The ruler of destiny likes to make it hard for him, Jinki concluded five days later, because now the taller young man was just about everywhere he went. And although part of it could be blamed on Kibum for making Minho tag along as often as he could, Jinki couldn’t ignore those times the other just appeared without the blonde by his side, deciding on his own that it would be a great idea to walk with him to the science building since he was a math major and they were going the same way anyway then proceeding to chat away about everything and nothing. Even if Jinki’s whole being felt lighter with the way the other made him become all fuzzy and warm inside when their eyes met or made him laugh or grin like an idiot when he said something funny, it certainly did not go well with Jinki’s plan to diminish the small (Jinki always insisted on to Taemin) crush he had developed on the handsome, tall underclassman. Instead it was starting to grow and he simply couldn’t let it, as his sinking heart reminded him of every time he saw Kibum's starry gaze following Minho as soon as he was within the vicinity.

That’s why, when he excited his classroom and saw the head of Minho just a few meters in front of him, searching for someone (without a doubt for him), he groaned, gripped the strap of his messenger bag tighter and crouched down slightly behind a group of his classmates, trying to sneakily make his way past the other to go to his next lecture. He would really have liked nothing more than to spend time with the taller, talking about silly things and letting their hands brush gently with him blushing away. But things were as they were and he just had to endure ignoring his increasing heartbeat and sweaty palms until this little crush was gone and Minho was together with Kibum.

“Hey, Jinki-Hyung!”

Jinki let out a surprised, high-pitched sound as his heart flew into his throat and he tripped over his own feet, landing not-so-gracefully on all four. The classmates he had been hiding behind shot him confused and worried looks, which he returned with a sheepish, embarrassed smile. He really needed to work on the sneaky part.

“Hyung! Are you okay?!” Minho materialised by his side and grabbed his arm to pull him to his feet.

In no way at all did Jinki appreciate the way his heart picked up speed or how his stomach made somersaults along with other organs, which apparently decided they wanted to participate in the Olympics. He really would have liked to indulge himself for just a millisecond but thought better of it and stubbornly ignored the warmth that spread through his arm at the touch, trying to inconspicuously pull out of the hold as fast as he could.

“Y-yeah, I’m fine,” he mumbled, his cheeks heating slightly, and Minho chuckled.

“You’re really clumsy, you know that?” the taller asked, picking up his bag and handing it over.

Sending him a disbelieving look, Jinki took the bag back, careful not to let their hands touch, before bending down to brush dust from his knees.

“Why, thank you Captain Obvious. I now know the reason for my adventures of misfortune. You have enlightened me.”

Minho laughed and made a salute. “Always at your service, sir!”

Jinki couldn’t help the corners of his mouth tugging up in a smile, wings of butterflies starting to flutter in his stomach, which made Minho’s grin grow bigger. But it faltered slightly as he caught sight of a very familiar mop of blond hair a few metres in front of them. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes momentarily, not minding the tightening in his chest.

Okay, time to do his job as a best friend.

Counting to three, he opened his eyes again and put on an excited face.

“Oh, look! Kibum’s over there!” he said as enthusiastically as he could, interrupting the taller, who had just been about to say something. Minho raised his eyebrows at him and looked in the direction he was pointing. “Come on! Let’s walk with him!”

“Oh…” he said, his expression blank. “Well… he’s not going the same way, so I don’t really see the point…”

“Doesn’t matter!” Jinki continued in a merry voice he was beginning to hate. He had used it whenever he had tried to make Minho go and be with Kibum or force them to sit together the past few days (which was a lot) and he was already disgusted by himself every time because he sounded so fake to his own ears. Even Taemin was starting to look at him sceptically. “We can still walk a short distance together!”

“Yeah…”

Was Minho looking slightly crestfallen?

Jinki shook his head. He didn’t have the luxury to ponder if the other might have wanted to be alone with him. He needed to keep his sights on the end result, which was Minho and Kibum’s happily ever after.

“Okay, let’s go!”

He hurriedly walked towards his goal, not minding the slightly disappointed look he was receiving from the other. If this had been any other person or any other circumstance, Jinki would have grabbed his hand. But it was Minho. He was Kibum’s crush and Jinki had to behave properly.

There was an unintelligible mumble behind him and he glanced over his shoulder at the taller who was following him, seeing a slight frown appear on his forehead.

“Kibum!” Jinki called, waving his arm over his head to catch his best friend’s attention before his own was completely devoured by Minho and his troubled look.

The blonde turned around, his cheeks getting pink and his face lighting up in a happy smile once he saw the two others (most likely once he saw Minho, as he barely glanced at Jinki).

“Hey,” he said softly as they reached him, giving the taller a tentative smile before lowering his head so that he was looking at him through his lashes, biting his lip shyly.

“Hi,” Minho replied with a polite smile.

Jinki looked between them, frowning slightly as well.

Kibum's feelings were as obvious as if he would have had neon signs attached to him, flashing hearts with Minho's name inside them for everyone to see. Yet, Minho seemed blind to the lights blaring him right in the face. Jinki sighed silently, trying to diminish the urge to smack the taller upon his head and instead looking away from them as they started walking to not interrupt and make them focus on each other, Kibum fighting his best to keep an interesting conversation going between him and Minho. His eyes landed on another, lighter head of blond, almost white hair and he sighed again, but this time in relief.

“Oh, look! There’s Jonghyun!” he said and the other two looked at him in slight surprise. He grinned at them. “I just need to go ask him about the um… yeah, thing. You two go on ahead!”

He his heel before they could say anything and all but ran towards his new friend he had come to know through Minho, as he was the taller’s best friend as well as a part of the culture committee together with Kibum and Taemin. Which also made him a popular person on campus. Their university’s culture committee was well know for doing interesting projects and amazing festivities thus making every one of the members popular, even in other universities.

“Jjong!” Jinki called when he was close enough. The other turned, his face lighting up in a smile when he saw the other waving at him.

“Hi, Hyung,” he said as Jinki reached his side, looking over the older’s shoulder. “Are you alone?” His eyes found Kibum and Minho and something like worry passed over his chocolate brown orbs before he raised his eyebrows at Jinki. “You’re still doing your best to get those two together?”

He shrugged. “Yeah, well…”

Jonghyun sighed. “You can’t force two people to be together, Hyung.”

“I’m not forcing them!” Jinki defended. “Minho just hasn’t realised that Kibum is in love with him,” he explained like he had done to Taemin when the younger had pointed out the same thing while they were eating dinner in their shared dorm room the night before. “I’m just trying to make him see it as fast as possible and let them be together happily.”

Jonghyun gave him an unconvinced look. “You know, I don’t think it’s going to be that simple.”

“Just humour me Jonghyun.”

The other only shook his head and muttered something Jinki couldn’t decipher as they started making their way outside the main building to cross the grounds in the direction of the chemistry labs. Jonghyun was majoring in chemistry engineering Jinki had learned when Minho had introduced his best friend to him and Taemin a few days before. He hadn’t really been surprised as he had seen the shorter, blond man around the chemistry building before and they had instantly gotten along as both of them could relate on the inside jokes only science students knew. It was nice having someone who knew what he was talking about for once, as usually Kibum and Taemin would have all the inside jokes in their small friendship circle.

Jonghyun cast a glance over his shoulder and smiled a small, secretive smile before turning to Jinki, who frowned at him.

“So, winter break starts in a week,” he informed cheerily before Jinki had a chance to look back as well, “any plans? Going back home?”

Pursing his mouth slightly, Jinki shook his head. “No, not really. I have to stay and study the entire break,” he sighed. “We have a test only three days after the holidays.”

“Ah,” Jonghyun said understandingly and nodded. “So you’re going to be here alone?”

“Taemin's staying as well. He has some project or something about European history and their kings.”

“Doesn’t really sound that exciting.”

Jinki must have jumped about ten metres into the air in shock when a deep voice, which was imprinted in his mind for all eternity as the most perfect chorus of angels singing, spoke behind them and Jonghyun snickered, earning himself a burning look from the older.

“Sorry, did I scare you Hyung?” Minho smiled sheepishly while scratching his neck as Jinki looked at him.

“N-no, I was just… surprised, is all…” he said weakly, his heart not calming down at all, but picking up speed again against his will. He frowned when he noticed the lack of a blond, eccentric friend of his. “Where’s Kibum?”

“Oh,” the taller shrugged, his nose getting a small, quick (and extremely cute in Jinki's eyes) wrinkle, “like I said, he had to go in the other direction.”

“Well, you still got to talk to him for a while,” Jinki said, as if it was the most important thing ever. Which it was.

Minho looked at him in silence for a few seconds that stretched into years in Jinki's personal little universe, his eyes having a strange pondering shine to them. Jinki cursed himself for letting him get caught in the other’s big, brown orbs and made a mental note to never look at the taller’s face ever again. He was sure his insides would forever be drunk if he let his gaze rest on the stupidly (read: amazingly) handsome face of his crush.

“He only managed to ask what I was doing for winter break then he had to go.” Minho shrugged again as they entered the building.

“I hope you have better plans than this boring nerd.” Jonghyun pointed at Jinki and rolled his eyes. Jinki pulled an ugly grimace at him, which only made him  laugh. “He’s staying to study the entire break.”

“Really?” Minho said, looking at the oldest thoughtfully.

Feeling his face heating up as the pair of eyes he had vowed never to look at again a few seconds ago appraised him, Jinki spluttered something unintelligible before spotting his classroom and letting out a sigh of relief. He knew he kept running away, but really, what could he do?

“Look, there’s my classroom!” he exclaimed hurriedly, refusing to look at the taller of his companions. “Bye! See you later!”

He thought he heard Jonghyun laugh something about being totally obvious and Minho telling him to shut up as he scurried in front to dive into the empty classroom and hide behind the door, strictly telling himself he wouldn’t, couldn’t think about what it meant. Because thinking about it meant he would have to acknowledge some things that he was not supposed to acknowledge. And acknowledging those things also meant his heart would get more involved than it already was, and he definitely didn’t need that.

And also, this was not how it was supposed to be! He thought exasperatedly. What the hell was Kibum doing?! Why hadn’t he made Minho irrevocably in love with him yet?! Jinki didn’t know how much longer he would be able to ignore thinking about not thinking about things he was not supposed to be thinking about thinking of at all.

He grumbled angrily at his own confusing thoughts as well as the frustration with Kibum's lack of progress and threw his bag onto his desk. It slid off the other end and fell to the floor with a heavy thud. Giving it a vicious look, he slumped down in his chair and sprawled out over the table top, his left cheek resting against the cool surface.

Since he was half an hour early, the only sounds filling his ears in the empty classroom were his breathing and his heartbeat. His stupid heartbeat that kept beating irregularly when Minho looked at him, that skipped a beat when he felt the warmth of the other’s body as they stood closer than they should, that almost stopped when he met the taller’s warm, beautiful eyes.

Something wet ran over the bridge of his nose and under the curve of his other eye. Jinki blinked in surprise before sitting up and dragging his fingers across the wet trail. Only when he saw the water on his fingertips did he realise he unconsciously had started crying. His heart sank and he stared in disbelief at his hand like it would tell him he wasn’t seeing teardrops on his fingertips. Sadly, it did not and more ran down his cheeks without his permission. He quickly rubbed the back of his hands over them with a small growl and took a deep breath, forcing a smile at no one just for the action of it.

He had to stop thinking about everything that had to do with him and Minho. There was no way around it. He just had. To. Stop. Because if he didn’t, a heart (his or Kibum's) would definitely end up broken and he definitely didn’t want to be the cause of it.

Although, the risk of it was very, very high.

A/N: I am so very sorry! I haven't been able to write in forever on this or my other story ;_;

I hope you liked it at least!

Anyways, thank you for sticking around! I love you all! ^_^

Bye~! <3