04: mingyu thinks he's been busted and heads back to a familiar place

minghao and junhui were whispering to themselves as mingyu walked over, and quickly ended the conversation as mingyu walked over. 

"i'm telling you i know what i saw." junhui hissed, before mingyu sat down in front of them. 

mingyu smiled at the two boys, but neither smiled back causing him to frown and ask, "what's going on?" 

minghao opened his mouth to speak but junhui elbowed him and whispering something mingyu couldn't hear. now, minghao was annoyed; he had stood up and mumbled a swear before storming out of the room. 

"is there something i should know about?" mingyu asked, staring at junhui. 

"stop lying to minghao, just tell him the truth." junhui said before standing up and walking after minghao. 

mingyu was left confused by junhui's statement, as far as he knew junhui had no idea that he was about to go on a date with wonwoo, right? 

if junhui knew, he wondered to himself, looking around the practice room, then who else did? where all the other members of seventeen pretending they had no idea but talking about him behind his back? and worse, did minghao know? 

mingyu's heart started beating faster, and not because his heart was fluttering ㅡ his brain was working overtime, thinking of all these scenarios and he felt his stomach begin to wind up. 

mingyu didn't know what to do so he tried to calm his nerves somehow, by going to get some food. 

-

"hello, mingyu!" the girl at the counter smiled at him. "back for the third time this week are we? you must be hungry." 

mingyu nodded, sticking his hand into his back pocket and pulling out the right amount of cash to hand over. he looked around the small cafe, remembering the first time he came here when he had just moved to seoul. 

he had been lost, cold and homesick and the little cafe on the end of the road seemed like a good place to warm up. he didn't think that he would end up going there every single day. 

"so, how's college?" mingyu asked, the girl at the counter had been doing her college entrance exam when mingyu first arrived and now she was well into college. 

"hard," she passed him some change. "honestly, i might as well drop out." 

mingyu shook his head, "don't! you've got this far and another three months will fly by and before you know it you will have graduated." 

he moved back from the counter and started doing the cheer up dance, earning a few whoops from some other customers. 

"ok, i will ㅡ just stop the dancing, please." she giggled, turning around to get his food.

mingyu smiled and walked over to his usual table near the window, coming to the cafe had taken his mind off things but not for that long. yet again he was plagued by the thoughts of minghao knowing he was a cheat and s hating him. he took a deep breath, willing himself to calm down; you're overthinking, he repeated, just overthinking. 

"mingyu?" he heard his voice and saw the girl standing in front of him, holding a plate of food. "are you okay? you're sweating and it's november." 

"fine!" he lied through his teeth, pulling the plate closer and wishing she would go away. 

"you're not leaving until i find what's wrong." her arms were crossed and mingyu felt like a small child being scolded. "now eat up."