chapter seven;

Just as Minho suggested, we eventually grew closer. I noticed that our words increased, and even the sentences became longer the more time we spent together on court, but somehow we never strayed from talking about basketball. It was funny, I thought, how little effort he took to break the walls around me which I always tried to maintain ever so cautiously.

Maybe it was because they were family, but growing up under the care of two great male figures in my life; my father and Jongin, for me they were more than enough. I never found any necessities to be around men other than them. But then again, no guy had ever dared to approach me before, since Jongin was always around.

Minho, however, was something else. One moment he was that reliable friend, but the next second before you could even realized it, he turned into a strict, and perhaps scary trainer. Occasionally, he gave off an aura of a thoughtful older brother as well.

He caught me staring once in the middle of our break while I was thinking about all of those. “What?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

I shook my head and diverted my gaze elsewhere. “Nothing,” I told him.

Even so, no matter how much I got used to his presence around me, I always kept my guard up. Just in case.

-

It was Saturday, and I was sitting on the brick planter just right in front of the school’s gate, waiting for my brother to come. He offered to walk me to school earlier, but knowing how he often slept in on Saturday mornings, I turned him down.

“I’ll pick you up when the practice’s over then,” he said, and I agreed because I knew he wouldn’t take a no for an answer.

I glanced at my watch. It was already ten past 1. Jongin was never late before. I wondered if something was holding him back at home.

“Still here?” a voice asked. I glanced at its direction even though I already knew who it was, having spent weeks getting used to hearing it.

“I thought you already left,” I returned, not answering his question.

“I am now,” he said. “Waiting for someone?” he tried again.

“My brother,”

He nodded. I noticed the t-shirt he was wearing then. It was the same kind of blue as the sky that afternoon. It was just a simple detail, but somehow it made me smile.

“Alone?” he asked further, snapping me out of my trance.

I wasn’t sure why he bothered to know, actually. But thinking that perhaps he was just being the courteous him and that he meant no harm, I supposed there was nothing wrong in telling the truth, either. “Yep,” I answered. “Everyone else’s gone home anyway,”

“Well, I haven’t,” he pointed out.

I looked at him, my eyebrows furrowed. “Huh?”

“I’ll keep you company,” he mumbled, taking a few steps toward me before plopping himself down on the brick planter next to me, taking advantage of the canopy provided by the old cherry blossom tree.

“You know, you don’t have to,”

Minho smiled his ever confident smile and shook his head a little. “It’s okay, I want to,”

Despite feeling hesitant, I returned his smile. “Thanks,” I whispered. I looked up at the sky which was as blue as his shirt. From a distant, I could hear the sound of the leaves rustling in the harmony of the breeze.

I wish the tree was smaller.

-

“You’re very close, aren’t you?” Minho broke the silence between that seemed to drag on till forever. Not that I minded the quietness, because it allowed me to drown in my own thoughts. But I was only worried that he’d find it boring. “You and your brother, I mean,” he added.

Surprised by his question, I turned to gaze at him for a second, but he was looking somewhere else. Like I said, we never talked about anything other than basketball throughout the weeks we had spent together, so his sudden question caught me off guard. I wondered if he was just striking up a conversation. “We are,” I replied.

“That’s nice,” he commented.

“Do you have any sibling?”

He nodded once. “Elder brother,” he mumbled. “We’re not that close though,”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know. I guess that’s what brothers do ― not getting along well,”

I laughed at his answer, and he joined in.

As if on cue, my phone rang, and our giggles instantly died down. I slipped it out of my pocket and glanced at the screen, half expecting Jongin’s name to appear. Sure enough, it was him. “Hello?”

“Sorry I was playing games and forgot the time. How long has the practice ended?”

Hearing his short breaths, I could tell he was running. “Yesterday,” I joked.

“Ha ha,” he replied sarcastically. “Don’t worry, I’ll be there in a sec,” he said just before hanging up.

“Yah―” I blinked at my phone. “He hung up on me,”

Minho chuckled. Something caught his eyes then. “Hey, you still keep that picture,” he said.

I glanced at him and realized that he was looking at the screen of my phone. It was the same picture of me dozing off in the library that day taken by a stranger who came in when I was sleeping. I frowned. “How d’y―”

“Look, your brother’s here,” he cut me off, pointing at a direction where I could see the sight of Jongin running. Minho stood up, rubbing off invisible dirt from his bottom. “I’ll excuse myself now. See ya,” he smiled, putting a finger near his forehead to imitate a salute before taking his leave.