Kibum was still furious with Jinki. And he had seriously considered just leaving him be and not getting involved in the whole Jonghyun drama anymore but in the end he couldn't do it. So he met with Minho again.

The boy seemed rather tired when he joined Kibum at the table, and he wasn't as eagerly making eye contact with him as he used to for some reason. It made Kibum a bit anxious but he tried not to let it show when he started speaking.

"Thanks for coming. Um. How are you doing?"

"Fine, thanks."

"And Jonghyun?"

"He's... coping. Or trying to, at least."

Kibum nodded and then cleared his throat. "You see... I talked with Jinki and I told him everything you told me, I thought it would help him understand where Jonghyun's coming from. But it worked a bit too well and now Jinki thinks he should just leave Jonghyun alone. Which is why I asked you to meet with me. I tried to talk some sense into him but it failed and I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do in this situation anymore. And something needs to be done. We could come up with a plan of some sort, I mean, if we don't intervene I don't think that they're going to have a happy ending."

Minho lowered his head, and there was again that weird feeling that he was avoiding looking Kibum in the eyes. "I... I don't know Kibum... This whole thing is leaving an imprint on my relationship with Jonghyun too. Last time Jinki ed up he preferred to get drunk than go talk to me as he usually would. If that doesn't say how I'm starting to fail as his best friend then I don't know what does." Minho his lips, as he stared intently at his hands. "Kibum he needs me. And I want him to know I'll always be on his side no matter what and helping Jinki-..." he sighed and gave the other boy an apologetic look. "I'm sorry but I don't think I can do it anymore. I gave him a chance and instead of taking it he let Jonghyun see him making out with some guy in front of the library. I can't keep doing this to Jonghyun. I can't keep convincing him to open up to Jinki for like this to happen afterwards."

It was Kibum's first time hearing about the making out and honestly, if Jinki was anywhere near him right now he'd go ahead and kick his bloody . But Jinki wasn't here so he only gave Minho a sad smile and shook his head. "Don't apologize, I get it. Jinki tends to make completely ed up decisions in the heat of the moment. He's really... difficult. It's hard to trust him when he keeps being like this, I get it." Kibum really did get it but he couldn't hide the disappointment in his voice.

Minho seemed to have noticed it. He sighed again and his hand extended to rest on the other boy's knee but before it did Minho changed his mind and just awkwardly shoved it into his pocket. "Listen... I'm not saying I want him to give up on Jonghyun okay? When he's ready to do the right thing I won't try to stop him. I just won't help him anymore."

"That's better than nothing." Kibum shrugged with a smile and then silence swept over the two boys. Kibum then cleared his throat and then reluctantly stood up. "Well, it's time for me to get going I guess. Thanks for everything up until now, I appreciate it." He didn't want to go but there was nothing holding him here anymore. He and Minho never really talked before and now that Minho withdrew from their little club it was all going to go back to the way it had been before. Which meant it was probably the last time they were meeting like this, just the two of them.
With a heavy heart Kibum turned around to leave but then stopped, bit his bottom lip nervously and looked back at Minho. He might as well just take the risk, it was now or never. "Listen... Um. I know we're talking only because we wanted to help out our hopeless best friends and this is probably not the best time to be asking you this but... maybe you'd like to go out with me?"

Minho blinked at him once with those big eyes of his. "I'm not into guys." he blurted out.

"Oh." Kibum looked down at his hands embarrassed. He knew Minho was straight. He knew that, so why had he decided to make a total fool out of himself? "Um, to be honest neither am I but..." But there was this weird bond he felt with Minho that made his usual preferences completely meaningless. He seemed to be the only one feeling this way though. He shook his head at himself and smiled stiffly. "You know what, never mind, it's cool. I'll see you around." Or not, Kibum thought to himself. He felt like avoiding Minho for a while might be a good idea right now.

"No, wait!" Minho hurriedly jumped up from his seat and grabbed Kibum's wrist in alarm. "I'm sorry, I panicked. You just caught me a bit off-guard there."

Kibum turned around to face the other boy again, looking cautious and a bit confused. "So you are into guys?"

"Yes! No." Minho let go of the Slytherin's hand and then scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "I mean, I'm really not but I am into you. Is it weird?"

"Yeah, it kind of is." Kibum replied with a goofy grin shyly blooming on his face. "But it's the same way for me so I guess we'll just have to deal with it."

Minho smiled back and the tips of his ears were slightly reddened. He looked cute like that. "Sounds good to me."

Kibum swayed from side to side expectantly. "So..."

"So..." Minho sat back on the bench and reached out for the other boy's hand to pull him closer. "...maybe you could stay a bit longer?" 

"I think it can be arranged."

"He's avoiding me." Jonghyun muttered into his juice as he watched Jinki stand up from the Slytherin table after finishing his meal.

Minho wiped his lips with a napkin and turned to look at his friend.

"He didn't insult me as he usually does during Transfiguration, he didn't even bother acknowledging that I was in the classroom. And he didn't look at me even once just now." Jonghyun bit his bottom lip and stabbed his chicken pie with a fork absentmindedly. "He's totally avoiding me."
It was quite obvious. Jinki had to know about Jonghyun's feelings for him. Which shouldn't be that surprising considering all the things that had happened when he had gotten drunk. What was surprising however was Jinki's reaction. Jonghyun would expect him to make fun of him, or use his knowledge to hurt him in one way or another. But instead Jinki decided to pretend he didn't exist. Which was worse, in a way.

"Isn't this better for you? You decided to give up on him after all." Minho said, and judging from the grumpy expression on Jonghyun's face those weren't the words he wanted to hear.

"I know that. Okay? It's just that it feels ing terrible, especially because he decides to be like this after I basically confessed to him. It's like he's saying my feelings are gross and he wants nothing to do with me anymore, not even as his verbal punching bag." Jonghyun finally stopped tormenting his pie and put the fork away, leaning forcefully against the backrest. When Minho didn't reply for a longer while he glanced at him judgementally. "You're not going to say anything?"

"I would but then I'd have to mention something I heard from Kibum and you'd accuse me of being on Jinki's side again."

Jonghyun frowned. "You're still meeting up with Kibum?"

"Yeah, but not to talk about y