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Seungmin was sitting in the closet when Felix steps behind him. Too covered in his swaddle of blankets and probably some clothes and eyes deadset on the game in his hand, the younger doesn’t react.
“I want you to read something for me,” Felix whines cutely in English. Seungmin’s nose crinkles a bit at the sound. Sure he can understand the elder, but that doesn’t mean he wants to be suddenly launched into a dual immersion program.
“Why must you do this to me,” the other says in Korean. His character is in the top two and he would really like to win this round. He brings the screen closer to his face in hopes that it’ll enhance his concentration.
The Australian slaps his arm playfully. Although it’s not too long of an interruption, the misalignment is enough. “It’s practice. You like practicing, right?”
His phone screen desaturates upon his death. Seungmin sighs but ultimately concedes. “Of course, but I think ASC and the tour were enough for me. I mean I can understand what you’re saying.”
“But reading is different,” he insists.
He finally looks up at the younger. His eyes somehow shine brightly under the dim single lightbulb with excitement and adamancy. His faded grey hair casts weird shadows on his face, but they don’t dampen his smile. If he looks closely enough, he thinks he can start connecting the faint dots sprinkled on his nose.
Nonetheless, Seungmin’s skeptical. “Sure.”
“Minnie,” Felix continues. His heart does stupid flip flops at the nickname. It really shouldn’t because everyone else calls him Minnie, but the slight accent in his words, the byproduct of Australian and Korean pronunciations, somehow melding together, lilts so pleasantly. “Can you just read the thing?”
He waves his phone in front of his face. Seungmin grabs Felix’s wrist and pulls him down next to him, all the while slowly prying the phone out of his fingers and trying not to think about how comforting it is to have the elder covered next to him in this blanket structure. But all he can feel are the small hands gradually wrapping around his free arm, and the light breathing on his cheek as they lean in to stare at the small screen.
Wait.
Seungmin can feel his eyes narrow. “Is this fanfiction about us?”
When Felix digs his head into the crook of his neck, he can feel the elder nodding. The sight makes him want to stop questioning the situation just and revel in the intimacy, but his curiosity gets the best of him. “Why do you want me to read it?”
His words are muffled, but he replies, “Was good. Wanted to share.”
Seungmin has visited this platform once or twice and kind of knew how things worked. His eyes scanned over the tags, ensuring everything was safe, and it looked to be based on whatever he’d seen.
Strangers to Lovers, Flowershop AU, Fluff, Confessions, First Kiss.
And it seemed short enough.
His hand, barely slipping out of Felix's grip, instinctively reaches up to brush a strand of hair away from his face and rub the edge of his ear endearingly. “You could have just shown it to me. Not told me it was English practice.”
“But I was afraid you wouldn’t read it,” Felix states. The older does have a point. Ever since the Minho/Jisung Smut Incident of January Nineteenth, 2020, he’s boycotted reading any fanfiction. And even then, there were only some here and there whenever they were recommended to him, but Seungmin was never one to outright look for new content.
Books existed.
The elder stares at him wide-eyed and hopeful, and Seungmin just can’t say no. His arm rests around Felix, gently pushing him back down onto his shoulder. “Seems tame enough,” he concludes.
The story is quite well written, or as much as his barely bilingual brain can sense. The words are all pretty understandable, thank goodness, but have a depth to them that he can appreciate.
It’s told from Felix’s perspective, who so happens to be a small flower shop worker with Hyunjin and his boss Chan. It’s a slow but sweet business in a small town; so nothing really changes, until newcomer Seungmin arrives. Or as Hyunjin had announced, “Seungmin in the building!” to his actual and fictional disdain.
Felix’s emotions are immediately sparked upon seeing him. He goes so far as to describe him, with his red grey hair, full lips, strong nose, and a whole slew of other details he didn’t care about. Although, he will admit that he’s flattered at his eyes being described as “being filled with more than surface-level irritation.”
It’s cute, seeing Felix pine for him and watch him come and go from the store. Every time Seungmin visits, the elder gives him a flower. And being a florist, of course there’s a reason behind each choice.
Whenever Seungmin comes over to pick up arrangements for some preppy event being held somewhere (he both loves and hates the stereotype), once his order is fulfilled he always receives a carnation. While Chan goes on about the cost going out of his paycheck, Felix talks about why he does this, that carnations are symbols of admiration, to begin with, but as they become more saturated, as those given to Seungmin had, they translate into deeper and more complex feelings of love and affection.
It’s cute; it truly is. He does have Felix with him now, intently watching him read, but part of him wishes that could be their real story, some meet-cute from fate.
And then it reaches the end, where Seungmin dramatically rushes into the flower shop after weeks of not showing up. During that time, Felix had sulked and was saddened. His sunshine mood was clouded by a lack of Vitamin Seungmin. (The analogy doesn’t completely make sense, but he appreciates the author’s efforts.)
In his hands is a bouquet of all the flowers he’d been given, dried, but preserved. He announces that he’d known what the flowers meant, to the older’s surprise. Impulsively, he asks if Seungmin had known about his feelings for him, more explicitly, that he liked him. And Seungmin nods.
But then, there’s nothing left.
“What did I say,” he exclaims trying to scroll down the screen further, just to find nothing. “WHAT DID I SAY?”
“What do you say?” Felix asks sheepishly.
Seungmin does falter for a moment. Is he asking about right now, what he would say to him if he confessed right now?
But there’s also a fanfiction in front of him with an unnecessary cliffhanger that poses the same question. “I would say yes,” he states, “I want me to say yes.”
The elder stares at him and seems to process his response for a moment. Then he digs his face in his hands, audibly groaning. He stands up and paces around the room. Seungmin can only watch.
“Wait, Minnie,” he pauses, “That’s not what I meant. I meant like here.” He points emphatically at the ground and then swirls his arms around to indicate the general space. “Right now.”
He blinks at his groupmate, not knowing what to say.
“I was supposed to have carnations too, but all the flower shops were like you ordered too late and I was like you can’t just give me twelve carnations and put them in a pretty bow and they were like nah. So I asked some further places, but I really am that broke because their delivery fee,” Felix whistles, “I couldn’t do that and with schedules, the one hour trek wasn't realistic and-”
It took him way too long to process, but Seungmin finally stands up so he can look at him properly. “I like you too.”
Now it’s Felix’s turn to fall into silence. “W-what,” he babbles.
Seungmin just nods. “I like you,” he repeats, “Unless I read this all wrong.”
Felix shakes his head, to the point where the younger’s worried he’ll give himself whiplash.
They stand in front of each other, a bit awkwardly. It’s still dim, the blankets now piled helplessly around their ankles. The atmosphere is a bit tense and surroundings too quiet.
“I’m going to kiss you,” Felix announces a bit stiltedly and probably too loudly.
“I guess you gotta stay true to the tags,” the younger jokes. While he can’t help but laugh at how cringe-worthy his joke was, he’s relieved when it causes the elder to do the same. Unfortunately, he becomes so lost in the joy that it forces Seungmin to bring their lips together.
“You’re cute when you laugh,” Seungmin smiles into the kiss, “But actually kiss me next time.”
Felix pulls away, just to plant a kiss on his forehead. “Someone was impatient.”
“But you like me anyways.”
“Unfortunately yes.”
Jisung is outside the closet door when it opens. Felix is unfazed; Seungmin can’t say the same for himself.
“How was it?” He looks down and spots their intertwined hands. “It worked!”
What is he talking about?
“He said your jokes were trash!” Felix yells, dragging Seungmin away from the elder.
Hyunjin appears from around the corner and pats Jisung’s back comfortingly as he sulks.
“I told you, dude, Vitamin Seungmin didn’t make sense.”
