019: my heart bursts. (& nobody knows it but me) [drabble!fic]
Here marks the start of a bunch of (request) drabble-y fics to be posted at this community...not all the request fics, unfortunately, but I'm working on it! /;A;/ I'm trying to make sure I do a good job on everyone's requests, so~
This one was for linouuu, my almost!birthday-twinnie and my fellow Minho stan...bby, I hope you like this! ♥ I know it's not much -- and I kind of went wild with your prompt -- but I really worked hard on this...a-and I can always continue it from where it ends, if you want? >O<
...Also, it's my first MinCole fic, so BE GENTLE WITH ME, PLEASE. ;;;;
my heart bursts.
(& nobody knows it but me)
Nicole knew she had a few bad habits.
Of course, it wasn't really her fault. No one could be truly perfect (though sometimes, Nicole wondered if Gyuri thought otherwise) and Nicole was no exception. She ate too much when she needed to watch her weight, splurged on silly things when she needed to watch her money, and gave too much of her time and effort into friendships--and relationships--that she knew wouldn't last.
Nicole knew she wasn't perfect. But she gave her all when it came to her work and some people even thought she was cute. It wasn't much, but it was enough for her to feel pretty satisfied with her life as it was.
That was before she met him, though.
Choi Minho was about as far from her "type" as the North Pole was from the South Pole. He was way too tall, way too quiet, and--when Kibum introduced Nicole to him--he stared at her for almost fifteen seconds before he realized he hadn't said "hello." When Kibum scolded him and asked what his problem was, Minho gave a big booming laugh and said it was because he got distracted because his "noona" was "too pretty."
Flatterer, Nicole thought as she rolled her eyes and made a mental note to never trust Kibum's taste in friends again. And after they left, Nicole figured she would never see Choi Minho again.
At the time, she didn't realized Minho was in the same group as Kibum.
So when they met again for a Music Bank recording and Nicole heard from Hara that they would be collaborating with SHINee for a special stage performance, Nicole held her breath when the producer went over who would be paired up with who, praying & wishing to every god she knew that they wouldn't stick her with Minho.
Jonghyun would have been fine (though she saw him making passes at Gyuri and being painfully obvious about it, too) and even Taemin would have been alright (though he was so cute and young-looking that she knew it would feel awkward dancing with him). But not Minho, she thought; any of them but Minho, she kept saying to herself; anyone but him--
But when the producer told her that she would be dancing with Kibum, she started to feel really, really bad -- because Minho looked visibly, genuinely disappointed when he heard the news.
It didn't help that he kept stealing glancing at her throughout rehearsals (he tried to be subtle about it, but she always caught him looking, always looking, with those big brown doe eyes and his tall slender form never too close but never too far, either) and he kept messing up his routine during stage rehearsals, too. It got to the point where even the other SHINee members noticed a change in him, and they all wondered what had come over the usually responsible and diligent Minho to make him this way.
It finally got to the point at the end of stage rehearsals --once they all finally got the choreography down pat-- where Nicole stomped over to where he and Hara were standing and confronted him outright.
"Yah, Choi Minho!" Arms crossed over her chest and eyes aflame, Nicole was the very picture of exasperation turned sour. "You got a problem with me or what?"
It wasn't very polite of her to talk like that to someone she barely knew, but Nicole was beyond caring at this point. If he had an issue with her, better to hear it from the horse's mouth, right?
But to her surprise, Minho just smiled -- smiled with those big mismatched eyes and a soft low chuckle (which, much as Nicole hated to admit it, was almost infectious, the way it made the ends of her mouth twitch, too) and with a slight sway of his tall lanky form -- and walked a step closer to her. Nicole stepped backward a step out of habit.
"You got me," Minho said, in a warm and gravely half-murmur that made Nicole's face flush from her nose to the tips of her ears. "So I guess I should 'fess up...yeah, I was watching you. But not because you did anything wrong."
He held out his hand in what Nicole assumed was a peace offering then. She debated on rejecting him straight out, just to spite him.
But her conscience (not her heart, she reminded herself, never her heart; she wouldn't give her heart out to anyone so easily, not even -- especially not -- someone like Choi Minho) wouldn't let her body obey.
"Well...good! Because maybe, just maybe, I would have apologized if I did something to offend you," Nicole offered a sheepish grin and took Minho's hand, giving it an extra-hard squeeze. "Maybe. It would depend on what you said I did, though."
Minho just laughed -- and that, Nicole supposed, would suffice as a reply for now.
She wasn't perfect--far from it--but Choi Minho was the first boy she ever met who didn't seem to care. That was why he had a chance to steal her heart away, and they both knew it.
(That was why for the rest of the night, they couldn't stop stealing glances at one other.)