Grade 'A' Stalker
Title: Grade 'A' Stalker
Pairing: Taemin/Minho
Genre: Fluff
Rating: PG-13 for language
Word Count: 3531
Warning: Large paragraphs...run-on sentences...weird descriptions...the usual for my writing style. Oh, and bring barf bags. There may be over exaggerations in here.
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His name was Lee Taemin. He was nineteen years old. He was an art history major with a minor in music. He worked at the campus’s library for money his internship at the local museum didn’t supply. He lived off campus with his friend Kibum, who was his senior by one year. Every new semester he’d have a different color, and sometimes a different cut, in his hair. His favorite food was anything that could be made with steak, though he usually wasn’t a picky eater. He had had two girlfriends and one boyfriend since he started college, but was now available though not particularly looking. He had an insane fear of bugs that could fly and any insect bigger than his thumb. He hated coffee. He loved grapes. His favorite animals were any kind of bear from grizzly to koala. He had a weird phobia against penguins and the fact that they couldn’t fly.
Minho found out this and more without even having a five-minute conversation with the newly dyed blonde. Oh, no. Minho never dared to open his mouth to speak to the object of his affections in fear he’d leave an impression so god awful that he’d rather skip town and dye his own hair than to face the sophomore again. Instead, he frequented the library of their school, which was conveniently located between all of the campus’s buildings. He was majoring in sports medicine with a minor in business, so his classes were nowhere near the art classes of Lee Taemin. The library was a legitimate place he could get his daily fill of the younger-since he knew the blonde’s schedule by heart-every Tuesday afternoon, Thursday night, and Friday and Sunday morning. But no matter what you were studying, all of the students had to go to the library at least once.
And when he found out the younger worked at the library, he made it his mission to show up every day.
He first met him-or saw, not actually met-at the grocery store. They were in different check out lanes and it was just a passing glance but Minho had been reeled in. Lee Taemin-as he eventually found out-always wore a smile when greeting people. And though he didn’t necessarily greet Minho but only acknowledged him with a slight head bow and a brilliant smile that would put the sun to shame, Minho found himself watching him as he left through the automated doors and disappeared from his sight.
And it was that one Thursday night when Minho remembered his math professor wanted the class to write a paper on the history of pi due the next day that he found himself in the library staring unceremoniously at the, at the time, rustic brown haired Taemin. It took him two whole months and warnings from his professors about ditching lessons to figure out the younger’s schedule.
“Why did you drag me here again?”
Minho looked up from the book he had randomly grabbed on his way to his table at Jinki. The table was close enough to the reception desk where he could hear that beautifully soft singsong voice but far enough so said owner wouldn’t notice him listening. Not to mention it was in the path Lee Taemin used when pushing his cart of books to be shelved again, and also when he finished. He turned his gaze over to the lithe figure behind the desk as it seemingly danced around the file cabinets pulling folders and books from everywhere while clacking away at the computer keyboard checking out books to the three waiting in line. A shy smile felt its way onto Minho’s face as he watched until Jinki smacked him across his cheek with a cold, glossy car magazine.
“Stop being a creep.”
Minho rubbed his offended cheek as he turned his attention to his hyung. “That’s exactly why I brought you, hyung. Lately I’ve been going a bit overboard with watching him. But did you really have to hit me?”
Jinki shifted his attention from Minho to the young blonde stamping the inside of a book and passing it to a waiting student. “Now when you say lately are you implying you do this often?”
Minho sniffed indifferently as his eyes went down to refocus on the book he hadn’t been reading for the past hour. “Define often.”
“Is that why the other guy and girl working waved when we walked in?”
“Define waved.”
Jinki slammed his hand flat down on the table, pointing a finger and staring at the younger with wide eyes. “Is this where you go when you claim you’re going to the gym? Because you never take your workout clothes with you. Oh my god, Jonghyun said you were leading a double life. He was right!”
“Shhhh!”
Minho ducked his head in attempt to avoid the glares of the nearby people temporarily disturbed by Jinki’s outburst. From his peripherals, he could see Lee Taemin staring at their table while talking to the female coworker.
Once Jinki apologized-quietly-he turned his attention back to Minho. “Hyung, it’s not that serious.”
“It’s serious when you spend an ungodly amount of your time in a library. And for what? You don’t even like books.”
“I do, too,” Minho protested, turning a few pages of his book to keep up appearances.
Jinki smirked, one brow raised in smug curiousness. “What’s the book you’re reading now?”
Minho blinked. He closed the book over his finger to keep the spot on the page he was not really reading and stared at the title: Boundless Landscape. He looked up at Jinki, irritated by the steady smug look of the elder, and cleared his throat. “I really don’t see how that matters.”
“So you’ve been sitting here for an hour staring into that book and can’t even tell me the title of it without looking at the cover?”
“That’s not relevant-”
“That’s totally relevant.”
They sat staring at each other, neither willing to back down from their argument. Jinki crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. He knew Minho was competitive. It was highly annoying in cases like this. But he knew how to win this. He hadn’t been sitting in a damn library at eight a.m. for a whole hour straight without noticing the way his dongsaeng’s ears perked up and he leaned forward whenever that young blonde opened his mouth.
“I guess I can just go ask that blonde librarian how he feels about being creeped on-”
“Hyung,” Minho whined-he fucking whined-when Jinki made a move to stand up. “I wanted to see him, ok?”
“See? That’s all you had to say. Now, why did you drag me out of my bed to come here with you?”
Minho scratched his ear and looked over the elder’s head at the bookshelf. “I didn’t want to seem weird being here by myself.” Jinki went to reply, or ask what he meant, when Minho shook his head. “I always come here, hyung. By myself. And I realized, like…last week…that it may be weird to Taemin if I come whenever he’s working.”
Jinki’s brows knitted together and his head tilted to the side as he stared at Minho. “Why would that be weird? It’s not like you have his work schedule memorized or anything.” He chuckled at the ridiculous suggestion but stopped immediately when he noticed Minho not laughing with him. “Oh my god. You are a grade A stalker.”
“I know.”
“That’s illegal, isn’t it? Shit! I can’t be arrested for associating with you, can I? Since I found out I can be charged as an accessory to the crime. No, if anyone asks, I don’t know you, Choi.”
“Jinki hyung.”
“Ani. You don’t know me.”
“Hyung,” he whined, for the second time within ten minutes.
“Minho, just what is it that you’ve done around the kid? Maybe it’s not that bad.”
“Nothing. Honest,” Minho swallowed. “I just…hear things.”
“Like what?”
“Just simple stuff. Like…his name, age, stuff he likes and dislikes, the store on main street he shops at, his dentist appointment is this Tuesday so he’s taking off, he’s trying to convince his roommate to stop hounding their landlord to allow animals in their building so they wont get kicked out-oh, I wonder if he talked to the maintenance guy about the leak in their refrigerator. Hyung, do you know how much it costs to order shoes express? He left his favorite pair over a friend’s house and they disappeared when he threw a party. I wonder if he has a picture on his school page so I can get them. He wears a nine, but those shoes ran small. No, wait, he just has a thing about how small his feet are so he got a size larger and wore thick socks with them...Hyung, why are you staring at me like that?”
Jinki resisted the urge to crash his head into the table as he stared at Minho incredulously. “Why do you-how did you-just how long have you been stalking this kid?”
“Far too long, hyung. And it’s driving me crazy. Jonghyun hyung thinks I should just confess to him, but I know I’ll mess it up. Because I know all this stuff about him, and it might slip out and he’d think I was weird and run away or something.”
“So, Jonghyun knows about this…habit of yours?” Minho nodded, placing his head in his hands. “He can be held liable, too. Good, it’s not just me.”
“You are the worst hyung ever.”
Jinki scoffed. “I resent that. I’m here aren’t I? I doubt Jonghyun would have willingly come with you like I did.”
“I bribed you with my noona’s number.”
“Because it wouldn’t have worked for Jonghyun.”
“Because he’s gay.”
“Exactly.”
Minho frowned, unable to see how that made a point, but let it go anyway. The frowned disappeared once he saw Taemin pushing his book cart through the space heading directly towards them-while also putting up books along the way, but that part didn’t matter to Minho. “Hyung, he’s coming this way!” he whispered and picked up his book once more.
Minho fought to keep his eyes on the page, flipping after mentally counting to thirty-five so not to be obvious. He could hear Jinki’s sigh and the wheels of the cart against the terrazzo flooring-he overheard Taemin talking about the renovations the school had a few semesters back-getting closer.
“Excuse me?” Minho flinched at Jinki’s voice. He looked over at him to see him flagging down Taemin-the Lee Taemin-to bring him to the table. He hoped and prayed the blonde would ignore his hyung, but he knew the younger enough to know he would never ignore someone because one, he was too kind, and two, he’d probably get fired.
“Yes? How can I help you?”
It was beautiful. The voice he had only ever heard from a distance was here right in front of him speaking in that light, feathery way. It made the hair follicles of his neck stand on edge, wishing and waiting to hear the voice again. God bless Jinki and his go-getter attitude.
“My friend here just loves reading-I don’t know if you’ve seen him around or not-but he was wondering if he could use his regular library card to check out books here.”
Jinki, you bastard, Minho scowled. Not only was Jinki bringing attention to him, but he was making him out to be an idiot as well. Everyone knew libraries were all the same and could be taken out with one-
“Ani,” Minho looked up to see the blonde strands-they were straight today because he’d wash his hair Saturday nights and let it air dry so he wouldn’t get sick Sunday mornings on the way to work-shifting freely as he shook his head. “Some people think that, and it’s true for most city libraries. But with university libraries, you need your student id card to rent books unless you want to buy. Is that why you never rent books?”
It took him a while to realize the question was directed towards him. Taemin-Lee fucking Taemin, he thought to himself-stared at him with a small, curious smile while Jinki smirked behind his car magazine. “Ah..” he cleared his throat hearing the uncomfortable pique in tone, “You, uh, notice me? I mean, you know who I am? No! Not who I am, but you see me around?”
“Yeah,” Taemin nodded with that smile-god, that smile-that made his eyes just disappear and his cheeks appear rounder and fuller than they already seemed. “You come here a lot. And sit here. I see you when I make my rounds. Oh, right! I should get back to work. Feel free to find me if you have anymore questions.”
The two older boys watched as the blonde pushed his cart and turned into the nearby aisle. Jinki put his magazine back on the table. “Well, that could have gone better.”
“How so? I actually talked to him, hyung! That’s a step up.”
Jinki shook his head, unfazed by the little details. “You drooled over him up close instead of from afar. Besides, you didn’t even get his name.”
“But I already know his name.”
“But he doesn’t know you know his name, Choi. Keep up, will you?” Jinki smirked. “Now what was that about me being a bad hyung?”
“I’ll give it a second thought.”
Jinki placed his hands down on the table and pushed himself up shaking his head. “Well, I’d say my time here was a waste as well as productive. I’m going back home to get three more hours of sleep. And don’t forget to text me Minjung’s number. By the way, your book’s upside down.”
Minho watched as he left without a second glance. He looked up at the wall clock behind the reception desk and smiled. He stood from his seat and slowly-more like slowly in his mind to not seem obvious, again-made his way towards the back aisle where the path met a dead end. He knew those shelves were the last on Taemin’s route of reshelves. And since his luck was going so well, he figured he’d maybe sit on the step stool while pretending to read something and when Taemin needed to get the stool, he would stand and-oh so confidently-offer to help reach the top shelves for him. It gave him another reason to talk to the younger without Jinki to make him look like an idiot.
Even though he now knew that he couldn’t check out books in his school library with his public library card.
So he sat and waited, plucking at the pages of some misplaced thick teen magazine of horoscopes. And as he waited he looked up the description of his sign, frowning as it said something about not having to always get his way and that this month was not going to be kind to him unless he just sat back and let nature take it’s course. He scoffed and quickly flipped to Taemin’s sign-he knew what salon he went to each semester so of course he knew his birthday-and felt a bit freaked out seeing this was the month Taemin should be getting all his medical and dental check ups, which made the fact that he was going to the dentist later this week a bit unnerving.
Maybe he should let things happen on their own.
He stood and kept the magazine in his grip as he exited the aisle only to bump into Taemin-he wondered if he would ever stop referring to the younger as the Lee Taemin in his mind-accidentally knocking some books off the cart.
“Oh no, I’m so sorry. Sorry,” he knelt down to pick up the books, dusting them off so not to taint the blonde’s precious skin with the germs from the floor. He hadn’t realized just how seriously he was wiping at them until he heard what seemed to be the chiming of angel bells as the gates of heaven opened before him, but really it was the younger’s laughter.
“Are you apologizing to me or to the books? I guess you really do like books, huh?” Minho could feel the heat of his face as he straightened himself and set the books back on the cart.
“Ah, to…you. Sorry...to you, Lee Taemin-ssi.”
“How do you know my name?” Minho stiffened quite visibly as he racked his brain to think up a quick lie. Luckily he didn’t have to when Taemin began laughing again. “I was joking. You obviously heard my coworkers calling me, right? Are you usually this reserved?”
“A-ani. Not…always.”
“Yeah, you didn’t seem to have a hard time talking with your friend. So is it me? Have I done something to make you uncomfortable?”
If he had the ability to kick his own ass, Minho would have happily obliged. Watching Taemin’s expression go from laughter to worry was a sad feat. He made a mental note to keep a smile on the younger’s face no matter what. “No no no. I’m just socially awkward with some people. But it goes away after a while,” he gave what he hoped was a smile and it seemed to work when the ends of Taemin’s lips quirked upward.
“Well, that’s a relief. So, what’s your name?”
“Minho. Choi Minho.”
“Well, Choi Minho, It’s nice meeting you…officially, I mean.”
Minho smiled, his smile that made him lose feeling in his jaw, and nodded. “Yeah, it is nice.” And he realized just how stupid he had been to not talk to him earlier. Sure, watching from afar was nice, but being able to hold a conversation within inches from each other…there was nothing like it. “We should hang out sometime.” Only he meant to keep that as a thought, so when he realized it was announced physically, he widened his eyes and found himself stuttering around it. So much for being confident.
“Wow, it took you long enough.” Minho froze, trying to wrap his brain around the blonde’s words. Taemin let out that soft ring of laughter staring at Minho’s confused face. “You really thought I didn’t notice you watching me all this time?”
“You…did?” Minho stared on in shock and anxiety. Taemin knew he practically stalked him. That couldn’t have been good.
“I’ve been waiting for the day you’d talk to me yourself and not hide away behind a book.”
“When did you find out?”
“Back when I was a red head.” And that was almost a year ago. For a whole year, Taemin-Lee Taemin, the Lee Taemin-noticed him. Not only noticed him, but noticed him watching him. He didn’t know whether to skip around elated or drown himself in pity tears.
“M-mianhae. I promise I’m not some creepy, perverted pedophile. I-I just-”
“You worry a lot, don’t you?” Minho blinked, staring down at the finger pressed against his lips-the finger that belonged to Lee fucki-and gulped. “No need to apologize…Minho hyung.” His heart jumped and flipped and leapt around in his ribcage. Never in his dreams did Taemin calling him hyung sound as good as it did in real life.
“Really?” he muttered against the pale, slim finger still on his mouth.
Taemin nodded. “Really. In fact, I think you should be thanking your friend from earlier. It’s thanks to him we’ll be having our first date next week.”
Every bone in his body froze as the younger pushed his cart to the end of the aisle and put the last of the books away. Minho blinked rapidly, trying to convince his mind that he hadn’t just heard the blonde utter first date while talking about him. Clearly it was a mistake. But when Taemin brushed past him, pushing the cart to head back to the reception desk, he found himself trailing thoughtfully behind him. They came to Minho’s table, where that book was still sitting face down along with his backpack in one of the seats.
“Wait,” he stopped Taemin before he could pass the table. The younger tilted his head, waiting for him to continue. “You said…next week, we were…” he cleared his throat and clenched his fists at his sides. “You said next week would be our first date…When are we, and where is it-”
Taemin smiled, wide and cheeky and mischievous. “I guess you’ll have to pay extra attention to what I say from now on, huh?”
Minho watched as he pushed off with the cart and disappeared behind the reception desk. He blinked and blinked and sat down so he wouldn’t fall over from the shock of the turn of events. How this had happened, he didn’t know. But there were three things he did know. One: he’d be sure to thank Jinki by forcing his sister to go on a date with him. Two: he was definitely a grade-A stalker. And three:
It’s not stalking if he knows about it.
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Oh god, what was this? It’s three in the morning and I’m up finishing oneshots watching as the water bugs take over my house like they do every night. I don’t even know what I did to Minho. I wanted stalker Minho and this is what I got. I didn’t even mean to make him so…so…I don’t even have an adjective to describe it. I’ll sleep on it and get back to you. Hope you like it :)
Pairing: Taemin/Minho
Genre: Fluff
Rating: PG-13 for language
Word Count: 3531
Warning: Large paragraphs...run-on sentences...weird descriptions...the usual for my writing style. Oh, and bring barf bags. There may be over exaggerations in here.
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His name was Lee Taemin. He was nineteen years old. He was an art history major with a minor in music. He worked at the campus’s library for money his internship at the local museum didn’t supply. He lived off campus with his friend Kibum, who was his senior by one year. Every new semester he’d have a different color, and sometimes a different cut, in his hair. His favorite food was anything that could be made with steak, though he usually wasn’t a picky eater. He had had two girlfriends and one boyfriend since he started college, but was now available though not particularly looking. He had an insane fear of bugs that could fly and any insect bigger than his thumb. He hated coffee. He loved grapes. His favorite animals were any kind of bear from grizzly to koala. He had a weird phobia against penguins and the fact that they couldn’t fly.
Minho found out this and more without even having a five-minute conversation with the newly dyed blonde. Oh, no. Minho never dared to open his mouth to speak to the object of his affections in fear he’d leave an impression so god awful that he’d rather skip town and dye his own hair than to face the sophomore again. Instead, he frequented the library of their school, which was conveniently located between all of the campus’s buildings. He was majoring in sports medicine with a minor in business, so his classes were nowhere near the art classes of Lee Taemin. The library was a legitimate place he could get his daily fill of the younger-since he knew the blonde’s schedule by heart-every Tuesday afternoon, Thursday night, and Friday and Sunday morning. But no matter what you were studying, all of the students had to go to the library at least once.
And when he found out the younger worked at the library, he made it his mission to show up every day.
He first met him-or saw, not actually met-at the grocery store. They were in different check out lanes and it was just a passing glance but Minho had been reeled in. Lee Taemin-as he eventually found out-always wore a smile when greeting people. And though he didn’t necessarily greet Minho but only acknowledged him with a slight head bow and a brilliant smile that would put the sun to shame, Minho found himself watching him as he left through the automated doors and disappeared from his sight.
And it was that one Thursday night when Minho remembered his math professor wanted the class to write a paper on the history of pi due the next day that he found himself in the library staring unceremoniously at the, at the time, rustic brown haired Taemin. It took him two whole months and warnings from his professors about ditching lessons to figure out the younger’s schedule.
“Why did you drag me here again?”
Minho looked up from the book he had randomly grabbed on his way to his table at Jinki. The table was close enough to the reception desk where he could hear that beautifully soft singsong voice but far enough so said owner wouldn’t notice him listening. Not to mention it was in the path Lee Taemin used when pushing his cart of books to be shelved again, and also when he finished. He turned his gaze over to the lithe figure behind the desk as it seemingly danced around the file cabinets pulling folders and books from everywhere while clacking away at the computer keyboard checking out books to the three waiting in line. A shy smile felt its way onto Minho’s face as he watched until Jinki smacked him across his cheek with a cold, glossy car magazine.
“Stop being a creep.”
Minho rubbed his offended cheek as he turned his attention to his hyung. “That’s exactly why I brought you, hyung. Lately I’ve been going a bit overboard with watching him. But did you really have to hit me?”
Jinki shifted his attention from Minho to the young blonde stamping the inside of a book and passing it to a waiting student. “Now when you say lately are you implying you do this often?”
Minho sniffed indifferently as his eyes went down to refocus on the book he hadn’t been reading for the past hour. “Define often.”
“Is that why the other guy and girl working waved when we walked in?”
“Define waved.”
Jinki slammed his hand flat down on the table, pointing a finger and staring at the younger with wide eyes. “Is this where you go when you claim you’re going to the gym? Because you never take your workout clothes with you. Oh my god, Jonghyun said you were leading a double life. He was right!”
“Shhhh!”
Minho ducked his head in attempt to avoid the glares of the nearby people temporarily disturbed by Jinki’s outburst. From his peripherals, he could see Lee Taemin staring at their table while talking to the female coworker.
Once Jinki apologized-quietly-he turned his attention back to Minho. “Hyung, it’s not that serious.”
“It’s serious when you spend an ungodly amount of your time in a library. And for what? You don’t even like books.”
“I do, too,” Minho protested, turning a few pages of his book to keep up appearances.
Jinki smirked, one brow raised in smug curiousness. “What’s the book you’re reading now?”
Minho blinked. He closed the book over his finger to keep the spot on the page he was not really reading and stared at the title: Boundless Landscape. He looked up at Jinki, irritated by the steady smug look of the elder, and cleared his throat. “I really don’t see how that matters.”
“So you’ve been sitting here for an hour staring into that book and can’t even tell me the title of it without looking at the cover?”
“That’s not relevant-”
“That’s totally relevant.”
They sat staring at each other, neither willing to back down from their argument. Jinki crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. He knew Minho was competitive. It was highly annoying in cases like this. But he knew how to win this. He hadn’t been sitting in a damn library at eight a.m. for a whole hour straight without noticing the way his dongsaeng’s ears perked up and he leaned forward whenever that young blonde opened his mouth.
“I guess I can just go ask that blonde librarian how he feels about being creeped on-”
“Hyung,” Minho whined-he fucking whined-when Jinki made a move to stand up. “I wanted to see him, ok?”
“See? That’s all you had to say. Now, why did you drag me out of my bed to come here with you?”
Minho scratched his ear and looked over the elder’s head at the bookshelf. “I didn’t want to seem weird being here by myself.” Jinki went to reply, or ask what he meant, when Minho shook his head. “I always come here, hyung. By myself. And I realized, like…last week…that it may be weird to Taemin if I come whenever he’s working.”
Jinki’s brows knitted together and his head tilted to the side as he stared at Minho. “Why would that be weird? It’s not like you have his work schedule memorized or anything.” He chuckled at the ridiculous suggestion but stopped immediately when he noticed Minho not laughing with him. “Oh my god. You are a grade A stalker.”
“I know.”
“That’s illegal, isn’t it? Shit! I can’t be arrested for associating with you, can I? Since I found out I can be charged as an accessory to the crime. No, if anyone asks, I don’t know you, Choi.”
“Jinki hyung.”
“Ani. You don’t know me.”
“Hyung,” he whined, for the second time within ten minutes.
“Minho, just what is it that you’ve done around the kid? Maybe it’s not that bad.”
“Nothing. Honest,” Minho swallowed. “I just…hear things.”
“Like what?”
“Just simple stuff. Like…his name, age, stuff he likes and dislikes, the store on main street he shops at, his dentist appointment is this Tuesday so he’s taking off, he’s trying to convince his roommate to stop hounding their landlord to allow animals in their building so they wont get kicked out-oh, I wonder if he talked to the maintenance guy about the leak in their refrigerator. Hyung, do you know how much it costs to order shoes express? He left his favorite pair over a friend’s house and they disappeared when he threw a party. I wonder if he has a picture on his school page so I can get them. He wears a nine, but those shoes ran small. No, wait, he just has a thing about how small his feet are so he got a size larger and wore thick socks with them...Hyung, why are you staring at me like that?”
Jinki resisted the urge to crash his head into the table as he stared at Minho incredulously. “Why do you-how did you-just how long have you been stalking this kid?”
“Far too long, hyung. And it’s driving me crazy. Jonghyun hyung thinks I should just confess to him, but I know I’ll mess it up. Because I know all this stuff about him, and it might slip out and he’d think I was weird and run away or something.”
“So, Jonghyun knows about this…habit of yours?” Minho nodded, placing his head in his hands. “He can be held liable, too. Good, it’s not just me.”
“You are the worst hyung ever.”
Jinki scoffed. “I resent that. I’m here aren’t I? I doubt Jonghyun would have willingly come with you like I did.”
“I bribed you with my noona’s number.”
“Because it wouldn’t have worked for Jonghyun.”
“Because he’s gay.”
“Exactly.”
Minho frowned, unable to see how that made a point, but let it go anyway. The frowned disappeared once he saw Taemin pushing his book cart through the space heading directly towards them-while also putting up books along the way, but that part didn’t matter to Minho. “Hyung, he’s coming this way!” he whispered and picked up his book once more.
Minho fought to keep his eyes on the page, flipping after mentally counting to thirty-five so not to be obvious. He could hear Jinki’s sigh and the wheels of the cart against the terrazzo flooring-he overheard Taemin talking about the renovations the school had a few semesters back-getting closer.
“Excuse me?” Minho flinched at Jinki’s voice. He looked over at him to see him flagging down Taemin-the Lee Taemin-to bring him to the table. He hoped and prayed the blonde would ignore his hyung, but he knew the younger enough to know he would never ignore someone because one, he was too kind, and two, he’d probably get fired.
“Yes? How can I help you?”
It was beautiful. The voice he had only ever heard from a distance was here right in front of him speaking in that light, feathery way. It made the hair follicles of his neck stand on edge, wishing and waiting to hear the voice again. God bless Jinki and his go-getter attitude.
“My friend here just loves reading-I don’t know if you’ve seen him around or not-but he was wondering if he could use his regular library card to check out books here.”
Jinki, you bastard, Minho scowled. Not only was Jinki bringing attention to him, but he was making him out to be an idiot as well. Everyone knew libraries were all the same and could be taken out with one-
“Ani,” Minho looked up to see the blonde strands-they were straight today because he’d wash his hair Saturday nights and let it air dry so he wouldn’t get sick Sunday mornings on the way to work-shifting freely as he shook his head. “Some people think that, and it’s true for most city libraries. But with university libraries, you need your student id card to rent books unless you want to buy. Is that why you never rent books?”
It took him a while to realize the question was directed towards him. Taemin-Lee fucking Taemin, he thought to himself-stared at him with a small, curious smile while Jinki smirked behind his car magazine. “Ah..” he cleared his throat hearing the uncomfortable pique in tone, “You, uh, notice me? I mean, you know who I am? No! Not who I am, but you see me around?”
“Yeah,” Taemin nodded with that smile-god, that smile-that made his eyes just disappear and his cheeks appear rounder and fuller than they already seemed. “You come here a lot. And sit here. I see you when I make my rounds. Oh, right! I should get back to work. Feel free to find me if you have anymore questions.”
The two older boys watched as the blonde pushed his cart and turned into the nearby aisle. Jinki put his magazine back on the table. “Well, that could have gone better.”
“How so? I actually talked to him, hyung! That’s a step up.”
Jinki shook his head, unfazed by the little details. “You drooled over him up close instead of from afar. Besides, you didn’t even get his name.”
“But I already know his name.”
“But he doesn’t know you know his name, Choi. Keep up, will you?” Jinki smirked. “Now what was that about me being a bad hyung?”
“I’ll give it a second thought.”
Jinki placed his hands down on the table and pushed himself up shaking his head. “Well, I’d say my time here was a waste as well as productive. I’m going back home to get three more hours of sleep. And don’t forget to text me Minjung’s number. By the way, your book’s upside down.”
Minho watched as he left without a second glance. He looked up at the wall clock behind the reception desk and smiled. He stood from his seat and slowly-more like slowly in his mind to not seem obvious, again-made his way towards the back aisle where the path met a dead end. He knew those shelves were the last on Taemin’s route of reshelves. And since his luck was going so well, he figured he’d maybe sit on the step stool while pretending to read something and when Taemin needed to get the stool, he would stand and-oh so confidently-offer to help reach the top shelves for him. It gave him another reason to talk to the younger without Jinki to make him look like an idiot.
Even though he now knew that he couldn’t check out books in his school library with his public library card.
So he sat and waited, plucking at the pages of some misplaced thick teen magazine of horoscopes. And as he waited he looked up the description of his sign, frowning as it said something about not having to always get his way and that this month was not going to be kind to him unless he just sat back and let nature take it’s course. He scoffed and quickly flipped to Taemin’s sign-he knew what salon he went to each semester so of course he knew his birthday-and felt a bit freaked out seeing this was the month Taemin should be getting all his medical and dental check ups, which made the fact that he was going to the dentist later this week a bit unnerving.
Maybe he should let things happen on their own.
He stood and kept the magazine in his grip as he exited the aisle only to bump into Taemin-he wondered if he would ever stop referring to the younger as the Lee Taemin in his mind-accidentally knocking some books off the cart.
“Oh no, I’m so sorry. Sorry,” he knelt down to pick up the books, dusting them off so not to taint the blonde’s precious skin with the germs from the floor. He hadn’t realized just how seriously he was wiping at them until he heard what seemed to be the chiming of angel bells as the gates of heaven opened before him, but really it was the younger’s laughter.
“Are you apologizing to me or to the books? I guess you really do like books, huh?” Minho could feel the heat of his face as he straightened himself and set the books back on the cart.
“Ah, to…you. Sorry...to you, Lee Taemin-ssi.”
“How do you know my name?” Minho stiffened quite visibly as he racked his brain to think up a quick lie. Luckily he didn’t have to when Taemin began laughing again. “I was joking. You obviously heard my coworkers calling me, right? Are you usually this reserved?”
“A-ani. Not…always.”
“Yeah, you didn’t seem to have a hard time talking with your friend. So is it me? Have I done something to make you uncomfortable?”
If he had the ability to kick his own ass, Minho would have happily obliged. Watching Taemin’s expression go from laughter to worry was a sad feat. He made a mental note to keep a smile on the younger’s face no matter what. “No no no. I’m just socially awkward with some people. But it goes away after a while,” he gave what he hoped was a smile and it seemed to work when the ends of Taemin’s lips quirked upward.
“Well, that’s a relief. So, what’s your name?”
“Minho. Choi Minho.”
“Well, Choi Minho, It’s nice meeting you…officially, I mean.”
Minho smiled, his smile that made him lose feeling in his jaw, and nodded. “Yeah, it is nice.” And he realized just how stupid he had been to not talk to him earlier. Sure, watching from afar was nice, but being able to hold a conversation within inches from each other…there was nothing like it. “We should hang out sometime.” Only he meant to keep that as a thought, so when he realized it was announced physically, he widened his eyes and found himself stuttering around it. So much for being confident.
“Wow, it took you long enough.” Minho froze, trying to wrap his brain around the blonde’s words. Taemin let out that soft ring of laughter staring at Minho’s confused face. “You really thought I didn’t notice you watching me all this time?”
“You…did?” Minho stared on in shock and anxiety. Taemin knew he practically stalked him. That couldn’t have been good.
“I’ve been waiting for the day you’d talk to me yourself and not hide away behind a book.”
“When did you find out?”
“Back when I was a red head.” And that was almost a year ago. For a whole year, Taemin-Lee Taemin, the Lee Taemin-noticed him. Not only noticed him, but noticed him watching him. He didn’t know whether to skip around elated or drown himself in pity tears.
“M-mianhae. I promise I’m not some creepy, perverted pedophile. I-I just-”
“You worry a lot, don’t you?” Minho blinked, staring down at the finger pressed against his lips-the finger that belonged to Lee fucki-and gulped. “No need to apologize…Minho hyung.” His heart jumped and flipped and leapt around in his ribcage. Never in his dreams did Taemin calling him hyung sound as good as it did in real life.
“Really?” he muttered against the pale, slim finger still on his mouth.
Taemin nodded. “Really. In fact, I think you should be thanking your friend from earlier. It’s thanks to him we’ll be having our first date next week.”
Every bone in his body froze as the younger pushed his cart to the end of the aisle and put the last of the books away. Minho blinked rapidly, trying to convince his mind that he hadn’t just heard the blonde utter first date while talking about him. Clearly it was a mistake. But when Taemin brushed past him, pushing the cart to head back to the reception desk, he found himself trailing thoughtfully behind him. They came to Minho’s table, where that book was still sitting face down along with his backpack in one of the seats.
“Wait,” he stopped Taemin before he could pass the table. The younger tilted his head, waiting for him to continue. “You said…next week, we were…” he cleared his throat and clenched his fists at his sides. “You said next week would be our first date…When are we, and where is it-”
Taemin smiled, wide and cheeky and mischievous. “I guess you’ll have to pay extra attention to what I say from now on, huh?”
Minho watched as he pushed off with the cart and disappeared behind the reception desk. He blinked and blinked and sat down so he wouldn’t fall over from the shock of the turn of events. How this had happened, he didn’t know. But there were three things he did know. One: he’d be sure to thank Jinki by forcing his sister to go on a date with him. Two: he was definitely a grade-A stalker. And three:
It’s not stalking if he knows about it.
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Oh god, what was this? It’s three in the morning and I’m up finishing oneshots watching as the water bugs take over my house like they do every night. I don’t even know what I did to Minho. I wanted stalker Minho and this is what I got. I didn’t even mean to make him so…so…I don’t even have an adjective to describe it. I’ll sleep on it and get back to you. Hope you like it :)