When his alarm woke him up, Minho groaned, definitely not in the mood the get out of the warm confines of his covers. When the painfully aggravating beeping of his clock droned on, he reluctantly rolled over so that his feet slid off the edges of his bed. He grumbled incoherently and started his daily routine of prepping himself.

When he’d finally gotten into a pair of black moderately tight jeans and a wide neck teal shirt some time later, he grabbed a jacket and exited his apartment.

He frowned upon immediately stepping into a rather large puddle of freezing water that was in front of his apartment. The snow from the day before had gradually changed into freezing rain, and the previously white blanket that coated the ground was now just a sea of puddles and streams that ran on the side of curbs. He made his way to his bus stop, more ice cold water splashing onto his jeans as he stepped into unavoidable pools of water.

“This is why I hate the winter.” He grumbled to himself. “If it were spring, the water might’ve already evaporated, or at least have been warm.” He cursed at his freezing legs. It didn’t help anything that his bus was late either, the aging public transportation vehicle arriving at well past ten minutes than its scheduled time.

When he got on and tossed the bus driver what was meant to be a half hearted smile, he could tell it didn’t come out as anything short of a grimace. Taking his usual seat on the bus, he sighed.

He had tried to remember the colors Taemin had showed him the previous day, he really did. But when his life just seemed to be the epitome of misfortune, he found it hard to believe anything of the sort. And he still couldn’t get how he came to the damn conclusion of the color green. That in itself confused him more than anything.

And as he watched the rain drenched roads pass by, he could only sigh more and more heavily. It’s not as if he wanted to keep being the killer of joy. Actually, he found Taemin’s optimistic attitude and ability to see even the barren cold as anything but, a great thing. He simply just couldn’t bring himself to love it.

The bus stopped and Minho stepped off.

Taemin… actually, Minho found himself looking forward to his days of work simply for the fact of seeing the boy. At any other place he’d worked at, it had been a daily thing. He would live only days at a time, dragging himself to and from his job and detesting every minute of it. But now, he lived weeks at a time. The past two weeks had seemed only half of what it was, and Minho in fact, found his eight hour shifts flying by. And it was just simply the environment he worked in, what with his coworkers becoming the best of friends with him. The café itself was laid back and comfortable, the formal feeling of it all relaxing him much more in comparison to the demanding noise of other shops.

But when he thought about it, there was just one specific reason that his days sped past.

He found himself in front of the glass door of the café, the several block walk from his bus stop having been ignored in his train of thought. He pulled the door open and stepped inside, shivering as the heat of the fire warmed him up instantly. “Good morning Onew hyung,” he called to the waiter who was bent over picking up a pile of spilt napkins off of the floor. To say the brunette was clumsy was an understatement, with him constantly dropping things or tripping on his own two feet. Minho was simply amazed that he was able to control himself during his work shift.

“Good morning Minho,” Onew’s muffled voice replied, his sigh of irritation cutting him off short when he dropped the stack of napkins he had actually managed to pick up and they scattered  in front of him yet again.

Minho smiled, giving an amused look to the older male as he walked into dressing room.

It was funny how his mood would abruptly change the moment he walked through the doors. He now didn’t feel any of the misery from earlier in the morning, more focused on the day's upcoming events.

He changed into his uniform and stood in front of a mirror that hung on the wall next to the closet. He ran his hand through his black hair, uselessly wondering how long it’d take to grow back. It had been a month or so since he’d decided to cut it short and dye it, but the length didn’t seem to be any longer at all.

Shaking his head, Minho exited the room, bumping into someone as he did so.

“Ow,” Taemin’s voice groaned from in front of him.

Minho chuckled at the blonde’s pouting expression as he rubbed his forehead. “Mian Taemin ah,” he said, before the boy’s eyes even landed on him.

“Oh! Good morning hyung,” he chirped before walking past him into the room. Minho laughed and sauntered off into the main café.

He bid Jonghyun and Key a good morning before he walked through the mid length white shutters that separated the rest of the café from the kitchen.

“Alright, time to get to work,” he said to himself, pushing up his sleeves and opening the recipe book that rested on the counter. He shifted his gaze to the inventory list of the day, and scanned the sheet for the required deserts. “Crepes, croissant, tart… banana chocolate soufflé?,” he mumbled as he read off the pastries.

“Did you say banana?” Taemin’s voice asked from behind him. Minho turned around and burst out laughing.

“What?” Taemin asked, his eyes wide. “Do I have something on my face?” his hands came up to his cheeks and frantically tried to wipe away anything that might’ve gotten stuck there.

Minho shook his head. “No, you just looked so hopeful when you asked that,” Taemin tilted his head in confusion. “Your big puppy eyes and creepy smile is enough to think you’re a banana maniac. It’s like this,” Minho said, putting on an exaggerated imitation of the blonde’s face.

“Bwoh?” Taemin’s face heated up. “I don’t make a weird face like that,”

Minho just laughed in response. “Y-yah. Shut up hyung,” Taemin pouted.

“Sorry,” Minho said, containing his laughter, but his face broke out into a teasing smile.

“Well at least my eyes aren’t permanently wide like yours! It’s like keroro,” Taemin countered, opening his eyes to an extreme width.

“Eh? My eyes aren’t like that.”

“Yeah they are. It’s like an alien,” Taemin stuck his hands out in front of him and widened his eyes again.

“Banana freak,” Minho countered.

“Frog,” Taemin stuck his tongue out. “Mehrong!”

Minho laughed. “Yah, respect your hyungs you banana maniac,” he said through his smile.

“And what if I don’t?” Taemin challenged.

“Then I’ll make you,” Minho declared before attaching his fingers to the younger’s sides and tickling him relentlessly.

This was the reason he looked forward to work every day.

That was the thought that rung in his head constantly. When Taemin took his break and helped Onew with waiting, Minho would peer out through the top of the shutters and watch him. His face would always be cheerful, instantly brightening the mood of the customers he served.

And when the café finally closed, it was to Minho’s delight that Taemin was already waiting for him at the entrance.

“Let’s go hyung,” Taemin called from his spot. Minho nodded and made his way towards the doors.

The duo slipped outside, and Minho shivered.

It would always be like this, his day being infinitely amazing and then the harsh outdoors completely and utterly killing him. He frowned at the sky as a breeze came by, causing even the ever happy Taemin to shake with cold.

“So,” Taemin started after they had walked a good bit of distance in silence. “Which colors do you want to try to find today?” he asked, glancing up at the taller male.

Minho looked at him and sighed. “I don’t think I can do it,” he shook his head.

Taemin frowned. “Of course you can. Why not?”

“Because I just can’t like the winter,” he said.

“Yes you can, you just have to keep trying Minho,” that took the elder by surprise. Taemin never said his name without the use of ‘hyung’.

“You’re really serious about getting me to like all this?” he raised his eyebrows and put his arms up to gesture at their surroundings.

The blonde nodded. “Of course I am.”

Minho sighed. He thought about it himself, that he would absolutely love to like the winter, so he really had no reason to keep resisting Taemin’s offer. After all, the worse that could happen is his feelings being unchanged.

“Fine,” he said, making up his mind.

Taemin’s face brightened up. “Chincha?” he asked excitedly.

Minho nodded. “But hurry up and do something before I change my mind,”

Taemin nodded enthusiastically. “Okay, to the park we go,” he said as he grabbed Minho’s hand and all but dragged him forward.

When they arrived at the same place with the fountain that they had been the day before, Taemin dropped Minho’s hand. And strangely, the elder had to stop himself from pouting at the lack of contact. Quickly shaking his head, he followed his dongsaeng.

Taemin led him to the fountain, and sat on the concrete, the liquid and causing ripples to pool from the edge of the water. Minho stood watching him until he turned at beckoned for the elder to take a seat next to him.

He made his way a bit awkwardly to the edge of the fountain, sitting on the cold concrete and raised his eyebrows in question at what they were doing here.

“Just, relax,” Taemin said softly. Minho stared at him as he closed his eyes and smiled. “Yah, I can feel you staring at me. I told you to relax,” the sudden words startled Minho. He faced forward and closed his eyes too, taking deep breaths.

“It’s peaceful like this, neh?” Taemin asked, and Minho could hear the soft smile in his voice.

Surprisingly, it was. The usual nipping cold was dulled by the fact that they weren’t moving and therefore stirring up unwanted wind. The rushing sounds of water that rested closely behind them were soothing in the most pure of ways. Minho opened his eyes and gasped in awe. Being winter, the sky got dark quickly, a fact that Minho had always hated. But he had never seen the winter sunset, that or he had always ignored it, and now, with it consuming the sky, it was quite breathtaking.

The sun was red, streaking the sky above it a brilliant orange that melted into yellow. It was a fading effect in how the yellow blended to a lavender and blue. The sky directly above him was a deep shade of blue, already having turned dark, and quite the contrary to the bland grey he had always pictured the sky.

It was minutes later when the sun completely faded over the horizon, the bright lights of many stars scattered over head. Despite the fact that the temperature dropped a few degrees, Minho felt warm. Because, for the first time, he realized that winter wasn’t grey. And even though that didn’t guarantee that he’d see a rainbow of colors, it did mean that he was wrong about something.

Taemin shifted next to him, his shoulder bumping into his own. It was then that Minho realized how close they were, their body heat actually warding off most of the cold.

“This is blue,” Taemin whispered his soft voice the only thing that could be heard in the stillness.

“Blue?” Minho asked.

“Tranquility and softness. This is blue,” he said again.

And Minho knew. He knew. And there was no doubt about it. Because he realized the he could finally see the colors.

Anneyong ^^

So, I said before that it would take a few chapters for Minho to like winter, right? Well... I changed my mind Why? Because I have wayyy too much going on in my life and if I don't cut this fic shorter than I originally thought it would be, I'll never get it done before the deadline -___- And, the fact that while I write it kind of ends up like this anyways.

So yeah, only about 2 or 3 more chapters ^^ I hope you guys like it:)

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