Minho is lazing in bed and being unproductive with his phone when he hears noises outside his room. With the door left open, he looks away from his phone and catches a glimpse of Kibum walking past, most probably heading towards their shoe cabinet. With nothing better to do, Minho pushes himself off his bed and finally stops hibernating in his room.

“Going out?”

Kibum looks up from wearing his shoes, “Yeah.”

“Alright…” Minho makes a mental note to settle dinner himself, “Have fun. Call me if you’re too wasted to get home by yourself.”

Minho is just about to turn away and head towards the kitchen when he suddenly realises something and stops Kibum just before he steps out of the dorm.

“Hey…”

Kibum turns around and gives him a questioning look.

“Is that jacket mine?” Minho narrows his eyes, trying to remember if the black and white baseball jacket he knows he has worn before but Kibum is wearing now belongs to him.

“So what if it is?” Kibum raises an eyebrow.

Minho pauses to think for a moment before he decides Kibum has a point.

“Right… Doesn’t matter. Not the first time we’re sharing clothes anyway.”

With a shrug, Minho continues on his way to the kitchen and misses the smirk on Kibum’s face.

“Let me have a look in your wardrobe.”

Walking straight into Minho’s room without even knocking, Kibum doesn’t wait for an answer as he opens Minho’s wardrobe and begins looking through his clothes.

“Why?” Used to Kibum’s lack of respect for his privacy, Minho simply glances at his bandmate before going back to using his laptop as he asks, “Are you missing something again?”

“Nope…” Kibum replies, “I just can’t find anything to wear to the airport tomorrow.”

Minho laughs. He can’t say he’s surprised to hear that. In fact, Kibum having to resort to choosing from his plain boring clothes surprises him more.

“Are you so desperate that you have to ransack my closet?”

“A little…” Kibum answers distractedly, keeping his focus on creating an outfit from Minho’s clothes.

“Kibum ah-”

“Shhh.” Kibum immediately shushes Minho with a wave, “I think I have an idea of what I’m going to wear tomorrow already.”

As he speaks, he pulls out a red and white striped t-shirt and a camel overcoat from Minho’s wardrobe.

“I’ll be borrowing these.” Kibum turns to face Minho with a grin, “Thanks!”

“Hey!”

But it’s too late. Kibum has disappeared back into his own room and Minho is left reminding himself to get those clothes back from his bandmate after he’s done.

“Be careful, Minho yah.”

“Of?”

“You know…”

Minho doesn’t and he can only stare, bewildered, at his stylist through the mirror while she touches up his makeup.

The stylist gives him a pointed look but when Minho only blinks at her with an even more confused look, she lets out a sigh.

“Kibum…” The stylist begins in a volume that only the two of them can hear, “He has been choosing to wear the same clothes as you.”

“So?”

Unimpressed with what she thinks is Minho’s attempt to act oblivious, his stylist shakes her head at him.

“I’m not stupid, Minho.”

Right now, Minho thinks he is because he doesn’t get a single thing she is saying to him.

“Noona…” Minho frowns.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to explain anything to me.” The stylist stops him from telling her anything, “I care about you kids so just be careful alright?”

His stylist sounds so sincere that Minho gives up and decides that it’s best to just nod.

One morning, Minho wakes up before his alarm is set to ring. With time to spare, he closes his eyes again, wanting to catch as much sleep as he can before he actually has to wake up for the first schedule of the day. He doesn’t know how much time has passed before he hears someone enter his room. Minho’s eyes may be closed but his mind is alert. He hears footsteps come towards him and it’s then he decides to open his eyes. The lights aren’t but Minho easily recognizes that it’s the leader of shinee who is snooping around in his room.

“Jinki hyung?”

“You’re awake?” Jinki is caught off-guard as he quickly places some stuff on Minho’s desk, “Sorry, I thought-”

“What are you doing, hyung?” Minho squints, trying to make out what Jinki has put on his table.

“Just giving you some necessities to, you know… be safe.” Jinki answers vaguely before he lets out a nervous laugh, “I’ll just go now.”

With that, Jinki quickly leaves Minho’s room and closes the door behind him. Curious, Minho gets out of bed and walks to his desk. There, he finds a bottle of lube and what seems like a dozen packets of condoms on the table top. Grabbing his phone, Minho double checks the date and is sure it isn’t April fools’.

Why is Jinki giving him these then?

And why are these even “necessities”?

There are so many more questions Minho wants to ask but he can’t possibly go up to the leader of shinee for answers. As close as he is to Jinki, it’s still embarrassing and awkward to talk about a topic like this. Besides, Minho isn’t even that ually active. Clearly, Jinki thinks otherwise so perhaps it’s better to leave things that way.

Congrats, Minho yah!

Thanks hyung… but what for?

Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me.

What secret???

Is that a trick question?

Frustrated that he is out of the loop for what seems like the hundredth time in the recent months, Minho is thinking of a reply when the next message from Kyuhyun pops up.

See? My lips are sealed.

Throughout the day, his phone continues buzzing with more messages, mostly from the SMTown family, along the lines of “congratulations!”, “finally, we can all stop pretending” and “why didn’t you tell me?!”, all of which leaves Minho completely puzzled. Although he reads all the messages that come in, Minho chooses not to reply to anyone because he’s tired of sounding stupid.

I’m so glad I moved out of the dorm.
Poor Jinki hyung.

When he receives Jonghyun’s texts, Minho finally responds. He’s too fed up to text Jonghyun though and so, he calls him directly instead.

The phone call only lasts for about 5 minutes but it’s enough for Minho to finally understand what is going on.

A few seconds later, Minho is standing in Kibum’s room and staring at his bandmate who is sitting on the floor seemingly busy organizing his closet.

“Kibum…”

“Hmm?” Kibum replies without sparing a look at Minho as he focuses on folding his shirt nicely to store in his cupboard.

“Do you know there’s a rumour going around that we’re sleeping together?” Not wasting any time, Minho goes straight to the point and even adds on to explain, “Because we’ve apparently been spotted in couple outfits?”

Kibum’s hands stop moving for a split second as he quickly hides the smile that is tugging on the corners of his lips before he replies calmly, “I know.”

“And?”

“And what, Minho?” Kibum finally looks up at his chingu, tilting his head to one side in question.

“You’re not going to do anything about it?”

Everything about Minho shows that he is clearly baffled at the current situation.

“Why should I?”

“Because it isn’t true?” Minho says it like it’s obvious.

Kibum doesn’t disagree and simply shrugs, “It may not be true now… but it will be. Some time, I hope, in the near future?”

Minho finally understands what it means to be dumbfounded, and, after his initial shock, also manages to piece everything together.

By then, Kibum doesn’t bother holding back a smile anymore.

“I’m just preparing for what we both know will come sooner or later.” He says like it’s no big deal.

Now that he finally understands, Minho feels so angry with himself. It’s frustrating enough that he couldn’t figure out what had been going on the entire time but even more so now that he realises he has made Kibum, made them, wait this long.

All this while, Minho believes it is better for them, for shinee, to keep the status quo especially with how their lives have been progressing so smoothly. Even though it has been painfully obvious that they have a thing going on, everyone seems to share a silent agreement not to speak about the elephant in the room. It feels enough for Minho to be with Kibum like this. Yet, evidently, Kibum doesn’t feel the same.

They look at each other for a moment before Minho unexpectedly turns around and walks out of Kibum’s room.

“Hey!” Kibum calls after Minho, suddenly nervous, “Where are you going!”

“I’m going to get those necessities I got from Jinki hyung.” Minho answers, the volume of his voice getting softer as he rushes back to his own room.

“What necessities?!”

Upset that Minho has gone off just like that, Kibum is so close to stomping his feet and losing his temper at his bandmate. As much as he is hopelessly in love with Minho, Kibum’s patience is wearing thin.

About an hour later though, Kibum thinks that one extra minute of waiting for Minho is worth it. And together, they decide to send a thank you gift to the ever so reliable Jinki. Wait, make that two because they should probably send an apology gift too for what he’ll have to endure now that they’ve discovered how good the is.