Jinki watched silently as Minho’s arch enemy in school approached him menacingly. Just like with all his other subjects, Jinki waited expectantly as the scene unraveled in front of him to see how Minho would fare. He has been doing so well for the past few weeks but that’s only because he was avoiding his past. Minho will have to face the demons of his past to truly emerge a changed, mature man.

Jinki had the confidence that Minho would do the right thing.

“Boonie, are you done- What’s going on?” Jinki was distracted from his thoughts by the entrance of the new person.

Taemin. Well, things just got more complicated. This should be… interesting to watch, Jinki thought.

“Gwiboon, you should head home now,” Minho said, taking a protective stance before the frail-looking girl. Minho couldn’t see it but Jinki saw the way she scanned the crowd in front of her, wearing a fierce glare. For such a frail-looking girl, she sure seemed to exude a very strong aura.

“Taemin, let’s go,” she said, moving from behind Minho to take Taemin’s hand and walk away.

“Gwiboon! What’s the hurry? We came all the way here to meet you!” Dongwoon said, advancing towards her.

Minho tensed visibly and sprang forth for Dongwoon’s collar. Jinki was expecting Minho to leap right into punching this guy half-way to unconsciousness then and there. He was already preparing a berating speech for later when he had to make Minho realize that what he did was wrong.

But Jinki was in for a pleasant surprise. Minho stopped short of hurting the other and simply warned him to stay away.

“Relax, Minho. We just want to chat…” Dongwoon said in a way that made it blatant that that was not all he wanted to do. Minho had just loosened his grip on the other’s shirt when the boy slyly took advantage of the opportunity and jumped in Gwiboon’s direction. Dongwoon was obviously enjoying driving Minho up the wall.

Will Minho give in?

“D-don’t touch her!” Taemin stuttered, shielding Gwiboon behind him. It was a rather comical sight since Taemin was in no way strong enough to fight the other down and if anything, Gwiboon looked more capable of causing physical damage than this boy.

“You dare speak up against me?!”

In the blink of an eye (and that would imply a very, very short period of time that it might as well be non-existent since Jinki doesn’t blink at all), Dongwoon was jumping onto Taemin to move him out of his way forcefully. Minho got himself mixed up in the physical assault trying to protect the younger boy and they became tangled in a wrestling match. Gwiboon’s shrieking voice telling everyone to stop, only added to the hostile atmosphere.

Jinki simply stared, trying to analyze and figure out how raging hormones in young people could bring them to do such violent things. It’s just another one of those fascinating facts about humans- how they constantly want to show their own strength and power and such.

There was a very audible crack amidst all the shouting and kicking and punching (or perhaps it was just Jinki’s ability to hear things others could not) and he saw the blood starting to trickle down Minho’s nose. That was when Jinki had enough of watching. He really shouldn’t interfere but he decided to anyway. This was getting way out of hand.

Where are you, Soo Man-shii?

~~~~~

Minho came home wearing a wide grin that day. If admitting to someone that he had a guardian angel wouldn’t get him that free ride to the mental institution, then Minho was pretty sure that he would earn it right now.

Considering that Minho had a sore nose that wouldn’t stop bleeding and a bruise forming on his cheek, he sure looked like a mad man smiling like a creep. Minho acknowledged this himself after catching his reflection on a few mirrors on the way home. And this is not even the most shocking part. His ego, his pride as the school’s most notorious bully had just taken a beating along with him and yet here he was, not caring about it one single bit. So what? Dongwoon had won. He could take over the school now.

So what?

Looking back now, Minho considered a concussion as an explanation for his own behavior. However, he couldn’t even be serious long enough to entertain that thought as he fell back into his high state induced by overwhelming joy.

After Mr. Soo Man had stopped the fight that was getting more and more aggressive (Minho was beginning to think that the physics teacher had a radar to find him just when he was misbehaving), Minho had been led to the teacher’s office. He learned that both he and Dongwoon were going to be suspended for a week, which came as good news to Minho actually, since this would be an excuse for him to escape the extra physics lessons with this man that he always dreaded so much.

It’s not like Minho’s parents were going to be angry with him or anything for this. They wouldn’t even realize it, what with his father gone again on another business trip and his mother busy with whatever it is that she does with her friends every day.

Well, there was no time to be wallow in self-pity now. Minho was too ecstatic to be gloomy now. How could he not be? He had just become friends with the Kim Gwiboon. Even now, Minho doesn’t know how it happened.

Minho had left the teacher’s office, feeling as disappointed as ever that despite his efforts of staying out of trouble, he still found himself caught up in- to put it in a crude way- like this. He was shocked, however, to find that Kim Gwiboon was waiting outside for him. For the first time ever, Minho didn’t see her as the fierce girl ready to rip off the head of anyone that dared cross her. He saw her as just a teenage girl, having worked up the courage to come up to Minho and thank him.

Now, Minho felt like he hardly deserved the grateful gesture since this was him getting pay back for all those times he took advantage of others. But seeing her hugging her books to her chest tightly in nervousness, Minho couldn’t help but melt at the cuteness and fail to come up with the proper reply to her gratitude.

One thing led to another and before he knew it, Gwiboon was buying him an ice-cream at a small café near their school.

“Ice-cream treats everything,” she had said and Minho believed her with all his heart. They talked for a while and Minho learned quite a bit about her in the short time they were at that café. He learned that once she was past that initial stage of shyness with Minho, there was no more stopping her. He learned that Gwiboon used to hate his guts for everything he used to do to Taemin and she hated how helpless she was when it came to Taemin’s bullying.

Minho had never felt so ashamed in his life and he thought he would never be able to look Gwiboon in the eyes again.

That was when Gwiboon confessed to Minho.

“I like you” Gwiboon said suddenly, interrupting Minho in the middle of his apology.

“W-what? I’m sorry but I thought you just said that you hated me,” Minho asked, confused by the contradicting confessions.

“I used to… But I… Nevermind, just forget I said anything…” Gwiboon said, picking up her bag to leave. Minho panicked. He tried to search for the right thing to say so that she wouldn’t leave him.

“Tell her you like her too…” Jinki said out of nowhere and Minho immediately repeated that without giving it much thought.

“I like you too…”

Minho had smacked his forehead on the table, groaning in embarrassment.

“I know…” Gwiboon had said, snickering. Minho had looked up at her in bewilderment as she sat back down. She must have taken courage from Minho’s embarrassing confession.

“Ex-excuse me?”

“I know about your crush. I have known for years actually…” she had said, nonchalantly.

“But you never… I mean… You never-“ Minho had been tongue-tied by the shocking discovery.

“What did you expect me to do? Go out with the guy who was bullying my best friend?” Gwiboon had asked bluntly and Minho shut up instantly.

“I’m not like that anymore, Gwiboon. I regret doing all those things now and I really am trying my very best to make up for everything I’ve ever done…” Minho had gone on to explain how he was trying to change his ways and how he didn’t want to be the bully he was anymore. It was his turn to talk non-stop to clear all of Gwiboon’s presumptions about him.

“I know…”

“-really am very sorry and I was going to apologize to Taemin soon and I-“

“Minho. I said I know. I can see that you’ve changed. You wouldn’t have stood up for Taemin back there if you haven’t…”

And that was how Minho had become friends with his crush of god knows how many years. Minho still had ways to go, what with making it up to Taemin for the amount of torture he put the younger boy through and all. But still- he was friends with Kim Gwiboon now! If friendship wasn’t a good place to start, then Minho doesn’t know what is.

“You sure are very happy for someone with tissues stuck up their nose to soak up blood…”

Minho snapped from his day-dreaming then and turned to see Jinki perched at his window sill as usual. He removed the tissues from his nose and threw it into the trash can at the opposite end of his room. His nose had stopped bleeding a while ago but he had forgotten about it as he plopped onto his bed in his dazed state.

“How I wish you weren’t didn’t have the Sun’s surface for skin right n