Work Text:
let the record state that when he, kim jonghyun, twenty years of age, agreed to go on a vacation with some of his friends in an isolated cabin, this was not what he had in mind.
1.
maybe the biggest, and most important thing that went wrong is this:
mingi receives a text from aron that he won’t be able to make it through. something about the snow falling too hard and causing roads to be blocked, which meant that aron would have to turn back, leaving the four younger boys on their own for the weekend. maybe more things were said, but jonghyun isn’t really sure. he’s too busy worrying over his fate at this point to worry about anything else, honestly.
aron, who had essentially promised jonghyun that they’d stay in the same room for the weekend. aron, who was jonghyun’s closest friend out of everyone, and who had sworn, repeatedly , that he’d make sure nothing bad would happen.
jonghyun wishes aron would be safe on his drive back home, of course, but really? did aron really have to leave him here, all alone?
jonghyun suddenly feels like he’s walking into a den of lions, mentally starting to prepare himself to be eaten any minute now.
jonghyun gets too deep into his thoughts, he barely notices dongho and mingi leaving, presumably to claim one of the two rooms upstairs.
huh. he has to stay with minhyun, then. jonghyun sincerely cannot believe that this is his life now.
2.
jonghyun thinks that this has to be said:
he does not hate minhyun.
there was just something slightly unnerving about the other boy, something different about how quietly intimidating minhyun always seemed to be. something about minhyun made jonghyun feel like he had to treat the other with caution, and over time, the caution led to intrigue, then, interest, and eventually, infatuation.
leave it to jonghyun to develop intense feelings with minimum interaction, but honestly? at this point, he might as well consider it a talent.
and despite being in the same group of friends ever since university began, jonghyun can’t actually think of a time when he actually had to interact with the other, one-on-one.
except for, well. right now.
jonghyun clears his throat in an attempt to clear the awkward air, and it gets minhyun to look straight at him. all of a sudden, jonghyun feels like fainting.
minhyun breaks the silence and asks jonghyun if he would like to go upstairs to their room, and jonghyun finds himself unable to do anything but nod in response and follow.
jonghyun sincerely, sincerely does not believe he’ll make it through the night, much less the next two days.
3.
that night, jonghyun enters their bedroom and finds minhyun standing in the center of it, looking lost.
“is anything wrong?”
“the sleeping bags we packed are in aron-hyung’s car, aren’t they?” minhyun says, voice slightly distant, still staring at the single, and also extremely tiny bed at the corner of the room.
“yes?” jonghyun says, and then when it hits him, “oh.” and then, in his head, oh, no .
“we could …” minhyun trails off, looking around frantically for any way to save them both. “we could share the bed?”
jonghyun’s mind fully shuts off at that. hwang minhyun? sharing a bed? with him? what even is his life, really?
minhyun seems to take his extended silence as a rejection, because he draws back, and asks, slightly uncertain, “or maybe not? i can sleep on the couch downstairs.”
"no!" jonghyun exclaims, surprising minhyun. "no," he repeats, once he's calmed down. "we can … we can share the bed. yes. let's do that."
"are you sure?" minhyun asks, evidently concerned.
"yes," jonghyun replies, praying his voice doesn't shake. "let's do that."
so they do.
it's not uncomfortable, and it's not exactly awkward either. during the earlier part of the night jonghyun was terrified of moving too much and accidentally disturbing minhyun's rest, trying to control even the sound of his breathing.
eventually, though, he finally drifts off to sleep, his body and mind way too exhausted to even dwell on the implications of having to sleep in the same bed with the boy he’d been crushing on for nearly two years.
it’s a good night, mostly, until jonghyun wakes up in the morning and sees minhyun already awake, and also staring right at him , and it takes all his willpower not to scream.
4.
when they go down for food, they find that the snow has stopped falling, leaving them with clearer skies and with nothing but white for as far as their eyes could see.
despite everything, jonghyun still finds it beautiful.
after breakfast, jonghyun finds himself taking charge and asking the rest of his friends what they want to do for the day.
“snowball fight!” mingi answers gleefully.
jonghyun wants to protest, no matter how half-heartedly, but he sees his friends already walking out the door, and he decides, how bad could it be?
as it turns out? not that bad, actually.
at least, not at first.
they start off as teams of two each, minhyun and jonghyun against dongho and mingi, and jonghyun instantly becomes too preoccupied with trying to win, not even allowing himself to be distracted by the fact that minhyun is playing on his team.
things go south when mingi decides to throw a snowball at dongho, effectively turning their paired match into a fight of one person against everyone else.
that's when jonghyun gets distracted, and at the worst possible time, too:
jonghyun vaguely hears baekho calling out for him to duck, but he’s too busy staring at hwang minhyun, smiling like an angel in the sea of white, until it hits him. and it hits him hard .
it being a gigantic snowball made by mingi himself, hitting the back of jonghyun’s head and sending him face-first into the snow.
5.
jonghyun sits up, dazed, and sees minhyun rushing towards him.
minhyun reaches out a hand. jonghyun takes it, but when minhyun attempts to pull him up, he slips, tumbling down right in front of jonghyun’s eyes.
jonghyun tries to break his fall, but he doesn’t exactly do a good job of it.
or maybe, he does it a little too well, because minhyun doesn’t end up on the snow.
minhyun ends up on top of him, their lips pressed against each other’s.
+1.
jonghyun thought avoiding minhyun for the rest of the day was difficult, but trying to avoid the other when they were literally pressed up against each other on the same bed? he doesn’t even think he can describe the agony in words.
he feels minhyun move around carefully, and hears him say softly, “i’m sorry.”
it’s hard to pretend that his heart doesn't break at that, but jonghyun manages to whisper back, “i’m sorry, too.”
“no, no.” minhyun says, insistent. “i’m sorry, because that’s not at all how i thought my first time kissing you would go.”
“what?”
minhyun laughs softly, says, “that implies i’ve thought about kissing you before right? it’s weird, i’m sorry.”
“what?” jonghyun asks again. “why would you think about something like that?”
“because i like you?”
minhyun ends it like a question, but somehow, jonghyun knows it really isn’t one. minhyun ends it like a question, but somehow, jonghyun knows it’s a declaration. and, well, what else can he do besides say it back?
“oh. i like you too, you know?”
in the morning, they wake up entangled in each other, and jonghyun finds that he doesn’t mind.