplied after a couple moments of silence. 

“Why do you act like it’s that simple?”  Minseok whined, face still directed towards the ceiling. 

“Because it is.”  Leo answered simply.

“Easy for you to say.”  Minseok said, turning to look at him.

Leo shook his head.  “It’s not easy.”

Minseok wrinkled his eyebrows, confused.

“It’s simple, not easy.”  Leo clarified.

Minseok sighed.  “Thank you for that helpful insight.”

Leo shrugged.  “It’s the truth.”

Minseok was about to respond when he felt the buzzing of his phone in his pocket, again.  He shook his head before reaching into the pocket of his jeans and pulling out his phone.

“And how do you think I should handle this?”  He asked, raising it up for Leo to see.

Leo’s eyes narrowed for a few seconds as he stared at the phone before he reached over and plucked it from Minseok’s grasp, answering it before Minseok could stop him.  “What?”  He asked.

Leo then proceeded to hold a conversation that Minseok couldn’t make much sense of considering he was only hearing one side of it, not to mention that, that side mostly consisted of one word responses, but the final few words Minseok understood all too well.

“Come over.” 

Leo hung up the phone and handed it back to Minseok, whose mouth was open in shock.  “What?”

“You need to talk to him.”  Leo said firmly.

“I don’t want to talk to him.”  Minseok responded back instantly.

“I know.  I don’t like him either, but you need to talk to him.  For you.”  Leo affirmed, tone sincere.

Minseok sighed and dragged a hand down his face, knowing that even if he didn’t like it, there was no avoiding it, not now that Leo wanted him to do it.  “How long will it be before he gets here?”

“A few hours.  He’s at home.”

Minseok nodded before standing up from the bench.  Leo reached a hand out to stop him.

“Where are you going?”  He asked, clearly concerned.

“Out.”  Minseok replied.

Leo’s face went dark.  Minseok sighed.

“I’ll be back at the room in 2 hours.  I need to go think about things.  Please.” 

Leo nodded as he released his wrist.  “2 hours.”

“I promise.”

---

Minseok drove to the park, figuring it’d be sufficiently empty in early February that he could find a place to think alone.  Thankfully, the park was indeed pretty much empty, meaning that there was no one there to watch Minseok gather rocks for several minutes before he sat down at the edge of the lake.

Plop.

Minseok watched as the water rippled where he had thrown the first rock into the water, each one disturbing the previously calm surface of the lake.

Minseok let out a sigh as he watched the display, wishing for not the first time that he could turn back time, but just like he couldn’t retrieve the rock now residing at the bottom of the lake, Minseok couldn’t undo any of the events that had led to his confrontation this morning, not now. 

Minseok let out another sigh as he tossed another rock into the water.  “Kim Minseok, you are really stupid.” 

He had to be.  It was the only reasonable explanation for how he had managed to make Luhan, who was usually so nice to him it made Minseok feel weird, yell at him with a level of sarcasm Minseok had only witnessed him direct at Lay before, and even then, not with nearly so much… anger, a huge amount of frustrated anger.

Minseok ran through the conversation again, trying to understand how everything had gone so horribly wrong.  How he had managed to miss so much, because clearly, he had missed a lot, and he hadn’t thought he was missing much at all. 

He had noticed early on that Luhan seemed to somewhat like him.  It was the little things.  The way he sometimes blushed lightly when they touched or the way his hands would sometimes seem to linger just a touch longer or the way his eyes always seemed to be able to find Minseok even when he was halfway across the yoga studio, but somehow, despite noticing all that, he had somehow been missing the part where Luhan being in love with him was tearing Luhan apart.  How had he missed that?

Plop.

Minseok shook his head as another rock fell beneath the surface of the water.  He hadn’t missed it, not entirely.  He’d seen it twice, the day after the party when he’d been unable to immediately adjust back to Luhan’s gentle touches, mind still trying to get over waking up beside him (something that was definitely against the rules, even if not explicitly stated), and during the basketball game, when he had stupidly leaned over and kissed him, not fully appreciating the significance of the action. 

In both cases, Minseok had immediately felt the need to make amends.  He didn’t like seeing Luhan upset, and in those instances, Minseok had been able to quickly come up with ways to try to fix things, ways to try to get Luhan back to smiling, and he had thought those methods had been effective.  It was only know that Minseok realized he merely had been putting patches on wounds too big to patch, and well, quite frankly, that because all Minseok wanted to do was patch them.

Indeed, all he wanted to do was patch them up and keep on doing what they had been doing because that was what Minseok could handle, but Luhan couldn’t handle that, not anymore.  Instead Luhan had said that unless Minseok was willing to try something else he was nothing, they were nothing. 

Plop. Plop. Plop. Plop.

Minseok threw several rocks into the water at once, the thought of those words alone still enough to make him feel sick because they were so wrong.  So very, very wrong because Luhan was a lot of things to Minseok, but nothing wasn’t one of them.

No, Luhan was the guy who had played soccer again because Minseok had asked him to.

The guy who had carried Minseok and bought him dinner and spent time with him just because Minseok had asked him too.

The guy who, Minseok now realized, had kept smiling at Minseok even when he shouldn’t have been, and now that Minseok was realizing that, all he could feel was sick because he knew that feeling all too well, and… he didn’t want Luhan to have ever felt like that.

No, Minseok wanted to see Luhan laughing and blushing and smiling.

To feel him clinging on to him just a bit closer as Minseok accelerated out of the parking lot.

To hold his hand a little longer as they tried another crazy couple’s pose, together.

To see Luhan happy, because that made Minseok happy because Minseok—

Splash.

Minseok threw the largest rock he had left into the lake. 

“Kim Minseok, you are really ing stupid.”

---

By the time he made it back to his apartment, Minseok knew that he’d be waiting, but Minseok didn’t really care.  Minseok had spent an entire relationship waiting on Woohyun.  It was his turn to wait, and apparently Leo agreed because after Minseok had texted him back to reassure him that yes, Minseok really was going to come back, he hadn’t texted back.

Instead, Minseok surmised as he surveyed the scene in his apartment, Leo had sat and glared at Woohyun as he sat in the kitchen for over an hour.  Minseok could almost bring himself to feel sorry about that… almost.

“You came.”  Woohyun breathed out in surprise as Minseok walked over and took the seat on the opposite side of the kitchen table.

“I did.”  Minseok responded as Leo got up and left the living room, granting them some semblance of privacy although Minseok suspected that he had left his bedroom door cracked.

“I didn’t think you would.”  Woohyun admitted, clearly still surprised by Minseok’s appearance.

“I didn’t want to.”  Minseok answered back honestly.

“Why did you then?”  Woohyun asked with a blink.

Minseok sighed.  “Because apparently, I needed to. Now, why did you want to see me?”

“Because I’m getting married.”  Woohyun answered as he raised up his hand.

Minseok just nodded.  There was a time when such a confession would have hurt.  A time when he might have even cried at those words, but now all they triggered was mild surprise.

Woohyun seemed to notice.  “Did you already know?”

Minseok shook his head.  “No, but I don’t really care.”  The words surprised even him, even if they were true, so Woohyun’s stuttering response was expected.

“That’s… a good thing I guess.”

“It is a really good thing.  I cared about you way too much when we dated, way too much.”  The last bit was said more to Minseok than to Woohyun, but he heard it anyways and nodded in agreement.

“You did.  You forgave way too much, and I took advantage of that way too much, and it’s only now that I really understand why, and understanding why has made me realize that before we move on I need to say I’m sorry, for everything, because for the first time ever, I actually mean it.  I really am sorry, for everything.”

Minseok nodded slowly, taking in the words.  It wasn’t the first time he had heard some of them, and not all of them were perfect, but at least they felt genuine, for once, but still, “Why insist on seeing me?”

Woohyun sighed and dragged a hand down his face.  “I don’t know.  I felt like I owed it to you to say at least that much, after everything, and I mean, I’d understand if you want to hate me forever, but I guess a part of me hopes you won’t.”

So Woohyun wanted to come her to feel better about himself.  Typical, but still, if he was being honest, Minseok might as well be too.  It wouldn’t change anything now.   “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever hated you.”

“You haven’t?”  Woohyun asked, surprised.

Minseok shook his head.  “I’ve been mad at you.  I’ve been disappointed in you.  I’ve even been afraid of you, but I don’t think I’ve ever hated you.”  He probably should have many times, but he just hadn’t.  That was part of the problem really.  Minseok never hating Woohyun and instead always opting to hate something or someone else, most often himself.  (And hating yourself was never a good thing.)

“That’s—you were afraid of me?”

“I was afraid that you would try to start everything over again, and that I’d be dumb enough to do it because I’m stupid, but even before I saw you today I realized I wouldn’t do that.  I have no desire to do that anymore.”  He didn’t, not at all.

“You’ve found someone.”  Woohyun observed gently.

Minseok shrugged, he wasn’t so sure found was the right word given the current circumstances.  “Maybe.”

Woohyun gave a wry smile and a nod as he made to get up from the table.  “He’s lucky, whoever he is.”

Minseok sighed and shook his head.  “I’m not so sure about that.” 

“Well, I am.  I caused most of our problems.  I don’t know why, but I did.”

Minseok shrugged as he got up to open the door.  He’d argue that Woohyun caused basically all of their problems, but as to why, well the explanation to that was simple. “You didn’t love me.  Simple as that.”

“I thought I did, once.”  Woohyun said, pausing in the doorway.

“But you didn’t, did you?”  Minseok asked.

“No.  I’m not sure I even knew what those words meant then.”  Woohyun said softly. 

Minseok nodded.  “But you do know, right?”

Woohyun smiled suddenly.  “Yeah, I think I do.”

“See that you don’t forget.”  Minseok cautioned, his brain going to every time he thought Woohyun had finally got it only to find another tube of mascara the next week.

Woohyun nodded.   “I won’t,” and then he was gone, and as Minseok closed the door to his apartment and thus on that chapter of his life, he couldn’t help but feel a little relieved. 

Then he remembered how messed up everything else still was and fell back into his chair at the table with a groan.  Leo was there a few seconds later, effectively confirming Minseok’s suspicion that his door had not been completely shut.  “Did it help?”

Minseok sighed and looked up.  “Do you always have to be right?”

“If I was I would have never let you two date in the first place.”

“I can’t say that I would have listened to you even if you had tried.”  Minseok said back.  He had really liked Woohyun once, a very long time ago.

Leo nodded in agreement.  “True.  What now?”

“I don’t know.  You tell me.  You seem to be better at making sense of my life.”  Minseok responded.

Leo did roll his eyes at that comment, a rare occurrence, but he felt it was warranted.  “No, I’m just observant.”

“Well then, Mr. Observant, what do you think I should do next?”  Minseok insisted.

“I think you should eat something, get your thoughts together, and go see Luhan, in that order.”

“I like one and two.  Have a couple issues with three though.”  Minseok answered instantly.

Leo nodded.   “Like?”

“Well, let’s start with I don’t even know how Luhan feels about me now and work from there.”

“Luhan still likes you, and you like him.  Something I think you’ve figured out, yes?”

“One, you can’t know that and two, yes, unfortunately.”

“Unfortunately?” 

“Well, like I said, Luhan may not even like me now, and even if he does, that doesn’t mean he’ll like me if I tell him everything else.”  Minseok still wasn’t very confident of that at all.

“When you tell him everything else, and he will.  He likes you a lot more than you realize and besides, what you did wasn’t that bad.”

“I slept with enough guys I don’t even remember all their faces, let alone their names.”  Minseok countered, and it was the truth, not a truth he liked to admit aloud very often, but the truth.

“So?  At least you had a reason.”

“Like that makes a difference.”  Minseok responded, because sure, he’d only done it when he’d been in much darker place than he was now, but that didn’t change the fact that he had done it.

“It does.”  Leo affirmed.

Minseok sighed.  “Okay, so let’s say it does, and Luhan still likes me, and I like him.  What happens then?” 

“You date.”  Leo responded as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“And yet again, you make it sound so simple.”  Minseok said with a sigh.

“And yet again, it is.”  Leo affirmed.

“Have you considered what happened the last time I dated a guy I liked?”  It hadn’t exactly ended well.

“Yeah, but Luhan’s not your ex and you’re not that Minseok anymore.  It’ll work out.”

Minseok shook his head, finding Leo’s stubbornness annoying.  “I like you better when you don’t talk as much.”

Leo shrugged.  “I can stop talking if you want.”

“No, I think it’s good for me, and besides, I may need you to keep talking if I can’t.”

Leo nodded.  “So you’re going to talk to him.”

“I’m going to try.  I can’t say it’ll go well.”  Minseok responded with another sigh because that really was the only option.  He had to talk to Luhan, and he had to tell him everything, and he had to believe that it would all work out.  He had to.  (Even if it wasn’t easy to believe at all.)

“It will.  You’re stronger than you think.”

“At least someone thinks that.”  Minseok whispered.

“I know that.  Now really, let’s go eat something.  You haven’t eaten a thing all day.”  Leo criticized as he stood from the table.

Minseok laughed as he stood up from the table as well.  “I haven’t had much of an appetite.”

“Still doesn’t mean you should starve yourself.”  Leo said as he grabbed a jacket.

“Yeah, I suppose not.” Minseok said with a nod as he grabbed his own.

---

It was several hours of food and nerves and back and forth thoughts later that Minseok found himself outside of Luhan’s door, afraid to even knock for fear that Luhan wouldn’t even answer it.

He likes you a lot more than you realize.

Minseok took a deep breath and raised his hand.

---

Like the label says, this is an interlude of sorts, which is why it is on the shorter side.  Another chapter is in the works and should be posted in the next 48 hours or so ^^

Also, for all those in the U.S., I hope you had a very happy Thanksgiving and stayed safe if you went out shopping <3

(Oh, and Woohyun’s the ex because I basically went with Russian roulette and picked an idol, in some versions of this, Minseok’s ex never even had an identity, but I figured that’d be too confusing)