Jealousy.
Title: Jealousy.
Author: igmyeongcheonsa
Pairing: Minho/Amber (Me)
Rating: PG-13, for mild language
Legnth: 2,292 words
A/N: ...I COULDN'T GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD! I feel better now that it's done though. Continuation from Hate and From Flicker to Flame; Inspired by eonnie sincerely shipping this and by Maroon 5's "One More Night." (I'll fix links and stuff when I get back in the computer.)
Summary: Minho's jealousy is fueled by one particular insecurity; Amber's tired of putting up with it.
“Stop touching me while I’m trying to work,” Amber whined, shoving his hands off and trying to remember what it was that she was supposed to be looking for.
“Why,” Minho pouted, moving around her trying to get her to see it.
She stood up straight and shoved him away, “I said cut it out. I am trying to work.” She rolled her eyes, checking the messages on her phone. “You shouldn’t even be here," she eventually muttered under her breath.
He kept his pout on and planned to keep it there until she actually saw it. He regretted it afterward when a small planner was thrown at his head.
Amber froze for a moment, realizing what it was that she had thrown. She’d been looking for it for Jeanne and smiled to herself. She stuffed it into her messenger bag, texting her unnie that she’d found the book. She grabbed Minho’s hand and tried to pull him up from the desk chair, but he wouldn’t budge. Refused to, actually. She let go and glared at him, crossing her arms at her chest.
“We don’t have time for this! You decided to stay with me and now we have to rush to get to your schedule,” she wanted to throw the book at him again.
Minho’s blank expression didn’t change as he stood up, looking down at her. She narrowed her eyes and walked to the door. He gripped her wrist and stopped her, pulling her to his chest. She shut her eyes and balled her hands into fists. “I’m telling you now, I refuse to be blamed for you being late,” she stated, trying to get him to move or something.
He smirked, “You won’t be blamed. I’ll take all the blame. Promise.”
She raised a brow and gripped her bag, trying to figure out just what it was that he was up to. It didn’t take long. “No,” she told him sternly, walking to the door again. She managed to get it open this time, but didn’t get out of the apartment.
“I’m not playing! I’m going to freaking ban you from ever coming here again if you keep up this damn game!” She whined, snatching her arm away from him and storming out of the door.
Minho heard a ringtone going off and knew it wasn’t his phone. He glanced down and saw her phone on the floor. He picked it up and saw it was just Taemin calling, again. He made a face and walked out of the door.
~~~
Amber leaned back against the wall, watching the boys’ rehearsal. She tapped her fingers to the beat, on her thigh.
“I’ll help you,” she spoke up, finally replying to her unnie’s earlier statement. Her and Jeanne had both gotten in trouble for Minho being late, even though it was completely his fault. Jeanne believed Amber, but that’s as far as that went.
“Make sure they're on time next time” was the stern command they’d received.
After SHINee’s manager had walked off to go handle some other business, Jeanne had muttered under her breath how she was going to kill Minho for getting them into trouble. It was no surprise that her dongsaeng had agreed, whether she was supposedly his girlfriend or not.
“You two just need to keep your lovey dovey time better managed,” the older scolded.
“I told you we didn’t even do anything. He just showed up last night and wouldn’t leave! He ended up crawling into my bed and wouldn’t let me go. Before I knew it, he was fast asleep. He’s five times heavier when he’s sleeping!”
Jeanne sighed and nodded, shaking her head, “...Is something wrong with him?”
“Besides whatever’s wrong with him on a regular basis? Not a clue,” Amber rolled her shoulders, heading to the dressing room, since the rehearsal was over for the time being.
Jeanne followed after her. They set up and handed out the boys’ breakfast once the five were settled.
“Oh, Amber, did you get my message,” Taemin asked, glancing up from his meal.
“Oh, yeah~! I saw it before I got here,” said girl nodded, walking over and sitting on the arm of the couch to talk to him, “You didn’t get mine back?”
Jonghyun laughed, catching Key’s attention.
“Aish! Really, Minho?! I know they’re just your clothes, but you can’t tell me you forgot where your mouth is that badly," Key scoffed.
Minho looked down at his clothes and groaned, setting down his food and heading off to clean himself up. Jeanne simply smiled at Jinki as he excused himself from their conversation to follow after his fellow member. She glanced at where Minho had been sitting and let out some kind of sound of irritation, realizing he seemed to have been trying to share his food with both the table and the floor in his process to feed himself.
Amber hopped up to help her unnie clean up. She glanced up from the floor, hearing Key and Jonghyun talking about how Minho had been really "off" lately; how he seemed to be angry with everyone and every little thing.
Once her and Jeanne has finished cleaning up, she was pulled to the side, as usual when they needed to talk and the five were around, “I knew there was something wrong with him. Did you do something to him? Didn’t I tell you not to hurt him?”
“He seems to take things being thrown at him pretty well though,” she replied, clearing her throat when she noticed the evil eye she was receiving, “I-I mean...What I meant to say was that I don’t know what’s going on with him. I told you that.”
“You haven’t said or done anything that could make him act like this, besides throwing things?”
“...Well, there was that fight we had a couple of days ago. Now that I think about it, we’ve fought about the same thing since we got together...”
It’d only been a month and, honestly, Amber was seriously second-guessing having given the giant the chance he asked for. He was a good boyfriend, she’d give him that, but she wasn’t sure exactly what it was between them that actually worked and that other half that seemed completely off. They weren’t exactly a match made in heaven, but it seemed like they went together pretty well, at least from a distance.
Of course, Amber was left to explain what the fights were about. Jeanne wasn’t surprised. Sadly enough, it was kind of expected, but what did surprise her was the way they were handling it.
Minho and Jinki came back into the room, quiet with solemn expressions on their faces. The older of the two walked over to the girls.
“Is it okay if I talk to Jeanne for a minute,” he smiled softly. Amber smiled back and let them have their talk in peace.
“Are you in trouble,” Jonghyun teased, grinning.
Amber plucked his forehead, smirking, “I didn’t do anything.”
“Except pluck me,” he laughed, rubbing his forehead.
~~~
“If it’s such a problem, you do have your own dorm to go back to. No one asked you to come over anyway...”
“But I want to stay here. You don’t seem to have a problem with me being here until I say something about him.”
“Because you say the same things over and over again! I’m getting really tired of it!”
“Why don’t you just say you want this to end then?”
“I’ve told you that! And myself! ‘One more night. One more night.’ Somehow, you end up here. I end up in your arms and I fucking forget everything!”
“Everything except Taemin.”
“That shit! GET. OUT! JUST GET OUT!”
Minho shut up quickly and looked down at the floor. She repeated her demand, but he refused to move. He didn’t budge either when she tried to push him. Instead, he wrapped his arms around her and simply hugged her. He knew that that always irritated her even more, but that it also managed to calm her down at the same time.
“Don’t come back,” she mumbled into his chest, “I can’t do this anymore...”
“Yes, she can,” Jeanne called, coming into the front door, seeing the two hugging in the hallway.
Amber looked away and shoved him off, slamming her bedroom door shut behind her. Jeanne was about to tell him to just wait and he was about to try to explain himself - not knowing that she already knew what the issue was. Let alone that she’d heard their most recent argument coming up the stairs to their place. The shuffling they heard on the other side of Amber’s door definitely pulled them away from their thoughts. They were quiet, unmoving, as the youngest walked out of her room and to the hall closet. She pulled down a cardboard box and then briefly stepped back in her room, emerging again with the small box, but, this time, it was filled with various items. She placed it outside her door and then went back in and shut the door.
Jeanne looked down at the box, moving to peer inside, “...This wouldn’t happen to be your stuff, would it?”
Minho walked over to where she was and looked at the box. It most definitely was his stuff. She wasn’t seriously breaking up with him, was she? They’d been together for barely a month. Then again, that was a good amount of time considering that she hadn't even wanted to be bothered with him in the first place...
He shook his head, knocking on her door, “Come on. You can’t be serious!”
“I already told you. I’m tired of telling you. Last night was that ‘one more night.’”
Somehow in his fight to get her back, Minho had ended up having objects thrown at him and found himself throwing pillows at her when using them as a shield wasn’t working anymore. Thankfully, the cuts from the pencils and pens, and whatever those other sharp objects were that made contact with his skin, were in places that couldn’t really be seen unless someone was paying really close attention.
~~~
Amber had come into work as if nothing had even happened. Minho had been in an actual relationship with her for a month, saw sides of her that he was sure not many people got to see, but this. This was one thing about her that he just would never be able to understand. How could she really just play off things and make it look so natural? How could she seriously not even slip up just a little?
Minho figured he’d just get to her through her weakness. A certain maknae...
~~~
Amber sat next to her unnie, watching her write out the schedule for the next couple of weeks in her planner and copying the dates in her own. She was so wrapped up in her own head that she hadn’t heard her name being called. Nor did the first couple of shoves phase her. She wasn’t snapped out of her daze until she dropped her pen and hit her head on the table trying to get it. Swearing under her breath, she readjusted her seat and picked up her pen, setting it on the desk.
“Yah! Amber, are you okay,” Jeanne asked, tone and expression extremely worried as she checked her dongsaeng’s forehead. The other just shrugged and shook off the slight throbbing at the front of her head. “You know, you’ve been horribly out of it and everything since you ended it with him.”
Amber narrowed her eyes, “I don’t want to talk about it, unnie.”
“It’s just ‘cause you really want some.”
“Mwo?! Want some what?!”
“You know damn well what.”
The younger closed her planner, stuffing the pen in the spiral binding, “I’m not having this conversation with you...again."
“But you do~~!”
She slammed her head down on the table, intentionally this time. She pleaded not to hear the speech about talking to him again, either. She’d heard it so many times, she was pretty sure she could recite it word for word just from memory alone. Every time it came up, she either ignored it or would rebuttal with how she did try to fight back when her and Minho were still actually together. Not only that, but how he should be ashamed since he didn’t want to listen to anything she had to say until after she threw everything but the kitchen sink at him and then ended it between them.
"Why is it such a problem that it's over between us?! It shouldn't fucking bother me~!"
"I knew it! I knew it bothered you. You did start liking him, didn't you?"
"So what...? Can we just go home now? We're done for the day, right?"
Jeanne nodded. Amber didn't hear her say anything about how she was going to make sure and then meet her down in the van. Amber just stayed there, staring at the table and tapping the cover of her planner with her nails to some unknown beat.
"Noona...?"
She knew who it was. "Taemin, I told you you don't have to call me that. We're the same age."
Taemin nodded, not paying it any mind as usual. He sat next to her, just staring until she looked up.
"Minho-hyung wanted me to talk to you...but I can't."
"...Why not?"
"I don't want you to get back with him...I want you with me..."
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