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Mingyu hummed along to the gentle melody being played on the piano, letting it carry him away, clearing away the stress and excitement of the day. The notes bounced off the walls of the small music room and soothed Mingyu’s sore muscles. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, allowing his mind to wander. The soft tune created as Jihoon elegantly, yet preciously, pressed on each key and struck each cord made him feel comfortable- Jihoon always made him feel comfortable.
“Can I tell you something?”
-
“I don’t want to be a part of this.” Jihoon groaned, trying to free his arm from Seungkwan’s grip.
“Jihoon, please! Just give me an answer and I’ll never bother you ever again!”
Jihoon rolled his eyes at Seungkwan’s plea, knowing his antics all too well.
“Seungkwan I’m sure you’ve promised that over a hundred times already!”
Jihoon looked up at Seungkwan’s friend, he was far taller than the two of them and, almost grotesquely cliché, carrying a basketball under his arm.
He and Seungkwan were juniors, while Jihoon was a senior- all in the same PE class. Jihoon tried his best to avoid it, hoping he could get away by staying locked up with his other extra-curriculars, but unfortunately the requirement caught up to him, and he ended up in 6th period sports PE due to his late registration. He wasn’t even involved in a sport, and since the teacher forbade him from sneaking to the music room during the hour, he was forced to sit on the bleachers, which left him getting stuck in the middle of Seungkwan’s dumb arguments.
“Jihoon! Tell this jock-passing-tree that Volleyball is superior to ‘dumb-sketball’.”
“Oh, brave of you to call me a tree when I can easily spike a ball over your pink little head!”
Seungkwan was always extroverted, easily starting a conversation with anyone. He and Jihoon met Seungkwan’s freshman year during their first day of choir class.
“Hey, do you think I would look good with pink hair?”
Jihoon looked up at the freshman that dared to approach the intimidating upperclassman.
“I just thought I would ask you since it looks like you dye your hair!”
He gave a cross-eyed glimpse up at the bleached-blonde bangs that landed just above his eyes. Back then they were a stark contrast to his current, more natural, jet-black hair. “How would I know?” he replied seriously.
“I’ll wear a pink shirt next class and you can tell me if it suits me!”
Jihoon replied with an “okay” since he wasn’t really sure what else to say. He never thought that simple two-syllable word would be the welcome mat that Seungkwan wiped his feet on before stepping right into Jihoon’s life and making himself at home.
He did look good with pink hair- when his face wasn’t glowing red with fury, like it currently is.
“Kim Mingyu, I would just like to bite 7 of your fingers off! Try playing ball with only 3 fingers!”
“Why the hell would you leave three and not take them all, setter?” Mingyu jeered.
Seungkwan was standing on the first step of the bleachers, gearing up to explain how setter is one of the most important positions on the team while Mingyu taunted him by sticking his tongue out and wiggling his fingers in his face “I’d like to see you try and take these puppies!”
It didn’t take much to break the tension of their argument. Jihoon sighed, which immediately caught their attention.
“I’ll sit in on one game each, then I’ll decide and give you an answer.”
“But volleyball season isn’t until Spring!” Seungkwan whined, “Mingyu is going to have an unfair advantage!”
Jihoon glared at Seungkwan, scaring his pout away. “One game each.” He asserted.
Seungkwan’s obedient nod to the shorter senior made Mingyu giggle. “Deal.” He stated, extending his hand to Seungkwan, nearly breaking the boy’s bones from the firmness of the handshake.
And so, Jihoon spent two months staring at the ceiling, waiting for October to roll around and basketball season to start.
Seungkwan and Mingyu made Jihoon sign a contract (with red pen because it “looked kinda like blood” as Seungkwan said) agreeing that:
- He would judge the contest fairly and unbiasedly
- It would be judged solely on the first game of the season
“Wait that’s not fair!” Mingyu chimed in. “You’ll have the whole year to practice until your first game and I only have two months! And he’ll forget my game by then!”
“Oh? is Mr. All-Star scared?” Seungkwan mocked. “We’ll record it- and besides, he’ll have your last game in mind which really is a disadvantage for me, if you think about it.”
“Fine…”
- No watching practices
And so, the musician just sat for the whole hour and 45 minutes of 6th period sports PE. He made himself comfy in the fifth row of the bleachers, sixth seat over, playing mobile games (he might have read a chapter of a book once) and occasionally doing math homework to keep himself occupied. The boys were generous, however, and kept Jihoon company whenever they could. Seungkwan would sneak his way to Jihoon’s unofficial-official spot in between rotations and run back before it was his turn to serve.
Mingyu often spent more time with him. The volleyball boys were much more punctual than the basketball boys, resulting in his 5 minute water break usually turning into a 30 minute one.
Their first time talking wasn’t as awkward as Jihoon thought it would be, Mingyu was funny, easy to talk to and would lead a conversation without taking over completely, unlike Seungkwan. They were quick to find they both shared a love for Marvel movies, resulting in the first of their many movie nights.
“Seungkwan!”
The volleyball player, annoyed, jogged over to Mingyu who was waving him over to Jihoon’s spot excitedly.
“You can’t interrupt my practices, Mingus! Make it quick.”
“Do you want to go watch Black Panther with us tonight?”
“Didn’t you both go see the midnight premiere literally last night?”
“And?” Jihoon chimed in, “Mingyu had to pee in the middle so I need him to see the scene he missed. Also, we need you to take a picture of us with a movie poster.”
Seungkwan rolled his eyes, and at this, Mingyu decided to release his secret weapon: The puppy dog eyes.
“Please Seungkwannie~ If not for me, do it for Jihoon at least.”
At Seungkwan’s hesitation, Mingyu realized that his efforts alone wouldn’t be enough, so he nudged Jihoon with his elbow, signaling the older to join him. Which worked, even if Seungkwan only agreed so could Jihoon stop making that pitiful, terrifying expression.
Seungkwan never regretted anything more in his life. Going to the movies with Jihoon and Mingyu was terrible. They talked and giggled the whole time, occasionally Jihoon’s loud laugh erupted throughout the theater, and they hogged all the popcorn! Seungkwan had no idea what happened except during the 15 minutes when Jihoon was quiet so Mingyu could catch up on the part he missed. And to top it all off, they made him spend 20 minutes taking the perfect reenactment of some cheesy drama poster.
Seungkwan was persistent on never attending another showing with them. Ever. So Jihoon and Mingyu continued this tradition alone. They saw as many movies as they could together, spending a fortune on theater snacks and often going out after to eat dinner on nights Jihoon was still hungry.
Everything was going great, until basketball season started.
“Mingyu, what the hell?”
Mingyu stared at ground, a squeak echoed through the gym as he skidded his sneaker against the floor. He was ashamed, embarrassed, upset that he was benched for the first game of the season.
“Sorry, Jihoon.” He muttered.
“Be nice to him idiot!” Seungkwan startled Jihoon with a slap on the arm. “He was benched because of you.”
“No! It wasn’t Jihoon’s fault! It was mine.” Mingyu was quick to defend the older, afraid of making him feel guilty.
“What do you mean…? Why were you benched?”
“He missed his last practice, which, may I add, is the most important practice, because you invited him out to a dumb movie last night!” Seungkwan was more upset than he should have been.
“It wasn’t a dumb movie, it was actually pretty good.” Mingyu mumbled quietly, hoping to take some of the edge off the conversation.
Jihoon was wearing the exact expression Mingyu didn’t want to see: upset, concerned, guilty. “You could have said no, Ming.”
“I just wanted to hang out with you.” Mingyu hung his head and pouted.
Seungkwan, feeling the need to be the mediator in this situation since he’s friends with two idiots, butted in “Why don’t you guys ditch the movie nights and, hmmm... Jihoon treats Mingyu to ice cream after every game.”
After a bit of arguing, they agreed to Seungkwan’s plan. After every game, they alternated paying for each other’s ice cream, although Jihoon insisted on paying whenever Mingyu’s team won. Of course, they still went out when there was a movie that Jihoon really wanted to see. Jihoon may have sacrificed a few extra piano lessons to catch a showing that worked with Mingyu’s schedule, but he couldn’t image going with anybody other than his movie buddy.
-
“Can I tell you something?”
The melody slowed down a bit, Jihoon hummed an affirmative reply without looking up from the instrument.
Mingyu rarely saw Jihoon in this state, so focused, yet so relaxed. When they hung out he was typically loud and always making jokes. But since this was the last game of the season, Mingyu requested that Jihoon play the piano for him for the first time, instead of going out for their usual victory ice cream. He knew that Jihoon preferred to play alone in the sanctity of the old music room, so Mingyu took advantage of this moment, he took the time to admire this new side of Jihoon. He looked elegant and graceful as he sat straight at the bench- differing greatly from his usual slouched and spread-leg posture he often took while sitting in the bleachers or at the movie theater. It was rare, but whenever Jihoon hit a wrong note, he furrowed his eyebrows and scrunched his nose, which was the only indicator that he made a mistake. Mingyu honestly couldn’t tell when Jihoon made a mistake, the melody flowed so fluidly, he only knew because that was the same face Jihoon made when he crashed his car a few points before beating his high score in rider.
Mingyu realized how caught up he got in watching the older boy play and blinked himself back to reality.
He remembered a few months back, Seungcheol explained to him the heart-accelerating, time-stopping feeling. Never wanting to leave their side and not being able to take your eyes off them. And Mingyu thought, maybe I like Jihoon? Do I like Jihoon?
Actually, he had this idea sitting in his head for a while, but he constantly pushed it back, refusing to acknowledge it, scared to ruin their friendship. It was obvious to all their friends how close they grew over the last few months, practically inseparable. (In fact, Seungkwan even confronted him about it once.)
Jihoon, you’re my best friend, he thought. Mingyu knew that Jihoon had opened up to him more than to anyone else. He knew because he would often tell Seungkwan a fact that he never knew about the older boy, because Jihoon laughed the most around him, because Jihoon smiled the brightest around him, because Jihoon never refused a victory hug. And the song that Jihoon was playing seemed to say “I opened up to you for a reason.” Jihoon, you’re my best friend but,
“I think I like you.” He thought aloud this time, the words having left his lips involuntarily.
“I know.” Jihoon replied without hesitation, not looking up.
Mingyu’s cheeks grew bright red and confusion stained his voice “You do? Am I that obvious?”
“No, I had no idea. Seungkwan told me.” He continued to play, the notes becoming softer.
Seungkwan also was the first to figure out that Jihoon liked Mingyu. His first suspicion arose the first night they went out to get ice cream together, “Do you have a crush on Mingyu?”
Jihoon looked up at Seungkwan, who was tangled up in his PE shirt.
“No. Why would you think that?”
“You invited him out to ice cream after his game, you never let me hang out with you.” Seungkwan pouted slightly while pulling down the hem of his sweater.
“He’s not annoying like you.” Jihoon retorted, running out of the locker room before Seungkwan could throw his sweaty gym shirt at his face.
A few weeks later, Seungkwan confronted him again at the same location. It was hard to ignore him when their lockers were right next to each other’s.
“You think he’s hot.”
Jihoon made the mistake of asking Seungkwan to justify that reasoning, because Seungkwan proceeded to mimic their voices to reenact the situation, assigning a post-practice Mingyu to the left and Jihoon to the right:
“Do I look sweaty and gross?”
“You look fine, Mingyu.”
“You said he looked Fine, which basically means you think he’s sexy.” Seungkwan exclaimed, proud of his inductive reasoning.
“You’re an idiot.”
His third attempt was just a few days later, but he was obviously grasping at straws now.
“You guys, for Some reason, call Vernon your son.”
“That was once.”
And it was just once (and a few more times after that). Vernon had asked Mingyu and Jihoon to watch his first swim meet, since Seungkwan couldn’t make it. As they sat there, Mingyu looked out at all the parents in the bleachers and turned to whisper to Jihoon “It’s like we’re the parents supporting our son.” Mingyu pointed out all the families with cheesy support banners and whistles and Jihoon laughed. Before the meet started, they decided it would be fun to play the part of over-involved, loud dads.
“Come on son! Let’s go son!” Vernon squinted at his cheering friends through purple-tinted swim goggles and laughed at them making complete fools of themselves.
“Hey, Jihoon! I got something really good this time.”
“Oh, do you now?”
“Yeah, and there’s no way for you to weasel your way out of this one!” Seungkwan pulled out a notepad filled with his observations, ignoring Jihoon asking if all of this was necessary.
“The hair on your arms stands up and your ears turn red when he calls you Jihoonie” he read off the page verbatim. Seungkwan’s smile took over his whole face and he giggled knowing that he would finally see the older boy flustered.
Jihoon let out a small laugh and stood up, patting Seungkwan’s shoulder, “I guess you caught me. Nice work.” He kept his composure, but his face was burning red.
“Wait, really? And you’re just gonna flat out admit it? You really like Mingyu?”
“I guess, kinda…”
Seungkwan paced around the narrow aisle of the locker room, tugging at his own hair. “I can’t believe I was right! Oh my god we have to tell Mingyu!”
“Boo Seungkwan, don’t you dare.”
“Jihoon please! You guys will be so cute together!” Seungkwan whined while clinging on to Jihoon the best he could against the older’s efforts to push him off.
“You can’t meddle with everything, Seungkwan!”
They both began to raise their voices a little, safe to argue in the empty locker room.
“Do you know how hard it is? Knowing your two best friends are basically in love with each other but one is too naïve and the other too stubborn!”
“We’re not in love with each other, Seungkwan. He’s just my best friend that I accidentally got a crush on.”
“But… he told me he likes you.”
-
“Seungkwan told you? I’m gonna get him…” If Mingyu didn’t feel so betrayed by his friend, he would have noticed that Jihoon’s ears were glowing red, like they do most of the time they’re together. “How long did you know?”
“About a month.”
Jihoon dinged a single note on the piano, not sure where to go from here and too flustered to manage to say anything first.
Mingyu noticed Jihoon focusing on everything except him and asked “So… do you like me back?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know, Mingu” Jihoon scoffed with a shy, awkward smile and Mingyu was grateful to know Jihoon well enough to understand that this translated to “Of course, dummy.”
-
They walked out of the music room together and Mingyu, maybe brave from the rush of winning his game, grabbed Jihoon’s hand from his side, intertwined their fingers and pulled their hands up to look at them. He giggled and Jihoon inquired why. Mingyu just laughed again and gently said “our hands are the same size, I never noticed that before. And yours are really cold.”
“Yours are hot.” Jihoon replied, making sure to add “It feels nice” before Mingyu could panic over his hands being too uncomfortable.
“Seungkwan’s first game is after winter break. Should we let him win?” Mingyu asked, lightly swinging his and Jihoon’s arms.
A smile grew on Jihoon’s face and Mingyu noticed a hint of mischief sparkle behind his eyes.
“I think we should say swimming is better than both basketball and volleyball.”
“You’re such a brat.”
“You like it.”
Mingyu smiled at Jihoon, “Yeah, I guess I do.”