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Laughing with Ayennie was where Minho found Hwang Hyunjin. The nerve.
"Ya," Minho called his dongsaeng's attention. "STAY told me you wanted to see first snow with me, what was that all about?"
"Oh that was a joke, hyung," Hyunjin giggled. "Jeongin said—”
Minho wasn't listening. A joke? A joke, after all the overthinking he'd already done?
"—and anyway it already happened," Hyunjin finished.
"You already saw first snow?" Minho asked, too loudly for his liking.
Hyunjin paused, giving him a strange look.
"No... the first snow already happened. But I didn't see it yet so it doesn't count," Hwang Hyunjin pouted, stubborn as ever.
Minho smirked. It was just like Hyunjin to say something like that.
And that was the end of that.
That is until New Year’s Eve, when he and Hyunjin went and got black out drunk and woke up next to each other the next day. Which was normal enough.
He’d been trying to remember what sort of things they talked about—knowing Hyunjin, they were probably deep, existential things Minho would have never voiced his opinions on normally with anyone except maybe Hyunjin (or STAY when Hyunjin wasn’t there).
There was something nagging at the back of his mind, though, something he knew he was supposed to remember, but couldn’t quite put his finger on.
The worst part is Hyunjin seemed to know something about it. He would catch the younger staring at him and then look hastily away as soon as he catches his eye.
He even tried asking Hyunjin what was wrong (was there anything wrong?) but his dongsaeng seemed to skittle away whenever he saw him coming. No good. He was going to have to figure this out himself.
Did Hyunjin not like that they came home together and slept on the same bed? He frowned. That was unlikely. They had woken up at the exact same time (what was up with that) and Hyunjin had definitely blushed when he saw how close their faces were but he even stayed a little bit more when Minho asked him to, before Minho had to eventually get up and see his personal trainer.
But a day passed and Minho literally had no idea what he was so bothered about.
“All right that’s it, hyung, what’s wrong?” Han Jisung asked him with a stern look on his face.
“Wrong? What?” He spluttered, knowing full well he couldn’t pretend in front of Jisung.
As a response, Hannie pointed at Minho’s untouched sushi with his chopsticks.
“You would have finished those by now, you eat like a p—”
“I dare you to finish that sentence, Han Jisung.”
“Is it Hyunjin?”
Minho was caught off guard again. He could only stare back.
“He’s been spacing out too, all day yesterday. Did you two fight?”
“No! I mean… I don’t think so… could you ask?” He rushed, aware he sounded a bit desperate.
Jisung’s eyes widened, a little surprised at his tone too.
“I—I’ll try, hyung. But you know how we are, we don’t really talk about this kind of stuff. We don’t even talk about this kind of stuff,” Jisung chuckled, gesturing to himself and Minho.
Minho’s shoulders slumped.
“It’ll be okay, hyung, it’s Hyunjin!” Jisung shrugged, as if that was reason enough.
Maybe it was, and they spoke no more about it but ever since Hyunjin came back, Minho had actively tried to make it up to the younger for… well he didn’t exactly know what, but he just felt like he had to show Hyunjin he was loved more. Hyunjin wasn’t the type to complain, and Minho was always surprised to see how strong his dongsaeng was, but… he just felt Hyunjin had to be reassured these days. He’d even stopped teasing him so much. Not too much, of course, or else Hyunjin might think he was being, god forbid, nice to him.
And so he went about his day, trying to forget about what could possibly be wrong between him and Hwang Hyunjin, to no avail as it was nearly 3am when he walked out of his apartment building to take a nice cold walk outside.
He was supposed to go to sleep an hour ago but his head wouldn’t shut up, so he was just going to exhaust himself to sleep. He didn’t have an early schedule tomorrow anyway, so it was decided.
As he took his first step outside, a snowflake fluttered down to his nose.
Oh.
Hyunjin wasn’t miserable or anything.
As he sat there with his brush nearly touching the canvas, he thought about how to describe what he was feeling right now.
He settled with uninspired.
Sighing, he put his brush down and stared around his art-room-slash-gym. The gym part wasn’t really his, it was his housemates’, but as it was in the same room as his painting supplies, he might as well claim it as partially his.
It was particularly cold tonight and there wasn’t any heating in this room so he thought about going back to his room and resting. He didn’t have anything going on early tomorrow but he really should work on getting more sleep, or at least sleeping earlier.
His thoughts were interrupted by a loud ring that came from his pocket. Who could be calling at this hour?
Lee Know Hyungie
He almost dropped his phone.
He wasn’t proud of the fact that he avoided his hyung all day yesterday after leaving his room and today too, and he was sure his hyung noticed, but he was just so embarrassed (and maybe a little disappointed) that he expected his hyung to remember something they talked about when they were both clearly inebriated.
“You said you wanted to see the first snow with me, why didn’t you?”
“I—” he hadn’t wanted to say it was a joke, they both knew he wasn’t really joking when it all came down to it. “It’s not something I could control, hyung, Changbin hyung was just there when I saw it,” he settled.
“But you wanted to see it with me, why didn’t you?”
“You didn’t even want to see it with me, hyung, plus, it already happened, it wasn’t even the first snow I watched with Changbin hyung.”
“You said it only counted when you saw it! You should have been a man of your word.”
“Hyung…” at this point Minho was pouting and Hyunjin found it adorable but didn’t say anything. “You’re such a softie when you’re drunk.”
“Who’re you calling a softie, don’t call me that!”
Hyunjin chuckled at his tone. Minho never meant these things, and Hyunjin was too drunk to act scared.
“Okay, well I promise I’ll see the next snow with you, hyung.”
“But it doesn’t coooouuuuuunt!” Minho whined. Cute.
“Yes it does. Have you seen it snow yet?”
Minho thought hard for a few seconds.
“No…”
“Then it will be your first snow wouldn’t it?”
“Yeah!” Minho piped up, grinning.
“Okay, but you have to remember, I won’t remind you because you’ll end up teasing me about it if you forget,” Hyunjin warned.
“Of course I’ll remember,” Minho promised smugly.
Of course he promptly forgot.
No it wasn’t the reason Hyunjin was being pouty all day yesterday. They had a great time honestly. But maybe Minho was just the type to forget things he said when he was drunk.
Ring.
Oh right.
“Hello?”
“Where are you?”
“At home,” Hyunjin fiddled with the hem of his shirt. “Why?”
“Oh good, it would have been a problem if you were still at the agency.”
“Hyung, it’s 3am.”
“Oh, right. So it is.”
…
“Is there something you want?” It came out sharper than he had intended.
“Look outside the window.”
Hyunjin glanced at the small window to his left, and saw.
“Oh.”
“Come down, will you?”
“You remembered?” Hyunjin breathed a sigh of relief.
“Of course I did, now come on or I’ll miss my first snow with you.”
Hyunjin smiled widely.
First snow with you.
“Yes, that’s what I said.”
Oh, he’d said that out loud.
“Coming, hyung!”
“You really ended up seeing this with me, I can’t believe it,” Hyunjin begrudgingly allowed.
“Did you doubt me for a second?” Minho asked smugly.
“Don’t pretend you didn’t forget,” Hyunjin murmured.
“Well I remembered in the end, that’s what matters. It was meant to be,” the older pushed.
“It was a coincidence,” Hyunjin decided.
Minho looked at his dongsaeng cautiously.
“Even if that’s that case, thank you for seeing it with me, anyway,” he said softly.
“No problem, hyung,” Hyunjin blinked, surprised at what his Lee Know hyung said to him.
It was silent for a while but it was comfortable. Snow was something Hyunjin was fascinated with, and Minho has rekindled his own interest in it recently, because of a certain dongsaeng. He stole glances at Hyunjin as the latter observed the slowly falling snow.
“You’ve changed,” the older offered.
“Is that a bad thing?” Hyunjin whispered, still looking at the snow.
“No,” Minho said quickly.
“You have, too,” Hyunjin said.
“Is that a bad thing?” Minho mimicked.
Hyunjin glared.
“You’ve been so much nicer to me, it’s getting awkward.”
“Hey,” Minho chastised, poking his dongsaeng’s waist and getting an exaggerated twitch in return.
“You know, I see when you aren’t okay, Hyunjinnie. I know you like to appear stronger than how you feel, and I know you are strong,” he added, seeing Hyunjin was about to protest. “But you don’t have to be alone when you deal with those feelings you know.”
Hyunjin was silent.
“I won’t hold your hand for 30 minutes or anything, I’m not Kim Seungmin,” Minho threatened. “But we could go on walks like this if you want, or whatever, really.”
“I know, hyung. Why do you think I’m always at your room eating snacks?”
“To raid my stash?”
Hyunjin punched his shoulder this time.
“First snow with Lee Know hyung success!” Minho said smugly.
”What no, I saw first snow with Changbin hyung,” Hyunjin pointed out. “Did you forget ag—”
”I didn’t forget. You saw first snow with Changbin. First snow… of 2021.”
Hyunjin’s eyes widened in realization.
”Oh.”
”This means we’ll be together forever and all that, right?”
Hyunjin heard it, but barely. He hummed in response, satisfied .
“Let’s go inside before we catch a cold,” the younger said softly.
“Ah, you’re right,” Minho replied. “Also before I throw up from all the feelings.”
“Hyung!” Hyunjin whined, and Minho thought it was the most adorable sound in the world.