7

Mino was sitting there, looking at him. Taehyun stood still. With his cold hands, He was unsure that the Song Mino in front of him was real or his imagination.

"Hey...", Mino said with his deep voice and Taehyun was sure he was real. The younger one just nodded and looked down at the floor. His trembling hands were suddenly in need of fixing his shirt which has nothing wrong with it. Taehyun didn't answer anything, he didn't move from where he was, so Mino decided to approach the boy. He stood up and stepped closer to Taehyun. His eyes were sincere, looking at the one he loved and wished that the person would look at him too.

"Taehyun-ah, I'm sorry", he wanted to apologize for kissing the boy, for liking him, for the betrayal he did. Taehyun was getting more and more confused. He didn't know why Mino was apologizing to him, and why he was here. Mino had been watching Taehyun for months, so he knew exactly that the boy didn't understand.

He calmed himself down and slowly explained, "I'm sorry that I... I think I've fallen in love with you... I'm sorry. You trust me that I will never like, love you like this but still... I betrayed your trust", Mino closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, then he continued, "And I'm sorry that I kissed you."

Mino was closing his eyes so he wouldn’t see Taehyun’s reaction, and because he was sure he would get punched by the boy, so he closed his eyes to be ready for the fist. But nothing happened. Everything was quiet and still. Mino opened his eyes to see and what he saw was Taehyun, covering half of his red face with his pale hand. Mino wasn't sure whether it was a good or a bad sign.

"So it was real...", Taehyun said after the long silence. He slid his hands up a bit more to cover his eyes, "The kiss was real...", and he could remember everything, even the part where he asked Mino to kiss him, which Mino didn't understand at that time what Taehyun was saying.

Mino's heart raced as the boy lowered his hand and revealed his eyes looking straight at him.


"Hyung, I'm sorry. I must have hurt you so much", said Taehyun, with his trembling voice. The older boy faintly smiled. He could feel the sharp pain in his chest again, he was rejected.

"It's fine. I understand. I should go back now", Mino turned around preparing to leave before he had to listen to Taehyun's direct rejection. He didn't want to hear the word like, 'I don't like you', or 'please don't talk to me anymore', so he wanted to leave as soon as possible. And to keep the good memrories between them. But Taehyun grabbed his arm, and it surprised him.

"Hyung... I... I don't know if it's love, but I want to see you everyday. I want to be close to you. I... I want to... and... ", Taehyun tightened his hands, clenching Mino's sleeve.

"I know I said that, b-but I..", Taehyun was lost with his word. He didn't know what to say as he was pulled in the older boy's arms and was hugged tightly, "Hyung...", Taehyun looked into Mino's eyes and hoped the older boy could understand his feelings. Taehyun wasn't good at expressing his own feelings and it was also difficult for him to just simply say that he liked Mino too. He didn't know saying 'I like you' would be this hard.

Mino was thinking about Taehyun’s indirect words with a smile on his face.
"Does that mean you love me too?", he smiled widely. "Taehyun-ah, please tell me your feelings. I want to know", Mino's sincerity made it harder for Taehyun.

"I told you I don't know!", he rose his voice up, pretending to be mad. He knew exactly about his feelings but he refused to say it, but he also didn't want to reject Mino. He wanted Mino, he really did. He suddenly hated his personality.

But Mino was still smiling anyways, he tighten his arms to hug the boy firmly,  like he would never let go.
"I love you. I love you so much and I want to always be with you. I want to be closer to you", Mino talked softly next to Taehyun's red ear. He lowered his voice a bit then continued, "Taehyun, do you feel the same way as I do...?"

Taehyun could feel his body shivered and getting hotter as he heard the word ‘love’.  He slowly leaned his head on the older one's shoulder and his hands grabbing the side of Mino's blazer. He didn't have the courage to say it, to say that he felt the same way. And he had thoughts like ‘what if it wasn’t love?’, ‘what if they would break up and never be the same ever again?’,  and their relationship was too precious to lose. Mino was too precious to lose.

“I...I don’t know… I need to think”, Taehyun was scared of losing Mino. The older boy was so meaningful to him and he wanted to keep it like that forever, that was why he needed to think about it. He needed time to assure things, and to make sure Mino's feelings was as real as his.

Mino seemed to understand. He smiled, but not as happy as he did earlier.
"Okay. Take your time. But we are still the same, right? I mean, I can still be with you when we are at school or go out together, right?" Mino felt insecure by Taehyun's answer. He was scared that maybe Taehyun was just trying to reject him nicely and that they were not friends anymore. He didn’t want to go back like before they had met, being strangers and hating on each other.

"Yes, hyung, we are still the same", both of them felt relieved to know that they had the same thought. Taehyun smiled then hugged his senior back, "I just need some time to think."
Taehyun knew that Mino was worried about his answer. He caressed the older one's cheek softly. "I do care about you." And he received a warm smile from the older boy.

Taehyun felt nervous and his heart rate raised again. He felt like he could die from a heart attack or something just by seeing that smile. They hugged like that for a while and Taehyun noticed that Jinwoo wasn't in the room,

"Where is Jinwoo-hyung?" He looked around, searching for the owner of the room who they had completely forgotten.

Mino slowly let go of Taehyun. He wished that they were alone in his place and he swore he would hug Taehyun whole night long.

"I think he left when I came in", Mino said while he tried to recalled what happened. Taehyun grabbed his phone which was laying on the bed. Jinwoo texted him half an hour ago when Mino came,

Tell me when you are done~

Fighting!

"Ah... This hyung", he smiled looking at the cute messages. He replied to Jinwoo that he and Mino were going to leave so he should come back now.

They left Jinwoo's apartment  a few minutes later. Jinwoo secretly whispered 'fighting!' to Mino when Taehyun couldn't see. The place was amazingly near to Mino's home, so Taehyun understood  how Mino was there so quickly.

"By the way how did you know where I was?", Taehyun asked while they decided to take a little walk around the neighborhood. Both of them still wanted to be together alone. Since Mino's family was home so they decided to stay outside, walking along the street with several people jogging and spending their evening with their friends and families.

"I thought you texted me the address. It was that JInwoo then?", Mino chuckled, "Man, I owe him a lot." Taehyun nodded as an acknowledgement and to agree.

It started to get colder and darker, but still, they were outside, walking in the empty and dark park. They talked about many things and Taehyun seemed to opened up to Mino more. The younger boy even did something funny and made Mino laughed hard. Mino had no idea Taehyun could be like this too. He had always pictured the boy gloomy and always alone, never made jokes or interested in funny things.

"I didn't know you smoke", Mino hesitantly asked as he thought of the picture of Taehyun smoking at Jinwoo's place earlier. He was a bit concerned that Taehyun might not like to be asked about something like that, but Taehyun just nodded and didn't seem to mind.

"Yeah. You hate it?", the younger boy casually answered. He did smoke and most of his girlfriends didn't really like it. Taehyun glanced at his senior to see his reaction about him smoking.

"You always surprise me. I don't hate it at all", Mino chuckled. He didn't mind about smoking. Well, he liked it, when Taehyun's sweet scent got mixed with the bitterness of the cigarette, and also his bittersweet kiss was pleasuring.
Mino started telling Taehyun about his friends in the hip-hop community who most were smokers too, so Mino had tried it a few times and didn't hate it. He also talked about tattoos and how Jiho was into it lately, "Man, his body was gonna be full of ink.”

"You hate it?", Taehyun asked the same question again, staring at the boy to examine his reaction again. Mino shook his head.

"No, not at all. It was cool. I really want one too. But Jiho said it ing hurts, so I'm considering if I should get one or not", he let out a chuckle. He thought he was cool saying that he wanted a tattoo but then after what Taehyun told him, he was wrong.

"I had a tattoo, on my inner arm", Taehyun said as he pointed where he had his tattoo.

"Wait, are you serious???", Mino was surprised, very surprised. He couldn't believe that a pretty face like him would be brave enough to get tattoos. Taehyun nodded.
“Taehyun-ah, you seriously always surprise me! Is there anything more I don't know?”, Mino laughed and being loud. The street was dead silent and it made his voice louder. Taehyun also laughed along and didn't mind the loud voice he usually hated.

“I don’t know. You just have to find it out yourself, hyung”, he smiled at the older boy. Mino had his dark colored eyes locked on that pretty face as he softly smiled. It was a pity that he couldn’t hug or kiss him no matter how much he wanted to, because they were still friends, even though they already kissed once. He hoped that Taehyun would answer him soon, like Monday when they met again at school.

Both of them went quiet, walking side by side while thinking about what would happen next.

-----

It was Monday and Mino was excited to see Taehyun. They agreed to meet at the bakery again, to have breakfast together. Mino went to the shop as soon as it opened. He was too excited to  be at home. He also especially styled his hair backwards to impress the boy. Well, he thought he looked best when he styled his hair like that because girls liked it.

Mino spent his weekend at home. He had sent loads of text to Taehyun, about what he was doing, asking what Taehyun was up to, and more, and the boy mostly answered him in short response like, ‘yeah’, ‘ok’, but still, it made him happy. He also had been obsessed with Taehyun’s inner arm tattoo that he asked for a picture of it every hour via his texts. And Taehyun seemed to enjoy not letting Mino see it.

It didn’t take long till Taehyun arrived at the shop. The boy was also surprised to see Mino there so early.
“Why are you here so early?”, he asked as he placed himself opposite to the older boy, their usual seats.

“I want to see you”, Mino shamelessly being cheesy and made Taehyun laughed. The shameless boy smiled along. It was good to hear his laughter in the morning.

“You are suppose to be touched. Don’t laugh!”, He cried out. Taehyun looked amazing that morning. He parted his hair in the middle just the way he liked, and he also wore a black scarf, which suited him well.

Their morning before class session was great. Their conversation was smooth and their breakfast was great. Both of them hurried up to finished their meals after they could see some students entering. Not that they didn’t want to be spotted but Taehyun wanted a peaceful and quiet morning without anyone looking at them and started gossiping.

"These stupid rumors should stop already", Mino said annoyingly as they walked to school together. The street was still empty since it was two more hours till the school started. "It must be hard for you to bear with it", he sighed. Taehyun just shrugged like it wasn't a big deal for him anymore.

"What did you hear about me?", Taehyun asked Mino. He was curious what the students were saying about him. He didn't really had the opportunity to asked anyone since he didn't have friends, but he knew about the gay rumor from the way Bobby first approached him, 'You are gay too, right? Everyone said you are, and I really like you'. Taehyun sighed as he  recalled their first meeting.

"Umm, mostly it was about you're gay. And you transfered school because you got into a fight and was expelled, something like that", Taehyun just nodded and didn't say anything.

"Rumors are rumors, don't think too much about it", Mino patted on the boy's head softly, trying to comfort him. The older boy could see the change of his junior's expression and it bothered him, "Are you okay?" He was worried, everything about Taehyun could make him sensitive. Taehyun shook his head.  

Suddenly someone interrupted their bonding moment by placing his arm over Taehyun's shoulders.
"Morning, pretty", he gave Taehyun's cheek a light peck. It was Bobby. Taehyun pushed him away as soon as his lips touched his cheek.

"The hell!? Don't do that again!" Taehyun disgustingly wiped his cheek with his sleeve as he yelled at Bobby. His perfect morning was ruined and it made him angry. Bobby didn't seemed to feel anything when Taehyun yelled at him. All he did was chuckled and stared at Mino with a superior look on his face.

Mino didn't like what was happening at all. He wished he could yelled and pushed that crooked teeth boy away but it would be too obvious, and he was sure both he and Taehyun wouldn't want anyone to know about their relationship.

"Hey, you shouldn't do that if he doesn't like it, kid", Mino tried to reason with Bobby and he was completely ignored. Bobby placed his arm on Taehyun's shoulders again, and Taehyun slated Bobby's arm off him again.

"Come on, stop it", Mino stepped between Taehyun and Bobby, "Why are you doing this?" He aked, started to get angry but tried his best to be calm.

"You two are too close and I don't like it", Bobby finally answered Mino and he pushed the older boy away. Mino fell backwards and now he was sitting on the ground, angrily.

"Okay! I'm with him! Will you stop!?", Taehyun quickly helped Mino up to his feet and sarcastically yelled at Bobby again. Bobby froze for a moment after he heard Taehyun, also Mino. Bobby formed a crooked smile and shook his head, he was not convinced about that, may be.

Taehyun grabbed his senior's hand and dragged him to school, trying to get away from Bobby, but the boy still followed him anyways.

"Taehyun-ah, I'm sure he likes you just like I do. I'm sure", Bobby tried to convince Taehyun to hate Mino too. To be honest, Bobby knew he could never be Taehyun's boyfriend. Because Taehyun wasn't gay. He was fine with that, but not when some handsome dude came in and Taehyun seemed to have interest in him.

As soon as there were in the school, Taehyun let go of Mino and faced Bobby.
"We need to talk",  he said to Bobby, then he left Mino and went behind the building with the crooked teeth boy.

------

"Please, stop", Taehyun talked nicely to the other boy, he tried. He didn't want something like that to happen again. Well, he wanted Bobby to stop everything, even stop liking him.

"We agreed to be friends and now you're crossing the line", he looked straight into the sad eyes looking back at him, and he started to feel guilty. He felt it because he rejected Bobby, and told him he didn't like guys, but now he liked someone, who was a boy, and he didn't hate the idea of dating that boy. He was such a hypocrite.

Bobby was quiet, he didn't say anything for a moment, then he slowly asked Taehyun, "Do you like him?"

Taehyun could feel his heartbeat raised. His face burning every time anyone talked about Mino. Bobby realized what was happening just by Taehyun's flushed red cheeks, but still, he wanted to hear from Taehyun's own mouth.

Taehyun stood still, then slightly nodded as an answer. He accepted it because he wanted Bobby to stop and he didn't want to be called a hypocrite. He wasn't gay but Mino was an exception.

"Okay. So, he was lucky", Bobby bitterly smiled. He felt like crying but still trying to be funny, "Can I kiss you at least once?" He laughed when Taehyun replied 'NO!' And it made Taehyun felt less bad to see that Bobby was still be able to joke around.

Taehyun apologized to Bobby and went back to his classroom to see few of his classmates were already there.
He sat at his seat and was about to put in his earphones when his classmate came to him.

"Taehyun! You haven't told me! Does Mino-oppa has a girlfriend?", Taehyun completely forgot about her.

She was standing in front of him and her hands on his desk. She pouted, trying to be cute, well, she was cute. Taehyun sighed and thought how everything became like this. A week ago he was still a normal healthy boy who liked girls and now he had some feelings for a boy and they even kissed.

"No, he doesn't has a girlfriend, but he has someone he likes", Taehyun answered the girl casually while he was looking for his pen in his bag. He said that on purpose, ‘he has someone he likes’, yes, that someone was him. He admitted that he was the jealous type and he wanted this girl to stop her interests for Mino.

The girl cutely let out a moan as her showed her disappointment, "But I really like him.... Taehyun-ah, can you help me? Please?"

She lowered herself and her chin was on Taehyun's desk. Taehyun just looked at her expressionless. He had no interest in helping her, since Mino loved him.

He sighed the shook his head, “No”, he finally answered before he plugged in his earphones and ignored his classmate.

-----

After Taehyun left Mino with Bobby, Mino was angry. He wished he could do something and not being left behind like this. He stomped his feet back to his class to be in an empty room. He sat on his seat, sent texts to his friends to tell them that he was already at school, and collapsed on his own desk.

He thought maybe he could talk to Bobby but it would possibly end up  in a fight. Why did Taehyun had to be popular among guys too? It made everything harder for some reason.

He looked up to see Jihoon entering the room , then he sighed. "It's like I haven't seen you in ages", he said to his best friend whom he didn't pay much attention on lately. Jihoon smirked as he looked at Mino. He sat down on the seat next to his friend.

"Do I know you?", he teased and Mino shouted to protest, and laughed.

Mino missed being like this with his friends. He thought he probably was too obsessed with Taehyun, but well, with his friends he still talked about the boy.

"You did what???", Jiho whispered with surprise after Mino told them that he kissed Taehyun. Jihoon went speechless.

“You heard me”, Mino shyly smiled. It suddenly became embarrassing after he saw his best friends’ reaction. He also told his friends about what had happen, he told them everything. They were his best friends and he trusted them.

Both Jiho and Jihoon was speechless. They were so sure Taehyun wouldn’t like Mino back. They didn’t even think a kiss would happen. And the other thing that made them shocked was that  Mino kind of turned gay. Well, he said he love him and he kissed him. They thought that it would end before they would make progress and Mino would be like ‘I thought I like him but I was wrong’, something like that.

“So what? He rejected you, right?”, Jiho asked.

“No! I told you he said he need to think about it”, Mino argued. He also thought he was rejected but Taehyun was still the same with him, so he believed the boy.

“Dude, he rejected you”, Jiho patted on Mino’s back, and Jihoon joined by patting his head, “That’s what I often hear when girls don't like you.”
 

Mino pouted, he thought his friends would support him well, “But he doesn’t distance himself from me. We met this morning and had breakfast together and that stupid Bobby popped up.” Just by saying his name made him frustrated. “That nuisance.”

Jiho and Jihoon looked at each other before they bursted out in laughter. Mino looked at them confusedly. They continued to laugh for five minutes and Mino started to get annoyed with them.

“Okay, okay. I’m sorry. Good luck with the popular boy then”, Mino groaned in his throat as his friends were mocking him.

-----

Jiho and Jihoon were again surprised, to have Taehyun joining their table during lunch break. He was awkward at first then started to relax a bit more when Jiho and Jihoon talked to him happily. He refused to joined the table at first because he thought Mino’s friends hated him, but it came out to be better than he expected.

When the three of them were together, it was fun. Mino was always teased no matter what he did or said, and they also asked both Taehyun and Mino a lot of question. It wasn’t boring at all.

“You know Mino raps right? You should go see him performs sometimes”, Jiho said after they just talked about how they became friends.

“Yeah, and girls are crazy about him”, Jihoon added. Mino just sat still and quiet, he wanted to know Taehyun’s reaction. He honestly hoped for some sign of jealousy, but nothing , Taehyun just hummed and nodded as an acknowledgement.

“Do you go to clubs? You look like a nice boy who would go to bed early”, Taehyun laughed at Jiho’s word. He was naughtier than the three of them imagined.

“When and where?”, Taehyun didn’t answer the question. He smirked then memorized the  date and address that Jihoon told him on his phone. “Okay, I gotta go now. See you later”, said Taehyun then he stood up, rested his hand on Mino’s shoulder for a few seconds as Jiho and Jihoon said their goodbyes. “See you later, hyung”, he especially said that to Mino with a smile then left the cafeteria.

“I thought he was a douche”,

“Yeah. He was fun actually”,

Somehow Jiho and Jihoon ended up talking to Taehyun more than Mino, and Mino was happy to see they got along pretty well.

They continued to talk about Taehyun and had to stop because Bobby suddenly sat where Taehyun was earlier.

“What do you want?”, Mino asked the newcomer angrily. He could still remember what happened that morning and it still pissed him.

“Chill, I’m here to make peace. He told me he liked you, so, well, I'm giving up. Congrats”, Bobby sighed sadly and rest his chin on the table. The seniors were confused by the boy’s unusual friendly behavior. Actually Bobby was a friendly guy and he had a lot of friends. He just acted like that because of his jealousy. And since there seemed to be no hope for him, he rather be nice to Mino just like he usually was.

“He told you what??”, Mino was widely smiling as he asked Bobby to repeat what Taehyun told him. His anger suddenly disappeared as soon as he heard it the first time.

Bobby sighed again, “You are pissing me off”, he said playfully, looking at the smiling face in front of him. “Can you stop smiling. It makes  me want to punch you”, he refused to repeat what Mino wanted to hear.

“Go for it”, Jihoon joked and made Jiho laughed. All of them felt the same way, wanting to punch that overly happy face of Mino.

So he likes me too

Mino was too happy to hear whatever his friends and Bobby were talking. It happened to be that Bobby was also into Hip-hop, so they got along pretty well, even better than with Taehyun.

Mino didn’t care about the others at all. He sat there, smiling, having his own sweet time. He thought that Taehyun didn’t say he liked him because he was shy, and It was true. So, Taehyun was a shy boy and that made him cuter than he already was.The thought just made Mino wanted to go and see Taehyun right at that moment, and hug the boy tightly and tell him how much he loved him, (and a kiss would be perfect).

Mino decided to wait for Taehyun to be ready to tell him what he needed to hear. No need to rush since he also liked him anyway, right?  :)