Minki finds it funny that people don't see him, can't see him through the blonde hair. It's not like it even covers his eyes. His eyebrows, maybe, but the rest of his face is there for everyone to look at. Even his bandmates have a difficult time understanding what he's feeling though.

To him it's painfully obvious. Everyone's emotions are broadcast all over with words; he, on the other hand, projects his feelings on a different scale. He touches when he's happy, talks when he feels something is important. Smiles come when he's happy or upset, but they're very different smiles. If people just would pay attention they'd understand him.

That's the problem, he finds himself thinking on several different occasions. People don't pay attention to the necessary things. Instead they focus on stupid details, like his manicure. “Why do just you have your nails done?” they ask. “Why not the other guys? Was it your choice?”

He calmly answers the questions, wondering when someone would something good. Something with a an open end he'd have to think to answer. But everyone in the entertainment industry is only looking to ask questions for the general public, and thus he doesn't think.

There are times when he lets something slip that one might not expect him to say, speculating on whether someone will catch on and try to pull Minki out through Ren. But no one does. They don't know how to handle him. They shy away, laughing uncomfortably, and Minki goes back to being Ren, giving them the answers that he knows they want and not bothering to go beyond the persona that he and Pledis put together.

It's different with Dongho, though. He's often just as unobservant as the everybody else, but Minki finds it easier to be around him because Dongho doesn't censor himself. He doesn't, can't, pretend to be anyone other than who he is. Baekho and Dongho are the same person because Dongho doesn't know how to be anyone other than who he is--a happy, pleasant, friendly, touchy sixteen year old who is absolutely one-hundred-percent happy with his life.

What's different about him is that he doesn't bother to try understand Minki or Ren. Without fail every single day, no matter what might be going on, he touches him, talks to him. If Minki finds himself feeling like the sky is always going to be too blue to understand, that the grass is always going to be too green, Dongho doesn't try to understand; instead he just laughs, looks at the sky, and points out that it's the same color as Aron's shirt so it's obviously not too blue, and that the grass needs to be watered and it's more brown than green so he should find another color to complain about.

And Minki has to smile and laugh and lean into Dongho because he doesn't understand, but he doesn't ever seem to tire of countering his statements with stupid answers.

There are times when Minki feels that he'll never understand anything. The things that should be simple are difficult, and the things that are normally just difficult are completely out of his realm. When he's having one of those days Dongho tells him he is plainly, not mincing any words because he doesn't know how to be tactful on unless he's threatened. “You're being an idiot, Ren-ki,” he says, mashing his real name and stage name together in a pet name that Minki hates because Dongho only uses it when he's done or said something really stupid.

“At least I can cook edible food,” he counters with a jab at Dongho's utter lack of culinary skills that's mostly to cover his naivete because he knows that the older boy will rise to the bait and forget what they were talking about earlier.

Then they argue, Minki invariably coming out on top because he really is the better cook (even if just by a small margin), and Dongho rolls his eyes and grabs on to whatever side of Minki is nearest in a hug that's not meant to be friendly but is more meant to squeeze the breath out of him because he hates losing.

These are the moments that make Minki forget the people that don't look further his glossed lips and black-rimmed eyes, because Dongho keeps him centered. His constant physical affection and brusque words are there, always, and he relies on them to keep him grounded.

The neediness he feels scares him, but he can't stop even though he knows very well that because of how he looks the situation could easily escalate with someone as emotionally open as Dongho.

He knows he ought to back off, but he doesn't. He won't. Instead he continues staying close, using Dongho's open attitude to help himself understand the other members of Nu'est. For once in his life he finds himself wanting to get to know people, wanting to learn their likes and dislikes, wanting to stay around and talk to them and have them talk to him.

So he lets Dongho hold him and lets himself enjoy it because the solidity of colors and feelings when he's near are too tempting to resist, and because the future always seems so far away that he can't bring himself to bother thinking about consequences.

One day he paints his nails a color that Dongho calls too bright and he calls incomprehensible. When they finally compromise with the term yellow after thirty minutes of arguing Minki finds he understands it completely.

That's how he knows he will never be able to stay away even if he wants to, even when he knows that he absolutely should.

“Screw the future,” Minki tells Dongho suddenly as he paints a clear varnish over his last nail, sealing the color on.

Dongho looks at him and tells him he makes no sense more often than not, and Minki laughs because he's okay with that being true.