Kiss Off [2min] [6/11?]
Title: Kiss Off [AU multichapter] [6/11?]
author: Bingi (indelible-x)
pairing: Minho/Taemin
rating: PG-15
genre: romance, drama, with a side of fluff (Yeah, let's go with that...)
Disclaimer: OH YEAH, SHINEE? YEAH, WE'RE TIGHT. LEMME JUST CALL 'EM UP ON MY CELLULAR DEVICE. i own nothing
Warnings: AU, high school cliche, cursing, predictable plot, and general abuse of the English language.
CHAPTERS
chapter one
chapter two
chapter three
chapter four
chapter five
interlude: minho and key
chapter six
chapter seven
interlude: taemin and jonghyun
a/n: I have no excuse. Me and this chapter share a mutual dislike for each other.
this chapter dedicated to pieni_virhe and cosipotente thank you both for being so patient with me. <3 And special thanks to koalaspice for being a last minute beta and putting up with my constant keysmash. ILY GUUUURRRRRLL
okay. have fun.
Chapter six: I take one, one, one cause you left me and two, two, two for my family.
As the day progressed, Taemin had yet to see Minho and it was clear to see that Jonghyun was avoiding him. Sometimes, (when they were on better terms) he and Jonghyun would catch sight of each other between classes, complain about their days so far, and then hurry along to their next class, but today he didn’t see Jonghyun once.
He planned to follow Minho’s advice and talk to him at lunch. They would have food and Key there to (hopefully) clear a bit of the awkward air.
But when lunch did happen to roll around, Taemin stood by his empty lunch table with a tray full of food, scanning the cafeteria for his two usual lunch mates who had decided to go missing. Somewhere in the last row of tables he caught a flash of blonde and two familiar faces.
Key waved at him, before Jonghyun elbowed him to get him to stop. A few words were exchanged, and judging by the multiple looks sent his way by Key, the conversation was about him. And not a favorable conversation, either.
Frowning, Taemin made his way over to them, eyebrow rising in question. "Uh, hey guys...?" It came out as a question since Taemin wasn't sure what to think of the glare on Key's face.
Key said nothing, just flipped his hair and looked to Jonghyun. Jonghyun had frozen in place, turned away from Taemin.
"I don't think Jjong wants to talk right now." Key informed him, mood turning from pleasant to hostile. Taemin blinked. He was beginning to think that Jonghyun had blabbed about him to Key (but about what, he couldn’t be sure; honestly, what could Jonghyun had told Key that resulted in Taemin being the target for Key’s murderous looks?)
"Really." Taemin deadpanned, making a point to not look directly at Key. Those glares had nothing but bad intentions. "Jonghyun, c’mon. What’s your problem?”
No response, just Key looking quickly between the two of them, ready to jump in at any moment. When it was clear Jonghyun wasn't going to say anything, Key spoke up. "Sorry, Taeminnie, but really, I don't think he wants to talk."
But Taemin waited. He waited, and waited, hoping Jonghyun would at least look up or acknowledge his existence or something, because Minho had said to talk to him, so here he was. There was something of a crowd gathering, a silence that filled the air as half the cafeteria shushed itself in suspense. He could feel eyes on him and he stiffened, and maybe Key knew they were staring too, because he started talking in that proud way of his.
“Taemin, I’m sorry, but why don’t you just go away? I don’t know what you did, but it must’ve been--” Key was getting into a lecture, but Taemin cut him off halfway through, because he was not going to sit through one of those. Key thought too highly of himself and liked the sound of his voice and if Taemin was going to be angry with Jonghyun, then he might as well be angry with his right hand man, too.
“Shut up, Key. Can you please just be quiet for once?” He stared back at Jonghyun, leaving Key to decide if he should be shocked or pissed, and honestly, it felt good to snap at Key. But he didn’t take the moment to stop and feel proud of himself, just kept talking, only took a quick moment to breath before continuing, “I can’t believe you Jonghyun. How come you can’t even look at me, or at least tell me to go away yourself? Why do you have to have Key do every little thing for you? Are you that helpless, or are you just that mad at me?”
He made a mental note to never take advice from Minho ever again, and stood his ground, glaring holes in the back of Jonghyun’s stupid blonde head, waiting, because he couldn’t believe that Jonghyun wasn’t willing to even look at him. When Jonghyun did look up, it wasn’t much, just his eyes turning up and in his direction, and maybe he looked a little apologetic right then, maybe he was starting to realize just how stupid this whole situation was. They were both overreacting, and maybe Jonghyun was starting to realize that.
But Taemin didn’t catch on, just shook his head, furious because he had every right to be. “Grow up, Jonghyun. Grow the fuck up.”
Taemin was the first to look away, but he made sure Jonghyun saw him-he looked right at him-then bolted. He made his destination clear by heading straight to the senior hall, pretending not to notice every eye in the cafeteria following him out.
--
Minho’s exact location at any given time was never very difficult to pinpoint. If he wasn’t in one of his spots, then he was in the other. If he wasn’t there, then he was probably dead.
Luckily for Taemin, Minho was exactly where he thought he’d be.
The senior hall was empty, the majority of students at lunch, when Taemin walked down it, lunch tray still in hand. As he neared the bathroom, he could hear a voice that he could instantly recognize as Onew and a low rumble of laughter which was definitely Minho. (Taemin had the sound committed to memory.)
His first thought was, ‘oh good, Minho made it to school.’ His next thought was, ‘oh shit.’
He hesitated right outside the door, memories from last night flooding in. He took a slow breath, letting his eyes close and he tried to calm down. This was too much, all of this was way too much. Why did Minho have to come over? Couldn’t he have just talked to him on the phone? Couldn’t he have just hung up? Couldn’t he have just not picked up at all? Then Taemin wouldn’t have made any mistakes. Whatever was happening between him and Jonghyun would blow over, no problems. He wouldn’t have kissed Minho.
It was so much easier to blame him. Minho had thrown those rocks. Minho had climbed through the window. Minho had listened to him. Minho had slept in his bed. Minho had been too close. Minho had been too cool about it. Minho had been warm and inviting. Minho had perfectly sized fingers that fit around his perfectly sized wrists. Minho had started it.
But Taemin had kissed him.
That was something that he couldn’t deny no matter how badly he wanted to.
He bit his lip, staring at the door to the bathroom. Onew was still talking, but was mostly just laughing because that’s how Onew always spoke when telling a story, and Minho was mumbling something about trying to read and this whole scene was so familiar that Taemin just went on ahead and opened the door.
When he slowly shuffled in neither occupant seemed too surprised by his entrance, but Taemin smiled sheepishly, and made sure to avoid looking directly at Minho. He held up his tray of food, catching Minho’s gaze but quickly looked away. “I come bearing gifts.”
“Oh my gawd, I love this kid.” Onew shuffled over to him, taking the tray and inspecting it with interest. “Dibs on the milk!” He called, taking said carton and tossing the tray over to Minho, who caught it and watched his friend, amused, and something that looked like a blush coming on. It was then that Taemin noticed that Minho was kind of trying to avoid looking at him, too, and the thought of Minho being embarrassed was just too ridiculous and Taemin couldn’t really help the wide grin from spreading across his face, but that didn’t stop his nervous fidgeting.
“Uh, hey.” Taemin’s smile looked a little strained as he chanced a look at Minho.
Minho arched an eyebrow in greeting, cigarette pursed between his lips, the end unlit. He took a careful step towards Taemin, handing him his tray of food back. Taemin took it with a small smile, dully noting that Minho was wearing the same wrinkled clothes he had been last night.
“…What do you want?” Minho spoke around his cigarette, tone harsher than he intended, pushing his hair back and making like he was going to turn right on his heels and retreat to his bathroom stall, but he was rooted to the spot and ended up just turning his head and his gaze landed directly on Onew, who was sipping at his stolen milk carton, looking curiously at the two of them. He looked away a second later, hands stuffed into his pockets, unsure of what to say to Taemin.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Taemin pouted, completely oblivious to Onew. In fact, he kind of forgot he was there, more focused on Minho and his current proximity from him and whether or not he should change that. In the end, he decided to just set his tray of food down on the counter before settling his arms across his chest. “What? We can’t hang out anymore?”
Taemin bit his lip, feeling a bit bad about that particular comment. Maybe he still wasn’t in the best of moods; Jonghyun had made sure of that. Maybe he had made a mistake to -once again-run off to Minho first chance he got.
It was obvious they both needed more time apart to think things through. Taemin felt like last night he had rushed into something he wasn’t completely ready for. He didn’t like the way that Minho refused to look at him, either, or the fact that he there were a million different thoughts running through his head and he didn’t even know where to begin to process through them all.
Minho stared at him a moment before repeating himself. “What do you want?” But it came out a little less harshly this time, a small bit of concern sneaking its way in there and he hoped that Taemin picked up on the double meaning, the subtle ‘are you okay?’ snuck in there.
It seemed that he did, because his shoulders relaxed slightly, and Taemin managed a small smile and that made him feel a little bit better about the situation-but not by much. “I just want to talk, I guess.” Which Minho liked to think was code for, ‘I wasn’t in the best of moods, but that doesn’t matter anymore because I feel so much better now that you’re here, Minho. How about we just forget everything and cuddle it out, huh?’ (and this was a bit of a weird thing for Minho to think up, since he never really thought of himself as a cuddly guy. But cuddles with Taemin didn’t seem like such a bad thing. In fact, he rather liked that thought.)
But in all actuality, Taemin meant exactly what he said. He just wanted to talk, preferable soon and preferable alone. (Sorry, Onew, he thinks to himself.)
Minho stuffs his hands into his pockets, “Oh?”
“Y-yeah…” and now Taemin is fidgeting nervously, twirling a piece of hair around his finger, biting his lip as he thought. He had a lot to say to Minho, things like: ‘where does last night leave us?’ Or ‘you give really bad advice.’ Or ‘what do you really think of me?’ Or ‘fuck this, how about we just cuddle it out?’ but none of these things seemed appropriate to say, especially in front of Onew.
But then that led to another thought. Onew was Minho’s friend; what if he already told him? In which case, it shouldn’t matter what Taemin said right then. And then that led to him thinking, should it matter even if Minho hasn’t told Onew? They were all friends here - although he and Minho may or may not be something a little more than that- but would Onew really have a problem with that?
He didn’t know, and so he fell silent, and that silence slowly filled the room because Minho was waiting for him to finish and Onew was staring wide-eyed at the two of them and Taemin honestly had no idea what to do next.
So he smiled. A nervous one, but it was the closest he could get to something real. “Oh wow… um, lunch is almost over and I don’t want to be late for class. I have a math test to take so…. See ya!” With a little wave over his shoulder, Taemin bolted out the door, gone a second later. Minho watched him go, blinking at Taemin’s retreating back.
Breathing slowly through his nose, Minho searched his pockets till he found his lighter. He lit up a second later, smoke blowing up in little wisps, but this time he didn’t watch, eyes focused on the door Taemin had just walked out of, feeling like he had just been rejected because as far as he was concerned, the conversation had been going pretty well.
The silence that followed didn’t last very long before Onew side-stepped his way into Minho’s line of sight, look of suspicion on his face and carton of milk emptied. “Minho? What was that all about?”
He took a slow drag on his cigarette before tossing it to the ground, half smoked. He ground it out with the heel of his shoe before walking over to the tray of food Taemin had left behind, hands stuffed into his pockets and head hanging. He thought for one long moment about what he should do next.
He wasn’t sure what to think, since thinking was never his first choice when it came to decision making. But he found a thought, somewhere while sighing to himself and poking at the peanut butter and jelly sandwich that had been left behind. It was just a little inkling of a thought, but it seemed to sum up the situation pretty well, and it left him with a small little half smile. Onew was waiting for an explanation, but this time, Minho wasn’t going to give him one. This thought was all his own, and he would keep it to himself, tucked somewhere in the back of his mind to reflect on later. Maybe someday he’d share it, but for now, it was all his own.
“I think,” He wet his lips, trying to hide his smile and shuffling around in his pockets, looking for his cigarettes, only to find an empty carton, “I need to get some more cigarettes.”
--
Hours later finds Taemin at home, face buried under his pillow and backpack forgotten at the side of his bed. He had sucked it up and stayed at school for the rest of the day, partly because he had a test to take in his math class (he hadn’t been lying about that) but mostly because he had never skipped class without Minho before. The thought of wandering off on his own didn’t have the same appeal.
He kicked the shoes off of his feet, rolling over in bed, cheeks puffing out as he stared up at the ceiling. It had been a tiring day, and thoughts of Jonghyun and Minho where never far off. He needed a distraction, something to help get his mind off of things.
His mom (who still suspected nothing) was still at work, and homework would be a last resort, and that didn’t leave him with very many options. Desperate times called for desperate measures, he supposed, and that’s what led Taemin to glace over as his nearly empty bookshelf. Reading was one of Taemin’s least favorite things to do, but he had to have something over there to keep his interest, didn’t he?
“…Huh?”
Blinking, Taemin sat up, sliding off his bed and staring at the small pile of stuff taking up space on his bookshelf. It was just a lighter, a wallet, and two packs of cigarettes, but none of these items had any business being where they were. If anything, they should’ve been in the pockets of a certain local bad boy.
Taemin almost didn’t notice the small smile on his face when he reached out and grabbed one of the cigarette cartons, shaking it until one fell out into his palm. Cigarettes didn’t have much appeal, either. They were much more interesting when resting in between Minho’s fingers or settled between his lips. He stuffed the cigarette back into the carton, swapping it out for the wallet.
The leather was worn, and when Taemin flipped it open the first thing he saw was Minho’s divers license, which he stared at for a moment before laughing and flopping back onto his bed, studying the picture. Minho looked like he always did, hair just barely kept out of his eyes, and devious smirk in place. He noticed that his birthday was coming up in the next few months and he wondered idly what he should get him.
Before he could inspect the rest of the wallet, his phone started to ring, effectively scaring the shit out of him. Blinking dumbly for a moment, he grabbed his phone from where he had tossed it on the end of the bed, taking a glance at the caller id. He hummed in approval at the name on the screen before answering, pressing up the phone up to his ear.
“I didn’t know you had your drivers license.” He says, flopping backwards onto his bed again, holding the wallet open and in front of him.
“I was wondering where I left that.” Minho chuckles from the other side of the line. “But hey, stay out of my wallet, creep.”
“I’m not being a creep, I was just trying to figure out who it belonged to.” But Taemin flips the wallet closed anyway, standing up so he can stuff it into his pocket and as an afterthought, he goes ahead and grabs the cigarettes and lighter, too.
“What’re you trying to say? Do you always invite random people into your room in the hopes that they’ll leave something behind?” Taemin knows that Minho is only teasing, but he shakes his head anyway.
“No. Only you.”
“Good. I’m a jealous guy.”
Taemin is smiling to himself, and somewhere not that far away, Minho is, too, and it was one of those moments where everything was perfect again. Taemin wondered how Minho could do that so easily, because right now, he didn’t feel nervous at all, not like he had in the bathroom earlier that day.
Minho, completely oblivious to Taemin’s sudden good mood, just knew that talking to Taemin was a good thing, and that led him to ask the one and only question that at that moment could make Taemin frown.
“So, did you talk to Jonghyun today?”
Minho was in his back alley, sprawled out on his couch with his ball in his hand, head leaned back to stare up at the afternoon sky, and he’s idly tossing the ball up and down in a steady rhythm, unaware that Taemin was back in his room, fidgeting with the edge of his shirt and biting his lip because Jonghyun was the last thing that he wanted to talk about.
“Um.” Taemin shifted the phone slightly, sinking back down to sit on the edge of his bed. “Yeah. Well. …Kinda.”
“Hm.” Minho’s running a hand through his hair, realizing that he might have made a mistake, bringing that up, and what he really wanted right then was a cigarette. “Anything you want to talk about?”
There was shuffling over the line as Taemin moved the phone from one ear to the other, glancing down at the box of cigarettes he had set down on the bed beside him. “Where are you at right now?”
Minho didn’t seem fazed by the random subject change, just rolled his shoulders , smirking. “Guess.”
“Okay. Cool. I’ll be right there.”
“Cool.”
And then Taemin hung up, standing back up and putting his cell phone into his pocket along with Minho’s wallet. He did a quick double check to make sure he had everything he needed to return, nodding in approval when just out of the corner of his eye he saw something else that had no business being where it was.
He crouched down, picking up Minho’s jacket that he must’ve left along with his other stuff and Taemin got that feeling that Minho was planning on moving in if he was even leaving his clothes here. But Taemin decided that that wouldn’t be so bad, so long as he could somehow cover up the smell of cigarette smoke, but this idea quickly vanished because Minho had his own house with his own room and therefore had no reason to.
But it was a nice thought to have, anyway.
Smiling to himself, he folded the jacket neatly before setting it on the edge of his bed before grabbing the packs of cigarettes and walking out the door, figuring that if Minho really needed it, he would ask for it back. Besides, winter came fast in their little town and that jacket looked a million times more warm and comfortable than anything Taemin owned.
--
Minho was reading when Taemin showed up ten minutes later, but he didn’t look up right away. He made a small humming noise in greeting, sitting up slightly where he was laying down on his couch before returning his attention to his book; he only had a few more paragraphs left till the end of the chapter.
Honestly, he couldn’t say that the book had his full attention because out of the corner of his eye he could see Taemin looking at him with a shy kind of smile, ruffling the back of his hair with one hand and a pack of Minho’s cigarettes in the other.
“Hey.” He said.
“Hey.” Minho replied, smiling from behind his book, which he was now ignoring completely in favor of paying attention to Taemin and how he was slowly walking towards him.
“I brought these back for you.” Taemin continued, stopping in front of him. He smiled down at him, waving the cigarette boxes at him. “Figured you’d need ‘em.”
It took a bit of effort on Minho’s part to look away from Taemin and to the things being handed to him, but he did, smiling as he took them from him. This had to be something of a dream come true, because Taemin was here and kept smiling at him and said boy had just brought him cigarettes.
“Thanks.” He says, and he almost kisses him right then, but leans back instead, stretching out on the couch and fishing out a cigarette. He lit up, letting it rest between his fingers. He took a second to watch the smoke come up in little wisps before grabbing his book from where he had left it and resumed reading again. “Hold on, I’m almost done.” He offered by way of explanation to the small frown on Taemin’s face.
It was then that Taemin proved that he could be very distracting when he wanted to be, because he simply huffed before pulling the book away from Minho. Taemin at least dog-eared the page he was on before setting it on the ground.
“You can’t read right now.” Taemin said, hands on his hips and what he hoped to be a stern look on his face, but it probably failed, because Minho was blinking up at him like he couldn’t quite believe what had just happened. But Taemin would be having no distractions.
Minho waved his cigarette around for a moment, making the air fill with smoke, smirking. “Oh yeah. You said we had to talk, didn’t we?” Minho knew that they had to, but he was honestly a little scared of where the conversation might lead.
“Yeah. And I don’t really want to talk about Jonghyun or anything, cause really I just want to talk about… um.” It was here that Taemin starts fidgeting nervously again, looking away from Minho because he isn’t really sure how to bring it up. He slowly paces back and forth, thinking, and Minho sits up on the couch, watching Taemin curiously.
He stops, suddenly, tilting his head as he looked at Minho and his slightly mused hair, his cigarette still in his hand and the wide eyed look he had. Taemin smiled, just a little bit, “Okay, so, let’s say that we-theoretically speaking, of course.” He paused, watched Minho smirk and nod.
“Theoretically. Gotchya.”
“Right. So, let’s say that we’re…” He breathed slowly through his nose, wondering what would be the best word to describe it. “…we’re together.” He waited for Minho’s reaction, not sure exactly what he was expecting to see, but Minho just nodded again, and so Taemin continued on, eyes rolling skyward and hoping that Minho wouldn’t notice him blushing.
“And because we’re, ya know, together, would…” He trails off again, that fluttery feeling back in his chest, and he feels like his heart is in his throat because the words he’s looking for are there, but he just can’t figure out how to say them.
Minho’s blinking up at him, elbows resting on his knees and chin propped up on his hands. He gets silent amusement from watching Taemin being as flustered as he is, but after a few seconds of watching him puff out his cheeks and twirling his hair around a finger, Minho takes just a little bit of pity on him and decided to help him out. “C’mere.” He says, stretching out his hand that wasn’t holding the cigarette.
Taemin did as he was told, hesitating only slightly to process the simple request. He shuffled forward, smiling and probably still blushing. Minho was still smirking, staring up at him expectantly. Taemin opened his mouth to say something, but once he was close enough, Minho reached out and grabbed his wrist, tugging once.
Taemin barely had time to let out a surprised squeak before he was pulled forward, nearly toppling over on top of Minho if he hadn’t put his hand out in time to catch himself on the back of the couch.
But none of that really mattered, because Minho craned his neck up at the perfect angle in order to catch Taemin’s lips against his own and the contact was so sudden that Taemin nearly did fall on top of Minho, but that probably wouldn’t have been that bad because that just meant being closer and Taemin had no objections to that whatsoever.
He blinked in surprise for just a moment and he felt Minho smirk and that was all it took for Taemin to sigh and close his eyes, hand going from propping himself up on the couch to Minho’s hair, which in turn made Minho sit up a little straighter and that let Taemin stand up a bit taller and now no one was in danger of falling on top of anyone.
It was slow, as far as kisses go, not that Taemin had very many to compare it with, but he found that he didn’t mind it. Minho was the first to pull away, fingers still locked around Taemin’s wrist and Taemin was beaming at him. Taemin didn’t pull back, just moved forward till their foreheads were pressed together, tips of their noses touching, before speaking.
“Oh. Hi.”
“Hi.”
“Does this mean…?”
“Mean what?”
“Miiiinhooooooooo.”
“Taemiiiiin.”
“Stop that. Answer the question.”
“Stop what? Answer what question?”
“I will hit you.”
Minho didn’t seem at all threatened by Taemin, instead just smiled, tilting his head a bit. Taemin smiled back, but hit him anyway, punching him not-so lightly on the shoulder, which made Minho chuckle, but he flinched anyway.
“I think I’ll get a bruise there.” Minho says around his smile, waving the hand with the cigarette, smoke floating up around them.
“Good. I hope you do.” Taemin replies, pulling away from Minho and out of his grip settling his arms across his chest. “I’m trying to be serious here.” He pouts.
“Okay, okay.” Minho tosses his burnt cigarette away, reaching back out to grab Taemin again, this time both hands locking around both his wrists. Taemin lets him pull him into his lap, curling up against him, head resting on his shoulder. He tugs his wrists free, one of Minho’s arms curling around him and Taemin just sits, closing his eyes.
“Is this a good or bad thing?” Taemin whispers, and he doesn’t elaborate, just hopes that Minho gets what he means.
“Hm. What do you think?” Minho’s voice is right by Taemin’s ear, and he isn’t used to be held like this, or being this close to anyone, for that matter. He’s blushing and he’s nervous, because even though no one hardly ever came by here, they were still in public and could be seen by anyone. But as he thought about it, he put his hand up to Minho’s free hand, palm to palm, and Minho’s watching him with amusement and none of this seems bad at all.
Maybe in the end, he wasn’t feeling that nervous. Excited was probably a better word for it.
“I think it’s a good thing.” He smiles, and he blinks up at Minho, who hums in agreement and this time Taemin is at least half prepared for what Minho does next.
Minho starts off with that same slow kiss as before. Taemin lets him wrap his arms around him and he realizes that he doesn’t really have to say anything out loud because Minho seems to always know exactly what he’s thinking. Maybe someday he can get his thoughts ordered in the right way to say everything he needs to, but for now, it didn’t matter because Minho had a hand on the small of his back and was kissing him slow.
Taemin curls his arms up around Minho’s neck wanting things to pick up just a little bit, so he turns in Minho’s lap, knees of either side of him and tilted his head just so-and Minho is making a low humming noise from the back of his throat, hands on Taemin’s hips.
Taemin is satisfied with this, smiling, but kind of shakily because Minho is forcing his mouth open and he’s having a little bit of trouble keeping up. He lets Minho take control, trying to relax into his touch. Maybe he shouldn’t have tried to speed things up, but this was exciting too, and he’s starting to think he’s got the hang of this when he’s vaguely aware of one of Minho’s hands moving from his hip and trailing along his side, lightly skimming over the small space of bare skin between Taemin’s shirt and pants.
He isn’t acutely aware of this until Minho’s hooking his hand into the back pocket of his jeans, and Taemin squeaks in surprise, breaking out of the kiss while mumbling a quick, “W-what are you doing?” and he’s panting slightly, staring wide eyed at Minho’s amused expression. Taemin didn’t see anything particularly amusing about this situation, but Minho slowly took his hand out of Taemin’s back pocket, chuckling to himself.
“Relax.” Minho says, and Taemin does, just a little bit, still trying to catch his breath when Minho is waving his wallet in front of Taemin’s face and that’s when he remembers that he had put Minho’s wallet there early so he wouldn’t forget to bring it back. “I just wanted to get my wallet.”
“Hm. Really? It doesn’t look that innocent from this angle.”
Taemin freezes in place at the sound of the voice, face burning, and too scared to look behind him to see who’s there. Minho just glances over Taemin’s shoulder, like it didn’t matter that someone had just walked in on them, with Taemin still straddling his lap.
“Oh. Hey Onew.” Minho says, but Taemin can hear that his voice was slightly shaky.
Whimpering, Taemin slowly turned his head to see Onew, who looked way too proud for his own good, leaned up against the wall. He takes a moment to be grateful that it was him and not anyone else. “H-hey…” he mumbles, so softly he doubts Onew hears him. And then he remembers where he’s currently situated, so he slowly crawls out of Minho’s lap, sitting beside him on the couch, a good distance away. Nervous smile, check.
Minho has the decency to look embarrassed, glancing at Taemin before looking back to Onew, who still has that smug look on his face.
“Guys, I’ve been here for like, ten minutes.” Onew laughs.
Taemin groans, blush probably permanent and he buries his face in his hands. Where he can’t see, Minho is glaring at Onew, and that makes Onew feel a bit bad, so he flops down on the space between Taemin and Minho on the couch. “Don’t worry about it, Taeminnie! I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t expecting it~”
Onew seems to be the only one taking the situation calmly, unlike Minho, who is a little pissed at his friend for interrupting his make out session, and Taemin just wants to disappear or die, whichever comes first.
But when Taemin opens his eyes, he looks up and sees Onew’s smiling face and that’s when he realizes that Onew honestly wouldn’t care what Taemin and Minho did together and that’s what makes Onew one of the best friends anyone could ever have. The thought almost manages to make Taemin tear up, and since he didn’t trust himself to speak at the moment, he just hugged him; wrapped his arms around Onew’s waist and buried his face in his shirt.
Onew blinked down at him for a moment, before giving him a one armed hug, throwing his other arm around Minho’s shoulder and pulling him close too. And they stayed like that for a moment, Onew laughing too himself and Taemin smiling and Minho trying his best to look annoyed.
“Your secret is safe with me, don’t worry.” Onew winks.
“Okay, get off.” Minho is the first to speak up, breaking out of Onew’s grip and searching for his cigarettes. Onew just laughs again and Taemin’s smile widens before he stands up off the couch, straightening his shirt.
Onew quickly takes up the free space on the couch, head where Taemin was sitting just moments before and feet in Minho’s lap. Minho frowned at them, before pushing them off and standing up after Taemin.
He grabs Taemin’s shoulder, leading him away till they were out of earshot of Onew, he was lying on the couch, humming to himself.
He glances back at him, before addressing Taemin. “Are… are you okay with this? With him knowing?” For the first time, Taemin sees Minho look worried and he blinks at the sight of it.
So he tries for his best reassuring smile, grabbing one of Minho’s hands. “I said this was a good thing, didn’t I?” And so he stands up on the tips of his toes to plant a swift kiss to the tip of Minho’s nose. “But I’ve gotta get home. Call me later?” With a squeeze of Minho’s hand, he lets go, smiling before turning on his heels and leaving Minho in the back alley.
Minho doesn’t turn back immediately, but watches Taemin go, smiling to himself. When he turns back at Onew, he’s watching him, head propped up on the headrest.
“You guys are cute, you know that?”
“Shut up.”
author: Bingi (indelible-x)
pairing: Minho/Taemin
rating: PG-15
genre: romance, drama, with a side of fluff (Yeah, let's go with that...)
Disclaimer: OH YEAH, SHINEE? YEAH, WE'RE TIGHT. LEMME JUST CALL 'EM UP ON MY CELLULAR DEVICE. i own nothing
Warnings: AU, high school cliche, cursing, predictable plot, and general abuse of the English language.
CHAPTERS
chapter one
chapter two
chapter three
chapter four
chapter five
interlude: minho and key
chapter six
chapter seven
interlude: taemin and jonghyun
a/n: I have no excuse. Me and this chapter share a mutual dislike for each other.
this chapter dedicated to pieni_virhe and cosipotente thank you both for being so patient with me. <3 And special thanks to koalaspice for being a last minute beta and putting up with my constant keysmash. ILY GUUUURRRRRLL
okay. have fun.
Chapter six: I take one, one, one cause you left me and two, two, two for my family.
As the day progressed, Taemin had yet to see Minho and it was clear to see that Jonghyun was avoiding him. Sometimes, (when they were on better terms) he and Jonghyun would catch sight of each other between classes, complain about their days so far, and then hurry along to their next class, but today he didn’t see Jonghyun once.
He planned to follow Minho’s advice and talk to him at lunch. They would have food and Key there to (hopefully) clear a bit of the awkward air.
But when lunch did happen to roll around, Taemin stood by his empty lunch table with a tray full of food, scanning the cafeteria for his two usual lunch mates who had decided to go missing. Somewhere in the last row of tables he caught a flash of blonde and two familiar faces.
Key waved at him, before Jonghyun elbowed him to get him to stop. A few words were exchanged, and judging by the multiple looks sent his way by Key, the conversation was about him. And not a favorable conversation, either.
Frowning, Taemin made his way over to them, eyebrow rising in question. "Uh, hey guys...?" It came out as a question since Taemin wasn't sure what to think of the glare on Key's face.
Key said nothing, just flipped his hair and looked to Jonghyun. Jonghyun had frozen in place, turned away from Taemin.
"I don't think Jjong wants to talk right now." Key informed him, mood turning from pleasant to hostile. Taemin blinked. He was beginning to think that Jonghyun had blabbed about him to Key (but about what, he couldn’t be sure; honestly, what could Jonghyun had told Key that resulted in Taemin being the target for Key’s murderous looks?)
"Really." Taemin deadpanned, making a point to not look directly at Key. Those glares had nothing but bad intentions. "Jonghyun, c’mon. What’s your problem?”
No response, just Key looking quickly between the two of them, ready to jump in at any moment. When it was clear Jonghyun wasn't going to say anything, Key spoke up. "Sorry, Taeminnie, but really, I don't think he wants to talk."
But Taemin waited. He waited, and waited, hoping Jonghyun would at least look up or acknowledge his existence or something, because Minho had said to talk to him, so here he was. There was something of a crowd gathering, a silence that filled the air as half the cafeteria shushed itself in suspense. He could feel eyes on him and he stiffened, and maybe Key knew they were staring too, because he started talking in that proud way of his.
“Taemin, I’m sorry, but why don’t you just go away? I don’t know what you did, but it must’ve been--” Key was getting into a lecture, but Taemin cut him off halfway through, because he was not going to sit through one of those. Key thought too highly of himself and liked the sound of his voice and if Taemin was going to be angry with Jonghyun, then he might as well be angry with his right hand man, too.
“Shut up, Key. Can you please just be quiet for once?” He stared back at Jonghyun, leaving Key to decide if he should be shocked or pissed, and honestly, it felt good to snap at Key. But he didn’t take the moment to stop and feel proud of himself, just kept talking, only took a quick moment to breath before continuing, “I can’t believe you Jonghyun. How come you can’t even look at me, or at least tell me to go away yourself? Why do you have to have Key do every little thing for you? Are you that helpless, or are you just that mad at me?”
He made a mental note to never take advice from Minho ever again, and stood his ground, glaring holes in the back of Jonghyun’s stupid blonde head, waiting, because he couldn’t believe that Jonghyun wasn’t willing to even look at him. When Jonghyun did look up, it wasn’t much, just his eyes turning up and in his direction, and maybe he looked a little apologetic right then, maybe he was starting to realize just how stupid this whole situation was. They were both overreacting, and maybe Jonghyun was starting to realize that.
But Taemin didn’t catch on, just shook his head, furious because he had every right to be. “Grow up, Jonghyun. Grow the fuck up.”
Taemin was the first to look away, but he made sure Jonghyun saw him-he looked right at him-then bolted. He made his destination clear by heading straight to the senior hall, pretending not to notice every eye in the cafeteria following him out.
--
Minho’s exact location at any given time was never very difficult to pinpoint. If he wasn’t in one of his spots, then he was in the other. If he wasn’t there, then he was probably dead.
Luckily for Taemin, Minho was exactly where he thought he’d be.
The senior hall was empty, the majority of students at lunch, when Taemin walked down it, lunch tray still in hand. As he neared the bathroom, he could hear a voice that he could instantly recognize as Onew and a low rumble of laughter which was definitely Minho. (Taemin had the sound committed to memory.)
His first thought was, ‘oh good, Minho made it to school.’ His next thought was, ‘oh shit.’
He hesitated right outside the door, memories from last night flooding in. He took a slow breath, letting his eyes close and he tried to calm down. This was too much, all of this was way too much. Why did Minho have to come over? Couldn’t he have just talked to him on the phone? Couldn’t he have just hung up? Couldn’t he have just not picked up at all? Then Taemin wouldn’t have made any mistakes. Whatever was happening between him and Jonghyun would blow over, no problems. He wouldn’t have kissed Minho.
It was so much easier to blame him. Minho had thrown those rocks. Minho had climbed through the window. Minho had listened to him. Minho had slept in his bed. Minho had been too close. Minho had been too cool about it. Minho had been warm and inviting. Minho had perfectly sized fingers that fit around his perfectly sized wrists. Minho had started it.
But Taemin had kissed him.
That was something that he couldn’t deny no matter how badly he wanted to.
He bit his lip, staring at the door to the bathroom. Onew was still talking, but was mostly just laughing because that’s how Onew always spoke when telling a story, and Minho was mumbling something about trying to read and this whole scene was so familiar that Taemin just went on ahead and opened the door.
When he slowly shuffled in neither occupant seemed too surprised by his entrance, but Taemin smiled sheepishly, and made sure to avoid looking directly at Minho. He held up his tray of food, catching Minho’s gaze but quickly looked away. “I come bearing gifts.”
“Oh my gawd, I love this kid.” Onew shuffled over to him, taking the tray and inspecting it with interest. “Dibs on the milk!” He called, taking said carton and tossing the tray over to Minho, who caught it and watched his friend, amused, and something that looked like a blush coming on. It was then that Taemin noticed that Minho was kind of trying to avoid looking at him, too, and the thought of Minho being embarrassed was just too ridiculous and Taemin couldn’t really help the wide grin from spreading across his face, but that didn’t stop his nervous fidgeting.
“Uh, hey.” Taemin’s smile looked a little strained as he chanced a look at Minho.
Minho arched an eyebrow in greeting, cigarette pursed between his lips, the end unlit. He took a careful step towards Taemin, handing him his tray of food back. Taemin took it with a small smile, dully noting that Minho was wearing the same wrinkled clothes he had been last night.
“…What do you want?” Minho spoke around his cigarette, tone harsher than he intended, pushing his hair back and making like he was going to turn right on his heels and retreat to his bathroom stall, but he was rooted to the spot and ended up just turning his head and his gaze landed directly on Onew, who was sipping at his stolen milk carton, looking curiously at the two of them. He looked away a second later, hands stuffed into his pockets, unsure of what to say to Taemin.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Taemin pouted, completely oblivious to Onew. In fact, he kind of forgot he was there, more focused on Minho and his current proximity from him and whether or not he should change that. In the end, he decided to just set his tray of food down on the counter before settling his arms across his chest. “What? We can’t hang out anymore?”
Taemin bit his lip, feeling a bit bad about that particular comment. Maybe he still wasn’t in the best of moods; Jonghyun had made sure of that. Maybe he had made a mistake to -once again-run off to Minho first chance he got.
It was obvious they both needed more time apart to think things through. Taemin felt like last night he had rushed into something he wasn’t completely ready for. He didn’t like the way that Minho refused to look at him, either, or the fact that he there were a million different thoughts running through his head and he didn’t even know where to begin to process through them all.
Minho stared at him a moment before repeating himself. “What do you want?” But it came out a little less harshly this time, a small bit of concern sneaking its way in there and he hoped that Taemin picked up on the double meaning, the subtle ‘are you okay?’ snuck in there.
It seemed that he did, because his shoulders relaxed slightly, and Taemin managed a small smile and that made him feel a little bit better about the situation-but not by much. “I just want to talk, I guess.” Which Minho liked to think was code for, ‘I wasn’t in the best of moods, but that doesn’t matter anymore because I feel so much better now that you’re here, Minho. How about we just forget everything and cuddle it out, huh?’ (and this was a bit of a weird thing for Minho to think up, since he never really thought of himself as a cuddly guy. But cuddles with Taemin didn’t seem like such a bad thing. In fact, he rather liked that thought.)
But in all actuality, Taemin meant exactly what he said. He just wanted to talk, preferable soon and preferable alone. (Sorry, Onew, he thinks to himself.)
Minho stuffs his hands into his pockets, “Oh?”
“Y-yeah…” and now Taemin is fidgeting nervously, twirling a piece of hair around his finger, biting his lip as he thought. He had a lot to say to Minho, things like: ‘where does last night leave us?’ Or ‘you give really bad advice.’ Or ‘what do you really think of me?’ Or ‘fuck this, how about we just cuddle it out?’ but none of these things seemed appropriate to say, especially in front of Onew.
But then that led to another thought. Onew was Minho’s friend; what if he already told him? In which case, it shouldn’t matter what Taemin said right then. And then that led to him thinking, should it matter even if Minho hasn’t told Onew? They were all friends here - although he and Minho may or may not be something a little more than that- but would Onew really have a problem with that?
He didn’t know, and so he fell silent, and that silence slowly filled the room because Minho was waiting for him to finish and Onew was staring wide-eyed at the two of them and Taemin honestly had no idea what to do next.
So he smiled. A nervous one, but it was the closest he could get to something real. “Oh wow… um, lunch is almost over and I don’t want to be late for class. I have a math test to take so…. See ya!” With a little wave over his shoulder, Taemin bolted out the door, gone a second later. Minho watched him go, blinking at Taemin’s retreating back.
Breathing slowly through his nose, Minho searched his pockets till he found his lighter. He lit up a second later, smoke blowing up in little wisps, but this time he didn’t watch, eyes focused on the door Taemin had just walked out of, feeling like he had just been rejected because as far as he was concerned, the conversation had been going pretty well.
The silence that followed didn’t last very long before Onew side-stepped his way into Minho’s line of sight, look of suspicion on his face and carton of milk emptied. “Minho? What was that all about?”
He took a slow drag on his cigarette before tossing it to the ground, half smoked. He ground it out with the heel of his shoe before walking over to the tray of food Taemin had left behind, hands stuffed into his pockets and head hanging. He thought for one long moment about what he should do next.
He wasn’t sure what to think, since thinking was never his first choice when it came to decision making. But he found a thought, somewhere while sighing to himself and poking at the peanut butter and jelly sandwich that had been left behind. It was just a little inkling of a thought, but it seemed to sum up the situation pretty well, and it left him with a small little half smile. Onew was waiting for an explanation, but this time, Minho wasn’t going to give him one. This thought was all his own, and he would keep it to himself, tucked somewhere in the back of his mind to reflect on later. Maybe someday he’d share it, but for now, it was all his own.
“I think,” He wet his lips, trying to hide his smile and shuffling around in his pockets, looking for his cigarettes, only to find an empty carton, “I need to get some more cigarettes.”
--
Hours later finds Taemin at home, face buried under his pillow and backpack forgotten at the side of his bed. He had sucked it up and stayed at school for the rest of the day, partly because he had a test to take in his math class (he hadn’t been lying about that) but mostly because he had never skipped class without Minho before. The thought of wandering off on his own didn’t have the same appeal.
He kicked the shoes off of his feet, rolling over in bed, cheeks puffing out as he stared up at the ceiling. It had been a tiring day, and thoughts of Jonghyun and Minho where never far off. He needed a distraction, something to help get his mind off of things.
His mom (who still suspected nothing) was still at work, and homework would be a last resort, and that didn’t leave him with very many options. Desperate times called for desperate measures, he supposed, and that’s what led Taemin to glace over as his nearly empty bookshelf. Reading was one of Taemin’s least favorite things to do, but he had to have something over there to keep his interest, didn’t he?
“…Huh?”
Blinking, Taemin sat up, sliding off his bed and staring at the small pile of stuff taking up space on his bookshelf. It was just a lighter, a wallet, and two packs of cigarettes, but none of these items had any business being where they were. If anything, they should’ve been in the pockets of a certain local bad boy.
Taemin almost didn’t notice the small smile on his face when he reached out and grabbed one of the cigarette cartons, shaking it until one fell out into his palm. Cigarettes didn’t have much appeal, either. They were much more interesting when resting in between Minho’s fingers or settled between his lips. He stuffed the cigarette back into the carton, swapping it out for the wallet.
The leather was worn, and when Taemin flipped it open the first thing he saw was Minho’s divers license, which he stared at for a moment before laughing and flopping back onto his bed, studying the picture. Minho looked like he always did, hair just barely kept out of his eyes, and devious smirk in place. He noticed that his birthday was coming up in the next few months and he wondered idly what he should get him.
Before he could inspect the rest of the wallet, his phone started to ring, effectively scaring the shit out of him. Blinking dumbly for a moment, he grabbed his phone from where he had tossed it on the end of the bed, taking a glance at the caller id. He hummed in approval at the name on the screen before answering, pressing up the phone up to his ear.
“I didn’t know you had your drivers license.” He says, flopping backwards onto his bed again, holding the wallet open and in front of him.
“I was wondering where I left that.” Minho chuckles from the other side of the line. “But hey, stay out of my wallet, creep.”
“I’m not being a creep, I was just trying to figure out who it belonged to.” But Taemin flips the wallet closed anyway, standing up so he can stuff it into his pocket and as an afterthought, he goes ahead and grabs the cigarettes and lighter, too.
“What’re you trying to say? Do you always invite random people into your room in the hopes that they’ll leave something behind?” Taemin knows that Minho is only teasing, but he shakes his head anyway.
“No. Only you.”
“Good. I’m a jealous guy.”
Taemin is smiling to himself, and somewhere not that far away, Minho is, too, and it was one of those moments where everything was perfect again. Taemin wondered how Minho could do that so easily, because right now, he didn’t feel nervous at all, not like he had in the bathroom earlier that day.
Minho, completely oblivious to Taemin’s sudden good mood, just knew that talking to Taemin was a good thing, and that led him to ask the one and only question that at that moment could make Taemin frown.
“So, did you talk to Jonghyun today?”
Minho was in his back alley, sprawled out on his couch with his ball in his hand, head leaned back to stare up at the afternoon sky, and he’s idly tossing the ball up and down in a steady rhythm, unaware that Taemin was back in his room, fidgeting with the edge of his shirt and biting his lip because Jonghyun was the last thing that he wanted to talk about.
“Um.” Taemin shifted the phone slightly, sinking back down to sit on the edge of his bed. “Yeah. Well. …Kinda.”
“Hm.” Minho’s running a hand through his hair, realizing that he might have made a mistake, bringing that up, and what he really wanted right then was a cigarette. “Anything you want to talk about?”
There was shuffling over the line as Taemin moved the phone from one ear to the other, glancing down at the box of cigarettes he had set down on the bed beside him. “Where are you at right now?”
Minho didn’t seem fazed by the random subject change, just rolled his shoulders , smirking. “Guess.”
“Okay. Cool. I’ll be right there.”
“Cool.”
And then Taemin hung up, standing back up and putting his cell phone into his pocket along with Minho’s wallet. He did a quick double check to make sure he had everything he needed to return, nodding in approval when just out of the corner of his eye he saw something else that had no business being where it was.
He crouched down, picking up Minho’s jacket that he must’ve left along with his other stuff and Taemin got that feeling that Minho was planning on moving in if he was even leaving his clothes here. But Taemin decided that that wouldn’t be so bad, so long as he could somehow cover up the smell of cigarette smoke, but this idea quickly vanished because Minho had his own house with his own room and therefore had no reason to.
But it was a nice thought to have, anyway.
Smiling to himself, he folded the jacket neatly before setting it on the edge of his bed before grabbing the packs of cigarettes and walking out the door, figuring that if Minho really needed it, he would ask for it back. Besides, winter came fast in their little town and that jacket looked a million times more warm and comfortable than anything Taemin owned.
--
Minho was reading when Taemin showed up ten minutes later, but he didn’t look up right away. He made a small humming noise in greeting, sitting up slightly where he was laying down on his couch before returning his attention to his book; he only had a few more paragraphs left till the end of the chapter.
Honestly, he couldn’t say that the book had his full attention because out of the corner of his eye he could see Taemin looking at him with a shy kind of smile, ruffling the back of his hair with one hand and a pack of Minho’s cigarettes in the other.
“Hey.” He said.
“Hey.” Minho replied, smiling from behind his book, which he was now ignoring completely in favor of paying attention to Taemin and how he was slowly walking towards him.
“I brought these back for you.” Taemin continued, stopping in front of him. He smiled down at him, waving the cigarette boxes at him. “Figured you’d need ‘em.”
It took a bit of effort on Minho’s part to look away from Taemin and to the things being handed to him, but he did, smiling as he took them from him. This had to be something of a dream come true, because Taemin was here and kept smiling at him and said boy had just brought him cigarettes.
“Thanks.” He says, and he almost kisses him right then, but leans back instead, stretching out on the couch and fishing out a cigarette. He lit up, letting it rest between his fingers. He took a second to watch the smoke come up in little wisps before grabbing his book from where he had left it and resumed reading again. “Hold on, I’m almost done.” He offered by way of explanation to the small frown on Taemin’s face.
It was then that Taemin proved that he could be very distracting when he wanted to be, because he simply huffed before pulling the book away from Minho. Taemin at least dog-eared the page he was on before setting it on the ground.
“You can’t read right now.” Taemin said, hands on his hips and what he hoped to be a stern look on his face, but it probably failed, because Minho was blinking up at him like he couldn’t quite believe what had just happened. But Taemin would be having no distractions.
Minho waved his cigarette around for a moment, making the air fill with smoke, smirking. “Oh yeah. You said we had to talk, didn’t we?” Minho knew that they had to, but he was honestly a little scared of where the conversation might lead.
“Yeah. And I don’t really want to talk about Jonghyun or anything, cause really I just want to talk about… um.” It was here that Taemin starts fidgeting nervously again, looking away from Minho because he isn’t really sure how to bring it up. He slowly paces back and forth, thinking, and Minho sits up on the couch, watching Taemin curiously.
He stops, suddenly, tilting his head as he looked at Minho and his slightly mused hair, his cigarette still in his hand and the wide eyed look he had. Taemin smiled, just a little bit, “Okay, so, let’s say that we-theoretically speaking, of course.” He paused, watched Minho smirk and nod.
“Theoretically. Gotchya.”
“Right. So, let’s say that we’re…” He breathed slowly through his nose, wondering what would be the best word to describe it. “…we’re together.” He waited for Minho’s reaction, not sure exactly what he was expecting to see, but Minho just nodded again, and so Taemin continued on, eyes rolling skyward and hoping that Minho wouldn’t notice him blushing.
“And because we’re, ya know, together, would…” He trails off again, that fluttery feeling back in his chest, and he feels like his heart is in his throat because the words he’s looking for are there, but he just can’t figure out how to say them.
Minho’s blinking up at him, elbows resting on his knees and chin propped up on his hands. He gets silent amusement from watching Taemin being as flustered as he is, but after a few seconds of watching him puff out his cheeks and twirling his hair around a finger, Minho takes just a little bit of pity on him and decided to help him out. “C’mere.” He says, stretching out his hand that wasn’t holding the cigarette.
Taemin did as he was told, hesitating only slightly to process the simple request. He shuffled forward, smiling and probably still blushing. Minho was still smirking, staring up at him expectantly. Taemin opened his mouth to say something, but once he was close enough, Minho reached out and grabbed his wrist, tugging once.
Taemin barely had time to let out a surprised squeak before he was pulled forward, nearly toppling over on top of Minho if he hadn’t put his hand out in time to catch himself on the back of the couch.
But none of that really mattered, because Minho craned his neck up at the perfect angle in order to catch Taemin’s lips against his own and the contact was so sudden that Taemin nearly did fall on top of Minho, but that probably wouldn’t have been that bad because that just meant being closer and Taemin had no objections to that whatsoever.
He blinked in surprise for just a moment and he felt Minho smirk and that was all it took for Taemin to sigh and close his eyes, hand going from propping himself up on the couch to Minho’s hair, which in turn made Minho sit up a little straighter and that let Taemin stand up a bit taller and now no one was in danger of falling on top of anyone.
It was slow, as far as kisses go, not that Taemin had very many to compare it with, but he found that he didn’t mind it. Minho was the first to pull away, fingers still locked around Taemin’s wrist and Taemin was beaming at him. Taemin didn’t pull back, just moved forward till their foreheads were pressed together, tips of their noses touching, before speaking.
“Oh. Hi.”
“Hi.”
“Does this mean…?”
“Mean what?”
“Miiiinhooooooooo.”
“Taemiiiiin.”
“Stop that. Answer the question.”
“Stop what? Answer what question?”
“I will hit you.”
Minho didn’t seem at all threatened by Taemin, instead just smiled, tilting his head a bit. Taemin smiled back, but hit him anyway, punching him not-so lightly on the shoulder, which made Minho chuckle, but he flinched anyway.
“I think I’ll get a bruise there.” Minho says around his smile, waving the hand with the cigarette, smoke floating up around them.
“Good. I hope you do.” Taemin replies, pulling away from Minho and out of his grip settling his arms across his chest. “I’m trying to be serious here.” He pouts.
“Okay, okay.” Minho tosses his burnt cigarette away, reaching back out to grab Taemin again, this time both hands locking around both his wrists. Taemin lets him pull him into his lap, curling up against him, head resting on his shoulder. He tugs his wrists free, one of Minho’s arms curling around him and Taemin just sits, closing his eyes.
“Is this a good or bad thing?” Taemin whispers, and he doesn’t elaborate, just hopes that Minho gets what he means.
“Hm. What do you think?” Minho’s voice is right by Taemin’s ear, and he isn’t used to be held like this, or being this close to anyone, for that matter. He’s blushing and he’s nervous, because even though no one hardly ever came by here, they were still in public and could be seen by anyone. But as he thought about it, he put his hand up to Minho’s free hand, palm to palm, and Minho’s watching him with amusement and none of this seems bad at all.
Maybe in the end, he wasn’t feeling that nervous. Excited was probably a better word for it.
“I think it’s a good thing.” He smiles, and he blinks up at Minho, who hums in agreement and this time Taemin is at least half prepared for what Minho does next.
Minho starts off with that same slow kiss as before. Taemin lets him wrap his arms around him and he realizes that he doesn’t really have to say anything out loud because Minho seems to always know exactly what he’s thinking. Maybe someday he can get his thoughts ordered in the right way to say everything he needs to, but for now, it didn’t matter because Minho had a hand on the small of his back and was kissing him slow.
Taemin curls his arms up around Minho’s neck wanting things to pick up just a little bit, so he turns in Minho’s lap, knees of either side of him and tilted his head just so-and Minho is making a low humming noise from the back of his throat, hands on Taemin’s hips.
Taemin is satisfied with this, smiling, but kind of shakily because Minho is forcing his mouth open and he’s having a little bit of trouble keeping up. He lets Minho take control, trying to relax into his touch. Maybe he shouldn’t have tried to speed things up, but this was exciting too, and he’s starting to think he’s got the hang of this when he’s vaguely aware of one of Minho’s hands moving from his hip and trailing along his side, lightly skimming over the small space of bare skin between Taemin’s shirt and pants.
He isn’t acutely aware of this until Minho’s hooking his hand into the back pocket of his jeans, and Taemin squeaks in surprise, breaking out of the kiss while mumbling a quick, “W-what are you doing?” and he’s panting slightly, staring wide eyed at Minho’s amused expression. Taemin didn’t see anything particularly amusing about this situation, but Minho slowly took his hand out of Taemin’s back pocket, chuckling to himself.
“Relax.” Minho says, and Taemin does, just a little bit, still trying to catch his breath when Minho is waving his wallet in front of Taemin’s face and that’s when he remembers that he had put Minho’s wallet there early so he wouldn’t forget to bring it back. “I just wanted to get my wallet.”
“Hm. Really? It doesn’t look that innocent from this angle.”
Taemin freezes in place at the sound of the voice, face burning, and too scared to look behind him to see who’s there. Minho just glances over Taemin’s shoulder, like it didn’t matter that someone had just walked in on them, with Taemin still straddling his lap.
“Oh. Hey Onew.” Minho says, but Taemin can hear that his voice was slightly shaky.
Whimpering, Taemin slowly turned his head to see Onew, who looked way too proud for his own good, leaned up against the wall. He takes a moment to be grateful that it was him and not anyone else. “H-hey…” he mumbles, so softly he doubts Onew hears him. And then he remembers where he’s currently situated, so he slowly crawls out of Minho’s lap, sitting beside him on the couch, a good distance away. Nervous smile, check.
Minho has the decency to look embarrassed, glancing at Taemin before looking back to Onew, who still has that smug look on his face.
“Guys, I’ve been here for like, ten minutes.” Onew laughs.
Taemin groans, blush probably permanent and he buries his face in his hands. Where he can’t see, Minho is glaring at Onew, and that makes Onew feel a bit bad, so he flops down on the space between Taemin and Minho on the couch. “Don’t worry about it, Taeminnie! I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t expecting it~”
Onew seems to be the only one taking the situation calmly, unlike Minho, who is a little pissed at his friend for interrupting his make out session, and Taemin just wants to disappear or die, whichever comes first.
But when Taemin opens his eyes, he looks up and sees Onew’s smiling face and that’s when he realizes that Onew honestly wouldn’t care what Taemin and Minho did together and that’s what makes Onew one of the best friends anyone could ever have. The thought almost manages to make Taemin tear up, and since he didn’t trust himself to speak at the moment, he just hugged him; wrapped his arms around Onew’s waist and buried his face in his shirt.
Onew blinked down at him for a moment, before giving him a one armed hug, throwing his other arm around Minho’s shoulder and pulling him close too. And they stayed like that for a moment, Onew laughing too himself and Taemin smiling and Minho trying his best to look annoyed.
“Your secret is safe with me, don’t worry.” Onew winks.
“Okay, get off.” Minho is the first to speak up, breaking out of Onew’s grip and searching for his cigarettes. Onew just laughs again and Taemin’s smile widens before he stands up off the couch, straightening his shirt.
Onew quickly takes up the free space on the couch, head where Taemin was sitting just moments before and feet in Minho’s lap. Minho frowned at them, before pushing them off and standing up after Taemin.
He grabs Taemin’s shoulder, leading him away till they were out of earshot of Onew, he was lying on the couch, humming to himself.
He glances back at him, before addressing Taemin. “Are… are you okay with this? With him knowing?” For the first time, Taemin sees Minho look worried and he blinks at the sight of it.
So he tries for his best reassuring smile, grabbing one of Minho’s hands. “I said this was a good thing, didn’t I?” And so he stands up on the tips of his toes to plant a swift kiss to the tip of Minho’s nose. “But I’ve gotta get home. Call me later?” With a squeeze of Minho’s hand, he lets go, smiling before turning on his heels and leaving Minho in the back alley.
Minho doesn’t turn back immediately, but watches Taemin go, smiling to himself. When he turns back at Onew, he’s watching him, head propped up on the headrest.
“You guys are cute, you know that?”
“Shut up.”