Minki hums happily, walking to the music room where he was going to meet with Minhyun, who had left a note at his locker asking him to meet him after school ended.

When he reaches the room, the door is slightly ajar. He is about to fully push it open and bounce in to greet Minhyun but whispers make him stop and listen carefully.

“Saranghae yo,” comes a girl’s breathy voice before an obscene smacking of lips is heard. Minki gathers his courage and peeks in through the crack in the door and his suspicions are confirmed.

“Stop it!” Minki screams, running across the room and pushing the girl off Minhyun. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knows that he is acting like a spoiled brat, interrupting the two of them and acting like some kind of cheated-on girlfriend when Minhyun hasn’t even given any indication whatsoever that he feels something more than friendship for him. The girl picks herself off the floor, glares at him and walks out, hips swaying slightly in her tight skirt.

Minhyun stares at Minki, and Minki feels his eyes tearing up suddenly, filling with burning tears. He forces them down, because if they spill over, what he is going to say will be void, ineffective. Looking up and praying that none of the salty water manages to escape from the confines of his eyes, he whispers, “I hate you.”

He spins on his heel and leaves, walking quickly towards the exit. Tears are already streaming down his cheeks and Minki just wants to leave before he does something stupid like run back to Minhyun and hug him tightly, never letting go.

Minhyun scrambles up from the floor and tries to run after Minki, but although Minki is small and girlish, there is a reason why he is never bullied. Minhyun is soon left behind and he watches the blonde boy run, faster than he ever could, but instead of running towards him, he is running away. And the pain in Minhyun’s heart lets him know that this boy is too important to lose, too precious, and when he thinks of Minki’s words later that night, the tears start to come, and they don’t stop until Minhyun falls asleep from sheer exhaustion.

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The next day, Minki doesn’t come to school. Minhyun knows, because he kept an extra-sharp eye out for the blonde boy. Not that he hasn’t been doing it for the past two years, but whatever. He doesn’t come to school, and Minhyun knows that it’s all his fault.

When he reaches home, his sister is lying on the sofa. She sits up and greets him with a casual, “Why the long face? Sit down and tell me about it.”

So he does.

When he finishes, his sister sighs. “You really screwed up, huh? My advice is to not let it wait. The longer you avoid him-“

“He’s the one avoiding me!” Minhyun protests.

“Whatever.”

Minhyun glares.

“Fine. The longer he avoids you, the more time he has to overthink and to cry and to basically hate you more and more. So what I’m suggesting is to call him and apologize.”

“WHAT?! Call him?! Noona, are you serious?”

His sister laughs. “Stop pretending. I’m pretty sure you have his number, am I right?”

Minhyun snorts. “What makes you so sure- HEY! Give me my phone back!”

Scrolling through the phone, his sister sniggers as she pauses at a name. “Aha. I knew it.”

She hits the call button. The phone is answered after a few rings.

“Yeoboseyo?” comes a soft voice, slightly hoarse. Minhyun’s sister guesses that it is from all the crying he has done.

“Ne, annyeonghaseyo. This is Minhyun’s noona. Please don’t hang up, Minki-ssi. Minhyun would like to talk to you for a moment, so can you please poor old me and talk to him?”

Minhyun had fallen off the sofa when his sister said ‘Minki’ and he was trying to scoot away as quietly as possible, praying his sister didn’t see him. No such luck. She shook the phone angrily at him and he took it, hands shaking slightly.

“Y-yeoboseyo?”

“Ne? What do you want to talk to me about?”

“I…I want to say I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

Clearing his throat, Minhyun mumbled nervously, “Can I sing you something?”

He took the silence as assent and started. “Yeoboseyo // Babeun meogeonni // Eodiseo mwo haneunji // Geokjeongdoenikka…Nada ara nae haengdong bigeophae // Bigeophada nollyeodo nan jeoldae mot ga doneun. Minki, I’m really so so sorry for making you sad, please forgive me. S-saranghae.”

Minki doesn’t reply for a few seconds, before Minhyun hears a soft sniffle and a shy, “Can you come to the coffeeshop just down the road?”

Minhyun hangs up with a smile on his face. He makes it to the Starbucks (Minki doesn’t like the name, so he never says it, preferring to just call it the coffeeshop – Minhyun is proud that he knows that fact about Minki) in a record one minute. He walks in and immediately spots Minki at the back of the small café/shop, already holding his favourite drink, a caramel frappuccino.

Minhyun’s throat goes dry when he sees Minki sitting there holding his cup of coffee and staring vacantly into space. The expression, or rather, lack of, on the blonde boy’s face is almost enough to make him turn back and go home, but the memory of his sister’s pinches when she gets angry makes him keep walking toward the table.

“Minki.”

The boy turns his head slowly and stares up at the cat-eyed boy, as if just realizing his presence. His open childlike expression changes quickly to a mask of indifference, and Minhyun’s heart clenches. It is not the first time Minhyun has seen this expression, but it is the first time such an expression has been directed towards him, and now he understands why even the bigger bullies quail before Minki.

He clears his throat again, and gathers up the meager scraps of what is left of his courage, stepping closer to the table, Minki’s icy expression immediately making him wish he had never come out of his house in the first place.

“Um, c-can I explain?”

Minki’s expression doesn’t waver, but he nods.

“This girl, Sooyeon…you know her, right? That girl in our class.”

Another nod.

Minhyun coughs awkwardly. “She apparently had a crush on me…and I know this sounds cliché, but she ahem stalked me and found me in the music room…and you know what happened after.”

He has been looking down all along, but his head snaps up when he hears a giggle. And then two. And then it transforms into full-blown Minki laugh and Minhyun cannot help but feel both put-out that Minki is laughing at him and also happy that Minki is finally laughing and maybe things will go back to normal but oh. He confessed. Oops. He had intended for a nice, romantic affair in the music room and give his first kiss to Minki and all that, but no…nothing went as planned…and to say that Minhyun is miffed would be an understatement.

Minki stops laughing at last, and kind of tackles Minhyun into a bear-hug. Minhyun buries his nose into Minki’s hair, smelling the smell that is totally him and one that he had been missing without him even realizing it.

“Sooyeon called me and told me everything,” Minki whispers into Minhyun’s ear.

Minhyun’s jaw drops. “So you were playing with me all along?”

Minki’s face lights up with a mischievous smile. “I wanted to see whether you liked me enough to do all this…or whether you would just give up.”

Minhyun snorts and swats Minki’s arm hard enough to hurt.

------------------ 

They walk back together later that night; hand in hand and both smiling and full of coffee. Before Minki can walk into his house, Minhyun stops him and tilts his chin up to face him, pecking him gently on the lips. Minki blushes, but pulls him down for another kiss.

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When Minhyun walks in, his sister is lying on the couch reading a book….upside down. He smiles and takes it from her, turning it the right way up and giving it back to her. She grins and asks whether it all worked out. Minhyun snorts. If it didn’t, I wouldn’t be like this, would I?

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Yeah…I was too pressed for time to write about Minki and Minhyun’s conversation in Starbucks. Don’t kill me!! *runs and hides*

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EDIT: I added MinRen's conversation in Starbucks!! Please comment and tell me what you think =^^=