Breathe in.

The smoke tasted bitter and disgusting, but it was warm, familiar, and comforting.

Breathe out.

Jonghyun flicked the ash from the cigarette over the side of the low bridge near his apartment he was sitting on. That’ll do the environment the world of good, he thought with a wry smile. He hadn’t smoked in months, ever since Kibum told him not to. He could hear Kibum’s voice, clear as day.

“You smell disgusting, and kissing you is like an ashtray.”

“I use deodorant. I thought you liked kissing me.” Pout.

“I do, but I want you to stop smoking. I don’t want a cancerous boyfriend!”

He’d only given up because he didn’t want to lose Kibum.

It didn’t matter now he supposed, ever since about three months ago, Jonghyun had known he was losing Kibum. Kibum wanted Taemin. What did that boy have that he didn’t? He frowned, thinking about it. Kibum said Taemin was carefree and cute, their personalities matched. Jonghyun had always thought their personalities matched. They were polar opposites, but he’d thought they balanced eachother out. Kibum was impulsive and quick witted, sharp and completely snappy sometimes, whereas Jonghyun was a lot more careful, about everything; his actions and his words.

He jumped slightly as the cigarette, which had now burned down to the , burned him. With a sigh, Jonghyun stood up, stomping on the cigarette as he walked back to his apartment.

The small one room place seemed empty now. Kibum had been a design student, so there were always mannequins around with clothes on, or sketchbooks littering every available surface. Jonghyun shook his head, clearing his head of all thoughts of his ex.

Ex.

It sounded so final.

The blonde hadn’t ever even been in a relationship before, and here he was at twenty one, standing in his apartment, barely a week after losing who he’d mentally dubbed ‘the love of his life’. Jonghyun knew he was more romantic than his boyfriend, though Kibum would call him ‘sappy’, but he’d thought Kibum really loved him as well.

He jumped for what felt like the millionth time that day, he’d been jittery for a few weeks now, when his phone vibrated in his pocket. Without bothering to check the caller ID, he held the phone up to his ear and answered.

“Hello?”

“Jonghyun?” It was Jinki, one of his oldest friends and Kibum’s cousin. The two had met in middle school, when Jonghyun had just moved. Ever since Jonghyun broke up with Kibum, Jinki had made it his mission in life to get Jonghyun out of the house and cheer him up.

“Not tonight, Jinki, I don’t feel like it.”

“I haven’t even asked yet.” Jonghyun could hear the pout in his hyung’s voice.

“I don’t want to.”

“Come on, it’ll just be you, me, and Minho.”

Jonghyun didn’t know any Minho, and he let his curiosity get the better of him.

“Minho?”

“Oh, you haven’t met?” Jonghyun knew it was simply a ploy to get him out of the house, Jinki was an awful liar.

“No.” He played along anyway.

“Well, we’re going out tonight, we’re gonna go to the movies and then get samgyeopsal, guess you’re not interested though..” Jinki’s voice trailed off and Jonghyun rolled his eyes with a slight smile.

“I’ll come.”

“Great! I’ll pick you up at six!”

Jinki immediately hung up, letting Jonghyun know there was no way he was getting out of this.

A quick glance at the clock told him it was already quarter past five. Geez. He guessed Jinki didn’t want to give him any room to change his mind. Jinki thought he was really cunning and clever, but Jonghyun had always been able to see straight through him. And this ‘plot’ was particularly transparent.

He supposed he’d better get ready.

 

6 o’clock on the dot was when a knock sounded on the door. Jonghyun hadn’t bothered dressing up, he was wearing black jeans and his favorite cream coloured sweater. ‘Favorite’ because he had many. Too many really. He just really liked cream sweaters. It was a bone Kibum was always picking with him, yes he looked good in the things, but he should own at least something else. When he tried to argue he did own something else Kibum simply replied with “yes but do you wear them?”

This line of thought was painful and he’d made up his mind to forget Kibum at least for a while tonight.  

Jonghyun brushed a hand through his almost silver blonde hair. His regrowth was getting bad; he figured he should probably do something about that. He decided he could think about that later, it was irrelevant anyway, who did he have to look nice for? Maybe he should just go back to his natural blackish brown.

His beaming friend stood on the other side of the door and began talking the second Jonghyun opened it.

“I was worried you weren’t going to answer.”

“So who’s this Minho character?” He ignored Jinki in favor of asking about the real reason he’d been ered into the evening.

“He’s out in the car, you’ll like him, trust me.” Jinki began chattering away about how they’d met at university and they were both nursing majors, but Minho was a few years below Jinki. By the time they reached the car after seven flights of stairs, Jonghyun thought he knew Minho’s life story better than his own mother.

He was expecting Minho to be some tiny child, he was only nineteen apparently. He wasn’t prepared for the deep voiced, good looking stranger sitting in the back seat of Jinki’s car.

“Hey, I’m Choi Minho.”

Jonghyun was lost for words for a second. The stranger’s eyes were big. Jonghyun himself had quite big eyes, but Minho’s were something else. His face was hardly the size of a fist and his thin legs were obvious. Immediately Jonghyun was jealous.

“I’m Jonghyun.”

There was a silence for a minute or so, until Jinki began talking a bit about the movie they were going to see. It was almost Halloween, so they were going to see a scary movie.

“It’s not really that much of a horror movie, so don’t worry Minho, you’ll be able to handle it.”

“I’m not scared.” Minho retorted, and Jonghyun smiled a little.

“Okay, if you say so, but I still remember how disgusted you were when we were looking at pathology a few months ago.”

“That was diseased organs, you were almost the only one in the whole group who wasn’t disgusted!”

“It’s interesting! You’re all just weak, if you’re gonna be a nurse, you have to be prepared not to be disgusted.”

Minho sighed and threw his hands up, not without a half smile and Jonghyun guessed it was a well-worn argument.

“So Jonghyun, how have you been lately? We haven’t spoken in almost a week.”

“Fine. I’ve been going to the gym a lot lately.” He knew Jinki would like to hear that. He was getting good at that lately; telling people what they wanted to hear. “Getting out of the house a bit.”

He ignored Minho’s questioning look.

“Good, actually, Minho goes to the gym a bit too, you two could go together sometime.”

No. Jonghyun answered mentally, automatically. Truth be told, he hadn’t been to the gym in a month. It was too much effort.

“Maybe.” They both answered after a second or so.

The car stopped and they all got out. It was only six fifteen, but the air was biting already and it was almost dark out. He wouldn't even be able to see if not for the twenty four hour lights of Seoul. Jonghyun glanced at his cousin and Minho. Oh great, Minho was apparently almost a giant. He had to be at least six feet tall, compared to Jonghyun’s five foot eight.

He stretched a little, and stopped hunching his back for what felt like the first time in forever. Truthfully he really didn’t like horror movies but he bit his lip and followed them into the cinema, once again filled with determination to forget Kibum.