So Very Bold
Title: So Very Bold
Author: peigurrrl
Pairing: JongHo, minor OnKey
Rating: PG-15
Genre: General
Summary: Minho liked to think that being sappy and romantic would be able to happy-out having one's ass frozen off.
Disclaimer: HAHAHAHAHAHA OF COURSE I OWN THEM- No, no I don't want to be sued. I retract my first statement with all humbleness.
A/N: Inspired by the holiday season and written for my beloved victim shineeafterscho . I hope you like it, love. *3*
And the song Jonghyun sings is real. It's called 'The Sleigh' by A la Russe. I do not own it.
====
Ring ding dong went his phone and Minho sighed in exasperation, recognizing the ringtone as probably the fiftieth call he'd gotten in the last hour from that person who obviously had no regard for driving safety.
“Yes, Jonghyun?” he answered, turning on the hands free to talk as he idled in his car before a red light.
“Kibum said to tell you that he'll reach down your throat and rip your guts out if you forget to bring Taemin,” Deadpanned the voice on the other end while Minho winced a bit at the gruesome imagery only Kibum would threaten when it came to precious, darling, Taeminnie. Honestly, Taemin was Kibum's boyfriend's little brother and the man treated the teenager like his first born child. Sometimes Minho thought Kibum only dated Jinki so he could dress Taemin up like a doll and coo and mother over the younger on a daily basis.
The sounds heard at night that Taemin could attest to suggested otherwise, but that wasn't really the point.
“I'm on my way to his dance studio right now. Did Kibum want me to drive him home or to your guys's flat?” Because as best friends, Kibum and Jonghyun had been living together even though it was probably the most enormous financial black hole Minho had ever seen, given that Kibum spent most of his life at Jinki's and Jonghyun was essentially living with him but apparently there was nowhere else to store the older's music related paraphernalia nor the younger's wardrobe so the flat remained rented.
There was the sound of conversation on the other end for a brief moment before his lover replied with a, “You are to, and I quote, 'Have my baby in my shower in the next fifteen minutes so I can dress him before we leave or so help me Choi Minho, I will make it so Jjong will have to hire prostitutes to get some, if you understand my meaning.' And I have to jet in about five minutes so I won't be here to protect you, babe. You better get Taemin here fast. Prostitutes have diseases.”
Minho tried to convince himself that Jonghyun loved him for more than just the sex but the last sentence was really not helping the argument. “I understand his meaning and I'll do my best. I don't think I'll be seeing you guys before you get on stage so uhm... good luck. And give Jinki my regards.” And no, that sentence hadn't come out awkwardly. In another world. When said by another person. Of maybe the opposite gender. And in another language. Probably a language spoken by three headed, blue skinned tentacle monsters. None of which Minho was, which translated to: damn, that had come out badly.
There was a rush of static Minho interpreted as a sigh from the other end of his earpiece as the older answered back, “Sorry, I'm just nervous. First performance of the season. Nerves on edge. And Kibum REALLY ISN'T HELPING.”
There was a reply that came in a smaller voice and the words were inaudible, though the tone was still shouted and bitchy which Minho could only interpret as Kibum having heard Jonghyun's strained and half-screamed accusation and replying in turn as, having known all four of the other men for a while, he knew that chances were, Jinki was as carefree as ever and Jonghyun and Kibum were stressing in his place, together. As a dual entity. And he was sure that if the two had been women, their PMS would have been on par with the way the two could get when it got to this time of the year.
The holiday season.
“I know. I've got it, you just get there and do your thing. You always sound great, Jjong. I love you.”
“I love you too. I'll see you there, I've really got to go before Kibum attacks me with the eyeliner, he's getting twitchy as hell. You better come on time!”
Farewells bidden, the couple hung up on each other and Minho pulled to a stop in front of the dance studio where a skinny figure dressed lightly sat on the steps in front of the door in the smattering of snowflakes drifting down. Parking in front of the curb, he waved to Taemin as the teenager jogged to the passenger's door, throwing himself in and slamming the door shut, still bouncing with energy as if he hadn't just had an eight hour practice.
“What's up? Drive, Minho, drive, or else Kibum will reach down your throat and pull your guts out!” enthused the blonde-haired best friend of his.
“Put your seat belt on and I've heard that one already. He did one better and threatened to castrate me after that one though. Aren't you cold? I feel like I'll die if you arrive in front of your second mother in less than perfect condition.”
Complying with his tall friend's request, Taemin pulled the strap over his body and clothing that Minho had complained ever so subtly about which consisted of a wife beater, a pair of rolled up sweats, and bright yellow socks underneath his sparkly converse. “Eh, only a little bit. The studio gets really hot, man. And yeah, Kibum is scary this time of year so it's a good thing you run fast.”
Scary was an understatement, as far as Minho was concerned as he changed lanes to avoid the congestion of a small accident in one lane, a bit more concerned with his own life than whatever patch of ice that had slammed one car into another. According to Taemin's rules, if there's no explosion, there's no worries.
Speaking of Taemin's rules, “Hey remember that one time after I got my license and you came up with a bunch of rules for me to follow because you got annoyed with how I drove?”
A bright peal of laughter erupted from the dancer's mouth, “Yeah! Like, if you see a yellow light, you're supposed to step on it, not slow down! And people with their lights flashing on the side of the road are to be ignored because they could be murderers for all you know. Oh, and how you get five points for every car you pass on the highway, and ten points for every car you cut off? Twenty if you get someone to honk at you on the highway! And I get points if someone does that to you? Loser had to buy lunch?”
A toothy grin spread on Minho's face in remembrance of the long ago that was approximately four years ago when it had been just him and Taemin, and Jinki on rare occasions, best friends. Then Taemin's brother had gotten a boyfriend- Kim Kibum, who had come with a best friend of his own, a Kim Jonghyun who had stolen any last semblance of coherency the taller man had ever possessed when in eyesight. “And if I hit a deer, no, I could not go back and claim it to take it home to my mom-”
“Because that's gross!” protested the hyperactive teenager beside him. “That was such a long time ago. If you brought roadkill home to Jonghyun, I think he'd eat it though. You two are weird.”
“Pfft, sorry we're weird, Min-nie. Better weird than being your brother's wife's daughter.”
“I'mma tell Kibum you said that.”
“I can run faster than him.”
“But can you outrun his throwing knives?”
“Your point is valid. I'll treat you after the performance tonight, or something.”
“I want funnel cake.”
“...I'm not exactly sure where you expect me to find that right now but since I feel sorry for you, I'll do my best.”
“Whaaat? Why?”
“'Cause, I dunno, I mean, I've got someone, Jinki's got someone, you're the only one alllll byyyyy yourseellllfff.”
“Your mocking is totally unnecessary. And I am not! I'm being considerate of everyone, okay?”
“How so?”
“Well, I mean, do you remember how you all reacted when I said that I wasn't a virgin?”
“Let's see, Jinki fainted, Kibum started crying, Jonghyun tried to share his porn with you and I didn't talk to you for a week. Oh, okay. Yeah, don't get a girlfriend or boyfriend or whatever. The sky might fall down.”
“Exactly.”
The reminiscing continued until they reached the front of the apartment complex at which point Taemin was booted off the car and sent running up to Kibum while Minho parked and decided to let Taemin work a few minutes of aegyo magic on his pseudo mother before going upstairs. It was well spent time, as by the time that Minho arrived at the door to Kibum and Jonghyun's shared apartment, the former was rushing about in a scarily delighted manner, humming to himself as the shower ran and he picked up clothes and laid out clothes. The power that Taemin had over the Diva Bitch of the East's moods was unrivaled by anyone except maybe Jinki. Which made sense, as they were brothers.
“Minho! Just getting in? Great timing, can you run down to the corner store and get some flowers? And put a call in to KFC, because last time they said they'd want a little bit more warning before we went again and do you think Taeminnie would look better in the blue shirt or the red shirt? Or should I dress him in black? I found a new pair of pants for him the other day too-”
Minho was out the door and running before Kibum could steal another second of his life with his chatter about clothes and dressing up Taemin. Flowers were a great idea, even if they were kind of girly, but a side effect of being Kibum's best friend, Jonghyun said, was that his womanly tendencies rubbed off to the point that one might almost find themselves appreciating things like flowers and chocolate and cheesy romance novels (Although Kibum didn't read cheesy romance novels, which led Minho to the conclusion that his boyfriend was simply naturally suited to being his best friend's brother's boyfriend's best friend. God the relationships in his life were complicated).
He purposely took the longest line available once he picked the flowers and a great huge can of the tea Jonghyun liked to drink during this time of the year and pulled out his wallet to count the change slowly, taking his sweet time in hopes that Taemin would be out of the shower and ready for Kibum to doll up by the time he got back. Was he using his best friend as a buffer between himself and his boyfriend's best friend? Absolutely. Did he feel guilty about it? No, not really. Besides, Taemin liked being babied by Kibum, as far as Minho could see. Always playing cute and innocent and sweet even though Minho knew how very capable his best friend was at discarding all that to be the devious, conniving, evil dongsaeng he truly was. It was all in good fun though. Really.
He tried not to think about how much worse Taemin had gotten ever since meeting Jonghyun.
“I'm back, are you guys ready? It takes half an hour to walk down there, we should get going if we want good seats,” Minho called, once he got back into the apartment, letting himself in on the spare key Jonghyun had given him. He was treated to the happy sight of Kibum enthusiastically hugging a Taemin who was slowly turning purple and gesturing wildly for Minho to save his life; while squealing about how adorable his baby looked. If Minho didn't know that Kibum might possibly cut a bitch if he didn't let out his stress on Taemin (in relatively harmless ways), Minho might have interfered on behalf of his best friend's life. However, he got a distinct feeling that he would be the bitch to get cut and so, didn't.
“We're almost ready, aigoo, isn't my baby so cute? Look at him, Minho! Okay, hold on, I have to get my camera, I'll be right back!”
Taemin was released and he glared at Minho who shrugged. “Way to help me. I don't understand why we have to walk there. Can't we just take your car?”
“You wanna pay for the gas? 'cause that stuff's like liquid gold these days.”
“Pfft, just 'cause you want to be all stupidly romantic with Jjong and walk around in the middle of the night when it's snowing and drinking hot chocolate and whatever. Let me tell you, Minho, there is nothing romantic about freezing your ass off.”
“What do you know? You're not in a relationship.” And he tried, he really did try to sound contemptuous but it came out as somewhat more pathetically defensive than he had intended because Taemin had basically been dead on with his assumption that he had wanted to be romantic and walk around in the snow and all the stuff that his boyfriend liked to read and chatter excitedly about and it was the cutest thing but apparently the scoffing blonde sitting across from him on the back of the sofa thought differently. And what if Taemin was right and Jonghyun thought that freezing his delectable ass off was not worth the re-enactment of the scene that occurred at least once in every cheesy romance novel with a winter setting?
“Do you want me to bring a blanket in case you get cold, sweetie?” Kibum cooed, appearing with his camera to take several quick shots of Taemin and two coats, one of which he handed to the youngest who smiled cheerily and happily like it was his favorite thing in the world to be mothered over. As if his older brother didn't fuss over him enough. Minho shook his head in disapproval- internally, but he did- over the gooey umma-baby scene and decided they'd be at it for a while so drifted off into lala-land where Jonghyun would like the sappy romantic moment and wouldn't give a damn that he was freezing off his ass because the two of them were having a moment. A moment- “Damn it, Kibum, I'm trying to have a moment here!” Minho yelled when he was slapped out of his reverie.
He received strange looks from the other two.
“Have your moment later. Jinki-hyung will mope for the rest of the night if we don't show up on time,” Taemin pipes, slipping on shoes that were not the sparkly converse he came in wearing because Kibum didn't approve of those atrocities on his darling's feet. Minho rolled his eyes, he'd been standing in the entrance way waiting for the other two for the past twenty minutes and they were telling him to not be tardy? Hilarious.
Taemin was right, Minho concluded later, as they arrived in front of the church. There was no way there was anything in the world that could happy-out freezing one's ass off and it was really damn cold tonight too. The flowers he had bought were now frozen since he hadn't been able to decided if he wanted to keep them safely unfrozen by crushing them in his coat, or if he wanted to keep them uncrushed by freezing them outside his coat. He had chosen the latter and now the edges on the petals were wilting. Well, you couldn't have everything. But you could have perfectly good flowers and a warm butt if you'd only driven your car. Said a small, annoying voice in the back of his head which sounded suspiciously similar to Taemin when his friend was sing-songing 'I told you so' at him.
The three of them took their seats on cushiony pews near the front in the middle and did their best to warm up and make small talk and go to the bathroom before the performance started to not be rude while the rest of the sanctuary filled with people. Then Jinki entered, in a white robe, as the conductor, and Kibum's camera was out immediately, recording his every move. Minho rather thought Kibum had the makings of a very successful stalker. Then Jonghyun entered with the choir and Minho began to wish he had stalker skills like Kibum. Because a face like that on a body like that making ugly as hell robes look nothing short of heavenly deserved to be recorded. Seriously.
“Good evening everyone! I'm Lee Jinki and I'm the conductor for this group! Yeah, um...” Jinki stops for a moment to wave rather unprofessionally to his brother and boyfriend, distracted as anyone would be by the combined power of their shining shininess. “Oh! No flash during the performance, please! And... I think that's all. Please enjoy, everyone!”
The lights dim and all Minho can see is Jonghyun. He sings a solo and it's amazing of course, and the quartet he does sounds equally great and as soon as the last note of the evening sounds, Minho is one of the first people on his feet and clapping. He thinks that only Kibum might have been able to compete with him for his place of first but Kibum can't really compete as he was still recording Jinki and bets were that they'd be watching it together later over and over because Kibum was fucking obsessed with the Lee brothers in every way shape and form. It was fortunate for him that the two objects of his obsession didn't seem to mind at all.
When the house lights come up, Minho finds himself running to where Jonghyun is in the choir's dressing room, bouquet in on hand, the coat he'd taken off earlier in the other and he suprises Jonghyun, coming up behind the shorter man in what Taemin called Minho's ninja sneak attack and encircling the solid torso of the singer with his long arms, positioned so that the flowers rested right under Jonghyun's chin.
“Was I good? Don't answer that, of course I was good. I was fantastic, wasn't I?” Minho was asked with an accompanying shit-eating grin characteristic to Jonghyun's after-performance high. His arms tightened before spinning his boyfriend around to answer him face-to-face.
“You're always fantastic. Flowers. That is, uhm, I got you some. Do you like them?” He received a bright, beaming grin in response to the wilted bouquet and was about to get a hug too until a familiar voice cut through to them.
“Yah! Lovebirds, it's Korean Fried Chicken time, okay? Let's go, move it, move it,” Kibum shouted as he shoved Taemin forward to get between Minho and Jonghyun. This was later explained as a strange need to get revenge on Minho because Minho had done something similar to Kibum in another, past life. Or alternate reality.
The strange feelings Kibum got. Really quite curious, they were.
As they made their way to the nearby KFC, a short five minute walk with Taemin walking ahead, very considerately giving the two couples space, Jonghyun and Minho walked in silence, their breaths making cold white puffs of vapor in front of their faces as they watched Kibum try to save Jinki from all the slippery spots on the road without much success. It really was too cold to talk much, especially given the dramatic temperature difference between the cold changing room and the freezing cold of the outdoors. The fast food restaurant's temperature was considerably better, it was downright toasty, really.
“Warmth, your name is happiness!” Taemin exclaimed upon entering and immediately hopped in line, not that there was much of one given the time of night.
“Wrong, Minnie, it is: Chicken, thy name is happiness,” corrected his older brother who was very happily breathing the smells of fried, tryptophan saturated poultry.
“Whatever, my ass is defrosting and that's pretty much all I care about right now.” Kibum shivered a bit, hopping in effort to speed up his circulation. Jonghyun smirked slipping his hand out of Minho's - when had it gotten there? It'd become so natural that they didn't even notice- to slap Kibum's body part that was apparently defrosting, which resulted in a smack at the singer's head and would have elevated into a full-out slap fest if Minho hadn't felt the need to intervene at that point, since Taemin and Jinki were far too preoccupied with the chicken to care much about whether or not the two began a bitch fight in the middle of the local KFC.
“Jjong, don't slap Kibum's ass. Kibum, don't hit my boyfriend's head any more than absolutely necessary. He doesn't have many brain cells to spare,” explained Minho, pulling Jonghyun towards him and protectively covering the beautiful head which he said was lacking in brain cells. His last sentence resulted in a pouty face from the shorter and a smirk from the younger who decided bickering with his best friend wasn't worth it and decided to fawn over his boyfriend and 'son' instead.
“I would have won,” Jonghyun insists as they find a table to sit down at. “Seriously.”
“I have faith in you,” Minho replied solemnly doing his best to keep a convincing straight face on as they continued their discussion, waiting for the food to arrive.
“Because I've taken him down before, you know. The day's yet to come when Kim Kibum can top Kim Jonghyun.”
“Naturally.”
“Hey guys, we got your usual, good?” Taemin breaks in, sliding next to and pressing against Minho into the booth at which Jonghyun frowned a bit. Taemin laughed like the cheeky brat he was, flicked a bit of straw wrapping at the older male and eased up on Minho when Jonghyun's face scrunched like he was about to cry. Kibum followed moments after Taemin with drinks and Minho remembered the can of tea he had bought Jonghyun and Jonghyun was pleased in turn that Minho had remembered what his favorite beverage was. Taemin rolled his eyes at them and then again when Jinki appeared with three loaded trays, picked up a box to eat the chicken from while he got the last two trays and got up to help his hyung because he was a good dongsaeng, contrary to popular belief. The result was Jinki sitting back down while Taemin struggled under the weight of approximately ten dead chickens divided between two trays, setting them down with a thump and collapsing dramatically.
Light-hearted conversation filled the air after that, laughs and chatter about the day: Jinki's conducting, Jonghyun's solo, Taemin's rehearsal, Minho's fear for his life, Kibum's endless mothering. An hour maybe two later, the chicken is gone and Kibum has resolved to stay over at Taemin and Jinki's house, Taemin is trying desperately to find a friend to stay over with and Minho and Jonghyun stand up to leave since they're walking back to spend the night at Jonghyun's flat. It's where Minho's car is parked after all- where his car is parked and he is not driving it because he thought it would be such a great idea to be romantic for Jjong today. More like a great day to freeze a person's ass off. And it would be such a shame if he froze Jonghyun's ass off, it was such a nice one too.
“Why'd you leave your car and walk here?” Jonghyun asked after several minutes of silence.
“I. I had this idea but it won't work.”
“Obviously.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence. But uh...”
“Yeah?”
“I dunno, I was just thinking about that song you sang today. In the quartet.”
“We sang maybe five songs in the quartet.”
“The one with the laughter.”
“Mmhm. Aishh, I'm so cold!”
Something about hot chocolate was mumbled.
“Huh?”
“We should probably run. I heard it was gonna hail.”
“I don't wanna run. Too frozen.”
Then small ice chunks began pelting them from the sky and Jonghyun changed his mind, pulling his hood up over his face as Minho did the same beside him and their hands reached out at the same time, another practiced unconscious movement as they ran the last three blocks to the apartment complex, collapsing inside the lobby, freezing, even though the blood was now circulating wildly around in their bodies at this point. When they got up after that, laughing almost hysterically from the little misadventure, icy pebbles slid off their coats and hoods, inciting more laughter.
“Still cold,” Jonghyun complained as they stood up, brushing off the last vestiges of ice and snow. He was too preoccupied with dusting a bit of ice that practically embedded itself in his pants to notice the taller man closing in on him until he could feel hot breath on his freezing nose and looked up in perfect timing for Minho to steal a quick kiss. Then another. And another and another and after a while they weren't so quick anymore. And it wasn't so much that it was a kiss so much as how very public it was considering this was the same 'obvious displays of public affection are prohibited' Minho. They were in the lobby of an apartment complex, kissing, and the thought brought the blood in Jonghyun's body to almost boiling temperature, since it couldn't decide if it wanted to go to his face or his groin.
“Are you still cold?” Minho asked breathlessly, the two of them panting from the prolonged lack of oxygen despite both having notorious lung capacities from sports and singing.
“Yep,” was all the shorter said before reaching up on tip-toe to pull his lover down in order to ravage his mouth once more. When a late night worker came in and whistled at the two who were slowly making their way upstairs in effort to 'warm themselves up', said worker found himself on the receiving end of a certain, rather rude hand gesture right before the couple disappeared behind elevator doors.
The flowers had been long abandoned and hands were up inside shirts, touching skin that most definitely did not need to warmed up in any way, as they stumbled down the hall and Jonghyun's back hit the wall of his flat's exterior while Minho shamelessly groped the shorter man's butt under the pretense of finding keys even though it would be another while yet before they got into the flat. In fact, they might even end up fucking right there in the hallway at their current rate but anti-pda Minho had been in existence for too long to let that happen and barely kicked the apartment door shut before one of the two lost their pants.
His lips were working busily at the thin skin of Jonghyun's collarbone when suddenly a low laugh brought his eyes up to look at said laughing person and if life were cartoonized, there would likely have been little question marks floating around Minho's head, indicating his questioning of what his lover was laughing about at a time like this. However, life was not cartoonized, so it was fortunate that Jonghyun could understand the younger man's expression without the nonexistent question marks.
“The line from the song that you were talking about earlier. I figured it out.” And the shit-eating grin was back on his face as Minho rolled his eyes because of course Jonghyun would bring that up now of all times. With a single look, he prompted the shorter man to say it faster so he could get back to what he was doing.
“And though the night is dark and cold if you would be so very bold to take my hand in yours and hold it tightly as we go,” was sung in reply to the look, and Minho suddenly understood why it had made Jonghyun laugh.
Besides, Minho mused as he pulled the singer flush against his own body into a more desirable position, at least Jonghyun hadn't laughed at Minho, which meant that the cheesy, cliché, romance-novelly situation that had kinda sorta happened (because people didn't get pelted by hail that left marks in Jonghyun's books) had, in the end, happy-outed the little downside that was freezing one's ass off. Especially considering that freezing was the last thing Jonghyun's ass was going to be.
Author: peigurrrl
Pairing: JongHo, minor OnKey
Rating: PG-15
Genre: General
Summary: Minho liked to think that being sappy and romantic would be able to happy-out having one's ass frozen off.
Disclaimer: HAHAHAHAHAHA OF COURSE I OWN THEM- No, no I don't want to be sued. I retract my first statement with all humbleness.
A/N: Inspired by the holiday season and written for my beloved victim shineeafterscho . I hope you like it, love. *3*
And the song Jonghyun sings is real. It's called 'The Sleigh' by A la Russe. I do not own it.
====
Ring ding dong went his phone and Minho sighed in exasperation, recognizing the ringtone as probably the fiftieth call he'd gotten in the last hour from that person who obviously had no regard for driving safety.
“Yes, Jonghyun?” he answered, turning on the hands free to talk as he idled in his car before a red light.
“Kibum said to tell you that he'll reach down your throat and rip your guts out if you forget to bring Taemin,” Deadpanned the voice on the other end while Minho winced a bit at the gruesome imagery only Kibum would threaten when it came to precious, darling, Taeminnie. Honestly, Taemin was Kibum's boyfriend's little brother and the man treated the teenager like his first born child. Sometimes Minho thought Kibum only dated Jinki so he could dress Taemin up like a doll and coo and mother over the younger on a daily basis.
The sounds heard at night that Taemin could attest to suggested otherwise, but that wasn't really the point.
“I'm on my way to his dance studio right now. Did Kibum want me to drive him home or to your guys's flat?” Because as best friends, Kibum and Jonghyun had been living together even though it was probably the most enormous financial black hole Minho had ever seen, given that Kibum spent most of his life at Jinki's and Jonghyun was essentially living with him but apparently there was nowhere else to store the older's music related paraphernalia nor the younger's wardrobe so the flat remained rented.
There was the sound of conversation on the other end for a brief moment before his lover replied with a, “You are to, and I quote, 'Have my baby in my shower in the next fifteen minutes so I can dress him before we leave or so help me Choi Minho, I will make it so Jjong will have to hire prostitutes to get some, if you understand my meaning.' And I have to jet in about five minutes so I won't be here to protect you, babe. You better get Taemin here fast. Prostitutes have diseases.”
Minho tried to convince himself that Jonghyun loved him for more than just the sex but the last sentence was really not helping the argument. “I understand his meaning and I'll do my best. I don't think I'll be seeing you guys before you get on stage so uhm... good luck. And give Jinki my regards.” And no, that sentence hadn't come out awkwardly. In another world. When said by another person. Of maybe the opposite gender. And in another language. Probably a language spoken by three headed, blue skinned tentacle monsters. None of which Minho was, which translated to: damn, that had come out badly.
There was a rush of static Minho interpreted as a sigh from the other end of his earpiece as the older answered back, “Sorry, I'm just nervous. First performance of the season. Nerves on edge. And Kibum REALLY ISN'T HELPING.”
There was a reply that came in a smaller voice and the words were inaudible, though the tone was still shouted and bitchy which Minho could only interpret as Kibum having heard Jonghyun's strained and half-screamed accusation and replying in turn as, having known all four of the other men for a while, he knew that chances were, Jinki was as carefree as ever and Jonghyun and Kibum were stressing in his place, together. As a dual entity. And he was sure that if the two had been women, their PMS would have been on par with the way the two could get when it got to this time of the year.
The holiday season.
“I know. I've got it, you just get there and do your thing. You always sound great, Jjong. I love you.”
“I love you too. I'll see you there, I've really got to go before Kibum attacks me with the eyeliner, he's getting twitchy as hell. You better come on time!”
Farewells bidden, the couple hung up on each other and Minho pulled to a stop in front of the dance studio where a skinny figure dressed lightly sat on the steps in front of the door in the smattering of snowflakes drifting down. Parking in front of the curb, he waved to Taemin as the teenager jogged to the passenger's door, throwing himself in and slamming the door shut, still bouncing with energy as if he hadn't just had an eight hour practice.
“What's up? Drive, Minho, drive, or else Kibum will reach down your throat and pull your guts out!” enthused the blonde-haired best friend of his.
“Put your seat belt on and I've heard that one already. He did one better and threatened to castrate me after that one though. Aren't you cold? I feel like I'll die if you arrive in front of your second mother in less than perfect condition.”
Complying with his tall friend's request, Taemin pulled the strap over his body and clothing that Minho had complained ever so subtly about which consisted of a wife beater, a pair of rolled up sweats, and bright yellow socks underneath his sparkly converse. “Eh, only a little bit. The studio gets really hot, man. And yeah, Kibum is scary this time of year so it's a good thing you run fast.”
Scary was an understatement, as far as Minho was concerned as he changed lanes to avoid the congestion of a small accident in one lane, a bit more concerned with his own life than whatever patch of ice that had slammed one car into another. According to Taemin's rules, if there's no explosion, there's no worries.
Speaking of Taemin's rules, “Hey remember that one time after I got my license and you came up with a bunch of rules for me to follow because you got annoyed with how I drove?”
A bright peal of laughter erupted from the dancer's mouth, “Yeah! Like, if you see a yellow light, you're supposed to step on it, not slow down! And people with their lights flashing on the side of the road are to be ignored because they could be murderers for all you know. Oh, and how you get five points for every car you pass on the highway, and ten points for every car you cut off? Twenty if you get someone to honk at you on the highway! And I get points if someone does that to you? Loser had to buy lunch?”
A toothy grin spread on Minho's face in remembrance of the long ago that was approximately four years ago when it had been just him and Taemin, and Jinki on rare occasions, best friends. Then Taemin's brother had gotten a boyfriend- Kim Kibum, who had come with a best friend of his own, a Kim Jonghyun who had stolen any last semblance of coherency the taller man had ever possessed when in eyesight. “And if I hit a deer, no, I could not go back and claim it to take it home to my mom-”
“Because that's gross!” protested the hyperactive teenager beside him. “That was such a long time ago. If you brought roadkill home to Jonghyun, I think he'd eat it though. You two are weird.”
“Pfft, sorry we're weird, Min-nie. Better weird than being your brother's wife's daughter.”
“I'mma tell Kibum you said that.”
“I can run faster than him.”
“But can you outrun his throwing knives?”
“Your point is valid. I'll treat you after the performance tonight, or something.”
“I want funnel cake.”
“...I'm not exactly sure where you expect me to find that right now but since I feel sorry for you, I'll do my best.”
“Whaaat? Why?”
“'Cause, I dunno, I mean, I've got someone, Jinki's got someone, you're the only one alllll byyyyy yourseellllfff.”
“Your mocking is totally unnecessary. And I am not! I'm being considerate of everyone, okay?”
“How so?”
“Well, I mean, do you remember how you all reacted when I said that I wasn't a virgin?”
“Let's see, Jinki fainted, Kibum started crying, Jonghyun tried to share his porn with you and I didn't talk to you for a week. Oh, okay. Yeah, don't get a girlfriend or boyfriend or whatever. The sky might fall down.”
“Exactly.”
The reminiscing continued until they reached the front of the apartment complex at which point Taemin was booted off the car and sent running up to Kibum while Minho parked and decided to let Taemin work a few minutes of aegyo magic on his pseudo mother before going upstairs. It was well spent time, as by the time that Minho arrived at the door to Kibum and Jonghyun's shared apartment, the former was rushing about in a scarily delighted manner, humming to himself as the shower ran and he picked up clothes and laid out clothes. The power that Taemin had over the Diva Bitch of the East's moods was unrivaled by anyone except maybe Jinki. Which made sense, as they were brothers.
“Minho! Just getting in? Great timing, can you run down to the corner store and get some flowers? And put a call in to KFC, because last time they said they'd want a little bit more warning before we went again and do you think Taeminnie would look better in the blue shirt or the red shirt? Or should I dress him in black? I found a new pair of pants for him the other day too-”
Minho was out the door and running before Kibum could steal another second of his life with his chatter about clothes and dressing up Taemin. Flowers were a great idea, even if they were kind of girly, but a side effect of being Kibum's best friend, Jonghyun said, was that his womanly tendencies rubbed off to the point that one might almost find themselves appreciating things like flowers and chocolate and cheesy romance novels (Although Kibum didn't read cheesy romance novels, which led Minho to the conclusion that his boyfriend was simply naturally suited to being his best friend's brother's boyfriend's best friend. God the relationships in his life were complicated).
He purposely took the longest line available once he picked the flowers and a great huge can of the tea Jonghyun liked to drink during this time of the year and pulled out his wallet to count the change slowly, taking his sweet time in hopes that Taemin would be out of the shower and ready for Kibum to doll up by the time he got back. Was he using his best friend as a buffer between himself and his boyfriend's best friend? Absolutely. Did he feel guilty about it? No, not really. Besides, Taemin liked being babied by Kibum, as far as Minho could see. Always playing cute and innocent and sweet even though Minho knew how very capable his best friend was at discarding all that to be the devious, conniving, evil dongsaeng he truly was. It was all in good fun though. Really.
He tried not to think about how much worse Taemin had gotten ever since meeting Jonghyun.
“I'm back, are you guys ready? It takes half an hour to walk down there, we should get going if we want good seats,” Minho called, once he got back into the apartment, letting himself in on the spare key Jonghyun had given him. He was treated to the happy sight of Kibum enthusiastically hugging a Taemin who was slowly turning purple and gesturing wildly for Minho to save his life; while squealing about how adorable his baby looked. If Minho didn't know that Kibum might possibly cut a bitch if he didn't let out his stress on Taemin (in relatively harmless ways), Minho might have interfered on behalf of his best friend's life. However, he got a distinct feeling that he would be the bitch to get cut and so, didn't.
“We're almost ready, aigoo, isn't my baby so cute? Look at him, Minho! Okay, hold on, I have to get my camera, I'll be right back!”
Taemin was released and he glared at Minho who shrugged. “Way to help me. I don't understand why we have to walk there. Can't we just take your car?”
“You wanna pay for the gas? 'cause that stuff's like liquid gold these days.”
“Pfft, just 'cause you want to be all stupidly romantic with Jjong and walk around in the middle of the night when it's snowing and drinking hot chocolate and whatever. Let me tell you, Minho, there is nothing romantic about freezing your ass off.”
“What do you know? You're not in a relationship.” And he tried, he really did try to sound contemptuous but it came out as somewhat more pathetically defensive than he had intended because Taemin had basically been dead on with his assumption that he had wanted to be romantic and walk around in the snow and all the stuff that his boyfriend liked to read and chatter excitedly about and it was the cutest thing but apparently the scoffing blonde sitting across from him on the back of the sofa thought differently. And what if Taemin was right and Jonghyun thought that freezing his delectable ass off was not worth the re-enactment of the scene that occurred at least once in every cheesy romance novel with a winter setting?
“Do you want me to bring a blanket in case you get cold, sweetie?” Kibum cooed, appearing with his camera to take several quick shots of Taemin and two coats, one of which he handed to the youngest who smiled cheerily and happily like it was his favorite thing in the world to be mothered over. As if his older brother didn't fuss over him enough. Minho shook his head in disapproval- internally, but he did- over the gooey umma-baby scene and decided they'd be at it for a while so drifted off into lala-land where Jonghyun would like the sappy romantic moment and wouldn't give a damn that he was freezing off his ass because the two of them were having a moment. A moment- “Damn it, Kibum, I'm trying to have a moment here!” Minho yelled when he was slapped out of his reverie.
He received strange looks from the other two.
“Have your moment later. Jinki-hyung will mope for the rest of the night if we don't show up on time,” Taemin pipes, slipping on shoes that were not the sparkly converse he came in wearing because Kibum didn't approve of those atrocities on his darling's feet. Minho rolled his eyes, he'd been standing in the entrance way waiting for the other two for the past twenty minutes and they were telling him to not be tardy? Hilarious.
Taemin was right, Minho concluded later, as they arrived in front of the church. There was no way there was anything in the world that could happy-out freezing one's ass off and it was really damn cold tonight too. The flowers he had bought were now frozen since he hadn't been able to decided if he wanted to keep them safely unfrozen by crushing them in his coat, or if he wanted to keep them uncrushed by freezing them outside his coat. He had chosen the latter and now the edges on the petals were wilting. Well, you couldn't have everything. But you could have perfectly good flowers and a warm butt if you'd only driven your car. Said a small, annoying voice in the back of his head which sounded suspiciously similar to Taemin when his friend was sing-songing 'I told you so' at him.
The three of them took their seats on cushiony pews near the front in the middle and did their best to warm up and make small talk and go to the bathroom before the performance started to not be rude while the rest of the sanctuary filled with people. Then Jinki entered, in a white robe, as the conductor, and Kibum's camera was out immediately, recording his every move. Minho rather thought Kibum had the makings of a very successful stalker. Then Jonghyun entered with the choir and Minho began to wish he had stalker skills like Kibum. Because a face like that on a body like that making ugly as hell robes look nothing short of heavenly deserved to be recorded. Seriously.
“Good evening everyone! I'm Lee Jinki and I'm the conductor for this group! Yeah, um...” Jinki stops for a moment to wave rather unprofessionally to his brother and boyfriend, distracted as anyone would be by the combined power of their shining shininess. “Oh! No flash during the performance, please! And... I think that's all. Please enjoy, everyone!”
The lights dim and all Minho can see is Jonghyun. He sings a solo and it's amazing of course, and the quartet he does sounds equally great and as soon as the last note of the evening sounds, Minho is one of the first people on his feet and clapping. He thinks that only Kibum might have been able to compete with him for his place of first but Kibum can't really compete as he was still recording Jinki and bets were that they'd be watching it together later over and over because Kibum was fucking obsessed with the Lee brothers in every way shape and form. It was fortunate for him that the two objects of his obsession didn't seem to mind at all.
When the house lights come up, Minho finds himself running to where Jonghyun is in the choir's dressing room, bouquet in on hand, the coat he'd taken off earlier in the other and he suprises Jonghyun, coming up behind the shorter man in what Taemin called Minho's ninja sneak attack and encircling the solid torso of the singer with his long arms, positioned so that the flowers rested right under Jonghyun's chin.
“Was I good? Don't answer that, of course I was good. I was fantastic, wasn't I?” Minho was asked with an accompanying shit-eating grin characteristic to Jonghyun's after-performance high. His arms tightened before spinning his boyfriend around to answer him face-to-face.
“You're always fantastic. Flowers. That is, uhm, I got you some. Do you like them?” He received a bright, beaming grin in response to the wilted bouquet and was about to get a hug too until a familiar voice cut through to them.
“Yah! Lovebirds, it's Korean Fried Chicken time, okay? Let's go, move it, move it,” Kibum shouted as he shoved Taemin forward to get between Minho and Jonghyun. This was later explained as a strange need to get revenge on Minho because Minho had done something similar to Kibum in another, past life. Or alternate reality.
The strange feelings Kibum got. Really quite curious, they were.
As they made their way to the nearby KFC, a short five minute walk with Taemin walking ahead, very considerately giving the two couples space, Jonghyun and Minho walked in silence, their breaths making cold white puffs of vapor in front of their faces as they watched Kibum try to save Jinki from all the slippery spots on the road without much success. It really was too cold to talk much, especially given the dramatic temperature difference between the cold changing room and the freezing cold of the outdoors. The fast food restaurant's temperature was considerably better, it was downright toasty, really.
“Warmth, your name is happiness!” Taemin exclaimed upon entering and immediately hopped in line, not that there was much of one given the time of night.
“Wrong, Minnie, it is: Chicken, thy name is happiness,” corrected his older brother who was very happily breathing the smells of fried, tryptophan saturated poultry.
“Whatever, my ass is defrosting and that's pretty much all I care about right now.” Kibum shivered a bit, hopping in effort to speed up his circulation. Jonghyun smirked slipping his hand out of Minho's - when had it gotten there? It'd become so natural that they didn't even notice- to slap Kibum's body part that was apparently defrosting, which resulted in a smack at the singer's head and would have elevated into a full-out slap fest if Minho hadn't felt the need to intervene at that point, since Taemin and Jinki were far too preoccupied with the chicken to care much about whether or not the two began a bitch fight in the middle of the local KFC.
“Jjong, don't slap Kibum's ass. Kibum, don't hit my boyfriend's head any more than absolutely necessary. He doesn't have many brain cells to spare,” explained Minho, pulling Jonghyun towards him and protectively covering the beautiful head which he said was lacking in brain cells. His last sentence resulted in a pouty face from the shorter and a smirk from the younger who decided bickering with his best friend wasn't worth it and decided to fawn over his boyfriend and 'son' instead.
“I would have won,” Jonghyun insists as they find a table to sit down at. “Seriously.”
“I have faith in you,” Minho replied solemnly doing his best to keep a convincing straight face on as they continued their discussion, waiting for the food to arrive.
“Because I've taken him down before, you know. The day's yet to come when Kim Kibum can top Kim Jonghyun.”
“Naturally.”
“Hey guys, we got your usual, good?” Taemin breaks in, sliding next to and pressing against Minho into the booth at which Jonghyun frowned a bit. Taemin laughed like the cheeky brat he was, flicked a bit of straw wrapping at the older male and eased up on Minho when Jonghyun's face scrunched like he was about to cry. Kibum followed moments after Taemin with drinks and Minho remembered the can of tea he had bought Jonghyun and Jonghyun was pleased in turn that Minho had remembered what his favorite beverage was. Taemin rolled his eyes at them and then again when Jinki appeared with three loaded trays, picked up a box to eat the chicken from while he got the last two trays and got up to help his hyung because he was a good dongsaeng, contrary to popular belief. The result was Jinki sitting back down while Taemin struggled under the weight of approximately ten dead chickens divided between two trays, setting them down with a thump and collapsing dramatically.
Light-hearted conversation filled the air after that, laughs and chatter about the day: Jinki's conducting, Jonghyun's solo, Taemin's rehearsal, Minho's fear for his life, Kibum's endless mothering. An hour maybe two later, the chicken is gone and Kibum has resolved to stay over at Taemin and Jinki's house, Taemin is trying desperately to find a friend to stay over with and Minho and Jonghyun stand up to leave since they're walking back to spend the night at Jonghyun's flat. It's where Minho's car is parked after all- where his car is parked and he is not driving it because he thought it would be such a great idea to be romantic for Jjong today. More like a great day to freeze a person's ass off. And it would be such a shame if he froze Jonghyun's ass off, it was such a nice one too.
“Why'd you leave your car and walk here?” Jonghyun asked after several minutes of silence.
“I. I had this idea but it won't work.”
“Obviously.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence. But uh...”
“Yeah?”
“I dunno, I was just thinking about that song you sang today. In the quartet.”
“We sang maybe five songs in the quartet.”
“The one with the laughter.”
“Mmhm. Aishh, I'm so cold!”
Something about hot chocolate was mumbled.
“Huh?”
“We should probably run. I heard it was gonna hail.”
“I don't wanna run. Too frozen.”
Then small ice chunks began pelting them from the sky and Jonghyun changed his mind, pulling his hood up over his face as Minho did the same beside him and their hands reached out at the same time, another practiced unconscious movement as they ran the last three blocks to the apartment complex, collapsing inside the lobby, freezing, even though the blood was now circulating wildly around in their bodies at this point. When they got up after that, laughing almost hysterically from the little misadventure, icy pebbles slid off their coats and hoods, inciting more laughter.
“Still cold,” Jonghyun complained as they stood up, brushing off the last vestiges of ice and snow. He was too preoccupied with dusting a bit of ice that practically embedded itself in his pants to notice the taller man closing in on him until he could feel hot breath on his freezing nose and looked up in perfect timing for Minho to steal a quick kiss. Then another. And another and another and after a while they weren't so quick anymore. And it wasn't so much that it was a kiss so much as how very public it was considering this was the same 'obvious displays of public affection are prohibited' Minho. They were in the lobby of an apartment complex, kissing, and the thought brought the blood in Jonghyun's body to almost boiling temperature, since it couldn't decide if it wanted to go to his face or his groin.
“Are you still cold?” Minho asked breathlessly, the two of them panting from the prolonged lack of oxygen despite both having notorious lung capacities from sports and singing.
“Yep,” was all the shorter said before reaching up on tip-toe to pull his lover down in order to ravage his mouth once more. When a late night worker came in and whistled at the two who were slowly making their way upstairs in effort to 'warm themselves up', said worker found himself on the receiving end of a certain, rather rude hand gesture right before the couple disappeared behind elevator doors.
The flowers had been long abandoned and hands were up inside shirts, touching skin that most definitely did not need to warmed up in any way, as they stumbled down the hall and Jonghyun's back hit the wall of his flat's exterior while Minho shamelessly groped the shorter man's butt under the pretense of finding keys even though it would be another while yet before they got into the flat. In fact, they might even end up fucking right there in the hallway at their current rate but anti-pda Minho had been in existence for too long to let that happen and barely kicked the apartment door shut before one of the two lost their pants.
His lips were working busily at the thin skin of Jonghyun's collarbone when suddenly a low laugh brought his eyes up to look at said laughing person and if life were cartoonized, there would likely have been little question marks floating around Minho's head, indicating his questioning of what his lover was laughing about at a time like this. However, life was not cartoonized, so it was fortunate that Jonghyun could understand the younger man's expression without the nonexistent question marks.
“The line from the song that you were talking about earlier. I figured it out.” And the shit-eating grin was back on his face as Minho rolled his eyes because of course Jonghyun would bring that up now of all times. With a single look, he prompted the shorter man to say it faster so he could get back to what he was doing.
“And though the night is dark and cold if you would be so very bold to take my hand in yours and hold it tightly as we go,” was sung in reply to the look, and Minho suddenly understood why it had made Jonghyun laugh.
Besides, Minho mused as he pulled the singer flush against his own body into a more desirable position, at least Jonghyun hadn't laughed at Minho, which meant that the cheesy, cliché, romance-novelly situation that had kinda sorta happened (because people didn't get pelted by hail that left marks in Jonghyun's books) had, in the end, happy-outed the little downside that was freezing one's ass off. Especially considering that freezing was the last thing Jonghyun's ass was going to be.