"Cherrypopping" (Minho/Suzy) Chapter 6
After two hours, give or take a little, locked up in Suzy's room, Suzy slips on a big t-shirt and sneaks down to the kitchen. When she comes back with a bag of chocolate chip cookies Minho lands one look at her and scoffs.
“What are you, five?” He has put his sweatpants back on during her absence, and is now leaned comfortably against Suzys bed.
“’ou ‘on’t have ‘o eat any.” She manages, mouth full.
After only a second of hesitation, he extends an arm and pulls her down on the floor. “Don’t hog."
They eat in silence, staring into the opposite wall. When the bag is empty Suzy brushes crumbs off her carpet; in reality only rearranging them slightly.
“You’ve got some there.” Minho points to the corner of her mouth, and for a second Suzy thinks he’s gonna lean over and kiss it away, wouldn’t he just be sappy like that, but instead he leans in the opposite direction, reaching for the glass of water on the bedstand. As Suzy wipes her mouth with her hand as he gulpes down three, four big mouthfuls of water before handing the glass to her.
A stray look is cast over the edge of the glass. Suzy gets an eyeful of collarbones, skin stretching over tendons and some armpit hair peeking out before she whips her gaze away, suddenly strangely shy. They’ve been bumpin’ ugly for almost two weeks, why’s she blushing over seeing him shirtless?
Her train of thought is interrupted by the obnoxious; “Liking what you see?” and she turns her head around to a matching grin.
“Keh…” Suzy scoffs, and manages a roll of the eyes before busying herself with getting on her feet. She puts the glass back and, despite herself, steals another glance before he turns to look at her and she realizes that he can probably see her whole machinery from that angle.
“I wanna.” Suzy says hastily, and gets up on the bed, safely behind his back. “Massage your shoulders.”
“Um.” Minho says, turning his head halfways. “Okay.”
She eases her legs on either side of his arms and splays a hand against his shoulder blade. The skin is warm.
“The neck.” He begs shamelessly and leans his head forward as she moves her hands up.
“The neck” she teases in a deep, whining voice (quite satisfied with her imitation), but he doesn’t respond, aside from an annoyed shrug of the shoulders. She takes to kneading his muscles for a while, not really registering her own actions, before fingers sneak up into his hair. She feels tingles along her own scalp as she strokes featherlightly along his hairline and combs through his short hair.
Soon enough he tilts his head backwards, and looks at her upside-down. “What are you doing?” he questions lazily, obviously not disapproving.
“I don’t know.” She breathes, pausing before leaning over to place a kiss on his lips, but he only sputters, face full of her long hair. She laughs and whips it in his face again, upon which he takes a grip of her arm and drags her down to the floor. She lands softly on a knee and sinks down beside him, pulling at the hem of the t-shirt, before he pulls her close with a not-so-soft grip around her neck. He tastes faintly of chocolate and Suzy realizes she feels it in her own mouth as well.
He has just pushed her down on the floor, leaning over, when the unmistakeable sound of the front door slamming closed reaches them from downstairs.
“Fuck!” Suzy immediately snaps up to sitting position. “What time is it?”
“Are… are your parents home.” Minho states more than asks, a clear hint of panic in his voice.
“Fuck fuck fuck” Suzy rants, getting to her feet. “Get dressed, damn it!”
“I’m not the one who’s butt-naked!” he squeaks in defense, frantically looking for his t-shirt while Suzy pulls a pair of panties up her hips.
“And fix your hair” she continues. “You look like shit.”
“You locked the door, right?”
“Right” she hisses. “And why would I lock the door when home alone with my neighbor, my relationship with whom is purely platonic.” She casts a short look up and down him, coming to a halt at his midsection. “For fucks sake, Minho.”
“I can’t help it!” he whines, pulling at the waistband of his pants, trying to collect some ease at the front. Suzy, at the time stepping into a pair of track pants, then turns to him desperately;
“What are we doing?!”
“What do you mean what we’re doing, we were making-…”
“Moron!” she snarls, snitches her school bag from a corner and promptly empties it on the bed while raking through her hair with the other hand.
“Sit down!” she orders Minho, who is having a hard time catching the books that was just thrown at him.
“What do you mean-…”
“SIT DOWN!”
Minho immediately sinks to the floor, soon followed by Suzy with a pencil in one hand and a notepad in the other. The very next second Suzy’s mother opens the door.
“Hi mom!” Suzy beams, hoping her face is not too red.
Her mom hesitates for a second (during which two out of three hearts in the room practically leap out of their cavities), before returning the smile. “Hi there. What are you kids up to?”
“Um. Minho, Minho-oppa is helping me study. Um. Big test coming up…”
“Really?” Suzys mother raises a brow. “What subject?”
“Um.” Suzy casts a half-second look at the topmost-book (strategically placed) in Minho’s lap. “English. Yeah, English.”
For another two suffocating seconds Suzys mother scans them both intently, before her features smoothen into her motherly smile.
“Dinner in fourty minutes.”
She disappears, and Minho turns an empty gaze at Suzy.
“…We need to get a place of our own.”
-
Sulli eyes her the whole next day, but it’s not until lunch break, waiting for Krystal outside the girls’ room, that she leans over;
“You know, right. This is the last day.”
Suzy attempts humour, even though she isn’t really feeling like it; “So can I shag him today too, or was yesterday my last chance?”
Sulli doesn’t even grace her with a smirk.
“How do I know you’ll really be quitting?”
Suzy is taken aback; frankly she didn’t expect this. “You won’t.” She says bluntly, and then again takes to the humour; “Unless you install a hidden camera in my room, but I’m not too fond of that idea.”
“I’ll quit.” She adds then, harshly under Sullis reprimanding glare.
“Fine.” Sulli says. “So this never happened.”
“Fine.”
“What are you talking about?” Krystal, coming out of the door while wiping her hands on a paper towel, asks.
“Nothing.” Suzy assures with a smile. “Let’s go eat.”
-
Still, she wears her shoes when noting the car nextdoor pulling out from the driveway the same night. Her mother emerges from the kitchen immediately.
“Where are you going?”
Suzy eyes her tiredly. “Nextdoor.”
“You’re seeing Choi Minho again? You’ve been spending quite some time with him lately.”
Way more than you know of, Suzy thinks to herself. “He’s helping me study.” She lies, without even blinking.
Suzy’s mother narrows her eyes. “Then why aren’t you bringing any books?”
“I am.” Suzy says quickly. “I just… can’t find my bag.”
She rolls her eyes, and points to Suzy’s feet.
“Oh.” Suzy says. “Well. See you later.”
“Wait.” Suzy turns around with her hand at the doorknob. “He’s nice to you… and all, right?”
Suzy manages a slanted smile. “Otherwise I wouldn’t go there, mom.”
It takes Minho a long time to answear the door. Suzy is afraid that her mom is watching her from the livingroom window, but she can’t look, only quickly press by Minho as the door finally opens.
“Hey.” He says, and then adds, closing the door. “By all means, come in.”
Suzy dumps the backpack on the floor and turns to him; “Mom thinks we’ve been spending quite some time together lately, you and I.” She expects a laugh, but Minho only smiles weakly.
“At least” he starts after a while. “she hasn’t figured out the connection between your visits and the absence of my parents?”
“Give her a week.” Suzy snorts.
Minho frowns, but says nothing. Instead, he pulls her close and kisses her on the lips. She leans in and wraps her arms around his neck, wanting to just melt into his warmth, just lie in his bed all night. But she can’t stop thinking about Sulli. Sulli and Krystal. Two weeks
“Um.” She mumbles against Minho’s lips, and he releases her. She’s quiet for way too long, not knowing what to say, how to phrase it.
“You’re right.” She says finally. “This is it.”
“What?” he questions, but she’s sure he knows what she means. She backs a few steps, leaving some distance inbetween them.
“This…” she says vaguely and makes a circling gesture with her hand. When he doesn’t say anything, she takes a deep breath; “Could you… set me up on that date now?”
“…”
“I mean… Lee Taemin.”
“I know what you mean.” He says shortly, but then smiles. He flips his cellphone from his pocket, and teases; “You wan’t me to call him now?”
“No!” Suzy squeals, and dives forward for the phone. Their hands touch as she takes it from him. His are warm, hers are cold.
But then he laughs, and she sucks it all in. Subconciously she notes that she’s releaved, and realizes only in that moment that she could have screwed everything up. She could have screwed everything up.
Later, when they’re both sprawled over his livingroom couch watching TV (close enough to feels his heat but far enough away to ignore it), she thinks of something else.
“Hey.”
“Hm?”
“You know Krystal?”
He frowns in thought. “Who?”
“Krystal Jung, my friend. You met her just the other day.”
He stares blankly into the air for so long that she thinks he’s just ignoring her, but then he mumbles, slowly; “Yeah… The one who looks like she’s just about to cry, right?”
Suzy can’t help but to laugh; it’s a pretty precise description of Krystal, even though she knows there’s a lot more to the girl than what the eye sees.
“Yeah, her.”
“What about her?”
She pauses, again not knowing how to phrase her request. “Couldn’t you ask her out?”
He turns to stare at her. “Why?”
“Because.” Suzy writhes in her seat. “I owe her a favour. Just a date, okay? She’s nice. And really cute.”
“Why me?” He asks and turns his face away again, obviously flattered.
“Because.” Suzy smiles now. “You’re hot and all…”
Minho casts her a sideway glance and snorts, now even more flattered.
“What kind of date?” He mumbles, seemingly just wanting to say something.
“I dunno.” Suzy rants easily. “A movie, a burger? Nothing fancy. Just, meet up and see where that gets you.”
“Is she as young and immature as you?” Minhos grin is obnoxiously mischievous, as always. Suzy laughs.
“No, she’s really cool. I’ll give you her number.”
“What are you, five?” He has put his sweatpants back on during her absence, and is now leaned comfortably against Suzys bed.
“’ou ‘on’t have ‘o eat any.” She manages, mouth full.
After only a second of hesitation, he extends an arm and pulls her down on the floor. “Don’t hog."
They eat in silence, staring into the opposite wall. When the bag is empty Suzy brushes crumbs off her carpet; in reality only rearranging them slightly.
“You’ve got some there.” Minho points to the corner of her mouth, and for a second Suzy thinks he’s gonna lean over and kiss it away, wouldn’t he just be sappy like that, but instead he leans in the opposite direction, reaching for the glass of water on the bedstand. As Suzy wipes her mouth with her hand as he gulpes down three, four big mouthfuls of water before handing the glass to her.
A stray look is cast over the edge of the glass. Suzy gets an eyeful of collarbones, skin stretching over tendons and some armpit hair peeking out before she whips her gaze away, suddenly strangely shy. They’ve been bumpin’ ugly for almost two weeks, why’s she blushing over seeing him shirtless?
Her train of thought is interrupted by the obnoxious; “Liking what you see?” and she turns her head around to a matching grin.
“Keh…” Suzy scoffs, and manages a roll of the eyes before busying herself with getting on her feet. She puts the glass back and, despite herself, steals another glance before he turns to look at her and she realizes that he can probably see her whole machinery from that angle.
“I wanna.” Suzy says hastily, and gets up on the bed, safely behind his back. “Massage your shoulders.”
“Um.” Minho says, turning his head halfways. “Okay.”
She eases her legs on either side of his arms and splays a hand against his shoulder blade. The skin is warm.
“The neck.” He begs shamelessly and leans his head forward as she moves her hands up.
“The neck” she teases in a deep, whining voice (quite satisfied with her imitation), but he doesn’t respond, aside from an annoyed shrug of the shoulders. She takes to kneading his muscles for a while, not really registering her own actions, before fingers sneak up into his hair. She feels tingles along her own scalp as she strokes featherlightly along his hairline and combs through his short hair.
Soon enough he tilts his head backwards, and looks at her upside-down. “What are you doing?” he questions lazily, obviously not disapproving.
“I don’t know.” She breathes, pausing before leaning over to place a kiss on his lips, but he only sputters, face full of her long hair. She laughs and whips it in his face again, upon which he takes a grip of her arm and drags her down to the floor. She lands softly on a knee and sinks down beside him, pulling at the hem of the t-shirt, before he pulls her close with a not-so-soft grip around her neck. He tastes faintly of chocolate and Suzy realizes she feels it in her own mouth as well.
He has just pushed her down on the floor, leaning over, when the unmistakeable sound of the front door slamming closed reaches them from downstairs.
“Fuck!” Suzy immediately snaps up to sitting position. “What time is it?”
“Are… are your parents home.” Minho states more than asks, a clear hint of panic in his voice.
“Fuck fuck fuck” Suzy rants, getting to her feet. “Get dressed, damn it!”
“I’m not the one who’s butt-naked!” he squeaks in defense, frantically looking for his t-shirt while Suzy pulls a pair of panties up her hips.
“And fix your hair” she continues. “You look like shit.”
“You locked the door, right?”
“Right” she hisses. “And why would I lock the door when home alone with my neighbor, my relationship with whom is purely platonic.” She casts a short look up and down him, coming to a halt at his midsection. “For fucks sake, Minho.”
“I can’t help it!” he whines, pulling at the waistband of his pants, trying to collect some ease at the front. Suzy, at the time stepping into a pair of track pants, then turns to him desperately;
“What are we doing?!”
“What do you mean what we’re doing, we were making-…”
“Moron!” she snarls, snitches her school bag from a corner and promptly empties it on the bed while raking through her hair with the other hand.
“Sit down!” she orders Minho, who is having a hard time catching the books that was just thrown at him.
“What do you mean-…”
“SIT DOWN!”
Minho immediately sinks to the floor, soon followed by Suzy with a pencil in one hand and a notepad in the other. The very next second Suzy’s mother opens the door.
“Hi mom!” Suzy beams, hoping her face is not too red.
Her mom hesitates for a second (during which two out of three hearts in the room practically leap out of their cavities), before returning the smile. “Hi there. What are you kids up to?”
“Um. Minho, Minho-oppa is helping me study. Um. Big test coming up…”
“Really?” Suzys mother raises a brow. “What subject?”
“Um.” Suzy casts a half-second look at the topmost-book (strategically placed) in Minho’s lap. “English. Yeah, English.”
For another two suffocating seconds Suzys mother scans them both intently, before her features smoothen into her motherly smile.
“Dinner in fourty minutes.”
She disappears, and Minho turns an empty gaze at Suzy.
“…We need to get a place of our own.”
-
Sulli eyes her the whole next day, but it’s not until lunch break, waiting for Krystal outside the girls’ room, that she leans over;
“You know, right. This is the last day.”
Suzy attempts humour, even though she isn’t really feeling like it; “So can I shag him today too, or was yesterday my last chance?”
Sulli doesn’t even grace her with a smirk.
“How do I know you’ll really be quitting?”
Suzy is taken aback; frankly she didn’t expect this. “You won’t.” She says bluntly, and then again takes to the humour; “Unless you install a hidden camera in my room, but I’m not too fond of that idea.”
“I’ll quit.” She adds then, harshly under Sullis reprimanding glare.
“Fine.” Sulli says. “So this never happened.”
“Fine.”
“What are you talking about?” Krystal, coming out of the door while wiping her hands on a paper towel, asks.
“Nothing.” Suzy assures with a smile. “Let’s go eat.”
-
Still, she wears her shoes when noting the car nextdoor pulling out from the driveway the same night. Her mother emerges from the kitchen immediately.
“Where are you going?”
Suzy eyes her tiredly. “Nextdoor.”
“You’re seeing Choi Minho again? You’ve been spending quite some time with him lately.”
Way more than you know of, Suzy thinks to herself. “He’s helping me study.” She lies, without even blinking.
Suzy’s mother narrows her eyes. “Then why aren’t you bringing any books?”
“I am.” Suzy says quickly. “I just… can’t find my bag.”
She rolls her eyes, and points to Suzy’s feet.
“Oh.” Suzy says. “Well. See you later.”
“Wait.” Suzy turns around with her hand at the doorknob. “He’s nice to you… and all, right?”
Suzy manages a slanted smile. “Otherwise I wouldn’t go there, mom.”
It takes Minho a long time to answear the door. Suzy is afraid that her mom is watching her from the livingroom window, but she can’t look, only quickly press by Minho as the door finally opens.
“Hey.” He says, and then adds, closing the door. “By all means, come in.”
Suzy dumps the backpack on the floor and turns to him; “Mom thinks we’ve been spending quite some time together lately, you and I.” She expects a laugh, but Minho only smiles weakly.
“At least” he starts after a while. “she hasn’t figured out the connection between your visits and the absence of my parents?”
“Give her a week.” Suzy snorts.
Minho frowns, but says nothing. Instead, he pulls her close and kisses her on the lips. She leans in and wraps her arms around his neck, wanting to just melt into his warmth, just lie in his bed all night. But she can’t stop thinking about Sulli. Sulli and Krystal. Two weeks
“Um.” She mumbles against Minho’s lips, and he releases her. She’s quiet for way too long, not knowing what to say, how to phrase it.
“You’re right.” She says finally. “This is it.”
“What?” he questions, but she’s sure he knows what she means. She backs a few steps, leaving some distance inbetween them.
“This…” she says vaguely and makes a circling gesture with her hand. When he doesn’t say anything, she takes a deep breath; “Could you… set me up on that date now?”
“…”
“I mean… Lee Taemin.”
“I know what you mean.” He says shortly, but then smiles. He flips his cellphone from his pocket, and teases; “You wan’t me to call him now?”
“No!” Suzy squeals, and dives forward for the phone. Their hands touch as she takes it from him. His are warm, hers are cold.
But then he laughs, and she sucks it all in. Subconciously she notes that she’s releaved, and realizes only in that moment that she could have screwed everything up. She could have screwed everything up.
Later, when they’re both sprawled over his livingroom couch watching TV (close enough to feels his heat but far enough away to ignore it), she thinks of something else.
“Hey.”
“Hm?”
“You know Krystal?”
He frowns in thought. “Who?”
“Krystal Jung, my friend. You met her just the other day.”
He stares blankly into the air for so long that she thinks he’s just ignoring her, but then he mumbles, slowly; “Yeah… The one who looks like she’s just about to cry, right?”
Suzy can’t help but to laugh; it’s a pretty precise description of Krystal, even though she knows there’s a lot more to the girl than what the eye sees.
“Yeah, her.”
“What about her?”
She pauses, again not knowing how to phrase her request. “Couldn’t you ask her out?”
He turns to stare at her. “Why?”
“Because.” Suzy writhes in her seat. “I owe her a favour. Just a date, okay? She’s nice. And really cute.”
“Why me?” He asks and turns his face away again, obviously flattered.
“Because.” Suzy smiles now. “You’re hot and all…”
Minho casts her a sideway glance and snorts, now even more flattered.
“What kind of date?” He mumbles, seemingly just wanting to say something.
“I dunno.” Suzy rants easily. “A movie, a burger? Nothing fancy. Just, meet up and see where that gets you.”
“Is she as young and immature as you?” Minhos grin is obnoxiously mischievous, as always. Suzy laughs.
“No, she’s really cool. I’ll give you her number.”