Immature, for pattitoo
Title: Immature
Recipient: pattitoo
Pairing: Mino/Seungyoon
Rating: PG
Warnings: mention of past bullying and weight-based teasing
Summary: Years after Minho last saw nationwide superstar Kang Seungyoon, he's hired to be his bodyguard.
Notes: To my recipient, thank you for so many cute prompts! I kind of mixed a couple of them around here so I hope this story is still to your liking ^^;
When Minho was younger, he used to get picked on in school. You wouldn't guess it to look at him now, all tanned skin and lean muscle tone and intimidating eyebrows. Even by high school he'd managed to turn his reputation around: he'd become the funny guy that kept the class's mood up, and if he was a little chunky or nearsighted, that just suited his image. But somewhere inside him, there was still the kid who used to get called names by his more powerful classmates and was forced to carry out their dirty work. It had started in the first year of middle school and continued until halfway through third year, when the worst of the bullies, a kid named Seungyoon, had moved away.
If Minho had to sit down and think about it, that was probably what had attracted him to the private security business. Not just the salary, or the feeling of being trustworthy, or the action-movie glamour, but, frankly, the idea of being so tough and scary that no one would want to mess with him. It had been years since middle school, but Minho still felt like he had something to prove.
Well, now he definitely had something to prove.
"Kang Seungyoon," says Captain Cho, clicking to the next slide of his presentation. "Rock singer, nationwide superstar, man of a thousand ex-girlfriends, each more sexy than the last."
"Total jackass," Minho mutters under his breath.
"What was that, Mr. Song?"
"Nothing, sir." Minho clears his throat and sits up. "Uh, I went to school with him."
"Isn't he from Busan?" says his colleague Hanhae from across the table, and next to him Park Kyung nods.
"I think he moved there after. Or moved from there before. Honestly, I don't care."
"Because our only concern," Captain Cho continues, "is that we ensure Kang Seungyoon's personal safety, which has come into jeopardy recently. You may have heard about the scandal with Krystal Jung."
"Wait, what's the scandal?" says Minho. He looks to Hanhae, who shrugs.
"It was like a month or two ago," Kyung replies. "They caught him leaving her apartment building, but she's in a relationship with this idol guy, so they've been denying everything."
Minho snorts. "Serves him right."
"Regardless," Captain Cho cuts in again, "he'll be playing a concert here in Seoul next weekend, and it's our job to ensure everything goes smoothly. This is going to be his first public appearance in Korea since the scandal, and his label is concerned about running into problems with the paparazzi again, or something worse. Remember that actress who had acid thrown at her recently?"
He clicks to the next slide, and the three security guards around the table wince in unison. "We remember, sir," says Minho from behind the hand over his face.
"Please," Hanhae adds, a little desperately.
Captain Cho ignores them. This is the climax of his speech, as it is always the climax of his speech, including the disturbing images on the pull-down screen behind him. "The reason they've come to Stardom," he says, "is because we're the best. And the reason I've selected you"-Minho glances sideways to see Kyung mouthing along-"is because you're the best." He nods to Minho. "The personal connection is just a bonus."
Minho raises his eyebrows and smiles, because he can't curse out his boss.
Once the meeting lets out, Minho goes outside for a cigarette and, more pressingly, to call Jihoon, his best friend since childhood.
"Uh-oh," says Jihoon when he picks up. "What happened?"
"Hey, can't I just call you?" Minho says, but he sighs. "It's work-related."
"So you can't tell me! Your work is top secret."
Minho ashes his cigarette. "Do you remember Kang Seungyoon?"
"Kang Seungyoon the famous person, or the jerk from middle school?" Jihoon snickers at his own joke. "Wait, so that's your work?"
"Yeah. Contract for the concert next weekend."
"Ugh," Jihoon says sympathetically. "But hey, at least you're getting paid to go to a concert, right? That's kind of dope."
Minho sighs. "Yeah, you're right," he says. "Even if he is a huge jerk."
"Maybe was a huge jerk?"
"Eh, he still sounds like a jerk, to be honest, with that whole scandal thing. Is his music even good? I haven't listened to it."
"Oh, come on, man." Jihoon laughs. "You've totally listened to it, even if it's by accident. That 'It Rains' song? No?"
Minho doesn't even think about it. "Nope. Not at all."
"I don't believe you. I'll bet you 20,000 won that you know it, look it up."
"I'm not taking you up on that."
"Because you know that you know it, you big liar."
Minho laughs. "Because you should keep your money."
But he can't resist. That night, he looks up "It Rains", after three attempts to type out Kang Seungyoon's name that he deleted because it felt weird. Jihoon's right: he's heard this song before, though he can't remember where, probably incidentally while getting coffee or something. He mostly prefers to listen to hip-hop these days. But the song isn't bad, not at all. He hasn't heard Seungyoon sing since middle school, and his warm, throaty voice is either too familiar or too unfamiliar. Either way, it feels like a jab to Minho's chest.
It's strange to see his face again. Minho's seen it since middle school, of course, also incidentally-even in the last week, there's been posters for the concert he'll be working at all over the city, though some of them have had Seungyoon's face scratched or torn off-but it's different seeing it in motion. Like his voice, his face doesn't look that different from how he had in middle school, all big pink lips and hair, and at the same time he looks completely different, taller and pointier and Minho closes the video window before he can think of the word handsome.
He considers texting Jihoon, but the weird feeling crawls through his chest again, so he leaves it, and tries to forget about it while he still can.
---
Captain Cho can never resist making a situation even more awkward and forced than it has to be, so he puts Minho in charge of driving Kang Seungyoon from his home on the morning of the dress rehearsal while Hanhae and Kyung handle the venue. Kang Seungyoon's building is predictable: a white granite condominium in Gangnam, both showy and discreet in the way that expensive buildings are, with sliding doors made of reflective blue glass. Minho has been to plenty of these buildings during his time in the security business, but he's never felt as much disdain for one as he does for this one.
Minho knocks on Kang Seungyoon's front door. Their impending reunion feels almost like a physical object, as if he were standing in the path of an oncoming train. "Coming!" Seungyoon yells from the other side, and Minho holds his breath as the footsteps draw nearer.
The door opens, and there's Seungyoon, without a shirt or anything on his feet, just some ridiculously tight, artfully torn black jeans. Minho instinctively glances away from Seungyoon's bare chest, but it's not entirely out of respect, or repulsion. "Oh," Seungyoon says. "Wait. You're..."
"I'm here from the security company," Minho says, making his voice a little deeper and sterner than normal. "I'm here to drive you."
Seungyoon keeps looking at him. "Yongin Bandal Middle School," he says. "Your name is Song... Song Minho. Right?"
Minho blinks. "Uh, right."
Seungyoon's eyes light up. "That's amazing! Could you wait a minute? I'm just getting dressed." He walks back into the apartment. "Come in, come in. Not to watch me get dressed. Unless you're into that."
"Uh," Minho says again. So Seungyoon is still making fun of him after all these years. Still, Minho steps into the apartment just enough to close the door behind him, as Seungyoon's bare back disappears around a corner. He clears his throat, trying to regain his composure. Just another job, he reminds himself. "How long is it going to be? They're expecting us at the venue as soon as possible."
"Sorry, I just need a minute," Seungyoon calls. "They can't start without me anyway, right?" Minho sighs. It's not that he isn't used to this kind of behaviour from celebrities, but for some reason everything is especially annoying to him today.
A few minutes later, Seungyoon emerges, now wearing a checkered shirt with a black billed cap on his head and a pair of sunglasses on. "Ready." He smiles at Minho, and it's a real smile, not the smug grin Minho remembers. But it doesn't change anything.
Just another job.
"This way, Mr. Kang," Minho says. He doesn't bother looking at Seungyoon's face to see his reaction, and he stays a few paces behind him as they go all the way down to where the black, unmarked Stardom Private Security car is waiting for them in the building's garage.
As they get settled in the car, Seungyoon asks, "Do you want to know why I was late this morning?" His voice sounds bubbly with hidden laughter, and if his reputation is anything to go by, Minho thinks he knows the answer.
He looks at Seungyoon only long enough to adjust his rearview mirror. "No. Thanks," he adds, as an afterthought.
"Hey, relax," says Seungyoon, letting out the laugh. "It's because my flight from Tokyo was delayed."
"I'm relaxed," Minho replies, though even he can admit his tone of voice doesn't sound like it.
After that, the drive to Mapo-gu is silent. Minho gets small updates from Hanhae and Kyung on his earpiece, and Seungyoon types intently on his phone in the back seat. When they pull closer to the venue, though, Minho can see a cloud of people waiting by the entrance, some with powerful-looking cameras, others with signs that he can't read from where he is. "Shit," he mutters to himself.
Seungyoon sits back. "There it is."
Minho glances backwards briefly. "Is this how it always is?"
"Pretty much." Seungyoon leans toward the window. "I think the signs say different things these days though."
"Huh." Minho turns onto a side road, as he'd been directed, and the crowd disappears from sight.
Seungyoon waits until they're almost to the back entrance of the venue before he says, "It's all a misunderstanding. She bought some records in America she wanted to show me, so I went to her apartment to listen to them, but that's it. We're just friends, but she's not allowed to have male friends in public. Because this happens, I guess."
"I don't care," Minho replies.
Seungyoon pouts. "You're so mean now."
"I'm mean," Minho says, but then he stops himself as they pull up to the doors.
They're only a few minutes late, but it might as well be hours with the way Seungyoon's manager is yelling. Minho almost pulls him away before he remembers his face from their briefing. The manager hustles Seungyoon into the venue, with Hanhae and Kyung bringing up the rear, and Minho doesn't know if he feels relieved or not to see them go.
For the first few hours, he's posted outside the backstage door, making sure no unauthorized people get in. It's weird to go from intense one-on-one contact to being completely alone, but it's just another part of the job. Whenever the door opens and closes he can hear snatches of music from inside the venue, and the occasional warble of a voice, and it makes him think of something that had happened in his third year of middle school.
He'd forgotten a textbook in the classroom, so he'd gone back to get it, but stopped at the door when he saw there was still someone inside. It was Kang Seungyoon. He was sitting with his feet up on a desk and a guitar lying across his lap. He would play the guitar and sing a few words, then stop and write something down, then pick up the guitar and try it all again.
That was the first time Minho had heard Seungyoon sing, or do anything that wasn't hanging around the school soccer court with his crew, passing around cigarettes and picking on the younger students. He hadn't really thought about it at the time, but in the weeks before that Seungyoon had stopped hanging out with his crew. There had been a rumour that he had been suspended, but he still showed up at school, so that couldn't have been it.
He had a surprisingly nice voice, deep and mellow. Minho couldn't hear everything, but there was still one line he remembered: "I've always been alone," Seungyoon had sung, "and on the outside too I was alone."
Then he'd turned his head to see Minho standing at the door. "You coming in or out, Song Piggy?" he said. It was just the two of them; Minho probably could have taken him in that moment, even middle school third year Minho. But instead, he walked away. He still wasn't quite brave enough. A month later, Kang Seungyoon left Yongin Bandal Middle School.
---
The rehearsal continues until the evening, and Minho's last task of the day is to drive Seungyoon home. Just one more day of this, he tells himself, and then he doesn't have to think about Kang Seungyoon again and he can get on with his life.
"How long have you been doing this?" Seungyoon asks, once they're alone in the car again. "Driving people around, being all strong and stuff."
Minho glances up at him in the rearview mirror. He's abandoned the sunglasses, but not the hat. "A couple of years now," he replies.
"Do you like it?"
"'S fine," Minho says, looking back at the road.
Seungyoon chuckles. "I just never imagined you doing something like this. It's cool." There's so much Minho could say to that-what did you imagine me doing?, or if he was feeling bolder, it's because of you. As he's considering his options, Seungyoon leans forward and puts his hand on the corner of Minho's seat. "Turn here," he says, pointing.
Minho obeys as a reflex, putting on his turn signal, then immediately regrets his fast reaction time. "This a shortcut to your place or something?" he asks, as he completes the turn anyway.
"Not at all," Seungyoon replies. "You hungry?"
"Yeah, so I need to drop you off so I can eat."
Seungyoon grins, and leans forward again so his chin is practically at Minho's shoulder. "Come have dinner with me."
"I'd rather not." Minho glances over his shoulder, trying to make him lean back without touching him. He smells sweaty, but a sweet kind of sweat. Minho doesn't like his own reaction to it. "Should you even be out of your house? In case you see an actress and get into another scandal or something."
"You tell such good jokes, Song Minho," Seungyoon sneers, and Minho flushes, a familiar unpleasant feeling flooding his chest. "Anyway, that's we're paying you for, right? Turn right up here."
Seungyoon directs him to a small restaurant close by, whose blue sign says Busan Pork Soup. Minho wonders if the "pork" part is supposed to be a joke on him; or maybe his whole life is just a long, elaborate joke that Seungyoon's been pulling on him since middle school. Definitely still a huge jerk, he thinks.
He's about to text Jihoon the same, but he has to escort Seungyoon into the restaurant. Technically, he is still on duty. Crammed around one of the wooden tables inside are some of the staff members from the concert, including Seungyoon's manager, phone in hand. His manager barely looks up when Seungyoon and Minho enter, and Minho wonders if he's the only one that sees how unreasonable all of this is.
It's completely unsurprising that Seungyoon takes a seat at the women's end of the table, and less surprising that the female staff members coo over him. Evidently, they don't really care about the scandal, or they do and they've picked a side. Minho expects to sit next to him, but instead he gets stuck between Seungyoon's manager and one of the stylists, a guy who's dressed like Seungyoon, only more expensive-looking. "Nam Taehyun," he introduces himself, and Minho shakes his hand. "And that is..."
The woman sitting across from them puts up her hand. "Jung Eunji. Welcome to the adults' table," she says, and Minho snorts, but it's genuine.
Luckily, the food is good. Busan pork soup turns out to be a transluscent white broth with the meat and vegetables served on the side. "Try it with soju," Nam Taehyun tells Minho, chewing with his mouth open. "It's kind of a cliché that we're here, but whatever."
"I can't drink tonight," Minho replies.
"You can drink a little." Taehyun pours for him, so Minho shrugs and takes a sip. Taehyun grins. "There you go."
"So how do you know Seungyoon?" Eunji asks Minho.
Minho takes another sip of soju. It does go well with the soup, and it feels good after a long, tense day. "I'm being paid to watch him," he says. "But we also went to the same middle school."
Eunji gasps. "What was he like in middle school?"
Minho laughs a little too loud. "I'm not gonna answer that." He glances down the table, but Seungyoon is listening to someone else, his face flushing red. "What about you, how do you know Seungyoon?"
"They fucked," Taehyun giggles, before Eunji can respond. "Ow! Don't kick me."
"You are so rude," Eunji says. "That's a lie, by the way," she adds to Minho.
"How is it rude?" Taehyun says. "I've fucked him, I just assume everyone he knows has." Minho nearly spits out his soup, and he has to take a moment to cough into a napkin before he pulls himself back together. He is definitely not drinking any more alcohol tonight. Taehyun laughs, clearly delighted. "Are you all right?"
"Aww, I think you blew his mind," says Eunji.
Aghast, Minho turns to Seungyoon's manager, who is placidly texting with one hand and holding a bottle of beer with the other. When he notices Minho looking, he shrugs at him. "Nothing shocks me anymore."
"That's why this whole Krystal scandal is so hilarious," says Taehyun. "'Scandal'," he adds, putting air quotes. "Like, it just kills me to imagine what would happen if people knew what he was actually like."
Minho looks down the table to Seungyoon again. "Yeah, me too," he says.
It's 11 PM by the time they finish, and Minho has to come over to the other side of the table to help Seungyoon out of his seat. His body feels surprisingly frail beneath his clothes. One of the female staff members offers to help, but Minho kindly pushes her away. "Early schedule tomorrow," he says, and Seungyoon's manager nods approvingly.
Seungyoon is loose and giggly in the backseat of the Stardom car. "Wear a seatbelt, and tell me if you're gonna throw up," Minho says.
"Yes, sir." Seungyoon grins. "You really changed a lot, Song Minho. I'm impressed."
"Yeah, well, you haven't," Minho replies, and he starts to drive.
Seungyoon keeps talking, but Minho stops paying attention. He's silent all during the drive, and silent when he takes Seungyoon up to his apartment, one of Seungyoon's arms slung around his neck, and takes him inside and puts him down onto his bed.
He turns to go, and Seungyoon says, "Stay here with me."
Minho's body tenses. "I'll be back to pick you up in the morning, 8 AM."
Seungyoon sits up. "Stay," he says again. His voice sounds small, even seductive. "Please," he adds. "You probably have to drive back a long way."
Minho chuckles. "Is that really why you want me to stay?"
"I mean, you could sleep with me if you want, I wouldn't say no." Seungyoon hums and lies back down. "Especially since you're so sexy now."
"Okay, stop." Minho turns all the way around. When he sees Seungyoon lying there among his dishevelled sheets, face flushed with drink, the pang of wanting he feels just makes him angrier. "You can stop fucking with me any time, okay? You probably think it's funny, but I don't think it's funny at all."
"What are you talking about?"
"That's exactly what I'm talking about," Minho snaps. "You say you remember me from middle school and then you act like you don't remember what you did to me in middle school. I could've exposed your ass tonight to all your friends, exes, whatever they are. I didn't, because I'm a professional. But that doesn't mean I've forgotten everything. I haven't forgotten anything."
Seungyoon closes his eyes and shifts onto his side. "Can we talk about this later?" he says. "I have to get up early."
"'On the outside, I was alone,'" says Minho, and Seungyoon freezes. "Bullshit. You don't know anything about being alone."
"More than you," Seungyoon retorts. "You were the one who always had friends. But the people I thought were my friends weren't really my friends. That's why I hated seeing you. Because you had something I didn't."
"Bullshit."
Seungyoon rolls over. "Tell me that when you need to pay someone to follow you around just because you went to your friend's house alone. And close the door when you go out."
Minho has to drive back north of the river to get to his apartment, but instead, he takes a detour. He blasts the radio, looking for the sound of anything that isn't Kang Seungyoon's music, Kang Seungyoon's voice. He drives and drives until he doesn't know where he is and the shaky energy in his chest is deflated, exhausted, and then he turns around and drives back home.
---
In the morning, Seungyoon is ready as soon as his front door opens, and he doesn't say a word as he follows Minho down to the garage. In a way this is what Minho wanted from the beginning, but it doesn't feel right, necessarily. He already can't wait for this day to be over.
There's a few minutes of silence in the car before Seungyoon speaks. "Minho, I'm sorry," he says.
There it is. Minho doesn't even look in the rearview mirror. "Okay."
"No, listen to me," Seungyoon says. His voice sounds lower and rougher than yesterday, but maybe that's the hangover. "I really regret a lot of things about middle school, and you're one of them. I thought I could make it up by being nice to you, but I guess that isn't enough. I mean, I can understand why."
The car pulls to a stop at a red light. Minho drums his fingers on the steering wheel, and finally, he looks up at Seungyoon in the mirror. "What do you want from me, Seungyoon?"
Seungyoon has his dark glasses with him, but he's taken them off, and his eyes look red and tired in the mirror. "I just want you to believe that I've changed. But now I understand that's not going to happen right away." He sighs, and his eyes meet Minho's. "So all I can do is say I'm sorry to you, and I am."
The light turns green, and Minho presses on the accelerator. "Okay," he says.
"Okay what?"
"Okay, I accept your apology." The car turns toward the venue, and the crowd looks even bigger today than it did yesterday. Minho skates by toward the side road. "I don't know if I believe it yet, though. But if I've changed, maybe you've changed too."
"You have changed," Seungyoon says. "You're so mean now."
Minho laughs, startled. "Just making up for lost time."
He drops Seungyoon off backstage in the care of his manager, and even backstage, there are some civilians loitering around. "It's a fucking zoo," Hanhae says to Minho, shaking his head. "No death threats yet, though. Hey, call the boss when you have a chance."
Minho only gets the chance to call when the concert is about to get underway. This time he's posted inside, backstage, and he can hear the roar of the crowd from where he is. He hopes there won't be any trouble during the show, but he's surprised when he realizes it's not just because he wants his job to be easier, but because he doesn't think Seungyoon deserves it.
"Ah, Minho," Captain Cho says when he picks up. "I have good news. Kang Seungyoon's label wants to give us a full-time contract, so you'll be seeing a lot of your old friend from now on."
"Oh, yes, sir," Minho says politely. When he hangs up, he starts to laugh. He wonders if Seungyoon already knew this was coming. At least there'll be plenty of chances for him to make up for lost time now.
Recipient: pattitoo
Pairing: Mino/Seungyoon
Rating: PG
Warnings: mention of past bullying and weight-based teasing
Summary: Years after Minho last saw nationwide superstar Kang Seungyoon, he's hired to be his bodyguard.
Notes: To my recipient, thank you for so many cute prompts! I kind of mixed a couple of them around here so I hope this story is still to your liking ^^;
When Minho was younger, he used to get picked on in school. You wouldn't guess it to look at him now, all tanned skin and lean muscle tone and intimidating eyebrows. Even by high school he'd managed to turn his reputation around: he'd become the funny guy that kept the class's mood up, and if he was a little chunky or nearsighted, that just suited his image. But somewhere inside him, there was still the kid who used to get called names by his more powerful classmates and was forced to carry out their dirty work. It had started in the first year of middle school and continued until halfway through third year, when the worst of the bullies, a kid named Seungyoon, had moved away.
If Minho had to sit down and think about it, that was probably what had attracted him to the private security business. Not just the salary, or the feeling of being trustworthy, or the action-movie glamour, but, frankly, the idea of being so tough and scary that no one would want to mess with him. It had been years since middle school, but Minho still felt like he had something to prove.
Well, now he definitely had something to prove.
"Kang Seungyoon," says Captain Cho, clicking to the next slide of his presentation. "Rock singer, nationwide superstar, man of a thousand ex-girlfriends, each more sexy than the last."
"Total jackass," Minho mutters under his breath.
"What was that, Mr. Song?"
"Nothing, sir." Minho clears his throat and sits up. "Uh, I went to school with him."
"Isn't he from Busan?" says his colleague Hanhae from across the table, and next to him Park Kyung nods.
"I think he moved there after. Or moved from there before. Honestly, I don't care."
"Because our only concern," Captain Cho continues, "is that we ensure Kang Seungyoon's personal safety, which has come into jeopardy recently. You may have heard about the scandal with Krystal Jung."
"Wait, what's the scandal?" says Minho. He looks to Hanhae, who shrugs.
"It was like a month or two ago," Kyung replies. "They caught him leaving her apartment building, but she's in a relationship with this idol guy, so they've been denying everything."
Minho snorts. "Serves him right."
"Regardless," Captain Cho cuts in again, "he'll be playing a concert here in Seoul next weekend, and it's our job to ensure everything goes smoothly. This is going to be his first public appearance in Korea since the scandal, and his label is concerned about running into problems with the paparazzi again, or something worse. Remember that actress who had acid thrown at her recently?"
He clicks to the next slide, and the three security guards around the table wince in unison. "We remember, sir," says Minho from behind the hand over his face.
"Please," Hanhae adds, a little desperately.
Captain Cho ignores them. This is the climax of his speech, as it is always the climax of his speech, including the disturbing images on the pull-down screen behind him. "The reason they've come to Stardom," he says, "is because we're the best. And the reason I've selected you"-Minho glances sideways to see Kyung mouthing along-"is because you're the best." He nods to Minho. "The personal connection is just a bonus."
Minho raises his eyebrows and smiles, because he can't curse out his boss.
Once the meeting lets out, Minho goes outside for a cigarette and, more pressingly, to call Jihoon, his best friend since childhood.
"Uh-oh," says Jihoon when he picks up. "What happened?"
"Hey, can't I just call you?" Minho says, but he sighs. "It's work-related."
"So you can't tell me! Your work is top secret."
Minho ashes his cigarette. "Do you remember Kang Seungyoon?"
"Kang Seungyoon the famous person, or the jerk from middle school?" Jihoon snickers at his own joke. "Wait, so that's your work?"
"Yeah. Contract for the concert next weekend."
"Ugh," Jihoon says sympathetically. "But hey, at least you're getting paid to go to a concert, right? That's kind of dope."
Minho sighs. "Yeah, you're right," he says. "Even if he is a huge jerk."
"Maybe was a huge jerk?"
"Eh, he still sounds like a jerk, to be honest, with that whole scandal thing. Is his music even good? I haven't listened to it."
"Oh, come on, man." Jihoon laughs. "You've totally listened to it, even if it's by accident. That 'It Rains' song? No?"
Minho doesn't even think about it. "Nope. Not at all."
"I don't believe you. I'll bet you 20,000 won that you know it, look it up."
"I'm not taking you up on that."
"Because you know that you know it, you big liar."
Minho laughs. "Because you should keep your money."
But he can't resist. That night, he looks up "It Rains", after three attempts to type out Kang Seungyoon's name that he deleted because it felt weird. Jihoon's right: he's heard this song before, though he can't remember where, probably incidentally while getting coffee or something. He mostly prefers to listen to hip-hop these days. But the song isn't bad, not at all. He hasn't heard Seungyoon sing since middle school, and his warm, throaty voice is either too familiar or too unfamiliar. Either way, it feels like a jab to Minho's chest.
It's strange to see his face again. Minho's seen it since middle school, of course, also incidentally-even in the last week, there's been posters for the concert he'll be working at all over the city, though some of them have had Seungyoon's face scratched or torn off-but it's different seeing it in motion. Like his voice, his face doesn't look that different from how he had in middle school, all big pink lips and hair, and at the same time he looks completely different, taller and pointier and Minho closes the video window before he can think of the word handsome.
He considers texting Jihoon, but the weird feeling crawls through his chest again, so he leaves it, and tries to forget about it while he still can.
---
Captain Cho can never resist making a situation even more awkward and forced than it has to be, so he puts Minho in charge of driving Kang Seungyoon from his home on the morning of the dress rehearsal while Hanhae and Kyung handle the venue. Kang Seungyoon's building is predictable: a white granite condominium in Gangnam, both showy and discreet in the way that expensive buildings are, with sliding doors made of reflective blue glass. Minho has been to plenty of these buildings during his time in the security business, but he's never felt as much disdain for one as he does for this one.
Minho knocks on Kang Seungyoon's front door. Their impending reunion feels almost like a physical object, as if he were standing in the path of an oncoming train. "Coming!" Seungyoon yells from the other side, and Minho holds his breath as the footsteps draw nearer.
The door opens, and there's Seungyoon, without a shirt or anything on his feet, just some ridiculously tight, artfully torn black jeans. Minho instinctively glances away from Seungyoon's bare chest, but it's not entirely out of respect, or repulsion. "Oh," Seungyoon says. "Wait. You're..."
"I'm here from the security company," Minho says, making his voice a little deeper and sterner than normal. "I'm here to drive you."
Seungyoon keeps looking at him. "Yongin Bandal Middle School," he says. "Your name is Song... Song Minho. Right?"
Minho blinks. "Uh, right."
Seungyoon's eyes light up. "That's amazing! Could you wait a minute? I'm just getting dressed." He walks back into the apartment. "Come in, come in. Not to watch me get dressed. Unless you're into that."
"Uh," Minho says again. So Seungyoon is still making fun of him after all these years. Still, Minho steps into the apartment just enough to close the door behind him, as Seungyoon's bare back disappears around a corner. He clears his throat, trying to regain his composure. Just another job, he reminds himself. "How long is it going to be? They're expecting us at the venue as soon as possible."
"Sorry, I just need a minute," Seungyoon calls. "They can't start without me anyway, right?" Minho sighs. It's not that he isn't used to this kind of behaviour from celebrities, but for some reason everything is especially annoying to him today.
A few minutes later, Seungyoon emerges, now wearing a checkered shirt with a black billed cap on his head and a pair of sunglasses on. "Ready." He smiles at Minho, and it's a real smile, not the smug grin Minho remembers. But it doesn't change anything.
Just another job.
"This way, Mr. Kang," Minho says. He doesn't bother looking at Seungyoon's face to see his reaction, and he stays a few paces behind him as they go all the way down to where the black, unmarked Stardom Private Security car is waiting for them in the building's garage.
As they get settled in the car, Seungyoon asks, "Do you want to know why I was late this morning?" His voice sounds bubbly with hidden laughter, and if his reputation is anything to go by, Minho thinks he knows the answer.
He looks at Seungyoon only long enough to adjust his rearview mirror. "No. Thanks," he adds, as an afterthought.
"Hey, relax," says Seungyoon, letting out the laugh. "It's because my flight from Tokyo was delayed."
"I'm relaxed," Minho replies, though even he can admit his tone of voice doesn't sound like it.
After that, the drive to Mapo-gu is silent. Minho gets small updates from Hanhae and Kyung on his earpiece, and Seungyoon types intently on his phone in the back seat. When they pull closer to the venue, though, Minho can see a cloud of people waiting by the entrance, some with powerful-looking cameras, others with signs that he can't read from where he is. "Shit," he mutters to himself.
Seungyoon sits back. "There it is."
Minho glances backwards briefly. "Is this how it always is?"
"Pretty much." Seungyoon leans toward the window. "I think the signs say different things these days though."
"Huh." Minho turns onto a side road, as he'd been directed, and the crowd disappears from sight.
Seungyoon waits until they're almost to the back entrance of the venue before he says, "It's all a misunderstanding. She bought some records in America she wanted to show me, so I went to her apartment to listen to them, but that's it. We're just friends, but she's not allowed to have male friends in public. Because this happens, I guess."
"I don't care," Minho replies.
Seungyoon pouts. "You're so mean now."
"I'm mean," Minho says, but then he stops himself as they pull up to the doors.
They're only a few minutes late, but it might as well be hours with the way Seungyoon's manager is yelling. Minho almost pulls him away before he remembers his face from their briefing. The manager hustles Seungyoon into the venue, with Hanhae and Kyung bringing up the rear, and Minho doesn't know if he feels relieved or not to see them go.
For the first few hours, he's posted outside the backstage door, making sure no unauthorized people get in. It's weird to go from intense one-on-one contact to being completely alone, but it's just another part of the job. Whenever the door opens and closes he can hear snatches of music from inside the venue, and the occasional warble of a voice, and it makes him think of something that had happened in his third year of middle school.
He'd forgotten a textbook in the classroom, so he'd gone back to get it, but stopped at the door when he saw there was still someone inside. It was Kang Seungyoon. He was sitting with his feet up on a desk and a guitar lying across his lap. He would play the guitar and sing a few words, then stop and write something down, then pick up the guitar and try it all again.
That was the first time Minho had heard Seungyoon sing, or do anything that wasn't hanging around the school soccer court with his crew, passing around cigarettes and picking on the younger students. He hadn't really thought about it at the time, but in the weeks before that Seungyoon had stopped hanging out with his crew. There had been a rumour that he had been suspended, but he still showed up at school, so that couldn't have been it.
He had a surprisingly nice voice, deep and mellow. Minho couldn't hear everything, but there was still one line he remembered: "I've always been alone," Seungyoon had sung, "and on the outside too I was alone."
Then he'd turned his head to see Minho standing at the door. "You coming in or out, Song Piggy?" he said. It was just the two of them; Minho probably could have taken him in that moment, even middle school third year Minho. But instead, he walked away. He still wasn't quite brave enough. A month later, Kang Seungyoon left Yongin Bandal Middle School.
---
The rehearsal continues until the evening, and Minho's last task of the day is to drive Seungyoon home. Just one more day of this, he tells himself, and then he doesn't have to think about Kang Seungyoon again and he can get on with his life.
"How long have you been doing this?" Seungyoon asks, once they're alone in the car again. "Driving people around, being all strong and stuff."
Minho glances up at him in the rearview mirror. He's abandoned the sunglasses, but not the hat. "A couple of years now," he replies.
"Do you like it?"
"'S fine," Minho says, looking back at the road.
Seungyoon chuckles. "I just never imagined you doing something like this. It's cool." There's so much Minho could say to that-what did you imagine me doing?, or if he was feeling bolder, it's because of you. As he's considering his options, Seungyoon leans forward and puts his hand on the corner of Minho's seat. "Turn here," he says, pointing.
Minho obeys as a reflex, putting on his turn signal, then immediately regrets his fast reaction time. "This a shortcut to your place or something?" he asks, as he completes the turn anyway.
"Not at all," Seungyoon replies. "You hungry?"
"Yeah, so I need to drop you off so I can eat."
Seungyoon grins, and leans forward again so his chin is practically at Minho's shoulder. "Come have dinner with me."
"I'd rather not." Minho glances over his shoulder, trying to make him lean back without touching him. He smells sweaty, but a sweet kind of sweat. Minho doesn't like his own reaction to it. "Should you even be out of your house? In case you see an actress and get into another scandal or something."
"You tell such good jokes, Song Minho," Seungyoon sneers, and Minho flushes, a familiar unpleasant feeling flooding his chest. "Anyway, that's we're paying you for, right? Turn right up here."
Seungyoon directs him to a small restaurant close by, whose blue sign says Busan Pork Soup. Minho wonders if the "pork" part is supposed to be a joke on him; or maybe his whole life is just a long, elaborate joke that Seungyoon's been pulling on him since middle school. Definitely still a huge jerk, he thinks.
He's about to text Jihoon the same, but he has to escort Seungyoon into the restaurant. Technically, he is still on duty. Crammed around one of the wooden tables inside are some of the staff members from the concert, including Seungyoon's manager, phone in hand. His manager barely looks up when Seungyoon and Minho enter, and Minho wonders if he's the only one that sees how unreasonable all of this is.
It's completely unsurprising that Seungyoon takes a seat at the women's end of the table, and less surprising that the female staff members coo over him. Evidently, they don't really care about the scandal, or they do and they've picked a side. Minho expects to sit next to him, but instead he gets stuck between Seungyoon's manager and one of the stylists, a guy who's dressed like Seungyoon, only more expensive-looking. "Nam Taehyun," he introduces himself, and Minho shakes his hand. "And that is..."
The woman sitting across from them puts up her hand. "Jung Eunji. Welcome to the adults' table," she says, and Minho snorts, but it's genuine.
Luckily, the food is good. Busan pork soup turns out to be a transluscent white broth with the meat and vegetables served on the side. "Try it with soju," Nam Taehyun tells Minho, chewing with his mouth open. "It's kind of a cliché that we're here, but whatever."
"I can't drink tonight," Minho replies.
"You can drink a little." Taehyun pours for him, so Minho shrugs and takes a sip. Taehyun grins. "There you go."
"So how do you know Seungyoon?" Eunji asks Minho.
Minho takes another sip of soju. It does go well with the soup, and it feels good after a long, tense day. "I'm being paid to watch him," he says. "But we also went to the same middle school."
Eunji gasps. "What was he like in middle school?"
Minho laughs a little too loud. "I'm not gonna answer that." He glances down the table, but Seungyoon is listening to someone else, his face flushing red. "What about you, how do you know Seungyoon?"
"They fucked," Taehyun giggles, before Eunji can respond. "Ow! Don't kick me."
"You are so rude," Eunji says. "That's a lie, by the way," she adds to Minho.
"How is it rude?" Taehyun says. "I've fucked him, I just assume everyone he knows has." Minho nearly spits out his soup, and he has to take a moment to cough into a napkin before he pulls himself back together. He is definitely not drinking any more alcohol tonight. Taehyun laughs, clearly delighted. "Are you all right?"
"Aww, I think you blew his mind," says Eunji.
Aghast, Minho turns to Seungyoon's manager, who is placidly texting with one hand and holding a bottle of beer with the other. When he notices Minho looking, he shrugs at him. "Nothing shocks me anymore."
"That's why this whole Krystal scandal is so hilarious," says Taehyun. "'Scandal'," he adds, putting air quotes. "Like, it just kills me to imagine what would happen if people knew what he was actually like."
Minho looks down the table to Seungyoon again. "Yeah, me too," he says.
It's 11 PM by the time they finish, and Minho has to come over to the other side of the table to help Seungyoon out of his seat. His body feels surprisingly frail beneath his clothes. One of the female staff members offers to help, but Minho kindly pushes her away. "Early schedule tomorrow," he says, and Seungyoon's manager nods approvingly.
Seungyoon is loose and giggly in the backseat of the Stardom car. "Wear a seatbelt, and tell me if you're gonna throw up," Minho says.
"Yes, sir." Seungyoon grins. "You really changed a lot, Song Minho. I'm impressed."
"Yeah, well, you haven't," Minho replies, and he starts to drive.
Seungyoon keeps talking, but Minho stops paying attention. He's silent all during the drive, and silent when he takes Seungyoon up to his apartment, one of Seungyoon's arms slung around his neck, and takes him inside and puts him down onto his bed.
He turns to go, and Seungyoon says, "Stay here with me."
Minho's body tenses. "I'll be back to pick you up in the morning, 8 AM."
Seungyoon sits up. "Stay," he says again. His voice sounds small, even seductive. "Please," he adds. "You probably have to drive back a long way."
Minho chuckles. "Is that really why you want me to stay?"
"I mean, you could sleep with me if you want, I wouldn't say no." Seungyoon hums and lies back down. "Especially since you're so sexy now."
"Okay, stop." Minho turns all the way around. When he sees Seungyoon lying there among his dishevelled sheets, face flushed with drink, the pang of wanting he feels just makes him angrier. "You can stop fucking with me any time, okay? You probably think it's funny, but I don't think it's funny at all."
"What are you talking about?"
"That's exactly what I'm talking about," Minho snaps. "You say you remember me from middle school and then you act like you don't remember what you did to me in middle school. I could've exposed your ass tonight to all your friends, exes, whatever they are. I didn't, because I'm a professional. But that doesn't mean I've forgotten everything. I haven't forgotten anything."
Seungyoon closes his eyes and shifts onto his side. "Can we talk about this later?" he says. "I have to get up early."
"'On the outside, I was alone,'" says Minho, and Seungyoon freezes. "Bullshit. You don't know anything about being alone."
"More than you," Seungyoon retorts. "You were the one who always had friends. But the people I thought were my friends weren't really my friends. That's why I hated seeing you. Because you had something I didn't."
"Bullshit."
Seungyoon rolls over. "Tell me that when you need to pay someone to follow you around just because you went to your friend's house alone. And close the door when you go out."
Minho has to drive back north of the river to get to his apartment, but instead, he takes a detour. He blasts the radio, looking for the sound of anything that isn't Kang Seungyoon's music, Kang Seungyoon's voice. He drives and drives until he doesn't know where he is and the shaky energy in his chest is deflated, exhausted, and then he turns around and drives back home.
---
In the morning, Seungyoon is ready as soon as his front door opens, and he doesn't say a word as he follows Minho down to the garage. In a way this is what Minho wanted from the beginning, but it doesn't feel right, necessarily. He already can't wait for this day to be over.
There's a few minutes of silence in the car before Seungyoon speaks. "Minho, I'm sorry," he says.
There it is. Minho doesn't even look in the rearview mirror. "Okay."
"No, listen to me," Seungyoon says. His voice sounds lower and rougher than yesterday, but maybe that's the hangover. "I really regret a lot of things about middle school, and you're one of them. I thought I could make it up by being nice to you, but I guess that isn't enough. I mean, I can understand why."
The car pulls to a stop at a red light. Minho drums his fingers on the steering wheel, and finally, he looks up at Seungyoon in the mirror. "What do you want from me, Seungyoon?"
Seungyoon has his dark glasses with him, but he's taken them off, and his eyes look red and tired in the mirror. "I just want you to believe that I've changed. But now I understand that's not going to happen right away." He sighs, and his eyes meet Minho's. "So all I can do is say I'm sorry to you, and I am."
The light turns green, and Minho presses on the accelerator. "Okay," he says.
"Okay what?"
"Okay, I accept your apology." The car turns toward the venue, and the crowd looks even bigger today than it did yesterday. Minho skates by toward the side road. "I don't know if I believe it yet, though. But if I've changed, maybe you've changed too."
"You have changed," Seungyoon says. "You're so mean now."
Minho laughs, startled. "Just making up for lost time."
He drops Seungyoon off backstage in the care of his manager, and even backstage, there are some civilians loitering around. "It's a fucking zoo," Hanhae says to Minho, shaking his head. "No death threats yet, though. Hey, call the boss when you have a chance."
Minho only gets the chance to call when the concert is about to get underway. This time he's posted inside, backstage, and he can hear the roar of the crowd from where he is. He hopes there won't be any trouble during the show, but he's surprised when he realizes it's not just because he wants his job to be easier, but because he doesn't think Seungyoon deserves it.
"Ah, Minho," Captain Cho says when he picks up. "I have good news. Kang Seungyoon's label wants to give us a full-time contract, so you'll be seeing a lot of your old friend from now on."
"Oh, yes, sir," Minho says politely. When he hangs up, he starts to laugh. He wonders if Seungyoon already knew this was coming. At least there'll be plenty of chances for him to make up for lost time now.