Onho

High School AU (~1400 words)

Summary: Minho accidentally tells Jinki that he has a crush on him while they’re having an argument.

Author’s Note: I had originally wanted to post this for their birthdays, but I was still editing when… and then obviously writing/editing became very low priority. All of OT5 is here and Jjong is so smol and soft and cute, but if you aren’t ready, then this might not be the piece for you.

“You think you are so smart! That you just have everything all figured out. Oh, Jinki is the best! Jinki is the smartest. Well, if you are so smart, how come you don't know I’ve had a crush on you for the last two years!” The words slip out of Minho’s mouth before he even realizes and the next second, there is only deafening silence.

Jinki just looks at him, his eyes giving nothing away that he’s fully understood what Minho has said. Minho’s body catches up to his mouth, even before his brain has finished processing what he has said and his cheeks go instantly red. His fight-or-flight instincts take over and Minho turns around, bolting down the hallway away from Jinki.

“Oh hey, Minho—” Jonghyun says, slowly coming out of a classroom along the hallway.

“Hey, Jjong. Hi. Can’t talk right now. I have to— I have to... Okay, byeeee!” Minho makes a little pointing motion away with his fingers as he speaks, never stopping his hurried speed-walking. A small man-made breeze hits Jonghyun as Minho passes, startling him.

“Umm, okay. Well, that was weird.”

Jonghyun can barely close the door to the classroom when Jinki appears, walking quickly towards him. “Hey, did you see Minho?”

“Yea, he went that way. He was acting pretty weird—” Jinki takes off into a jog in the direction Jonghyun pointed before Jonghyun can finish his sentence.

“Okay, that’s it!! Do I smell or something? Why doesn’t anyone want to talk to me?”

“Yo, Jjong!” Taemin says, walking down the hallway.

“Hi, Taemin. Are you going to run away from me too?”

“Huh? No… Why would I run away from you?”

“Uuuhhhh… no reason.” Jonghyun decides not to tell him. Better not give Taemin any reasons to run away from him too.

“Hey! Have you guys seen Minho? He’s like sent me six S.O.S. texts and he’s a terrible texter when he’s nervous. Something about hiding behind a tree and Jinki I think, but he’s spelled Jinki with like the number two and a semicolon. He also asked me if I know how to stop the space-time continuum? Do either of you know what he’s talking about?”

“Oh.” Jonghyun says, the wheels in his head turning.

Both Taemin and Kibum turn to look at him with expectant looks on their faces.

“So... I came back to my fifth period class because I forgot my sweater, but I didn’t realize I had left it until I was packing up my backpack after school had ended. You know the big, black knit sweater that I got last Christmas. It’s super soft and comfy and I really want to wear it tonight. But I had rush here all the way from across campus because Mr. Park always leaves class right when the bell rings… (Jonghyun continues his story in explicit detail for a good several minutes). Then after Minho rushed by me, Jinki ran by and they were so rude, they didn’t listen to me talk at all—”

Taemin and Kibum know better than to interrupt Jonghyun while he’s in the middle of telling a story. With the patience of saints and the love that only friends can give, they had been listening to him, but something was happening with their two friends, so Kibum makes the decision to interrupt him.

“Jonghyun, I say this with love and kindness, but for the sake of all things good in this world, please… do you know where they are?”

Jonghyun blushes and admits sheepishly “I... don’t”

Taemin and Kibum let out big sighs. “JJONG!!!” They both each grab one of his arms.

“We have to go find Minho. I’m super worried.” Kibum says.

They start hurrying him down the hallway. In the shuffle, Jonghyun’s sweater falls to the ground.

He looks back as he’s led down the hallway. “Noooo, my sweater.” Jonghyun says, his voice forlorn.

Taemin lets out an irritated sound, letting go of Jonghyun’s arm to run back and retrieve it. Jonghyun lets out a squeal of delight when Taemin reunites him with his sweater.

(Meanwhile— Outside)

“Oh. Drat. I. Guess. I. Am. All. Alone. Where. Has. Minho. Gone?” Jinki says loudly next to the tree Minho is hiding behind.

Minho leans his head back on the tree and let out a quiet sigh. Maybe, this means that Jinki will just leave and he could just pretend this never happened. It will be sad to never see Jinki again and he will definitely have to find somewhere new to eat his lunch, but what could he do? He could pretend that he was never even there, but what to do about Jinki’s own recollection. How hard is it to give someone a concussion—?

“—BOO!” Jinki shouts next to Minho and Minho promptly shrieks and trips on a tree root, ending up on the grass.

Jinki is tempted to laugh at the cute dazed expression on Minho’s face, but he think better of it when Minho starts to get up, his confusion quickly turning to panic as he tries to run away from Jinki again.

Oh no, you don’t. Jinki tugs Minho’s arms, pulling him down onto the grass. Jinki sits down in front of Minho, but doesn’t look at him. He plucks a clover growing out of the grass, twirling the stem in between his fingers for several long seconds without saying a word.

“You liked me?” Jinki asks gingerly after a minute, his voice soft. He starts with the easiest question first, the past-tense question.

Minho pretends to not hear him at first, looking around distractedly, looking at all his possible exit routes, formulating a plan to put as much distance between him and Jinki, but after weighing all the options, he just sighs. He looks at Jinki and gives a small nod, his eyes wide and starting to get watery.

“H-how long did you like me?”

Minho raises two fingers.

Two years.

“Why didn’t you say anything before?” Jinki’s voice is but a whisper, but Minho has no trouble hearing him.

He starts to open his mouth to speak, but ends up only shaking his head and raising his hands upwards.

I don’t know.

Jinki continues to twirl the clover stem in his hand and they sit in silence. Eventually, Jinki breaks the silence again. His next question is the hardest and the riskiest for them both. “D-do you still like me?”

Minho looks down at Jinki’s hands playing with the clover, refusing to meet his eyes and lets out a small “Yes.”

Jinki holds out the clover to Minho and Minho looks up in surprise, accepting it with a confused look on his face.

“I uhh like you too.”

Minho’s eyes go wide and a high unknown voice that sounds completely foreign to him comes out of him. “You do?”

“Oh, look there’s Minho and Jinki over there!” Taemin says.

The trio starts to walk over to the two figures sitting in the grass at the base of a tree.

“Wait.” Kibum reaches across Jonghyun to grab Taemin’s forearm tightly. He sees the shiny flushed look in Minho’s face and knows the back facing Minho belongs to Jinki. He takes in their body language, Minho’s panicked texts, and he connects the dots. He has listened to Minho describe every cute thing Jinki has ever said or done every single day after school for years now. Every day, it was something new, the way Jinki rested his hand on his chin when he was thinking or absentmindedly brushed his hair behind his ear or that they had accidentally touched somehow.

“Why?” Taemin and Jonghyun ask.

Kibum stops completely, standing still as both Jonghyun and Taemin continue looking at him inquisitively. Kibum continued to examine Minho’s face, looking for a sign that Minho needed a bail-out, but when Minho raises his head looking incredulously at Jinki, his eyes hesitant, but not so dire-looking as before, Kibum exhales.

“Actually, I think we should catch up with them later. I’m kinda hungry now. Do you want to grab something to eat at the corner store?”

“What? You’re hungry now?”

“But what about Minho & Jinki?”

Kibum doesn’t answer them, just firmly steering them off quickly in the opposite direction from Minho & Jinki towards the exit at the front of the school.