Their arms... UNF

Onew was practically humming with nervous energy all morning.  After his talk with Taemin the night before Onew felt excited and terrified to get to school. 

He had a plan. 

A bad one.

Completely illogical.

And he was pretty sure that it only had about a .2% chance of success.

But it was a plan nonetheless.

And that in itself brought a sense of relief.  It made him feel like he was actively doing something to get Minho to open up to him.  

According to Taemin, they only had to wear down Minho’s resolve a little bit, and Onew could be patient.  

Well, he could pretend.

Throughout the whole process it brought him some peace of mind to think that Minho actually liked him, maybe even as much as Onew liked Minho.  All Onew had to do was show Minho that he wasn't interesting in being a fling.  

Onew was serious.  

Like, picket fences, blue shutters, Two-point-five children kind of serious.  Maybe he was being a bit dramatic (raving lunatic as Jonghyun would probably tell him) but anyone with eyes could see that Onew was a little more than infatuated with the younger boy.

While Onew may be a hopeless romantic at heart, mentally he was rational and logical.  And although logically he knew he was far too young to fully understand things like love and forever, he definitely wasn't too young to feel them.  

And if the way his heart clinched and exploded simultaneously was any clue, the sudden lack of oxygen any time he got in sight of the younger boy was a definite give away, he was in love. 

Onew wasn’t just in love.  He was head-over-heels, heart doodles in his notebook, the sudden urge to write sonnets about his lips kind of love.  His whole body froze up in utter terror; paralyzed by the mere sight of him, if that wasn't love Onew didn't know what was. 

But as nervous as Minho made him, Onew had to be strong.  He had to be persistent and stick to Minho like glue.  It may look desperate but his ability to cling was really all he had left.  And with enough pestering, Taemin had somehow convinced him that a date with Minho was worth more than his pride. 

He squared his shoulders, putting his winning smile in place as he strolled casually into the classroom.  Rather than taking his usual seat, he went straight for Minho’s new desk at the back of the room.  His heart was pounding painfully in his chest, his hands trembling slightly as he feigned confidence.  He turned to the tiny freshman in the seat next to Minho he sent him a kind smile, "Mind if I sit here today?" 

The young boy looked utterly terrified to be spoken to by an upperclassman, even in the gentlest of tones.  He let out a high-pitched squeak, nodding his head quickly before grabbing his bag and slipping past Onew with blinding speed. 

Onew supressed a giggle at the idea of someone being intimidated by him, "Thank you!"  He called softly. 

Onew settled in the now-empty seat next to a shell-shocked Minho, flashing him a smile and a brief, "Good morning" before unpacking his bag. 

"Onew hy- Onew-ssi, what are you doing?" Minho asked, his voice level and void of any sort of life. 

Onew tried not to visibly flinch at the sudden honorifics once again.  He had really loved hearing Minho call him ‘hyung’ in that deep, reverberating voice of his.  He liked the connotations that went along with it.  It had made him feel closer to the younger boy, all because of a simply little word.  But the sudden loss of the familiar greeting left he feeling empty inside. 

"What does it look like I'm doing Minho-ah?  I'm getting ready for class."

Minho rolled his eyes in an uncharacteristic show of emotion, "Why aren't you getting ready for class in your seat?"

"I could ask you the same thing," Onew retorted sharply. 

Their conversation was cut short by the start of class, their words that were laced with hurt and anger leaving a stifling tension in the air.  Onew glanced up, trying to be subtle as he tried to gauge Minho’s reaction. 

He was angry.  It was plain on his face.  His strong jaw was clinched tight, and his knuckles white from gripping too tightly around his pen. 
Onew gulped, shrinking into his chair slightly.  'Taemin had better be right about all of this,' he thought bitterly to himself.

~~~

"So he didn't say anything?" Jonghyun asked, confused. 

"Nothing. He looked seriously angry though.  But he just picked up his stuff and ran out of the room.  He wouldn't even look at me," Onew replied sadly.  While he knew that it would take time to get Minho to open up, he didn't expect the pang his heart would take from each subtle (or not so subtle) rejection. 

"Hyung you have to stay strong okay!  I know how overly sensitive you can be.  Don't think about it like that.  So he is angry.  Okay.  Anger we can work with, because anger is still better than indifference.  And there is only one reason why he would be angry hyung, and it's because he is trying to stay away from you and you aren't letting that happen.  It's only day one hyung, things will get worse before they get better. But it will get better.” 

"You really think so Jonghyun?"

"Yep!  Unless lover boy is completely stupid, he will see you aren't going to give up.  So either he likes you and his resolve will crumble or he really isn't into you and he will probably punch you in the face.  And I won't let you date someone who is abusive so I guess that would solve all of our problems wouldn't it!" 

"Jong you are such an idiot," Onew said with a laugh.

"You will thank me some day," Jonghyun replied, a jokingly cocky smirk on his face.  

"Are you sure about that?"  Onew retorted.

Jonghyun pouted, crossing his arms across his chest childishly. "I did have a juicy piece of gossip that was relevant to your interests but if you are going to be like that then never mind.  Good luck getting in Minho's pants and good riddance to you."

"Jong don't be like that!"  Onew exclaimed, still biting back a chuckle. 

"Well what's in it for me? Hmm?"  A playful edge present in Jonghyun’s tone.

"My undying love and gratitude?"  Onew replied, sending him a cheesy smile. 

Jonghyun snorted. 

"I'll help you pass English," Onew offered.

"You do that anyway," Jonghyun said with a shrug.

"Well now I won't unless you tell me," Onew countered. 

Jonghyun huffed in annoyance, "You are lucky I like you." 

Onew beamed, crossing his arms over the table and looking expectantly at the younger boy, knowing he won their fake argument. 

"Well I might have some inside information on Minho's whereabouts after school," Jonghyun replied casually.

"Really!" 

"Yes really, and I have an idea of how you can get close to him outside of class without resorting to stalking."

"Well? What is it?"  Onew was practically bouncing in his chair with excitement now.  

"Hyung, how opposed are you to janitorial services?" 

Okay first of all, if you somehow missed the memo - Minho side story over here.  It is relevant to your interests I promise. 

Also, I guess AFF did an update and didn't really tell anyone except twitter (apparently I missed the message that ALL communication about this site is now done on twitter instead of... oh idk the home page ignore me i'm just bitter). Well anyway I now have a -ton of karma points that I don't even know what to do with and zero people reading my always-exciting blogs. 
Cool.

But seriously, i'm confused what the point of friending someone is now... all it did was give you blog post updates to begin with.

Ummm... I don't think I have much to say today.

Work was pretty slow this week so I already have the next chapter done (yay go me!) and a random Onkey story that I'll post whenever I get around to editing the whole thing.