"Let’s grab some coffee before we get back to the dorm” Luhan says as he sits next to Minseok on the sofa.

Today’s practice ends early but it still exhausting, everyone is soaked in their sweat, some of the members still lying on the floor while trying to catch their breath, some others are busy doing their own things; Jongin casually takes off his shirt and fanning himself, Chanyeol sits in front of one of the air conditioners, Sehun and Tao are busy sharing their mineral water.

“Not today Lu” The older boy says .

Luhan takes a glance at Minseok, they haven’t been out together for days, they even don’t have time to have a proper conversation, let alone a quick make out session between one schedule to the other. Luhan thinks today is their chance to have their quality time but the fact that the older boy declines his offer is really unexpected and sounds new because Minseok never says no to him.

“Today’s practice is really tiring, I just want to go home and take a bath.” Minseok’s answer sounds cold to Luhan’s ear but he doesn’t want to force Minseok to go.

“ …Okay” The Chinese boy finally says, trying to sound that he really means it.

“Maybe you can drag Yixing or Tao” Minseok suggests.

“It’s fine, I’m tired too anyway. We can go next time”

Minseok gives him a tired smile as an answer and walks away to the door; leaving Luhan sits alone on the sofa.


That’s the first time Minseok leaves Luhan behind.



-



The way Minseok acts makes the younger boy can’t sleep. His logic tells him they have been busy for the past few days and that can be the reason of why they don’t talk as much as they usually do. But Luhan’s heart takes Minseok’s act as a first step of him trying to make a distance. And Luhan doesn’t like the idea at all. His anxiety gets worse when he remembers Minseok rejecting his offer to go grab a coffee and he left without saying anything.

The Beijing boy decides to talk about this with someone and Yixing has always been the perfect candidate if it comes to Luhan’s love life. Yixing always listens to whatever Luhan says to him and sometimes, he knows the right words to say.

Luhan knocks a couple times before he opens Yixing room’s door; he sees Yixing is staring at his computer screen, headphones on his ears. It seems like the younger boy is composing. Luhan opens the door slowly then walks into the room on his toes.

“I wanna talk.” Luhan says as he jumps on Yixing’s bed.

The Changsa boy jumps on his chair, startled with Luhan’s sudden visit, “Aren’t you supposed to be sleeping?.”

“I can’t sleep; something’s bothering my mind.”

Yixing sighs, he takes off his headphone and turns to face Luhan, “Okay, let’s start this counseling session quickly so I can go back to work on my song.”

“I think Minseok’s trying to avoid me” Luhan says straight to the point.

“And the thought come from…?”

“He doesn’t really talk to me these days and he rejected my offer to go buy coffee! He never says no to coffee!” The older boy’s voice rises as frustration starts to build up.

“Maybe he’s just tired, we’ve been very busy these days.”

“I know, it’s just… he’s acting different and I don’t know what to do, what if he’ll keep rejecting my offer and he’ll eventually ignore me completely?”

“Did you do something wrong that might be offended him?”

“No,I don’t think so. All I did was being around him as much as I can.”

“Well maybe that’s the reason of why he’s been acting different to you, you’ve always been around him. Don’t you think he needs some space?”

“I think he doesn’t like me as much as I thought.” Luhan says more to himself, eyes staring at the ceiling above him.

“Look Lu, just because he doesn’t express his affection as much and obvious as you do, doesn’t mean he loves you less.”

Luhan closes his eyes, trying to digest the younger boy’s words
.
“…Maybe you’re right.”

“I usually am.” Yixing proudly says, “Now, go back to your room and get some sleep, the counseling hour is over!” Yixing pushes Luhan out of the bed.

Luhan walks to the door with lazy steps. It’s nice to talk to someone about his concern though his mind isn’t completely at ease yet.

”Everything will be okay, don’t be too worried, good night!” The younger pats Luhan’s shoulder before he closes the door.



-



They only spend five hours on today’s practice and Luhan is very grateful for that. He has a plan to go to a café to buy his favorite cake but he doesn’t want to go alone, and obviously he only has one person in mind he wants to go with.


The younger boy smiles widely when Minseok says “Okay, Let’s go!” while smiling back to him as he lingers his hand around Luhan’s shoulder.

“I’m buying today, pick any cake you want.” Luhan says while looking at various flavors and shapes of cakes behind the display glass window in front of him.

“No thanks, I’m not that hungry.”

“But I don’t want to eat alone.” Luhan whines

“You won’t eat alone, I’ll sit with you.”

They both know that’s not what Luhan meant.


The Chinese boy can only sigh. He looks at Minseok in the eyes, trying to change his mind. Luhan knows Minseok wants to maintain his body weight but he’s been skipping meal a lot recently; he only ate a piece of bread and an apple this morning and he only had a bite of chocopie during snack time between the practice hour and now is almost dinner time.

“Minseok,you should at least buy something to drink.”

The older boy doesn’t answer but Luhan doesn’t see a signal of rejection either.


They order two Americanos and one piece of strawberry short ake. There are not many customers in the café. The two boys sit in the furthest corner, trying not to be seen from the outside’s view just in case people notice them.

“Here try this, it’s yummy.” Luhan says giving a spoonful of the cake.

“Lu, you know I can’t eat it right? I’m on diet.”

“Just one bite, it won’t make you fat I swear!” Luhan insists, his hand that holds the spoon still hanging near Minseok’s mouth.

“ … “

“… “

”Fine,Just one bite.” Minseok finally gives in.

“It’s tasty, isn’t it?” Luhan tries to make a conversation but the boy in front of him only gives him a nod as a respond and starts to distract
himself with his phone.

Luhan eats in silence after that, none of them want to start talking and it makes Luhan thinks about the conversation with Yixing the day before. Maybe he doesn’t like me the way I thought he does. Luhan glances at Minseok, he’s scrolling his phone screen with not much interest; his drink barely touch.

“ You hate me, don’t you ?“ Luhan blurts out; eyes still focus on his half eaten strawberry shortcake as if he’s asking the question to the cake.

“What?” Minseok stops staring at his phone and looks at Luhan instead.

“It’s okay, I hate me too sometimes. I’m sorry for always bothering you. Do I invade your space too much?”


Silence.


“I take it as a yes.”

“No, it’s not like that!” There’s a pause, “Honestly…I don’t mind if you’re hovering me, really. I was just feeling weary these days, we had a lot of things to do and it’s stressful and exhausting.”

This time, it’s Luhan who doesn’t give a respond so Minseok attempts to explain more.

“About invading my space… actually, it kinds of burdensome sometimes because I don’t know how to return all the attention you give me. I hate myself for that.”

“You have always been good to me Minseok, I’m very grateful there’s a person that I can share my day with, a person that can understand me. I just want you to tell me when something’s bothering your mind, you can talk to me about everything like I always do with you”I want this relationship to be mutual.

“I’ll try to talk to you more often from now on.”

Luhan nods to that, it’s just a simple words from Minseok but Luhan takes it as a promise, “So..are we okay now ?”

“When are we not?” Minseok smiles at the boy in front of him, “And please don’t ever ask me that ‘hate’ question again because the answer will always be no, I’ll never hate you. Sometimes I wanted to but I can’t.”



-



That night, all the members are in the dorm spending their free time together. They gather in the living room, watching action movie with a bunch of snacks scattering on the floor.

Luhan picks a pack of pepero, tears the lid and take one of the stick, “Want some? “ He says offering the snack to Minseok, “No thanks.” the latter answers, eyes focus on TV. It’s not surprising that Minseok is semi ignoring him and he knows Minseok does it unconsciously sometimes, but Luhan still doesn’t like the fact that he’s being ignored.

Minseok notices Luhan’s pout.

“Wanna play a game?” The older boy asks in a quiet voice to make sure only Luhan can hear him.

“What game?”

“I don’t know.. maybe a game that involves pepero ?” Minseok picks one of the pepero stick and put it between his lips, “Come.”

Luhan hesitates but he eventually obliges, the stick is getting shorter as both of them biting the chocolate stick. Luhan unconsciously close his eyes, he can’t bear to see Minseok this close (he always can’t and he needs to learn how to do it), yet he also can’t wait to feel the older boy’s lip to touch his lips, but unfortunately it doesn’t happen.

“Why are you stop biting?” Minseok whines. Luhan opens his eyes, he thought Minseok would do the move; loss and disappointment build up inside him.

“You’re not fun.” Minseok sulks, he picks another pepero stick and eats it by himself.

“Let’s try again” Luhan grabs one of the choco stick.

“No”

“Why~ hurry up let’s try again!” The younger puts the tip of the pepero stick on his mouth then pokes Minseok’s cheek with the other edge, “Hurry!”

“Fine, this is the last try.” Minseok comes closer to Luhan but instead of biting the edge of the stick, he takes it out of Luhan’s mouth and sealed the younger boy’s soft pink lips with his.

It happens so fast Luhan doesn’t realized what’s happening until Minseok tries to push his lips a little bit more. Luhan gladly kisses him back.

“Uhmm..guys...” Suho’s voice breaks their kiss,” We’re watching movie together now, can you save the lovey dovey act later?”

“Sorry.” Luhan mumbles, his eyes try to look at somewhere other than the leader’s eye.

Tao leans on Sehun and whispers “Did they just.. ? “

“Yes..” the magnae cuts off.

“I thought that kind of act isn’t allowed when we’re together.” Kai says while munching a handful of chips.

“It is not allowed” Suho says as he glares at Luhan and Minseok
.
“Oh come on, it’s not like you never kissed Jongdae when we’re around.” The oldest boy says loud and clear.

“Wha—I…that was when you suddenly came into my room without a knock!” The leader looks around the room and he finds some of the members gives him a judging look.

Minseok huffs and get up from the couch, “We didn’t mean to interrupt our movie time, just pretend this never happened, okay? We won’t bother you guys even more.”

Minseok grabs Luhan’s right hand and takes him out of the living room,they're heading to the kitchen.

“Guys..just a reminder kitchen is a public place, we have an agreement the lovey dovey act is not allowed in the room where all of us can use and walk into.”

“I got it, we just want to eat pepero in peace, you know I don’t like eating in my room” Minseok’s responds from the kitchen and gives a wink to the boy in front of him.

Luhan gives the older boy a satisfied smile before he careses Minseok’s chin and connects their lips.

For the past days, Luhan has been worrying over nothing. It is such a stupid idea to think that Minseok doesn’t like him as much as he does.

Today, Luhan couldn’t be more confined that their relationship is mutual and it’s all perfect now.




                                                                                   

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