The label of the soccer team had indeed brought some drastic changes in Minho’s life. Jongin was right, everyone started noticing him, almost everyone he encountered greeted him and so many people struck up a conversation after introducing themselves. Sometimes he came to class to find the most expensive cookies or a variety of energy drinks from the vending machines, sitting on his desk. There were quite a few whose conversations were transparent attempts of flirting with him and someone had even asked him out after soccer practice one day, which he had politely rejected, of course.

He headed back to their group of friends gathered near the bleachers– Kibum, Jongin, Suho (from the soccer team, they’d become fast friends), Yuri and Sooyoung. Sometimes some other friends of Yuri also hung out with them. Today was such a day and there was a guy called Haneul, from the events club too, and Yoona, who was Yuri’s friend from the Broadcast Club.

Before Minho took his seat, he glanced at the first-floor window, finding it empty. 

It had been almost a month since the tryouts, soccer practice had started and Minho found the sport growing on him… he felt like he might have grown to like it even more than basketball. He was getting good too, the Coach was quick to spot his flaws and had put him on a separate regime, just like some others, who needed to polish their gameplay in different places.

But he had come nowhere in a sense… because though so many people noticed him and came up to talk to him, none of them had been him. And though Minho thought quite a lot about taking the first step, he always chickened out, because his intentions would be too obvious if he would approach him out of the blue. Besides, they might’ve passed by each other in the hallways once or twice and he hadn’t even noticed him, let alone greeted him… so maybe everything he had done was for naught.

This could only mean one thing– though he might’ve known who Minho was, he just wasn’t interested enough to come up to him.

The possibility rained on his parade but there was a silver lining– because his unchanging behavior meant he wasn’t as shallow as the others, who would approach a person based on something frivolous such as the soccer team label.

And after all of these thoughts, he knew it was best to not force things… because if they were meant to collide, they would, regardless of anything and everything… and at the right time.

Until then, Minho was okay, just watching him from afar, sometimes listening to him play secretly. That same pretty tune he was trying to perfect and it was now etched in Minho’s mind as well.

But it was setting him off, how he hadn’t been able to still catch his name, despite how much he had tried.

“Is someone in the music club from our year?” Minho asked after a lot of apprehensions, letting loose the question when he had finally settled down at the bleachers. It was the only discreet and proper way of finding out that he could think of. Though now he was popular, he wasn’t as outgoing as he seemed, and it felt a bit too much, to randomly ask someone he didn’t even know, the name of a guy they knew. He was hoping that out of the people sitting, at least one of them would know at least something he could work with.

“I think someone from our class is…” It was Yuri who answered, “Oh wait, some guys from Haneul’s class are in the music club too, right?” 

Haneul rolled his eyes, “Yeah, three losers.”

“Hey, not good, calling people that,” Jongin corrected him before Minho could and Minho just cleared his throat, deciding to not call out Haneul as well because he needed information out of him.

“Whose the guy with the glasses?” Minho asked.

“Glasses?” Haneul raised his brows in distaste, “Taemin?”

“Taemin…” Minho repeated, smiling to himself. He had seen that name in the list of members inside the music room but he’d had absolutely no way of finding out who was who. But now he knew. And he couldn’t help but think how much it suited him.

“Why are you asking, though?” 

Minho grew flustered at that question, “No particular reason…”

“Yeah, why would you have any reason to ask about that nerd anyways?” Haneul smirked, “You must’ve caught him making a fool out of himself somewhere, he gets detention for stupid reasons plus he’s like dead weight in the music club, he can’t play anything, he can’t sing! And have you ever seen how tacky his sweaters are? For real–”

“That’s enough.” Minho stopped him, getting irritated and everyone looked at him, taken aback at his tone.

“Whoa, what are you getting so angry for?” Haneul asked, a little nervous smile on his face, “I’m just–”

“Haneul, chill out,” Yuri patted his back, “No ing about others.” 

“I was just telling the truth!” Haneul exclaimed defensively and Minho got up, storming towards the locker room, unaware that he had more or less given himself away to a silent Kibum… and even to Haneul, whose eyes were dejectedly fixated on him.

Now that Minho knew his name, something had changed despite not seeming to. Minho found that little piece of knowledge had begun to give him a tad bit more courage and he ended up seeking Taemin out a lot more than before.

Although Minho had been angered at the words Haneul had churned out that day, they had been quite helpful. Because sometimes when Minho didn’t find Taemin in his window seat in the classroom or in the music room, he was indeed in detention. He had passed by the detention classroom quite a few times, finding him nodding off in detention and had overheard the teacher call him out. Taemin had woken up with such a fright, Minho had almost burst out laughing. He felt so bad that he wanted to laugh but the sight was so darn adorable.

Minho had excused himself early from one of his soccer meetings only to head to the music room. Getting a drink from the vending machine nearby was the perfect excuse and though he made so much effort to come to see Taemin play, Taemin didn’t play alone much nowadays. He supported the few songs his friends played, sometimes they’d comically sing songs, and Minho finally got to hear him sing. It was a little offkey, but who was he to judge, he didn’t even know the S in singing, but one thing was sure, Taemin’s voice was certainly one of the cutest voices he’d ever heard.

One such day, he was about to leave after having heard the small group casually play Summer of ‘69, but something in their conversation kept him glued to his spot.

“That’s sweet. Just imagine if someone confesses by singing you a song.”

“That will be cheesy AF. I’d rather be told to my face.”

“Killjoy. Anyway, no one was asking you. What about you, Taemin? What kinda song would you sing to confess?”

Minho could hear the fluster in his voice as he answered, “Hmm, a song that holds importance for them, maybe? The person’s favorite song or the first song you ever listen to or dance to together. It depends… I guess.”

“You went all deep,” The other guy laughed, “I was just asking for the name of a song. But you’re right–”

Minho reluctantly shifted from his spot and left, not wanting to eavesdrop further… but curiosity had started burning inside of him because he knew there was a song important, at least to him– the one that had led him to Taemin that day. 

 But again his dilemma had returned, he didn’t know its name.

“Hyung,” Minho began, looking at the cassettes and CDs in the glove box. Minhyuk, his brother, usually picked him up from school after soccer practice. His brother’s car was old and the stereo did not support Bluetooth or aux, hence the overflowing glove box filled with CDs. Minho had been looking for a certain CD his brother had asked him to put on. “How do you look for a song you’ve heard?”

Minhyuk looked at him, a little confused, “You mean you heard the song in passing somewhere?”

“Yeah.”

“If I like it I usually Google the lyrics.”

Minho pulled out a CD from the case, “What if I don’t know the lyrics?”

His brother hummed, “Some music apps have that feature– if you record some part of the song, it searches the web and gets you a match. Or you can just hum it to someone and if they know they’ll tell you. Hum it to Dad, he listens to the radio a lot. I’m sure he can help you.” He laughed, “Or me. C’mon, try me.”

“Nah, thanks.” Minho immediately said, k